Do you guys prefer this to be on my neck tire or do you want it on my vest instead?
It'll be more concealed on my vest but it doesn't match up to you.
As long as it doesn't scratch, I'm not hearing any static right now.
It should be fine.
Do you see the peaking on my skin?
I don't know.
Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Would you mind, at some point, just a couple of steel for him?
Yeah.
I'm the same against him.
Yeah.
I want you to say something.
Yeah.
Whatever.
Just at some point.
Oh.
And then whoever's on that camera, I received him giving me a 20 minute time.
Yes, I can.
Okay.
So, Randy, can you give me a 20 minute time here?
Yeah.
And then maybe a hard minute 30.
That way I know I'm at 30.
And then it'll just, you know, it'll end when it ends up at that point.
Okay.
I'll just run on the timer on my phone.
Thank you, man.
No problem.
All right.
Actually, we'll be down shortly.
Cool.
Just getting into my world.
That's what I just did.
I'm not always this beautiful.
My newest telephone booth goes makeover.
Amen.
All right.
Superman doesn't, why not?
Everything I'm doing right now?
Hey, look what I'm going to feel.
Your last name is Bryson.
It is.
I'm going to feel weird not staining when she gets here because I'm kind of wired to this
chair in my leg.
So maybe let her know that that's why it's going to be.
So I'm not being offensive.
Okay.
Typically I would stand.
I just got a message from a text from Fred.
Please, please make sure Mervs makes his dress.
Makes his dress.
Does Mike, is there else?
I got millions of my children.
Yeah.
Why did she say that?
Because that's been kind of problematic for some here and there.
Meaning like it gets scratched.
It gets, you know, it'll fall out of place if I move or something on that white shadow.
Is this length visible?
I didn't, I don't think she just didn't keep an eye on it.
Is it what?
Can you see this one here?
Um, I mean, I can, but I can't really tell what it is.
Yeah.
One thing with the monitor.
I didn't notice.
Yeah.
When I was getting there.
I can't really complain about that.
Okay.
One thing.
Good enough.
Yeah.
I'm going to move this bag out.
And then once we're done before the chairs move, we just got to make sure that, and actually
maybe, well, yeah, I don't know why, because we're already taking likes.
So once we're done, we just got to make sure that we put the chairs back and get that
shot about.
Yup.
Let me, I'm going to put some gap on the ground and just so the chairs move.
Yeah.
Good problem.
Uh, Nerf, I got the word from Fred's here.
Michael's okay.
Okay.
Good.
I don't know what I'll do without her.
Yeah.
She's looking out.
Not sure they're paying over there here now, but I've got a job for her.
My staff doing exactly that.
Dressing my mic.
Making sure it's.
Yeah.
She wanted a thank you for letting her know that.
Oh, good.
Just thought I don't want to be, come off as being rude.
Yeah.
But I also don't want to fall down.
Yeah.
All the loit, if I did it, would go viral.
Yeah.
No problem.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I'll let you all think this is where I was leading for the dark.
All right, man.
Don't, you know, I'm going to play with the readers.
We need you.
We need you, brother, we need you.
All right.
Well, thanks a lot, boy.
We'll wait a minute.
Yeah.
My brother.
Hello, how are you doing?
Sorry, we created a bunch of shirt pliers.
What did you want?
You launched a big ship and interrupted.
Shut me down.
That's a no.
I had a speech on Jenkins.
I'm a bigographer.
I had a friend.
Nice to meet you.
Oh, hello.
Oh, you're fine.
So nice to meet you.
I'm Earl.
Hi, I'm Earl.
Nice to meet you too.
Such a good to see you.
You too.
I love your casual Friday look.
I don't know.
That's what I heard.
Like, really?
That's probably a heavy day.
You get to be a little cashier.
Roll with it.
Just open on Fridays.
Especially when they have those late meetings.
I've been.
Oh, yeah.
You guys were doing 1230 last night?
It's the boat.
Wow.
After 10 o'clock.
You know, I can't really.
I don't know.
It's a little fuzzy.
Yeah.
He's going to stick a mic on it.
Yeah.
So this will kind of come, like, we'll kind of try and hide it along your sweater.
Okay.
So I'll just clip it here and then I'll just kind of leave it to you to dress the cable
on the inside.
And you do the, well, I guess it already has the loop right there.
What's the budget point?
I don't know.
I don't know about that.
I can see if I can get anywhere on this side because I don't know my mistake.
Only car means that we cross it like that.
It's going to mess up.
How are you going to be able to hide?
Yeah.
But I think I can take it back behind.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
And then we'll kind of sit around.
Yeah.
And then maybe just, yup.
There you go.
Yup.
That works.
Okay.
Thanks.
Appreciate it.
I did.
You sure?
Yeah.
I know.
Yeah.
That's what they always say.
Right.
Yeah.
He explained to you how did you get a chance of looking at the things we've done in focus
segment because it's literally just a casual conversation.
Yeah.
A little bit.
Yeah.
I think Chairman Corn might have just did an in focus segment.
We just started this.
So they have not.
