Present in there for this for this
interview today.
And I guess.
I just want to make sure I get it
all my good rest.
See.
Any movement.
But you're.
Okay.
So thank you again for this
conversation today.
And this will be probably two
separate stories, but there'll be
overlapping information, I'm sure,
for both.
You want to start with the
Wisconsin tribal education story.
But so much has happened
in the United States.
It's impacting Indian
country.
It's impacting Ho-Chunk, the
whole chunk people right here in
Wisconsin.
And I want to start with about a
week ago, your Facebook
post in response
to President Trump's
executive orders.
Tell me, what
was it about his orders that
made you want to send such a
strong impact statement?
Thank you.
I really enjoy
life.
I really enjoy
peace.
I enjoy
a society that is
feels comfortable to evolve with the
changes that we
need to keep going.
And
to have such
abrupt policies that I don't
believe were very well thought out
and vetted
to have such adverse impacts
and to collectively look at
those policy changes
and realize that
the targets of a lot of the
new administration's policies
focus on people of color,
women, disadvantaged individuals
and communities and people
just trying to get by in
life as it is.
I also felt like
poor people aren't the reason why
we are where we are as
a society, and gay
people aren't the reason why we are
where we are.
We have a lot of economic
struggles where there
just isn't enough
finances circulating around
in the United States to keep
the costs of health care down.
The cost of the cost of housing
down, the cost of prescription
drug care or elder care.
And.
We have to look at where the problem
lies.
In a capitalist world
where it is, you
know, leave the weak
behind.
We find out that the weak
really is 98%
of the American population.
We are holding on to the wealth.
We are holding on to
the.
The stock of
revenue that should be circulated
out there.
The targets of a lot of these
executive orders are small
programs.
They are very
small, but also very
impactful for our community
to
ignite such fewer
against our own
people, to turn the guns in
on our own communities
and say that this is
a DEA initiative
and it is a waste of money.
Or in that, explain
that diversity.
Equity inclusion
includes making accommodations
for disabled individuals,
for elders, for women,
for perhaps children
without parents, is to
basically disregard
the people that struggle in
our society and there among
everyone. It doesn't matter what
color skin they have.
And so this administration
at the Ho-Chunk Nation, at least
this one.
Focus is on
not just getting ahead,
but who's behind because
we can only move as fast as those
that we want. And and we have to go
back.
No matter how much we think we're
propelling ourselves personally
or professionally, we have to go
back to the back of the line
to help our community members.
If you can't see yourself doing
that, you don't have a place
in public service.
I've always wanted to believe that,
only to realize that
the narrative overall,
at least in the national political
spectrum, has changed.
So.
So there was a lot of thoughts going
down. I know that
a lot of people would like to think
there was public
relations officers and
communications officers and the
lawyers around me.
But I was literally
writing something on my phone,
spilling coffee on my coffee table,
laying back and hitting send and
just taking a little break.
And I didn't realize
just me speaking
to my family
out there in the hotel nation
was going to have such deep impact
with other tribal individuals
and have them looking
at their own leadership and saying,
where's our statement?
Why aren't you mad?
Why is everything that's coming out
of your social media
softly worded?
And where
when are we going to see
our nation stand up for us?
The intent wasn't to.
Strike any fear, make
any attacks.
I our focus on the policies
and the impacts of the policies.
And I let folks know that
unlike a lot of people that are
going to stick their heads in the
sand.
Run for cover and
wait for things to blow over.
We have we have a responsibility
to protect our people, just like
President Trump does, to protect
Americans.
So I'm not going to
I'm not going to sway from that.
So I think that that's
after that went out.
I not only did not have any
regrets.
There was probably a lot more I
wanted to throw in there, but I
didn't know.
The impact was there.
And since your post, we have
seen other tribes
leaders and tribal leaders
make other make statements, make
that impact statement.
Do you think by
you coming forward so quickly and
stating how you feel on behalf
of your of the nation
of Ho-Chunk Nation, that
there could be more collaboration
between the nations at this
really crucial time?
I do. And there is
we have a lot of national
and statewide organizations that
have aligned on
messaging, which is really important
right now.
Oftentimes in American
Indian societies
and in government, we spend a great
deal of time justifying our
history of where we were and
our impact to our social
world and our economic world.
It's an unfortunate but
necessary task of any tribal
leader to be able to provide the
history, the culture and the
education, because a lot of
folks that they work with may
not have that with them.
