Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Red Lake Nation






On Monday, we packed our overnight bags and drove to the Red Lake Nation, which surrounds the largest freshwater lake in the United States. This reservation differs from Leech Lake (and most reservations in America) in that its leaders refused the system of allotment afforded by the Dawes Act; therefore, the entire reservation is owned by the tribe, rather than piecemeal chunks, and only members live there.

After stopping on the shore of the lake, we were distributed among host families in the towns of Little Rock, Red Lake, Redby, and Ponemah. Some students found themselves the guests of families with grandparents, parents, children, aunties, and uncles under one roof. Others were taken in by elders who lived alone or in the retirement home in Red Lake.

We enjoyed the company of traditional story tellers, school nurses, veterans, drum keepers, medicine men, teachers, and artists. Some students celebrated Memorial Day, attending a graveside ceremony with a fifteen gun salute. Others toured the reservation by car, stopping at sacred spots on the lake. Some visited the schools. Some listened to traditional stories and tales of Sasquatch spotting. Many watched TV and played with children.

Our home stays provided a new sense of perspective. We enjoyed forming relationships with people not unlike ourselves. We also saw firsthand some of the devastating effects of oppression, economic disempowerment, and stripping of land and language. Poverty was widespread. Trash littered yards and the sides of the road. Unemployment paired with a reliance on gambling was abundant. Gang graffiti—covered by layers of mismatched paint—blotched the sides of buildings. Poor nutrition, health problems like diabetes, and obesity were plentiful. Everyone we stayed with had lost numerous people they loved to murder, suicide, or drug overdoses. In spite of these tragedies, our hosts showered us with generosity and entertained us with their indefatigable senses of humor. When we left them just 24 hours after meeting, many of us were sad to go.

Today, we headed back to Red Lake to hear from Judy Roy, the former secretary of the Red Lake Tribal Council; Murphy Thomas, a cultural counselor at Red Lake High School; and Wilf Cyr, the Interim President of Red Lake Nation College. We were joined by a number of Red Lake High School students and their teacher Diane Schwanz, who prepared us Indian tacos for lunch and gave us a tour of their school. Our conversations revolved around preserving culture and language, fostering economic growth on the reservation, health care, and tribal government.

Wilf Cyr offered a fiery critique of indigenous peoples becoming nation states or “sovereign.” He said nation states, which have the ability to oppress and take land, only perpetuate violence. The attempted sovereignty of Indian nations, he said, would only lead them to be quashed by the larger nation states that surrounded them. Instead, he advocated for nationhood, something he says Red Lake Nation already possesses, as it has a language, culture, territory, land, and history. He warned of the dire consequences of the loss of language and called for an extreme solution—requiring all people on the reservation to learn the language and all business on the reservation to be conducted in that language. Language fluency, he said, should be the requisite characteristic for tribal membership, not blood quorum, which is the present policy (imposed by the US government and tribes).

Tonight we enjoyed a walleye cookout with what seemed to be the entire town of Bemidji (and surrounding towns) at an annual community fish fry. With full bellies, we returned to our dorm to catch up on journaling and sleep.

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