Presorted standard u. S. Postage paid ortonville, mn permit no. 3 Sota Per Copy

“Wo’okiye was’te qa wico zani o’wacin yuhapo”

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api - www.earthskyweb.com/sota.htm - Anpetu Iyamni - Oct. 3, 2018

needs to be involved in the decision-

making process.”

“We need to create jobs.”

“The hemp project, which is 

in the very baby phases, you know 

I started that project when I was in 

Planning, and it’s thinking outside 

the box.”

“Sometimes something that’s 

right here on our doorstep, like ag.”

“I put together a proposal for 

counsel for the development of an 

ag department.”

“And the feedback that I got, 

‘Well, we tried that in the 1980s and 

it didn’t work.’”

“Well, the grocery store didn’t 

work in 1950s, 60s. It shut down, 

but we tried it again.”

“And determining what 

projects are economic development 

and what projects are social-

economic development, where we’re 

just providing the service for our 

membership, like the grocery store. 

Our profit margin is 3%, so ....”

Martha told the people, “Don’t 

forget, don’t be scared to write your 

questions down and bring them up 

here and we can (ask) them….”

 “We have a question here, and 

this is for everybody.”

“The Tribe has a huge art 

collection and artifacts as well as 

rich cultural history. How do you 

plan to support history, culture, and 

preservation?”

Lisa Jackson took the question 

first.

“My name is Lisa Jackson. 

I’m a member of the Big Coulee 

District. I’m running for Tribal 

Secretary.”

“…How I would plan to 

preserve Tribal history ... and the 

art collection … We are one of 

the tribes that have a really strong 

Historical Preservation Office.”

“And I see how they have taken 

the effort to put into our language 

to college historical record from our 

elders and within ten years from 

now ... we are at risk from losing 

our language, so I think our Tribal 

college is doing a great job right 

now with how they’re taking that 

approach to invest their money … 

resources into establishing learners.”

“So right now … I think 

because our language is such at risk, 

we need to focus on building up our 

learners program.”

“… I’ve heard comments 

before where they would like to see 

us start using our students that are 

running through this program to 

start teaching, but I feel right now 

… we need to focus on building up 

our leaders. We need to dedicate the 

next ten years … investing into our 

learners and taking full advantage 

of the elders while we have them, 

learning the stories, the language, 

the history.”

“I think that’s really important 

to our language, part of our culture.”

“As far as the histories and 

our Constitution and the artifacts, 

I have watched ... my brother is 

part of THPO for many years and 

I have watched that program grow 

and develop and I’ve seen our Tribe 

come to the table and fight for our 

right to artifacts, and I feel like we 

are on the right track and we’re 

doing a really good job with that.”

“And I’m proud to say that 

Sisseton-Wahpeton is known for 

their historic preservation, so that’s 

what I have to say….”

Myrna German Thompson 

spoke next.

“My name is Myrna 

Thompson, and I am also from the 

Big Coulee District running for 

Tribal Secretary.”

“Back in the ... in 2000, 

whatever it was, I was directed by 

Tribal Council to ... we contracted 

with LeeAnn’s daughter, told her to 

write a grant to THPO … so that 

grant was written and at that point 

it did not get funded, for some 

reason they changed the format, 

so I redid the THPO grant in the 

format that they wanted, and it was 

funded.”

“So, initially, that grant was 

written to really protect our sacred 

medicinal plants and herbs and 

the burial sites and … from there 

it evolved into the Tribal archives, 

Exec candidates forum

Continued from Page 2

Aloma (McGaa) was the archivist 

and Tamara (St. John) is now.”

“At that time we were 

envisioning a museum to be built by 

Dakota Connection.”

“I would support that, however 

we can get the funding, but I really 

believe we need our own museum.”

 “I’ve been to other reservations 

where they actually have a whole 

display case on their plants and the 

berries and their medicinal plants 

and things that sustain the people.”

“So how would I help with 

that?”

“I would support it and I 

believe we need to actually form a 

grants office.”

“I believe LeeAnn is the 

Planning Director, but she’s also 

a grant writer and it’s hard to do 

both.”

“I think I would create a grant’s 

office too, and actually have a team 

of grant writers with expertise in 

those areas, various areas to write 

those grants, because we actually 

should have already had our 

museum but we don’t.”

“Because we have a lot of 

collectables, a lot of artwork, a lot of 

awesome historical documents and 

items we can display in the museum, 

if we had a museum.”

“And our language is 

endangered. I guess as far as the 

language goes, since Lisa brought 

up the language, we have two levels 

of endangerment in the Dakota 

language.”

“I think there’s probably in 

Minnesota I think that one of the 

tribes, maybe just one of the tribes, 

has a few speakers left.”

“We’re one of the lucky tribes 

that have more speakers … (but) 

we’re losing speakers all the time.”