And so when we
develop some
alignment with these organizations
and some cohesive messaging
that we need to send home,
you know, it's our hope that our
collective voice has an
impact and is meaningful
because the people that
serve us as leaders
have a responsibility to us, too.
And with a population
of less than 3% of America,
we have to have not only
a loud voice, but we have to have a
very
strategic voice to make sure
that we're being heard by
the right people.
And we're not just walking into
a room and having people nod their
heads.
We just like the old days
back in the 70s when we were we were
really doing a lot of the strong
advocacy in Indian country.
My grandparents would
not come home without a pound of
flesh in their hand.
We can't have meetings where we just
sit and we agree in
the room and nothing happens.
The the expected results.
For that reason, we expect results.
With Trump's executive orders that
were coming out quite quickly
and in and largely
last week, when
we speak of DTI diversity
equity inclusion and I read them and
I read what on his website,
whitehouse.gov, what pertained
to the native
community and native nations
are native nations considered
d-ii?
Native nations are not considered
as D-I
by native nations.
And a lot of other organizations and
leaders with within the state and
the United States.
This administration
would like to make a simple
classification of
Native American indigenous people
and their history as a DEA
initiative. But it's not.
And, you know, I think
we have hundreds of years
of case
law of
Supreme Court
decisions, of congressional
law, of treaty, law
of.
Consultation agreements in shared
stewardship agreements
that very much verify
that we are a
governing entity, a sovereign
entity of the United States federal
government, and we've progressed
and advanced so far.
As a result of that, it doesn't
mean we've been holding hands in the
sunset every night, but it does mean
that we will take the time and work
with our members of Congress,
regardless of what level they pull
at the polling stations
and come up with solutions that
benefit both tribal communities
and non tribal communities.
And sometimes they're just one in
the same.
So to place that
as DEA
really
has to be visualized as
how strong is
that ink in the president's pen
to erase hundreds of years of
history of shared governance between
the United States, the states,
the counties, the municipals
and the agencies with indigenous
people?
I don't think it holds the
power that 1st May think it
would.
With presidential
administration change either four
years or eight years?
How often do you see that impacts
Ho-Chunk Nation and even native
nation? With a new presidential
administration.
There's always going to be impacts.
Oftentimes, even if we're going from
the same party to the to a new
party, you're going to have changes
in leadership. And with those
changes in leadership, you're going
to have changes in perspectives,
sometimes for the better, sometimes
not.
And so we do brace for a change.
Even even if a
a party who is very
friendly with Indian country is
replaced by a party
who's very friendly with Indian
country, the leadership can
change. And so one
of the things I really admire
and respect about Indian
country and their governing
governing bodies is we
have been made to adapt
politically because we
have historically had
that gift of adaptation, whether
it was through seasonal
changes, whether it was through
crisis, whether it was through,
you know, integration.
The social groups in indigenous
communities were
equipped to adapt because we have to
adapt.
So politically is one of the
one of the things I'm very proud of
the whole nation to be able to do,
because we are not only adapting
to some of the national policies,
but we also have to adapt to some of
our more regional and statewide
areas.
Ho-Chunk Nation more so because
we do not have a contiguous land
base. We are located across
several counties throughout the
state of Wisconsin and beyond.
You know, we have approximately 7500
tribal members and over 2000
of those members live outside of the
state.
So oftentimes we we do have
to understand that the dynamics
could change depending on the states
that our tribal constituents live
in. So, again, we have
a unique form of adaptation.
And I would actually
convey that our
Ho-Chunk Nation government is
probably one of the most
sophisticated governments that I
have ever seen in my years
of service with the nation, working
with the federal, state and local
governments.
And you saw people make comments to
that.
You know, you filter through and you
read through and they're like, Well,
why isn't my nation
doing this? Or how come we don't
operate in in that way?
So I want to ask you,
within that time of last week, I
think until the previous month,
recent Monday, those
executive orders, there was a
a a federal
freeze by a federal
judge did step in and put a
freeze.
If those executive orders
did go through, how would that
impact Ho-Chunk
Nation.
A long time ago
as a result of our treaty
negotiations
back in the 1800s,
when I was just a young boy,
you know, we we
had
given away a lot,
but there were some things that were
retained.
