(upbeat music)
- Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Petty Lo.
This week meet three people from around our state
with unique stories.
An antigo woman called the Bird Whisperer.
Find out how she's able to rehabilitate
these majestic birds using the magic of her voice and touch.
Spend an afternoon with a good old fashioned cobbler
and the lifelong friends who are permanent fixtures
in his Madison shop.
And travel back years with a member of the United Nation
who describes his family's painful experience
being stripped of land and rights.
Stay with us for all this in Wisconsin.
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- Our first story introduces you to an antigo native
who spends her days healing wild birds.
Marge Gibson is considered one of the top wildlife
rehabilitators in the world.
Producer Joanne Garrett spent some time with Gibson
and discovered how she helps grounded birds soar.
- The bird whisperer.
That's what some call her.
Marge Gibson has been healing birds for over 40 years.
(audience cheering)
- Her first patient today, a trumpeter's one,
shot through the neck and in critical condition.
- He's only just come up here, but you can actually
see the hole, but it went right through,
right through his head.
- This antigo native is one of the world's
top wildlife rehabilitators.
She's a past president of the International Wildlife
Rehabilitation Association, and she started here in Wisconsin.
- You a happy guy?
- When people would find birds, you know, I was the kid
that took care of them, that strange kid down the road.
So I would get, you know, all these baby birds
that, you know, fell out of nest and things.
And I remember one summer, we did 115 birds,
and this was when I was just a kid,
on as about 11 or 12.
- The child who loved birds, trained as a
medical technologist.
Took off for California, and merged herself in WAPDERS,
and started a wildlife center.
Her skills were soon so respected.
She was called upon to lead the assessment of eagles,
caught up in the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez.
- The trick is to make them comfortable and cooperative
so they don't have to defend themselves,
or don't feel like they're having to defend themselves.
- The years have gone by, and Gibson's life
is still wrapped around birds.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
She and husband Don, a medical doctor, had retired
and moved back to Antigo.
- We were going to refocus our life,
and not do as much rehabilitation,
and I was going to be doing some writing,
which I love to do, and that was going to be our life.
- But Gibson kept her handy, caring for injured birds.
What happened was it was sort of like a field of dreams.
If you build it, they will come.
And boy, did they come.
- There was a huge need to care for sick and injured birds,
to bring them to that wonderful place, release.
(crowd cheering)
And that's how Reggie took wing.
The Raptor Education Group incorporated a nonprofit
started by the Gibson's, that now cares for hundreds of birds
in a year, anywhere from 600 to 1,000.
Birds with sometimes heartbreaking histories.
- Hey, how you doing, mama?
- Patients with histories that often involve humans.
This mother Crain was in an area over sprayed with pesticides.
She refused to leave her chicks.
They died, she barely survived.
- So we took vet her for about three weeks,
and then when the scabs came off, her eyes came with them.
There is no eye in there at all.
- Patients with histories that can be extremely complex.
- What we're seeing now are the viruses,
which of course are something we haven't seen at all
in the past, and toxins, which are a real problem.
And it takes much more time to rehabilitate them.
They have many more complex problems.
They have neurologic issues.
- She is still, when she reacts to lights and sounds,
she's still hypersensitive to that.
After decades of work in the field, Gibson has a touch.
She's developed techniques for handling the birds
without sedation, without restraints.
Instead, Gibson relies on a firm grasp of the feet
and a great gentleness.
- One of the things that we do here is different
than a lot of centers is we do talk to them.
And while they don't know our language,
they understand the, I guess, sort of a gentleness,
our gentle voice, and they react positively to that.
- It works.
Most wildlife rehab centers have a recovery to release rate
of 35%, Regis is 60%.
- When I hold an eagle, it's, you know,
I can be talking and doing, you know,
can other things, but it's such a natural thing for me
that it's not, you know, it just feels right.
It's one of those odd things that I can't really explain,
but we have a real connection.
I have a real connection to birds.
- Free.
(birds chirping)
- It's good bird.
To do wildlife rehabilitation really well,
you really have to be an expert on the natural history
of that species.