Okay.
He was a previous chair.
Literally just started this.
Okay.
And I'm glad about that.
Yeah.
But it really is just a casual conversation.
It's all in your own house.
It's never anything.
Okay.
It's going to catch golf guards, you know, and obviously if it's something you don't
want to chat about, you're okay to do that.
Okay.
The main thing is it's a chance to not, for us to not be scripted because I don't
even, I don't really write my questions down.
I just kind of get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a
chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance
to get a chance to get a chance to see
to get a good chance to get you a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance
to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get
a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance to get a chance
Okay.
So I just don't want you to feel like you're, you have to be tied to that because it's going
to look, it's going to make English uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable.
Right.
And you're going to look stupid.
Okay.
Yeah.
And the whole idea is that this is not something that's the beautiful part about this segment.
Okay.
Because we don't have any other answers and my question is to 10 seconds.
Okay.
Yeah.
We can try that.
Yeah.
I mean, go ahead.
If I go ahead.
Just a couple.
I certainly can respect that.
I would just say.
Okay.
I do.
It's still there.
It'll probably look better if you.
Is it?
Okay.
Can I offer you a water?
We do have water available.
That should be okay.
And they may not.
We'll have to make sure it's not in our shot.
Okay.
You said it's gone.
Yeah.
I'll keep it out of the way.
On this side.
Or this side.
Okay.
Hey, is your water going to be in the shot?
She has it down there like that?
No.
Well, in the white it will be actually in the white.
I'll set it over here.
Yeah.
If you get in the situation you need it.
Okay.
You can just grab it.
Because we could edit it around that.
Okay.
And put things together still.
Okay.
And I should be okay.
Okay.
So now we have a huge bright style on that wall.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So.
And we'll just have to.
I think we might have to just.
We'll make it.
Yeah.
We'll make it.
You guys started at eight last night?
Yeah.
We'll have your big night.
Four thirty.
Sorry.
Why are you starting to rip here earlier?
So we had public hearing last night on some of the ordinances.
So we started a little bit early.
And then some of the things that we had on the agenda.
Was a lot of discussion from tribal members.
So we had a lot of tribal members chiming in.
We did last night.
Yeah.
There's meetings when we don't have too much.
Yeah.
But yeah, we do.
We have a lot of agenda items.
And we meet every two weeks.
It's still a lot to cover.
So if we're out of here before ten, that's a good meeting.
Yeah.
But some of them, you know, they can go pretty long.
No.
I remember during the pandemic.
There was long meetings.
But we were at home.
I'll zoom in.
Oh, I see.
So when you're home and comfortable, you get tired.
You know.
So when there's one.
Yeah.
Probably nice.
It may work.
Yeah.
So the intensity is just deliberate.
Is it typically right there for a person?
Right.
Yeah.
You walk a mile.
You're out.
Okay.
That's bright.
That's bright light.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I did tell him, I know when he came down.
I said, just, I said, let him know that I do wear glasses.
Okay.
Cause I know.
Mine on pure outbait as well.
Mm hmm.
Just to read stuff here.
Yeah.
And if you see me like, if you're talking and you see me looking at my notes,
don't let that stop you out there.
Yeah.
You're just kind of planing to make sure I don't get stuck.
Yeah.
I don't know what I'm saying next kind of thing.
Okay.
All right.
You know, my general ideas kind of are here, but a lot of times the seals.
Okay.
You know, you may get, get there before I get there.
Okay.
So then I have to use that brain in mind to work around that and find out what's going to
be next kind of thing.
Okay.
It's all very spontaneous.
Which I found that just makes the conversation part of this more natural.
Yeah.
Because in the beginning when I did these and I had like really specific questions.
Mm hmm.
I didn't feel very tied to those questions.
Mm hmm.
Okay.
In the moment with everything, which is kind of one of the things that we really wanted
us all to see.
Okay.
I just wanted to be a conversation.
Mm hmm.
That's right.
Okay.
Were you minding with your chair a little bit this way?
You're fine.
Okay.
Like this is like if I saw you at an airport and we just start talking and what are you
doing?
It's like where would that conversation go?
Yeah.
And that's kind of what this is.
As far as the way I kind of see it.
And so it's like it's okay to interrupt me.
That's way better.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm going to, obviously I'm going to try to do a little bit of a natural conversation
wave.
Mm hmm.
If you say something that makes me laugh, I'm probably going to laugh at it.
Yeah.
Right.
You say something that reminds me of something.
Yeah.
It's just kind of the way it is.
So I just thought one thing I'll notice is that when it's, when it's this thing where
I ask a question and you respond.
Yeah.
It becomes this four by eight.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's okay.
Yeah.
I know.
I know we've, we've done that where, you know, we had our, our pictures taken once we did our,
our swearing in.
And so it's the same thing.
You have to do it on your cheekbone right there.
Right there.
There you go.
You see?
You have a tongue.
All right.
But yeah, that was the same thing.
Trying to figure out the glare.
They make them, they don't do that as much.
I don't know what they're called, but I don't, but I don't.
