[percussive music]
- Murv Seymour: Chairman Gena Kakkak.
Welcome to "In Focus."
- 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.
So, posoh.
- Posoh. - Yes.
Means hello. - Yes.
- Welcome, kind of a hala, I was told.
- Yep, yep, you got that right.
- I'd love to just start with a little bit about,
just in a historical perspective
because this is an opportunity, you know,
for you and us to speak to a statewide audience,
but what is it about Menominee 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 Menominee tribe
are the original people of Wisconsin.
Our creation story
begins at the mouth of the Menominee 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?
'Cause I think about this in terms of like, you know,
outside of 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,
I live somewhat of a privileged life
and 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
to have a connection to it as well,
as well as the folks here on the reservation?
- Mm-hmm.
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
is beneficial for all of us.
- Do you feel like Wisconsin as a whole is doing a good job
in terms of paying attention to folks
that live on Native lands?
- I think that there's been,
in the more recent, you know, past few years
that there's been more acknowledgement
of the Indigenous people that live in Wisconsin.
- And that's a good thing, right?
- Yes, that's a good thing. - Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit about your journey
into tribal politics.
How did you know that this was going to be a space for you
that you'd want to commit your life to?
- I don't know if it is something that, as Menominee,
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.
- And you say we, you mean the tribal community itself
or just yourself personally? - Well, for me personally,
with my husband, and...
So we had to make that decision
'cause we knew it would be an impact
on the family with the children, and...
- But I read that you started working in tribal government
really early, like in your teen years or?
- I did.
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...
- It was something important to you to be a part of?
- When it was time to make that decision,
you know, bringing it to my family
and discussing it with them,
and is this something that you think,
you know, 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.
You know, I'll do my homework
and I'll make sure that getting the background,
historical information, and a lot of prayers.
A lot of prayers go into it, 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, their family,
like, the things that everybody tends to have in common.
How would you describe that?
- 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 all Menominee.
So it's a very close-knit communal space, I guess, for us.
- Yeah.
And as tribal chair,
a lot of folks outside may not understand that
that's the equivalent of being the president.
- Right. - Of a land.
- Mm-hmm.
- 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 Menominee 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,
other 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 there's, we're seeing that being,
coming out of the pandemic, being related to that,
an increase in those types of issues.
- And how are you addressing it?
- We have teams in place.
We have committee work that gets done.
And we did get the help of, you know, the ARPA funding.
We do 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.
- What are those, you think?
- AODA issues, homelessness.
We have a large population of elderly
and a facility for our aging that we need to expand on.
We have, you know, health care that is looking for,
hopefully at some point, a new health care facility.
Our youth, 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.
- Now AODA, what does that stand?
- Alcohol and other drug abuse. - Gotcha.
I also read too that,
you know, not just here on tribal lands,
but throughout Menominee County,
you know, 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?
- 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.
- We talked about, you know, the health outcomes
in terms of marijuana use,
overall drug use, and education dropout.
Those sorts of things
are some of the worst numbers out there.
How bad is it?
- Okay, so from an omni, opioid is in the top three
of the substance abuse within our community.
In 2023, we had 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 like a small number, but--
- Right. - If you've only got,
you know, 8,700 folks on 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 have 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,
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 team is available to help them
with moving their plans forward too.
- Yeah, I think I read somewhere
you made a comment saying, "We've done the research,
we've seen the data," what needs to happen now?
- Well, what we're hearing from our community,
'cause 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.
- Mm-hmm. - You know,
we had that all in place prior.
And so we're hearing from the community
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,
the Matawakin Wellness Center.
Am I saying that the right way?
Excuse my... - Maehnowesekiyah?
- Murv: Maehnowesekiyah. - Maehnowesekiyah.
- I worked on that. - Yeah.
- For an hour before we started this interview.
- Yeah. [Gena chuckles]
- But we know you, you know, do treatment there
and you serve the people in that way,
but I know you 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?
- Are we talking about the
Great Lakes Intertribal Council Youth Center?
- Yes. - Okay.
We are looking at, 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,
and so it's not centralized anywhere,
but it's off-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? - Mm-hmm.
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.
'Cause it's not just within reservations; it's everywhere.
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.
- And I know in Menominee
and the Spirit Lake tribes in North Dakota
have filed a lawsuit
against some of the social media companies
for issues around damage done to teens
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 youth in 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.
But you can't speak to your concerns
about social media in general, not necessarily naming anybody
or speaking to anybody specifically, but?