And one of those things that were
retained was the federal
government's treaty interest
responsibility to indigenous
peoples so that they could
at least move on and evolve
to develop self-governance and
self-determination so that tribes
could maintain the ability
to provide the health, safety and
welfare of all of their communities.
In doing so, the federal
government's responsibility was to
make sure that we had the means and
ability to do so.
So comes the
Indian Health Services,
Department of Labor, all these other
services that are were
once able to sustain
the needs in
Indian communities.
It wasn't quick.
Before the funding
for all of these programs
wasn't sufficient
to meet all of the needs of
the tribal members.
And eventually, as we
start evolving
into the 20th century,
we develop gaming
as a revenue source and
a primary revenue source.
There were other retail revenue
sources as well, and
dollars generated from
Indian gaming or other economic
development were starting
to be relocated
to assist
in making sure that the federal
funds could still meet
their treaty interest
responsibility, which basically
meant that we were now
subsidizing the federal grants
that were taking care of our our
families.
Now, we
in a lot of these grants cover
more than 50% of them with
our own revenue sources.
And which would
beg the question is, is
or has the federal government kept
their end of the deal?
I don't believe they have.
I believe we have a long way to go,
and that is something that we come
to work with every single day
to make sure that we have a
progressive and
a changing government so that
we can maintain those things
that we ensure to our people.
We are doing the federal
government's work and
to have executive orders
pull the carpet right out from under
us when we're already
doing more than half of the work for
them. Providing those services,
developing unique service
models for tribal and intertribal
communities.
Is is a real
slap in the face.
And it has to be said that way.
To do so, so abruptly.
Breaks some covenants
that are out there.
And I'll explain that
when we apply for a grant.
And we'll just leave this for
federal grants.
We are given a notice of funding
available or a funding opportunity.
We may provide a letter of intent
and we may get
a resolution of support from our
governing body within
these grants, no matter what it is.
Let's just say it's
child safety belts, you know,
or car seat safety.
We
we provide
the schematics of how we're going to
implement that grant within our
unique communities.
The federal government looks at
our plan, approves it,
sends us an award notification.
If we accept the award,
we are bound to
the plan
that we said set out to
the federal government.
And that's what the government says
if you do this.
We'll do this.
So we did this.
And the government said no.
We changed our mind because someone
doesn't like something in your
program.
Now, you know, this
is not a very
sexy process by any means since
it's grants, it's pretty
bureaucratic.
So in my world,
when there are priority shifts
within grant
management that the granting
agency would send a notice
to the grantees to let them
know that some provisions
of this grant are going to be
changing, giving every
implementing agency an opportunity
to evolve or contour
some of the policies or some of the
deliverables that they are entitled
to. That is a plan.
Document amendment.
Same thing goes for the grantee
side.
If there's something that's changes
significantly at the receiving
end of a grant, we can amend
our plan document and get it
approved.
This is basically the agreement,
the covenant that we have with the
federal government to pull
that out without any
review at all is
to jeopardize the
health, safety and welfare of those
people that we have a covenant
with as well.
This is not just our promise
to our people.
It is the federal government's
promise to our people.
We we depend
on our elected representatives
in the federal government to make
those resources available.
And they do. So we have a
have a metaphor that goes
around that says, it would take
an act of Congress.
Every single one of these
commits took an act of Congress.
So if you are representing a
state as a senator
or as a member of the House
of Representatives, and you go out
and you do your job, you do
the legwork. You have your town
halls and you provide
infrastructure funding, as
you said you did.
And all of a sudden,
the new boss comes in and says,
we're not going to allow that
funding to go out.
Then why do you even exist
as a representative?
Congress has a responsibility
to make sure that their priorities
are administered by the president,
by the White House,
through the processes, through the
Office of Management and Budget.
And when that
provision gets cut off, that ability
gets cut off.
Then I do believe that there is a
dysfunction in the government
that now rests as a congressional
responsibility to
clarify.
So he rescinded
the federal freeze.
What do you think is going
to happen in the near future?
I believe that
the president
did what the kids call a flex.
He exercised
an authority to let
folks know that he does have
omnipotent control over
the funding of
America.
And I
do believe he will maintain
this position of opposition
on any DCI, which means that
we what I believe will happen
is they're going to take a
little more of a surgical look
at funding that is going
out to the states
and other agencies or being
re granted to make sure that
any funding that looks
like it is not
in line with the president's
priorities and his positions against
DCI or anything
else is going to be
on the chopping block.