Yeah.
I don't really, I don't do mine that way.
I don't typically wear mine.
Yeah.
I'm getting to the point where.
How's that?
So I take them off to see close, you know, and.
Okay.
Like I can see this pretty well, but I can see it a lot better with that.
Yeah.
So I have a pair of column cheaters in the office.
So then there's been times when I'm wearing my glasses and I have my cheaters over them.
I'm wearing two pairs of glasses, you know.
Yeah.
So staff will come in and they'll be looking at me weird.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
You should wear glasses and your last name is Sue.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
It's kind of, I've had it for about four or five years now.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
No, I've, I've had them for like 20, 20 some years.
Yeah.
You know, growing up and I didn't need glasses.
I had excellent vision.
I could see.
No.
And it was, it was like after I started having children.
Yeah.
And I'm like, there's something wrong.
Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
To be on the way to think about that,
closed joining up.
And also foolishly open
a door.
So important back to me.
Yeah.
You want a publicuh so we're not seeing it.
Yeah.
Do you want to handle the public through my fingers or.
Old and rusty?
The kissing.
Mhm.
Oh.
Good.
Yeah. My oldest one is 26. And then, uh, you have grandkids? Three. Oh, wow. Yeah. Three
granddaughters. You're busy. Yeah. So from 26, then my youngest one is 5. Okay. So they're
all, they're spaced, you know, and each one had their, their time to be a baby. You know,
they're not close together. Wait, so how does your, your, your most child? Five. Your
child is five. You're like, okay, 26 years later. Yeah. So there's 26 and 23. And then 22.
16. 11 and 5. No. No. It just, you know, just happened. And it's two boys and a girl. And then
there's that space. And then there's two boys and a girl. Wow. So I said, I balanced it out.
Yeah. Well, I, I think in the past years, there was, we did have some big families, you know,
and, uh, kind of went away for a while. And, but you'll see some with, um, about five, four,
you know, so. Those are still pretty large. Yeah. Yeah. And I come from a family of five.
You say you come from them like that. You know, yeah. Yeah. So, and then I, my, my six. Yeah. Then
my oldest, my oldest son has three daughters. So when he, when he started having children,
then it was just three daughters, just boom, boom, boom. And she is on night and Menominee.
She's enrolled on night up, but not me. So, and then there are the three are adults. So they're
all, you know, doing good things. He works with small engines at one of the local businesses
in town. And my other son is a BIA certified correctional officer at our tribal jail. And
then my daughter is a teacher in our school district. So there are ninth grade English
I believe this. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, we have a couple that are cobblies and Vikings
and bears. Yeah. Yeah. We have a couple. I went to one. I got a couple of times. I got
a buddy, my buddy's a general manager for the Detroit Lions. Nice. So he got me tickets to go.
Yeah. You know, I think it's 2021. 2021. I think I went, you know, a long time ago, I used to
look in Milwaukee and I did stories there when they remodeled and remember they remodeled
the Lambo field. Okay. And did it kind of, you know, modernizing it. Yeah, because it's like
there's no bad scene there. Right. Stadium. Right. Yeah. Yeah, we went to one game a few years
ago. So it was it was nice. It was our first time. And I'm like, yeah, we watched the games
every Sunday. But to be in the stadium, that's just another level of excitement. You know,
I was just not too cold. I don't even have cold weather. Yeah. We went in the earlier part of
the year. So we had the rainy weather. Yeah. I'll take the rain over the cold. Yeah. Yeah,
we were wearing rain jackets and, you know, it wasn't too cold. Yeah. Okay. I do. Is that
mandatory for your position? Yes. Yep. For the position here. Okay. So let's see what's
going on here. Testing one, two testing. Oh, yeah. No problem. We just want to make sure
everything looks as best. Yep. No problems. Testing one, two. Okay. So the way this kind
of starts, I'll just kind of say welcome to focus. Thanks for joining us. You can say,
you know, thanks for having me. Okay. Then we just start chatting. Okay. And then we get
new to end. I'll usually say, I might say last question more than one time. Yeah,
because sometimes, you know, that answer leads to one more little thing that I feel like I need
to get in. Yeah. Okay. But in general, I get to that point, that means I'm about to wrap it up.
And then at some point, I'll just say, you know, I'll kind of repeat your title and name and say,
thank you for making time. Okay. And I'll say, oh, wait a minute, Dan. All right.
All right. Remember to say a problem. Yeah. Okay. All right. We're ready. Chairman Gina
Kekek. Welcome to Enfocus. Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here with you.
Well, we've been working on this and I've been dabbling in the local language here. Okay.
Yes. Hello. Hello. I was told. Yep. Yep. You got that right. And I also learned a big topic.
Is that how you say it? Did I say that right? It's supposed to be what's up. Yeah.
That one, I'm not sure. Oh, I was not thinking I would never address a private share. Yeah.
I'm impressed by my local knowledge of slang that Lord Fries had taught me as we were waiting to get started.
I'm a little bit about that part. Yeah. I'd love to start with a little bit about just
a historical perspective, because this is an opportunity for you and us to speak to a state-wide audience.