- Trumpeter swans, what they tend to do with one another
is to rub the necks.
They've got their beak sort of on the neck all the time.
Right now, it lowers the stress level.
And his stress level is high.
He's lost a lot of blood here.
- He's lost a lot of blood from the bullet wound.
And his wings were mangled when he was held captive
in the wrong kind of cage.
- You see a piece of tissue here out.
This is legum tissue.
And his bones are exposed on the wing.
You can see the bone.
- To prevent these kinds of injuries,
to properly care for the birds and to give the public
a better understanding of the problems they
face, Gibson believes that education is critical.
And so those birds that can't be released,
like Mori, a fairy-handsome turkey voucher,
sometimes serve as education birds.
- This is Mori, and Mori is a turkey voucher.
- Mori and others make the rounds at schools
and events around the state, like this full capacity crowd
at eagle days in sock prairie.
- And you want all of them, so we talk about that.
- But all of this, the education, the rehabilitation,
the care costs.
- It's about 200,000 a year.
And we are a nonprofit 501(c)(3),
but it's really hard to make enough,
to support the birds, and we get no help from
the federal government or the state.
I mean, not even a bag of food.
They get by, barely, on contributions.
On this day, a warden from the Minamini Reservation
drops off a road queue.
- Basically, we put our life into this program here,
and we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars,
but it's been our choice.
You know, I've never been to the Bahamas,
but this is something that is compelling.
Gibson has never been to the Bahamas,
but she's been to thousands of releases.
Birds may spend up to two years in her care,
releases, or special days.
- Nice to meet all the folks.
- Hey, I've never been held again.
- Absolutely.
(crowd cheering)
- Marge Gibson says that unlike many bird rehabilitators,
she works without heavy leather gloves.
She believes the birds can better sense her intentions
without a layer of leather between them.
You can find out much more about Gibson
and her bird rehabilitation center
by checking out our website at wpt.org/inwastouncing.
(upbeat music)
The work of the man in our next story
is a little more down to earth than Marge Gibson's.
George Fabian made his living for many years as a cobbler,
but it took his lifelong friends at the Park Street
shoe repair in Madison to bring Fabian out of retirement
and bring a little soul back to his life.
Producer Linda Friend brings us their story.
- My name is George Fabian, this is the Park Street
shoe repair in Madison's, got a story.
I'm putting some glue down on a shoe
'cause I'm gonna glue this sole on.
So I put a lot of glue on it and let it dry.
And then I will hang it down with a hammer.
- Get more of your dirt, do you want more of your dirt?
- I'll take some.
- I learned from my father.
- I started down here when I was 10 years old.
My friends lived from the old country, from Italy.
And it's had to go to work.
Maybe come down here.
- Here I am.
- What you remember, Amy, I had one tooth missing
down the bottom of the bowling pit.
- No.
- I used to run as tons of them.
- Remember, Mack?
- Yeah, I remember.
- I remember he was standing around at the gas station.
- Yeah.
- Those are friends of mine.
We all grew up in the neighborhood.
Just down the block here, they did the green bush.
- Yeah, that's good.
- At that time, the Italians, Blacks, and Jews
who all lived together.
We were diversified before it was fashionable.
We were all very poor.
Of course, we didn't know until the city came on.
- No, no, no.
- And my feeling is there's two things
that bring together poverty and combat.
And we lived in the poor neighborhood,
so we needed each other.
He's going on to Florida.
- Take him there.
- It's your week?
- Yeah, you got to play cards today.
- He's going on his own.
- His wife says, "Let's go, he goes."
- This goes on every day.
- This is the first.
- This is only part of it.
- Oh, man, you say, "Joy."
- Oh, man, a block.
- The Billy lived on his side, so he brought a ship
to Maui Brother here.
- My wife died April 20th.
My kids actually passed away, so they focused just on this.
It was originally between the two of us standing
at the church and our son's wedding.
It's hard, but not the only one.
We knew you'd had to pick up the pieces and go on.