“I think what I would do as far 

as the language goes is to develop 

some kind of a process where the 

kids are taught in Head Start … 

create a process … from Head Start 

to elementary to junior high and 

high school up to the college.”

“By the time they get to college 

they could be fluent speakers if there 

was some kind of a … language 

process.”

Eddie Johnson took the 

microphone.

“My name’s Eddie Johnson Jr. 

I’m from the Old Agency District, 

also running for Tribal Secretary.”

“I have to say that I’m very 

proud of serving you for this six 

months, seven months now, as your 

Tribal Secretary.”

“I’ve been working very hard 

on trying to build the Secretary’s 

office and trying to make things 

sustainable for our programs, 

because as you all know the Tribal 

Secretary’s programs (are) mostly 

non-profit and it’s a lot of social 

services and health programs.”

“But as for our Dakota 

language and our artifacts, I’m 

proud to say that this administration 

I’m in now did a good job with, 

especially, the language.”

“They gave a lot of funding 

….”

“There’s three aspects to it … 

Tammy DeCoteau with the Dakota 

Language Institute that’s doing it … 

the College with the students there 

… then you also have the Tribal 

Education Department.”

“But the key thing … it’s tough 

because it’s gaming dollars … but it’s 

also proud to see things that actually 

just happened today. Council made 

a resolution to the Shakopee Tribe 

… actually, they’re going to be 

giving us extra $200,000 to our 

college ... to keep the sustainability 

going….”

“And then also our artifacts, 

I’d like to say Tamara does a good 

job with our artifacts up at the 

administration building.”

“And yes, I agree with trying 

to build a museum for the young 

ones that are growing up and trying 

to lead their way of life in our 

culture….”

Danielle DeCoteau spoke next.

“My name is Danielle 

DeCoteau. I am running for Vice-

Chairman and I belong to the Big 

Coulee District.”

“For me, I know that in the 

past we were using the section 7 

monies to put aside money for 

infrastructure for a new museum, 

and I think it’s really important that 

we do have a museum because I 

know a lot of our artifacts have to be 

in controlled temperatures and right 

now they’re not.”

“I know they don’t have that 

right now and in order to preserve 

our history, we have to have the 

right environment, and so I’ve 

always been in support of our Tribal 

Historic Preservation Office.”

“For our language, I’m very 

proud of our school. I’m part of 

the ... I’m on the school board for 

Tiospa Zina.”

“And one of our main 

objectives is try to work with our 

students ... on learning Dakota 

language.”

“We’ve been implementing 

ways to work with the college and 

with the education department 

but for me, I do find it, it’s very 

important and so I am in support 

of building a museum because I 

know that our museum will bring in 

money and we can find the funding 

for it with the tourism.”

Floyd Kirk Jr. was next.

“My name is Floyd Kirk, Jr. 

I’m from the Old Agency District. 

I’m the current Vice-Chairman, and 

I appreciate everybody’s support 

who voted for me in the past.”

“The Tribal Historic 

Preservation Office … my name 

is kind of a bad name over there, 

because I had encouraged them to 

follow the accounting manual … 

(use) their program income before 

… program support, so my name is 

a bad name over there.”

“But that’s what the accounting 

manual says.”

“They do have a million 

dollars. At one point they had 

a million dollars sitting in their 

coffers. I too support the museum, 

but they have their money sitting 

there.”

“They should’ve been putting it 

aside and leaving it aside.”

“The one account they left it in 

is the account that we’re supposed 

to pull the money out of and put it 

back into Tribal coffers.”

“If they wanted to set aside 

museum money, they can still do 

that.”

“They haven’t done it yet but 

they still can do that.”

“I’m in support of it. Only 

thing that I … pushed on was, you 

have to use your program income 

before we can give program support. 

At the end of the day they’re one of 

two programs that I know of that 

do very, very good bringing in their 

own funds.”

“They could self-sustain their 

whole program if they wanted 

to, but they’re wanting program 

support so we have go in the other 

direction.”

“The TERO office is another 

one that brings in a lot of their own 

money.”

“We did give, at one point, $5 

million dollars, like the Secretary 

was saying to ... earlier was to the 

college ... to the Dakota Language 

Institute and also to the Education 

Department and I think everyone 

on the Council supported it.”

“So I think everybody would 

support Dakota Language, THPO 

office….”

“They could build their own 

museum.”

“I’m all for it.”

“They just need to create a line 

item where the extra money that 

they’re bringing in stays … in that 

line item, for a museum.”

“Right now, they don’t have 

that.”

“But if they did, they can start 

paying for their own museum.”

“I’ve always supported the 

Preservation office … except for 

(not) following the accounting 

manual.”