But what is it about the nominee tribe you think that folks need to know about the culture, the life,
and the relationship with the community outside of the reservation? Okay.
So, I think it's important to know that the Menami tribe are the original people of Wisconsin.
Our creation story begins at the most of the Menami River, and it's just a short drive from here.
And we've been here for tens of thousands of years.
And so I think that's important for people to be aware of.
And we have been blessed to be able to stay on our original homeland.
How much do you think folks outside the reservation know about the culture?
Because I think about this in terms of like, you know, outside of, you know,
dabbling at a casino across the country on a reservation,
I've probably never been on a native reservation.
And I would say as a reporter, there's somewhat of a privileged life,
and we get to be exposed to a lot of different things.
And I would think that there are a lot of people across the state who don't get a chance to come on tribal lands.
But how much do you think folks outside the tribal lands know about the community here?
I don't know if the outside of the reservation is very knowledgeable,
are fully aware of what we do, what we're about, who we are, what we offer.
And we are seeing that next generation of tribal members come into leadership roles
and the importance of being able to tell our story
and having that story come from us as Menominee people.
And so we're seeing that change and the importance of educating people in that we're still here
and we're the original people and we're still on our original homeland.
How important is that relationship with the outside community?
How important is that relationship with the outside community to have a connection to it as well as the folks here on the reservation?
Well, I think it's very important because we're neighbors
and we should be working together and supporting together
and we all live within the state of Wisconsin
and to have good relationships with neighboring counties and businesses
and is beneficial for all of us.
Do you feel like Wisconsin is doing a good job in terms of paying attention to folks that live in native lands?
I think that there's been, in the more recent past few years,
there's been more acknowledgement of the indigenous people that live in Wisconsin.
That's a good thing, right?
Yes, that's a good thing.
Let's talk a little bit about your journey into tribal politics.
How did you know that this was going to be a space view that you want to commit your life to?
How did it start?
So, I don't know if it is something that, as a nominee that we want to be doing or grow to be doing,
I think it's something greater than that.
I think it's something that's instilled with us that it's our responsibility.
It's our responsibility to take on those teachings that have been passed on through generations
and to be able to guide and support one another.
And so, when the decision was made, it's a family decision for me because we're a very family-orientated family
and we do a lot of things with our children and we're very active with their lives.
My husband, for me personally, with my husband, so we had to make that decision
and we know it would be an impact on the family with the children.
But I read that you started working in tribal government really early in your teen years.
One of the first jobs I had was within our tribal chairman's office back in the early 90s.
And so, I think that just kind of stuck with me throughout life and when it was time to make that decision,
bringing it to my family and discussing it with them and is this something that you think we should do?
They're very supportive and it's been an honor to be seated up here with the fellow leaders of the tribe.
And I try and make the best decision that I can.
I'll do my homework and I'll make sure that the getting the background historical information
and a lot of prayers, a lot of prayers going toward asking for that strength and that guidance
so that making sure we're making the right decision for the betterment of our people.
I'm curious to know how you would describe the community environment here in terms of the people of the family,
like the things that everybody tends to have in common. How would you describe that?
I think our community is, we're a very communal community, I guess.
We have relationships with everyone. We're very close knit, supportive of each other.
And we do look at that as we're all related, we're almanominy.
It's a very close knit communal space, I guess, for us.
In this tribal chair, a lot of folks outside may not understand that that's the equivalent of being the president of a land.
I'd be remiss if I wouldn't ask someone in your position to maybe give us a sense of the state of things for the menominy tribe right now in Wisconsin.
Okay, so that is something we are a sovereign nation and that's exactly it,
that it's the chairperson of the tribe is equivalent to the president of the United States.
We do have relationships that we keep government to government relationships with tribal nations, state level and federal.
So, I think right now for our tribe, like a lot of tribes, we are still seeing the impacts of the pandemic.
We're looking at a lot of different issues with behavior health and our youth and homeless and AODA issues.
So, we're seeing that coming out of the pandemic, being related to that, an increase in those types of issues.
And how you're addressing it?
And we have teams in place, we have committee work that gets done and we did get the help of the ARPA funding.
We also have assistance through different grants.
We have teams in place, we have a great team of grant writers.
But there's issues that we have a number of, I guess, unmet needs that we struggle with.
AODA issues, homelessness.
We have a large population of elderly and a facility for our aging that we need to expand on.
We have health care that is looking for hopefully at some point a new health care facility.
Our youth, where we support our youth as much as possible to try and make sure that we're being able to offer them the prevention and intervention.
For AODA issues.
I think one thing that we are seeing.
AODA issues.
That stands for alcohol and other drug abuse.
I also read too that not just here on tribal lands, but throughout Menominee County, the health outcomes in this county are the worst of any county in the state.
What do you think is uniquely different about what's causing that here in the Menominee land?
Well, there's only one Menominee tribe.
And when we look at the data to our per capita, it is alarmingly concerning.
We have our enrollment of close to 9,000 members.
And I know our like our elderly population alone is almost as big as some small tribes.