- Yeah?
(chattering)
- It's called a short breasted here.
I can put on my machine, and it's either all
nothing else.
Frank's not your shoes as long as you can.
- Oh, you can have nothing else.
- Anything's of will.
- Yeah, oh, please.
- This thing here, okay.
And I can come back and pick that up.
- Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
- Try this part, see.
- See if right, okay, and the helmet will move in that.
Don't worry about that.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, Duffrey off.
- Okay, so you know, I can stick here for this,
you'll never know.
- There you go.
(laughing)
- Well, that's pretty sad.
Okay, thank you, okay, thank you.
- Okay, man, I'll see you.
- Oh, the official man's meal when you get to California.
- I don't know.
- Those are I don't know, so.
- No, no, you get that, you get that gunny wood
from like chicken gets it.
- Oh, that, that, that, that, that, that,
that's our job.
- I work three days a week and I'm sitting home
and part of the reason I come here
and see my friends.
I'm summer retired, I don't even care
if I get you in the right time.
I just want place to come.
I mean, I've known these guys all my life.
- Hey, Georgie.
- I don't ever know, they're not knowing you.
(indistinct)
- Part of the street, you repair?
- Call of fame.
- Yeah, Jesus.
- Georgie's not cocky hall of fame, you know.
- You, you, you, W guys.
- You just, a sharp and straight.
- You know, a lot of guys have not even
- I'm not even here.
- Like, see, Georgie, because for 20 years,
he, you know, had the penalty box door,
you know, the guys in and out of it.
- At the hockey games.
- Georgie, what do you call the penalty box guy?
- He used to call us minor officials,
but I didn't like that word minor official.
I like off-ice official.
- Jesus.
- A few of the guys come in here still
'cause they live in Madison or in the area.
- I know what it was.
You're the only foreigner in here.
- That's very true.
I'm the only great card, I know.
(laughing)
- It's my trade for UW, I'm sorry.
- Guys, I can't believe you.
- Yeah, you can't say what.
- That's why it was God of the Academy.
Sit down, man.
- That was me, I gotta go.
- Yeah, thank you.
- You're probably gonna see me, you bet you.
- You're here.
- Oh, you got it.
- Oh, no, no, no, no.
- You're here, right?
- I'm here, I'm here.
- Georgie, yeah.
We argue and scream at each other like you think.
I'm gonna kill each other, but.
- I'll see you later, I'll connect tomorrow,
that same thing.
- Maybe Jiggles, maybe I'll go.
Jiggles can deal with that.
I don't know what I'm doing out of.
- Do you remember how they make my days go fast?
- Yeah, I remember that.
(upbeat music)
- Storytelling, like we do here on In Wisconsin,
is not new.
It's been around as long as humankind.
Once in a while, stories are discovered
that give us a glimpse into the life of another culture
or another time.
That's the treasure of the O'Nighted Journals.
The journals capture life experiences
of the O'Nighted Nation dating back to the 1800s.
Independent producer Michelle Danforth
brought some of that history alive
in a special called O'Nighted Speaks,
the following excerpt from that special is called Indiceet.
- I was 10 years old and my father let me
go with my grandpa.
We're in the truck and we'll truck,
we'll four truck and he said to me,
he said, "Well, let's go for a drive."
And I said, "Tell me a story about your grandpa."
(upbeat music)
- The WPA journals were begun in probably 1939
as a result of the many make work agencies
that were begun by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt after his election in 1932.
And WPA stands for Works Progress Administration.
The O'Nightes were in the oral history project.
It was not only oral history, but it was the preservation
of the O'Nighted language because those who were selected
to work in this project not only could read and
write English very well, but they could also
speak O'Nighted fluently and could write O'Nighted.
The journals covered everything.
They covered everyday life, told how the roads were repaired
and how people had to contribute to that,
told about the foods that were prepared by the women
while men worked collectively, told about people who were
born, people who died, epidemics, even the
immigration from New York State because the people that were
being interviewed in 1939, 40 and 41 were
people who remembered what it was like to
immigrate from New York State through the Great Lakes and
then to come to Green Bay and make a settlement.