- 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 the...
Being able to handle things in a healthy way.
- Yeah. - 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.
- Right. - With our kids, yeah.
- It seems like for a lot of communities,
there's always this concern about, you know, culture,
you know, historical traditions as they kind of come together
with technology and innovation.
- Gena: Mm-hmm.
- How much of that is in play in terms of, like,
technology infringing on tradition
for the Menominee tribe? - Mm-hmm.
I guess it would be on what we would consider infringing,
I guess.
It's...
- Like, do you think-- - For example,
I'm gonna share an example with you.
We have a grassroots movement, Menominee U,
and it started throughout the pandemic
and it has grown,
and they offer Menominee 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.
- Yeah. - So it's,
I mean, it can be helpful.
- But tradition has to be important
for your community, I would imagine,
like holding onto it, and like you mentioned language,
like I know there's a dwindling population of folks
that speak the native tongue.
- Mm-hmm. - Here on the reservation.
Like, how do you address those sorts of things?
- I think by supporting the initiatives and the 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 folks still speak it and use it?
- It's limited, but it's growing.
So...
Well, 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 some joy, right?
- It is, it's a powerful feeling,
and it's just a amazing feeling.
- Do you worry ever about it going away
and no one is speaking the language at some point?
Like, is it headed in that direction at all?
- I hope not.
I, you know, I hope not.
And we have to be able to do our part.
We have, with my own children,
my son who's in high school, committed to a two-year program
for the youth immersion program.
Our five-year-old daughter,
we put her into the immersion program.
And as a family, we take the online
Menominee language classes.
So we have to do our part.
- I'm curious to know, as chairperson,
how do you handle all these weights,
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.
But I'm not alone.
There's 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, and...
So when we need decisions made,
it's not just coming from myself or, you know.
It's a collaborative effort of all of us.
And 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 and the tribe.
- And I was interested to find in your role as chairperson,
you're in this capacity in these one-year terms.
- Mm-hmm. - So every year,
you're having to be voted in.
- Gena: Mm-hmm. - Is that enough time?
I mean, it's like, you know, you think of a presidency
and the leadership in our typical U.S. government.
I think we would love if we could
get a new president every year.
[Gena laughing] - Yeah.
- But do you feel like, does that work in your favor
or is it tougher to get things done
in that short kind of a space?
'Cause, in what term are you on right now?
- So I am in my second term as chairperson.
- Murv: Okay. - My second year as chairperson.
And I'm in my second term as a seated legislator.
So I finished one term,
just a three-year term. - Murv: Mm-hmm.
- 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 'cause I'm not doing it alone.
- Yeah.
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, you know.
And 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.
- Yeah. - 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 in 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 U.S. government,
like how that works and what people should understand.
- 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.
Making sure that they're being provided for.
- Yeah.
- 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 youth.
- Yeah, and what's going well for the Menominee tribe?
- I think we have a lot of things to be proud of
and a lot of things that are happening.
We 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 the, 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.
- Yeah.
And you bring up money, I know the Menominee
and other Native tribes here in the state of Wisconsin
receive a piece of the opioid settlement.
I think it's roughly six, seven million bucks
split around the different tribes.
How is that helping
in terms of dealing with some of the problems?
- Mm-hmm.
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, you know.
And 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 take it you're big on treatment,
not necessarily punishment when it comes to addiction.
- Right.
Yep.
I don't think we can criminalize someone
who is struggling with addiction.
They're asking for support, you know.
They're, they're...
I think what I've seen with how it's affected, I guess, myself
and my family where 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 'em 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 has this community
been affected by generational trauma?
- Hmm.
- Murv: And what kind of things would that be?
- Yeah.
So...
We deal with trauma and we do our best
to try and practice trauma-informed care.
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 'em
as soon as we can.
And that's always, I guess for me, that's been a concern,
'cause 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 gonna 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 on our,
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, and.
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 gonna be exciting for my kids,
'cause I can see the changes happening
and it's gonna be a better life
and a better opportunity for them when they become adults.
- And why do you care so much?
- 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.
- All right.
Chairwoman Kakkak,
thank you so much for being on "In Focus" with us.
- Well, thank you for having me.
- Wanawean.
[Gena chuckles] - Waewaenon.
- I knew I was gonna mess that up.
[Gena laughing] Waewaenon.
- Yep, weaewaenon. - Thank you so much.
- Yeah. - Appreciate you.