We are one of the larger tribes in the state of Wisconsin and we're ranked with health outcomes, the least healthiest in the state of Wisconsin.
And so there's again, like a lot of our unmet needs that we're trying to address with limited resources.
I understand the biggest concerns got to deal with the drug addiction and different health outcomes and education and those sorts of things.
How bad is it?
So our issue with the opioid epidemic for Menominee, opioid use is ranked in the top three substance abuse for Menominee.
And it may not seem, wait, let me back up a little bit.
Let me start over.
Okay.
I'll just ask you, okay, start over with the question is, we talked about the health outcomes in terms of marijuana use, the overall drug use, education dropout, those sorts of things are some of the worst numbers out there.
How bad is it?
Okay.
So for Menominee, opioid is in the top three of the substance abuse within our community.
In 2023, we had a 76% contributed to the deaths of opioid.
So again, like when I'm talking about our per capita, that was 17 total deaths.
But that's high for us.
Right.
That sounds a small number.
Right.
If you've only got 8,700 folks in your tribe.
That's high.
So some things that we are looking at is we're developing.
We have developed, we've taken action, we've developed a drug intervention team and it's a multidisciplinary group of people from within our community.
And they're working towards creating those plans to address what we're dealing with.
And some of that includes prevention and intervention activities within the community.
So they have in there.
Training for clinical and peer workforce, bringing in peer specialists, recovery coaches, community members have also taken the initiative to start their own recovery groups.
And so if we're able to support them in any way, you know, that that team is available to help them with moving their plans.
Moving their plans forward to.
Yeah, I think I read somewhere made a comment saying we've done the research.
We've seen the data.
What needs to happen now?
I think what, well, what we're hearing from from our community, because we continue to meet with our tribal members.
We continue to hear from them.
And one thing that we're hearing a lot of is they want prevention.
They want intervention.
Since the pandemic, you know, like I had said, we're moving out of that.
But it's taken a little longer to bring those things back into light again.
You know, we had that all in place prior.
And so we're hearing from the community, they want, they want more prevention activities.
And so that's something that we are working towards.
And we know you have, and I hope I say this proper, then what monawaken.
What was it?
Am I saying that the right way?
Manasekia?
Manasekia.
I worked on that for an hour before we started this.
Yeah.
But we know you do treatment there and you serve the people in that way.
But I know you want to would like to expand that.
And there was a recent attempt to open up a new treatment center off the reservation.
And that was not approved by the folks in that community off reservation.
Why is it important to open something up off the reservation?
So, are we talking about the Great Lakes?
The Great Lakes Intertribal Council Youth Center?
Yes.
Okay.
We are looking at, you know, tribes are collaborating together and we are looking at trying to,
we're moving towards a youth treatment facility that all youth from tribal nations are welcome in.
So it's not centralized anywhere, but it's a reservation where it can be open to all indigenous youth that may need that assistance.
How do you get the folks outside the reservation again to care about these types of issues and to be vested with you?
How do you do that?
I think a big part of it is education.
I think that, you know, building those relationships and helping to educate on what our needs are and how we can work together.
Because it's not just within reservations, it's everywhere.
So it doesn't just impact us here in Menominee, it doesn't just impact, you know, other relatives on other reservations.
It's the entire state, so we have to come together and work together.
Yeah.
And I know in Menominee and Spirit Lake tribes in North Dakota have found the lawsuit against some of the social media companies.
For issues around damage done to teams that use social media, and I know you can't talk about the lawsuit specifically,
but can you speak to your concerns about the impact of social media on you and your community?
So we did join the litigation and our legal team that's working with that.
I would refer you to them so they can schedule a time to sit with you and have a further conversation.
Yeah.
You can't speak to your concerns about social media in general, unless you're like naming anybody or speaking with anybody specifically.
So personally, for me, with my own children, you know, there's concerns, we do limit their time.
We limit their screen time.
And try and make sure that we have a healthy connection to it.
I don't think it's going away.
But as their parents, it's our responsibility to make sure they understand and are aware of
being able to handle things in a healthy way.
So we try and raise our kids in a good way and make sure that they're aware of anything that might be dangerous or at risk or, you know.
And that's personally for my family with our kids.
It seems like for a lot of communities, there's always this concern about culture, you know, historical traditions as they kind of come together with technology and innovation.
How much of that is in play in terms of like technology and printing on tradition for the Monomics, right?
So I guess it would be on what we would consider infringing, I guess.
For example, I'm going to share an example with you, we have a grassroots movement, Monomini U.
And it started throughout the pandemic and it has grown and they offer Monomni language online.
So there's people all over that are able to log on and learn.
So that's a benefit.
You know, that's helpful for people who may not have had the opportunity, so now they can go online and do it.
So it's, I mean, it can be helpful.
But tradition has to be important for, you know, for your community.
Like holding on to it.
And like you mentioned language, like I know there's a dwindling population of folks that speak the native tongue here on the reservation.
Like how do you address those sorts of things?
I think by supporting the initiatives and efforts that are there.