Ella spoke next, “My 

background: I have an Associate 

degree in Dakota Studies and a 

Bachelor’s in American Indian 

Studies, so I do have a background 

in Dakota and cultural studies. I 

worked for the THPO office for 

three years.”

“Myself, Myrna Thompson, 

and Tammy DeCoteau actually 

drafted the proclamation for the 

Tribe when the language became 

endangered.”

“And I know the importance of 

our Dakota language.”

“That’s what sets us apart from 

the non-Indians.”

“People gain federal 

recognition based on their ability to 

have a common language.”

“Sometimes it’s just a few 

words or sentences that a tribe 

knows that … they were able to gain 

federal recognition.”

“And I’d like to say how very 

proud I am of our Dakota Language 

Institute and the hard work that 

they have put into preserving 

our language, developing online 

teaching tools for those that want to 

learn the language, as well as printed 

materials, CDs.”

“They have posters out there if 

people want to learn.”

“I did attend a few of their 

language tables and I thought it was 

awesome when you get together 

with people that have a similar 

interest in trying to learn the 

language.”

“And also the development of 

the language program over at the 

college. It’s awesome to see that we 

are very serious about retaining, 

revitalizing our language.”

“The Tribal Historic 

Preservation Office does have 

acreage set aside for a cultural center 

north of Dakota Connection. 

There was actually plans drafted, I 

believe, in 2005, for an interpretive 

center, but there was never funding 

allocated for the building of that 

property.”

“I think a cultural center, that’s 

a little more interactive … I think 

that it’s needed.”

“I was a major player in the 

establishment of our tourism office. 

It’s no longer there, but I did help to 

establish our tourism office.”

“And I think the importance is 

our ability to tell our own story, not 

someone else telling our history for 

us, but us telling what our history 

is, the importance to us and how we 

came to be and why we’re here.”

“So I’m fully in support of 

the continued revitalization of our 

language and making our collections 

more accessible to the public, 

because if you’re not going to the 

administration building, there’s not 

many people that know that those 

displays are out there or that you 

can take a tour of the archives.”

“So I think having a cultural 

center set aside specifically for that 

is also important for … to tell (our) 

own story.”

Dave Flute: “The question was, 

how do you plan to preserve history, 

culture and historic preservation.”

“So each of us in here carry 

history.”

“Your own families, there’s 

family history.”

“Some people in here, we (are) 

part of that history when we had 

nothing. Before any of this was 

created out here. And that’s history 

itself that you as individuals, Tribal 

members, need to share with your 

family and with your (relatives).”

“That’s part of how I would 

encourage you, what I’m doing 

here. The CDs that have been made, 

we’ve sponsored more kahomani, 

moccasin games, wacipis.”

“We did more this past few 

years with our youth.”

“And not to single out anybody 

but there’s some family in here, the 

mother in here of a young man that 

takes a lot of young kids around and 

brings them to sundance, brings 

them to ceremony, brings them 

to different events. And it’s those 

types of things, events like that, and 

young people like that, are going to 

keep this history and culture alive.”

“I’m not going to be redundant 

to what the others have said. We 

need a museum, we need a cultural 

center. It’s been talked about for a 

number of years and it’s been talked 

about and talked about recently over 

the past year and half, maybe 18 

months.”

“We have come back to the 

table with Planning. We (have not 

been) giving as much attention 

as we should to the Historic 

Preservation Office in this realm. I’ll 

be upfront and admit it.”

“But it goes back to Shannon’s 

question too, because we got to get 

the people to buy into it.”

“Council starts making a 

decision to move forward with this 

and it goes back to the districts and 

they say, we don’t want to build a 

museum. How are you going to 

fund it and where are you going 

to get the money? Who’s going to 

operate it? Operations, maintenance 

costs and all of that.”

“So it ties nicely in with the 

first question. And those are aspects 

of this project that we need to sit 

down … and it’s not up to us, you 

heard every one of us up here saying 

we’re all in support of building a 

cultural center, but are the people. 

How important is it for you to learn 

your language, to sustain our culture 

and our history? That’s a decision 

you and your families need to make. 

And that’s where that decision’s 

going to come from.”

“And so how do you plan to 

preserve it?”

“We got a great art collection 

from Paul War Cloud, Paul 

Grant, that isn’t being displayed. 

It’s being housed up here at the 

admin building but it’s not being 

displayed.”

“And that tourism office, 

we need to get that back up and 

running and have that be a part of 

it.”

“I hate to say it’s business, but 

as being a sovereign nation, that’s 

where we assert our true sovereignty 

in being able to display those 

artifacts and to be able to share that 

with other people.”

“I speak our language, I grew 

up this way of life.”

“All I do is want to encourage 

everybody to continue to learn your 

history.”

“One other thing real quick 

before I give it to Mike, we need 

another history book, if not a couple 

more history books.”

“We have history from the 

19th Century, 20th Century, but 

we don’t have that history from 

those days of Willard LaFromboise. 