And so
at the same time,
I do believe that a system,
a good system in place
has controls in it.
And we've seen those controls
demonstrated by the injunctions
of the pause on the
grant funding and processing.
And then later on the restraining
order, even though the letter
was rescinded, some of the
adjudicatory processes are going
forward to make sure that
some of those funding priorities can
be carried out.
How can it be communicated
or is there a need for reeducation
for those on the federal level?
If we're saying that Indian
country is not a DEA
initiative, how is that communicated
to the president and the powers
that be at that federal level?
I believe the best messenger
in this area is
his cabinet.
And looking at a
newly installed Secretary
Burgum, in the Department of
Interior, who has history
working, coming from
as a former North Dakota governor
and being set up as the secretary of
interior.
Also, any the assistant or deputy
secretaries within that department
and subsequently the CIA
director.
These are probably the president's
best resources for
advice on how
to manage a unique
group with a unique history in
the United States, such as
indigenous people.
And as well,
there have been a lot of
relationships forged over
the years with members of Congress,
members of the Senate,
people that have aligned
a lot of similar priorities in
Indian Country.
Not all of Indian country are
against, let's say, mineral
extraction. Some of them have
quite the industry on that, and they
are supported very well by members
from both sides of the
aisle, both sides of the aisle.
So I do believe
that some of the best advocacy is,
you know, making sure that we have
our contacts in the ear of
the president.
Right now, we this is
a very tumultuous time because
I do believe that
the president is going
to touch a few more hot stoves and,
you know, make some decisions that's
going to impact his base.
I also believe that a lot of people
that voted for
the president are starting to learn
that they are also going to be
the victims of some of this
own creation.
I wouldn't be surprised if
families out in rural
Wisconsin are pulling their signs
up because they may be affected
by some of the targeted
programs and policies of the Trump
administration.
Has the state stepped in
at all to offer support
or guidance?
Uniquely, our state
governor is a Democrat.
He has had
his colleagues in the Wisconsin
State Senate, which has 33
members in the Wisconsin State
Assembly, which has 99 members,
both GOP led.
And so they have a history
of working together for the most
part. However, we do
have a lot of emboldened
GOP members now that are looking at
this as striking time
to implement some statewide
policies and maybe target some of
the statewide programs that have
diversity equity included
in them.
Governor Evers has has vowed and
committed to veto anything that's
basically saying that any bill that
would target any D-I initiatives
is dead on arrival for any set
for a veto.
And another question regarding his
state.
You mentioned with Ho-Chunk
gaming and the casinos contributing
to the really wider state economy,
are there other ways that Ho-Chunk
Nation contributes to Wisconsin?
Absolutely.
The hotel nation, in its
interest in gaming franchise
employees, at least in the gaming
side, nearly 90%
of every employee in
Ho-Chunk gaming are
made up of nine hotels.
We employ, like I said, over
2400 individuals, most of them
in the gaming sector.
The next large amount would be
in the government sector and the
final amount would be in the health
sector.
So overall, about
70% of those 2400
employees are non-tribal.
So we make sure that not
only we employ folks outside
of the nation, but we also take care
of them On the health side,
the hotel nation, for
all of its flaws and successes.
I've always been able to hang my hat
on the fact that we have provided
some of the best health care
insurance for tribal and non tribal
employees in that it's
it's almost economically brilliant
to take a front line service
job and secure
our health benefit package.
This means something today.
We have been struggling outside
of here with rising
health care costs, rising
supportive care costs, rising
prescription drug costs.
Those things seem to be almost
nearly on regular.
And they are. These are the bread
and butter issues that are hitting
at home. We may not know
about the plan to develop Gaza.
We may not know about his.
Relations and discussions with
Justin Trudeau in Canada.
But the stuff that hits home
are out-of-pocket
health care costs, co-pays,
large premiums.
And one of the things that I really
appreciate is, as
far as, you know, being
a good partner is actually
demonstrating and not just talking
about it.
The whole nation also contributes
over $70 Million
in Contract Services.
So this isn't just law firms
and things like that, but these are
these were mom and pop shops
that were just starting out small.
They have probably become
millionaires over the course of
decades working with the nations.
And it seems simple, But when you
walk into the tribal office
building, you're going to walk
across our welcome mat.