And we see a positive change and we do see an increase.
And there's more people wanting to learn that language.
And part of that language is also learning culture and traditions that are connected to it.
And so it's important for me to stay connected to our culture and traditions.
It helps me to stay grounded and stay balanced.
Can you give us a snapshot in terms of how prevalent the native language is here?
In terms of how many people are still speaking and use it?
It's limited, but it's growing.
So you can go into a store and you can hear people speaking and having conversations.
And so it is growing to where it's being normalized.
It's being normalized again in the community.
That has to bring you to the right.
It is. It's a powerful feeling.
And it's just an amazing feeling.
Do you worry about it going away and no one is speaking the language at some point,
because it headed in that direction at all?
I hope not.
I hope not and we have to be able to do our part.
We have with my own children, my son who is in high school,
committed to a two-year program for the US Immersion Program.
Our five-year-old daughter, we put her into the Immersion Program.
And as a family, we take the non-language classes, so we have to do our part.
I'm curious to know, as chairperson, how do you handle all these weights and these heavy weights
of these issues that you're coping with and trying to manage and solve?
How do you handle all that? How does that hit you personally?
It can be exhausting.
It can be exhausting knowing the weight and the responsibility.
And I'm not alone.
There is nine of us on our tribal council.
We all are very supportive to one another. We agree to disagree.
We are able to share that workload.
We have a management team that is also helpful and supportive.
When we need decisions made, it's not just coming from myself.
It's a collaborative effort of all of us.
Again, that's what I mean when I say that it's the responsibility when we're in these leadership roles
that we work together and we make those decisions together.
We're doing what we can in the best interest of the Menominee people in a tribe.
And I was interested to find in your role as chairperson, you're in this capacity in these one-year terms.
So every year you're having to be voted in, is that enough time?
I mean, it's like you think about a presidency and leadership in our typical U.S. government.
I think we would love to get a new president every year.
But do you feel like does that work in your favor or is it tougher to get things done in that short count of space?
Because in what term are you on right now?
So I am in my second term as chairperson, my second year as chairperson.
And in my second term as a seated legislator.
So I finished one term, just a three-year term, reelected and coming into my second term
then I was voted on to be the chairperson last year.
And then again this year the ask was if I would continue.
And it's been exhausting work, like I said, but it's helpful because I'm not doing it alone.
So my question would be this short term that I see.
Is that helping you get more things done or is it making it harder to get things done?
I think within the first year it was difficult because it was also a learning for me.
It was also trying to find my flow I guess.
So that first year was a little bit more difficult.
Coming into the second year has been a little bit more easier.
And there wasn't that transition I guess that takes some time to keep moving on.
So I think it would be interesting with the new generation of legislators that are coming in.
You know, we are seeing that it is difficult with only a one-year term.
And if the body would agree to continue that chairperson and the role throughout that chair's legislative term, I guess, it might be more productive for us.
I'd also be curious to hear you maybe give your insight in the differences between a tribal government versus a typical US government, like how that works and what people should understand.
So I think within our tribal government our priorities are elders and our youth.
Those are two groups that we tend to always focus on to make sure that they're being taken care of.
And make sure that they're being provided for.
I don't know if that happens in the federal government or the state government.
But for our tribal nation, that's our focus is our elders and our US.
And what's going well for them to try?
I think they have a lot of things to be proud of and a lot of things that are happening.
We are have a lot of services that we're able to provide to our membership.
And although we are heavily dependent on grants, we're not, by any means, any of the richest tribes.
We have a small modest tribal budget, but it all goes back into our services to make sure that services are provided for the membership.
And you bring up money, I know the Menominee and other native tribes here in the state of Wisconsin,
receiving a piece of the government that gets roughly six, seven, and eight bucks split around the different tribes.
How is that helping in terms of doing some of the problems?
So we did receive opioid settlement funds and we are using those to assist us with combating some of the more serious, I guess,
issues, making sure that we have those things in place, like the clinical staff that's competitive all over, not just here everywhere.
We're collaborating with outside agencies to try and assist with counseling services, referrals, treatment services.
And so what we are receiving is going right back into helping us combat the opioid addiction.
Yeah, I think it's your big on treatment, not necessarily punishing when it comes to addiction.
Right. Yeah.
I don't think we can criminalize someone who is struggling with addiction.
They're asking for support.
I think what I've seen with how it's affected, I guess, myself and my family were loved ones that we know.
And it's that looking for a purpose and feeling that self-esteem, feeling valuable and helping through their traumas and meeting them where they're at.
And if that means, you know, walking through the doors with them to treatment and just giving them that support.
And you mentioned trauma. How much is this community been affected by generational trauma?
And what kind of things would that be?
So we deal with trauma and we do our best to try and practice trauma-informed care.
And there's things that we're seeing since the pandemic with the increase of the opioid addictions and our children are losing parents.
Our children are being raised by grandparents.
Our children are witnessing overdoses.
Our children are needing education and prevention and intervention services at a younger age.
And I think it's important for us to address them as soon as we can.
And that's always, I guess, for me, that's been a concern because I come from working in our school district.