If we had not participated, if our people from
that time in the 40s had not participated
in this project, we would have a large, large
segment of our history, just absent and not
available to us at all.
(gentle music)
- You could say we lived in heaven.
Up until the time a devil came to the United States.
He was well paid too.
A government agent worked with him.
He got $2,000 for inducing and urging the United's
to become taxpayers.
He got all other people together at the parish hall
for a meeting.
He talked a lot, explained that so many white
people were coming in to United, but not being taxed.
So he thought it best to establish a town
where all of the people would pay taxes.
All the older men disagreed with him.
(gentle music)
And so he failed at this meeting.
He was so disappointed that he went around
and talked to different people, especially those who
were against him.
He paid him $200 each to work on his side.
So a few days after this, he called another meeting.
All the men who were against him were now on his side.
So the majority of the people voted on his side.
And so the township was established
and they called it the town of Hobart.
The United started to pay taxes.
About five years after this, some of the United's got
behind in their taxes and some began to
lose what they had.
Because they were not accustomed to paying taxes.
It has always been so that if anything comes up,
it always ends and loss for the United's.
This man who worked on establishing the town of Hobart,
he was an United Indian.
He was hired by the white man to bring this about
where the United's lived.
- The Allotment Act provided that after
everything is allotted, what is left over
is declared surplus and falls to the United States.
Because we had 65,430 acres and we had about 1,800 people.
There was to land within the 1838 boundaries
to allow 168 acres and 40 acres for children and so forth.
So they prorated up.
We had no extra land in our case,
but the Sue country and other tribes
that the Doz Allotment Act was applied to in the West
did have surplus land.
So immediately 100 million acres reverted.
All right, I have to say just given
to the United States of America because the United States didn't
own it in the first place.
So it was just given to the United States
so 100 million acres fell to the United States immediately
upon application of the Doz Allotment Act
called Reservations.
Eventually almost all the land was alienated.
So that was between 1911, 1929 when of the Great Depression
because that's a cutoff going there.
There were far more non-Indian people
on the reservation than there were Indians.
So what it did is the farmers voted in their own people
and the United States were left without anything to say.
And that is the case today.
- Long time ago my grandpa would go to Boulder
and they'd go logging and my grandpa actually would go
sometimes and they'd come back and they
didn't understand taxes.
So as my grandfather and as my grandfather's grandfather
came back and my grandfather's father Albert and Thomas,
they turned around and saw that the out of game is sheriff
and his deputies on horseback work
excording those people out of the house.
My grandpa didn't understand and he was at home
and as his dad and grandpa were asking questions
they turned around and said, you have to move out because
you didn't pay your taxes.
So then my grandpa was unpacking and my grandpa's grandpa
was trying to argue and say, well, here's your money
and it's pretty soon that the wagon was full.
So it was raining pretty hard.
There were only logs on the roads and it was pretty muddy.
So the sheriff and the deputies said,
you have to move on, you're loitering.
And my grandpa looked up and he noticed that
his father and his grandpa, they were both upset
and they were crying and one of them was crying so hard
he couldn't shake the reins for the horse to move.
Tiktos.
Tiktos rains and he shook them.
All he remembers is seeing that water dripping off his hat
on his hands and the horses went down the road.
The journals, they were translated if they were in Onida
and they were typed from the writing
because it was all written in long hand.
Every tribal member needs to understand
where they came from.
They need to be connected and this is one of the greatest
connecting kind of things that we can do.
It's right there before us.
All we have to do is utilize it.
You can watch the special Onida Speaks
and it's entirety by logging on to our website
at www.wrgslashinwisconsin.
Once there, click on the Onida Speaks section.
There you'll find a link that allows you
to watch streaming video of the special.
You can also find more information on our website
about all of this week's stories.
That's our show for this week.
We leave you with a trip to the shores
of the St.
Croix River in the western part of the state.
For InWisconsin, I'm Patti Lo.
We'll see you again next week.
(water splashing)