I know there’s other people have 

that, but it’s not being written and 

it’s not being taught in schools. And 

we need to get another history book 

if not a volume of history books 

that is going to be taught in schools 

and keep supporting our education 

department that way.”

Michael Selvage: “As you all 

know, or most of you, I’ve been a 

very strong proponent for a Tribal 

history center.”

“But it’s more than just a 

building.”

“This all comes from back in 

the late early ‘90s when Congress 

passed the Native American Graves 

Repatriation Protection Act.”

“When they did that, all the 

museums in the country that were 

funded, that received federal funds, 

had to turn over their artifacts, the 

cultural patrimony that they held, 

back to tribes from which they 

originated.”

“A lot of these artifacts were 

taken from graves. A lot of them are 

bundles, remains. And as you know, 

we were the first Tribe to repatriate 

our remains from the Smithsonian.”

“One of the things that the law 

says is that you have to be able to 

use the sacred objects in a ceremony 

and show that it’s part of your 

cultural patrimony as a tribe.”

“Now our Tribe has many, 

many sacred objects housed in 

museums.”

“This is where the importance 

of having a historical cultural 

center rests with me, in that part 

of it should be used for ceremonial 

purposes for one reason only: to heal 

our people.”

“We are under a siege with 

meth and other drugs.”

“We need to combat this. 

And one of the ways I think that 

we can be successful in fighting 

this horrendous drug is through 

our ceremonies, our culture from 

whence all of us came.”

“I know that may offend some 

people, but to me, that’s the most 

significant part of who we are as 

Sissetonwan-Wahpetonwan.”

“We have to help each other 

get well.”

“If our people are hurting, all 

the money in the world that we 

spend up here at Tribal government 

is going to mean nothing if our 

people die from diseases and 

addictions.”

“We can have the best 

language, we can have the best 

cultural patrimony, but if our people 

are dying what really are we doing 

with our resources?”

Martha: “We’re getting a lot of 

questions, so we don’t really want 

to cut anybody off. But maybe you 

can make your answers short and 

concise, okay?”

“Couple of these questions are 

for the Vice-Chairman candidates.”

“One of them is: There have 

been many issues with oversight 

of construction projects, such as 

Dakota Magic Casino. Will a new 

office program be open to provide 

this oversight, as money for this 

oversight is leaving the Tribe to non-

tribal people and entities?”

Floyd answered first: “As 

you guys are aware, we used to 

have a construction management 

office. And with construction 

management, they would get 

anywhere from six to ten percent of 

the overall project that would fund 

their office.”

“The first ten years, that 

worked out excellent.”

“… At one point, the previous 

Chairman tried to turn construction 

management into a contractor-type 

role, which ... that was never their 

role.”

“… We did discuss it, for 

probably the last six months, 

creating a construction management 

office but not calling it construction 

management just because of 

the stigma behind the name 

‘construction management.’”

“So, talking with most Council 

and the Chairman and Secretary, 

I think everyone thought it was a 

good idea. They wanted to call it 

something different. I think LeeAnn 

called it some works department, I 

can’t remember what she called it.”

“But that would be a part of 

construction management, and 

getting back to that, because we do 

lose a lot of money. When you don’t 

have a construction management 

office to oversee the construction 

management, then you have to hire 

a construction manager at risk.”

“And that’s where they make 

their money. They don’t really do 

anything except for oversee(ing) the 

construction itself.”

“That’s what construction 

management was, and it should stay 

that way.”

“I’m in favor of recreating the 

office and not calling it construction 

management but calling it 

something different … we are losing 

out on a lot of money.”

“Thirty million dollar project, 

ten percent of that, $3 million 

dollars goes back to construction 

management as their construction 

manager at risk.”

Danielle: “I just want to let 

you guys know that I did work for 

ConstructionMmanagement when I 

very first came back from the Navy, 

and I was their administrator….”

“And I believe that we should 

create another construction 

management department because 

although we were having an issue 

with getting bonded at that time, 

we were still being able to provide 

a service and our local contractors 

were able to go out there and get 

jobs. And it created jobs for other 

Tribal … members.”

“It was a big success for us.”

“… when I was in there 

working with Vern Cloud, we … 

got a lot of contracts and we worked 

very closely with TERO and the Tax 

office.”

“And so yes, they were getting 

two and three percent.”

“I do believe that we need to 

create another department like that 

because a lot of our Tribal members 

have the ability to go ahead and 

run their own businesses and be 

contractors.”

“And if we’re going to continue 

giving these projects out to outside 

sources, it’s not benefiting our 

people … that money is going out.”

“And I do have a strong belief 

in believing in our people to be able 

to provide the same service because 

I’ve seen it done.”

“I know some people are 

saying, well this is a brand new 

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