And starting to see the young ones being affected by the addictions and the overdoses.
I was like, okay, but when they're getting into high school, are we prepared for how this is going to impact their lives?
So I think it's really important that we address those as soon as we can.
Let's talk the future. What does the future look like for the Menominee tribe? What do you see?
I'm always hopeful.
And I see us always moving forward and always progressing.
And we have a lot of things going for us.
We've done studies within our educational department and keeping the data of how many graduates we have from up to a bachelor's
and a master's and doctorates.
So it's a very proud, something to be very proud of that we have that here.
And we'll continue to grow. We'll continue to progress forward.
And it's going to be exciting for my kids because I can see the changes happening.
And it's going to be a better life and a better opportunity for them when they become adults.
I think that's part of our Menominee values that come with us is you always try and make sure that things are taken care of for the next generations.
Thank you for having me.
Why went in? I knew I was going to mess that up.
Why went in? Thank you so much. I appreciate you. That was awesome.
I learned a lot. And I didn't need this. You didn't need it. One time.
That was great. I knew you wouldn't need it.
That's what we got to talk and talk in.
It's just not a typical kind of, it's just a different more casual kind of thing.
Which is what I'm always looking for. I just felt it was important to kind of educate people.
Because I just don't get a chance to sit and talk with a tribe of children like this very often.
I've done this for 35 years and five of the first time I ever sat in.
I haven't even done it one other time. I had a story out in California where there was an inter-battle going on.
It was a tribe over, I forget, it's been about 25 years.
There was a lot of violence. It was in Northern California. I get the name of the tribe.
So I had to go there and it made national news at the time. It was around 90.
Nice.
Yeah, 95, 96, 95, somewhere in there.
That might be the only time I've ever spent a lot of time on tribal lands reporting.
But I appreciate you.
Straight forward and conversational.
Alright.
Yeah, if you need a book.
I had a question.
Just relax.
Yeah.
Yeah, go ahead.
Oh, okay. I was just curious. I mean, the U.S. and Wisconsin, if I'm not mistaken, never had a female leader.
So are you ready to have there been a series of female chair?
Yeah.
So for Menominee, I think I am the fifth or sixth Menominee woman chairperson.
Oh.
Wow.
So do you feel as much like that doesn't seem, do you feel ever any resistance among male elders?
Or is that seems to be just, you know, like, that, you know, members of the tribe are okay with having a loan in charge in a way that they don't.
Yeah.
Um,
I don't know really how,
I guess some of our male leaders from previous would have felt about it.
But I think being in leadership in this role, it is a male dominant area, you know.
But it's important to have women also have a voice.
And that's one thing I had shared with some of the other leaders previously when we were going through our reorganization is to, with our executive team, that's our chairperson, our vice chair and our secretary.
Just, I guess the way I felt about it is to have a female within the executive to bring balance.
It's important that we have that balance.
And so I didn't realize that I would be sitting there.
He's got a new curious now.
Like, comparing it to a typical US government where, you know, we have a female president yet, but I'm just weren't curious as the dynamic the same as it is in typical US ways in terms of, you know, man and women relationships and, you know, that kind of thing.
I think with our culture and our traditions, I think our women are held at a higher respect.
And our women are highly respected and honored.
And so it's humbling, I guess, to be sitting here.
It's humbling to be on the executive team the last four years, I think it's been.
So, I was going to say like sitting in this space, you know, with your Seattle and their flag and American flag, knowing what goes on in this space.
What kind of senses I give you in terms of what you've accomplished and the overall importance of what you're doing.
I don't know, I guess, when I think about my very first meeting I had here.
And this, I sat in this, this was my first seat on this desk.
And the next meeting we were going into the pandemic, so we went into shutdown.
So I remember sitting there thinking like I didn't even have time to take this in like I'm sitting here, you know.
So it was quite the transition, I guess, but.
And what kind of things are like decided in this room?
Like what kind of things are you guys solving in?
Well, we did have our meeting last night and that was a late one, but you know, we.
I think it was, I think it was a more like 11 30.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was still late, but you know, we look at the land leases.
People tribal members who are looking to, you know, build a home, they're going to need a, need a space and.
That would come to us where we would approve that lease for them.
Our, our enrollment when, when a person is coming to be enrolled in the tribe, once it goes through the committee process and then it would come here and we would, we would approve those recommendations from the committee.
And if there's amendments to any of our codes or our laws, you know, from our language license.
Things we had last night were, you know, animals.
We've taken on issues on junk vehicles, you know, and.
Attack attack dogs being breed specific and.
Making sure that we're making the right decisions.
So that the safety.
Is going to be taken care of for the membership.
Unlike US government, say.
Official type folks, not all your meetings are open to the public or how does that work.
So we do have an annual annual general console.
That is the meeting for the membership and during that time, you know, if they.
Wanted to.
Have only tribal members there.
Then, yeah, the non tribal members in public would have to leave then, and that's their right.
As monotony people.
Interesting stuff.
Yeah.
One more question.
No.
You said.