Someone is going to pick those
welcome mats up every Thursday
and replace them with the new clean
ones and walk out the door and
and feed their families and
contribute to the local economy.
Someone's going to spray for
pest control or someone's going to
repair the sidewalk or check
out the h vac systems.
All of these things are money in
motion and this is what creates
the economy.
I'm not an economist, but
I realize that this is what
makes America great, is
being able to circulate dollars
within a community so that people
are not left without.
I want to ask you about Trump's
executive order a few days after
in regard to Ice being told
to go out and
arrest undocumented
people in the country.
And we really
we hear the messaging on who's
to be who's to
be arrested and who's
not.
Can you tell me about
the impact of
a Ho-Chunk people in this
state with Ice having
a message to target
undocumented Hispanics?
Great. Good question.
It's important and it has to be said
that, you know,
there's a likely
propensity for
American Indian indigenous people
to get caught in the crossfire
of being misidentified, have
having
Mexican descent for
officials who are charged with
implementing and enforcing a policy
against illegal immigration.
I'm not sure if the actual
occurrence of an engagement
between indigenous people and Ice
is a larger threat than the
fear of engaging
Ice in an event
with Ice officials.
So, you know,
people worry not just for
themselves but for the things
that they don't have control of.
Ice is not
unlike the media world.
The policy has been driven
with getting rid of our criminals
and our lawbreakers.
Ice, as I understand it, aren't
just going through crime ridden
streets and picking up
illegal immigrants.
They're coming to our schools.
They're coming to our churches, our
places of employment, the places
where we buy our groceries and
targeting people that may have
been residents
for decades here.
And a lot of them are
US citizens.
The worst case scenarios are US
citizens gifted
these rights that we speak about
being unlawfully detained,
unnecessarily questioned
and invoked with
some sort of authority
to to invoke fear.
I worry about this in
the rare occasion that
it could happen.
So I
try to advance something
that is more preventative.
And some of those things that I can
hope would remedy
a situation if there is
an encounter with Ice officials
is to make sure that our tribal
members have proper identification
and
also
are able to understand
how to assess a situation.
Be cooperative.
Don't be combative.
Don't jump on the hero
bus and question their
authority and, you know, do
all the ingredients to
to make a situation that isn't
very favorable or worse.
I worry about
the cocktail that could brew out
there to have
an individual or a family in
fear be pulled over
by an Ice official that
is emboldened and really
adrenalized to to
execute this policy.
These that situation
worries me.
We don't have a lot of control over
what Ice officials or Homeland
Security does, but we have a lot of
control over what we do and how we
respond.
And my advice is to
be cooperative.
For the most part, they're doing
their job.
They're putting food on the table
for their families and probably
don't want to spend a lot of time
on someone that is a target of
that policy.
I will also add, you know,
with immigration amendments
that took place nearly ten years
ago, we have
the proliferation of
27 agreements.
And what those agreements are
are law enforcement
agencies that willingly
offered to provide
services.
Linear with Ice officials
were basically extending the
arm of Ice to
local law enforcement agents.
There are seven counties within the
state of Wisconsin that are what we
would call to 87 counties.
None of those counties,
coincidentally, are anywhere
near that, where our highest
concentration of Ho-Chunk tribal
members are. But there are companies
that do have a lot of mixed
populations in there.
So, you know, the law enforcement
resources that are
out in the state are often,
often small.
And so in speaking with, you
know, local law enforcement
near or over the jurisdiction
of some of our communities, speaking
with some of the state law
enforcement, you know, they are not
to 87 G and
they really don't have the resources
to execute any duties other
than peacekeeping and doing
business as usual.
You mentioned tribal IDs
and Indian country
are members of
U.S. citizens.
Tell me, what is a tribal
I.D.
and why it's so permanent,
permanent, permanent to
hold chunk members at this time?
So I
recently released an
executive order very
similarly to a lot of other
indigenous nations who had
waived fees for processing
tribal IDs and CD
ABS, which are the certificate
degree of Indian blood.
And the reason
why is because
having proper identification,
especially today, is really
important. By not doing so,
you take a look at this,
regrettably, that you don't
have that I.D.
that could frustrate
individuals.
And a lot of times it
isn't a matter of just having an
I.D.
for people of color.
We're often asked for more than one
form of ID, and
we're often given more than one
squad car.
It's always a little bit bigger
affair for people of color.
