[whirring of machinery]
- At Menominee Tribal Enterprises,
[psssh]
every day is a sawmill symphony.
[symphonic music punctuated with bangs and clanks]
These machines process millions of feet of lumber each year.
[clank]
Leroy Shawanokasic is the conductor.
He's the sawmill supervisor.
- I started in August of 1970.
It's, kind of, more or less of a family thing.
My family, kind of, all worked here:
brothers, dad, uncles.
- Leroy makes sure
the entire operation is humming along smoothly.
[whirring of machinery]
That's not an easy job.
It's a big mill, and the machines are loud.
[click, hum]
[whirr, buzz]
[clank]
Talking across the mill floor
is nearly impossible because of the noise.
[clank, clank]
That's why, for more than a century,
the workers in this mill
carry on conversations in a different way.
They created their own sign language.
? ?
It's not based on American Sign Language
or Menominee language.
It's an entirely unique system
used only by people in this sawmill.
Joe Besaw started at the mill in the 1980s
before moving into the sales department.
He says sign language is crucial to communicate on the floor.
- If you didn't know that sign language, I mean
you'd have a hard time up there.
So the guys learn fast.
- Leroy makes sure that
quality and safety standards are being met.
He tells the machine operators
adjustments they need to be making
so the lumber is cut correctly.
- When you go like that,
that means you're cutting snaky lumber
or thick and thin.
Scratchy lumber.
Wedging lumber.
And they'll know what to do.
- It's believed that
this sign language has been around
since the mill's inception in 1908.
[psssh]
It was created for work,
but it's evolved into something more.
- You can talk about what you did last night.
You can talk about what you're going to do with this weekend.
- I'm going to stay home and watch a movie with the kids.
- You can ask somebody to go fishing or hunting.
And everything is, "Yep, yep, yep, what time?"
Then they'll tell you, you know, "11:00 tonight," you know.
It's just that quick, you know.
And guys, "All right, we're there."
- There's always a little humor involved in it,
but I don't think --
a lot of it, I don't think I can say on camera.
[chuckles]
- Or show on camera.
- Ok, the numbers.
You know, we talk about our numbers.
We got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
And 5 shook is 10.
- You can go from there.
This is 11. This is 12.
It could say any time, like 10 o'clock.
This is 10 o'clock.
- So when you see a guy in there,
you can think about the gestures.
And this is a number.
Nope, when you do that down there,
nobody sees it as an obscene gesture.
What they see is the number eight, truly.
[click]
- Still, the workers have fun with it.
Joe remembers one time early in his career
where the mill was closed due to a snow storm.
- Me and my friend, first thing we did was went riding around.
You know, joy riding and enjoying the day.
We got into Keshena, and his wife comes riding by.
And this was after probably five o'clock in the afternoon.
His wife rides by.
She puts her finger up on her window like this.
And I go, "Oh no!"
He leans over.
He said, "That means be home by 8:00."
[chuckles]
[clank, clank]
- Joe says it shows how this sign language
is part of everyday life at the mill.
- If you talk with some of the guys on the reservation here
who have worked in the sawmill over the years,
you'll notice that their hand gestures
as they're telling a story sometime,
they, kind of, do it unconsciously.
They're talking, "I shot at that deer.
He went down, and we ran...."
You see their hands going all over.
A lot of that came right from our sawmill here.
- Leroy says if someone wants to work at the mill,
it's not too difficult.
- It's just like any other, like going to school,
and going to science, math, or whatever.
Eventually, you work in a mill for a while,
then you will pick it up.
- Just follow the signs.
- I see this going on forever.
I really, really do.
It's neat, funny, educating.
[chuckles]
[whirring of machinery]