Yeah, I was just curious about this.
I was learning.
Yeah.
I was learning from Lloyd that there's a big celebration around the sturgeon in this time of
year harvest in this time of year, kind of after winter is sort of wrapping up.
I, you know, that's the person I learned about it.
Yeah.
Do I have to repeat that because I don't know if I can remember that.
Yeah.
Mainly just looking for information about the sturgeon.
Oh, yeah.
Because you were on camera.
Yeah.
So basically, I'm just wondering about the history of the spring celebration, right?
Or like sort of.
The sturgeon feast.
Sturgeon feast.
Sturgeon feast celebration.
Okay.
So, Chair, maybe you can give us a little history on the sturgeon feast that's going
on this time of year.
Okay.
So we recently had our sturgeon feast celebration and it happens once a year in the month of
April.
The DNR provides us with, you know, a number of sturgeon and they're released on the
sturgeon feast and they're released into the Chiknee Creek by the Kushina Fals area.
We have, you know, prayers and songs that are done and then they're taken out for the feast.
And then we have a one day pow wow celebration and dance and then the food is prepared and everyone is able to
join us within the feast.
And the, I think what's important to know about that is the Kushina Fals is the original
spawning ground of the sturgeon.
The dams were put up south of here and they have not been able to return to their original
spawning ground sense.
And so I know there's talk and work to look at removal, our fish passage to allow them
to return to the original spawning ground.
The importance of that tool is during, with our ancestors and through our traditions,
what stories that we've been told is after those long winter months, this season is what
provided nutrients for us coming into the next season.
So they're a very important piece of our history and our culture.
So celebrating sturgeon beast is a big part of history culture.
And yes, because that's part of our stories.
Unfortunately, we have to ask for the fish.
We have to ask for them and then they're offered, they're delivered to us, you know.
So that part of the river has to be stocked with them?
So they'll bring them and they'll deliver them in the creek area for the feast, specifically
for the feast.
So then we have tribal members who know how to properly care for them and take them out
and then they'll smoke the fish throughout the week to prepare it for the feast.
Yeah, that's part of that whole clash of history and, I say, not necessarily technology,
but just evolution, I guess, that has to kind of hurt.
They're going to have to do it that way, the way, the old way, I guess.
Is that a direct result?
Yeah, and I know we've had the dam conversations for many years, you know.
I remember the first time I witnessed the sturgeon being put in,
my oldest son was about two years old.
And thinking at one time, like, he's going to be able to see them spawn here.
He's going to be able to see them come home because this is their home.
This is where their original spawning ground is.
Well, there's so many little pieces of history that we don't even think about that probably
have been chiseled away all the time.
Yeah, and I know this morning we were watching the noos and they're spawning right now
at the Shano Dam.
And there's TV stations there and they're interviewing different people and looking at it as a spectacle
to come see how many hundreds of them are here and it's sad.
Yeah, it's sad, you know, because here's their original spawning ground.
Here's where they should be.
I love how that tradition has been lost from the original way that it was done.
Since the dams went up.
There's all kinds of little pieces of history like that that take place that you kind of cope with, I guess.
Probably never get comfortable with that.
I take it.
No.
That's just some of the other pieces of the historical trauma that we deal with.
So it's ongoing?
It's ongoing generational trauma.
And, you know, to be able to heal from that, we have to be able to reclaim our culture and our traditions, our language, our identities.
Are you guys a community getting there, you think?
I think so.
We're seeing a growth in our people wanting to know about their culture.
People wanting to learn traditional arts and crafts.
People wanting to learn the language.
So, we're getting there.
That's going to be a good feeling.
Yeah.
That is.
It's good stuff.
We're at overtime right now.
Sorry.
You got anything else?
No.
Excuse me.
These are too long enough to have another question.
Do you have the winning lottery numbers?
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Well, thank you.
That was incredible.
I hope that's...
No, it's awesome.
It's awesome to be able to sit and chat without having to be in a rush.
Yeah.
Like I said, I'm telling Lloyd, like sometimes you just feel like you don't want to ask a silly question.
But if you don't know, you don't know.
Right.
For me, I learned better when I'm just immersed into that environment.
So I walk away learning things that I just didn't know.
And then just, you know, feeling comfortable enough to just ask what may be a silly question?
Well, I don't think any question is a silly question or any question isn't the wrong question.
You know, because if you don't know, you need to ask.
Well, at least I could say, well, I don't know this, like me trying to...
Like, look, I'm going to blame Lloyd on that one.
Lloyd is teaching me how to say, what's up?
And I'm thinking, well, I would never say what's up to a person.
So what would that be?
So, you know what?
I want to fry some out of here.
You've been a good guy, but on that one, he failed himself.
He failed himself.
Hurry.
You're going to cut her.
I'm good.
We're good.
Okay.
One more clap.
Okay.
Can you see it on your camera?
Yeah.
I'm good there.
Are you blocking the wire?
Yeah.
Oh, no.
On the wire.
Yes.
All right.
Okay.
All right.
He did bring half the speed on all the little...
Because when he first emailed me...