That is a fact.
And, you know, to have
a tribal I.D.
as a supplement.
Or to
assist in the verification of
their identity is something
I believe will allow for a little
bit of a smoother engagement
with Ice officials
or any other law enforcement.
So tribal I.D.s
are significant because they
not only verify
that you are a citizen.
Aside from the federal law in 1994,
1924,
they also say
that you are a unique dual
citizen, that you are a citizen of
your nation and a citizen
of the United States.
And identity
is a is a big part of this.
We we didn't design it this way.
This isn't our work.
We are the only group of people
that have to
write down to the very
minuscule level, to the percentage,
identify how much native
we are through blood quantum.
Now, some tribes have evolved
into looking at lineage and
descendants.
But for the most part, the federal
government and the cert degree of
Indian blood will lay
out just how much you are.
Nobody has to do that.
And it's ridiculous that
tribal members not only have to
carry their state or federal ID,
tribal ID, CDB
birth certificate and practically
might as well put their baby infant
footprints on them selves as well
just to verify who they are.
Now, my guess is
Ice isn't walking through
Macy's or
anything. Ice is going to wear
brown. People are people that look
Mexican.
So to see that there isn't racial
profiling
when we know there is.
And so the
wonderful melting pot theory
actually doesn't work
for them in this case because
there's a lot of folks that, you
know, are tribal members that, you
know, don't carry that same
phenotype that.
But for the most part,
we are being profiled.
And and to be profiled,
to be to be singled
out,
creates a lot of uneasiness out
there.
For that reason, you know,
I I'll come back to this the
other way.
Be proud of who you are.
Be proud to be Brown.
Be proud to have that black hair.
That long hair, you know.
Be proud of being indigenous,
being Ho-Chunk.
You know, don't be afraid to show
that.
And, you know,
that's that's the kind of energy
I want to see among our
tribal people are our indigenous
people across the nation.
Our Mexican brothers and sisters.
Be proud because
that's what made America great.
I don't know how that narrative
got changed around so quickly.
Actually, I don't believe it has.
I'll believe it if I make myself
believe it. But I'm not going to do
that.
If a proud Ho-Chunk member
gets pulled over and proudly shows
their tribal ID card
that law enforcement going to
recognize it, is Ice going to
recognize it?
And is there is there a need on that
level for reeducation.
With young people?
Yes, The law enforcement will
recognize it and honor it.
The Ho-Chunk Nation has six law
enforcement agreements with various
counties to which our largest
populations and communities are
from.
IDs, very indigenous
IDs. Over 500 different types of IDs
are out there. So I wouldn't expect,
you know, Homeland Security through
their departments of CBP or
Customs, Border Patrol, Ice,
Immigration, Customs Enforcement
or TSA,
to know all of these IDs,
which is why one of the
initiatives that this office has
is to work with homeland security,
work with CBP, work with TSA,
work with Ice, work with
the state of Wisconsin and real ID
and make sure that we can provide
what is called tribally enhanced
identification cards.
They're not necessarily as
as universal as a United
States passport, but they will
provide what they are.
I hope they will be able to provide
the necessary credentials,
declaration of U.S.
Citizenship and any
hallmarks holograms that the
Department of Homeland Security
might like to see in there, and
perhaps hopefully even a real ID.
So making sure that that those IDs
are a lot stronger out there and
more universally accepted
well will probably reduce
some of the risk of folks that
aren't accepting those IDs.
To not accept a tribal I.D.
is almost
a very aggressive thing to do
to a tribal member.
This is their ID, this is
their home. This is where they're
from.
And by not accepting, that
really can be taken
a very negative way.
And I have I
would definitely support that
because I do expect that.
But most of our law enforcement
have lived with us since we've
been here, since we've never left.
They've known us, the, you know, our
families, our communities, our
streets. They know they know our
business. And with social media,
they they know what we're talking
about. So
we don't have to do a lot of
reeducation.
But it never hurts to
be able to provide and
showcase some of our way of life,
which is why I've extended to
homeland security my
direct services and that of our
traditional chief to go out there
and and provide some knowledge as
a political group,
as an entity, as a sovereign nation,
so that Ice officials understand
that when they pull
over or they stop or they question
Ho-Chunk tribal members, that you
are talking to someone.
That is the legacy
of thousands and thousands of years
of occupancy in this very
area.
Have you heard?