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