09/18/2019
These are notes from our two Community Dialogues held this Spring on March 27, and April 24, 2019.
Topics of Discussion:
LEADERSHIP:
Leadership if it comes from outside the community is likely to be temporary. There are many who are learning their cultural ways and have developed skills for teaching culture, but other people here think you don’t know anything if you’re from the city, they don’t trust their own, or themselves.
Elders may not know the traditions, but they know how to navigate through the poverty and struggles of living in the city. They can still hold the values of sharing, and humility.
At ICS the children learn the culture but how do we help their development after that? We lose cultural continuity when the teachers are hires from elsewhere and do not have a vested interest in this community. As an Urban Indian I have learned as much as I could here and traveled to learn more. I have been given cultural roles on the reservation. I wanted to share here what I learned. Why don’t we allow people from here to help?
How do you groom people for leadership? The focus should be on the community and on traditional leadership skills. In this model the role model is one’s who life resembles this. Many traditional leaders changed their lifestyle—no drinking, no drugs, no abusing women or children. They treat others as they want to be treated. They learn from the past.
We need to teach leaders—through education, but especially cultural education.
We need to spend as much time learning the culture and community as in the educational programs and schools. Traveling to see and experience other communities is part of it.
Younger people have some teachings that the elders may not have. There is a disconnect between the two. How do you get people to step up? This is like a changing of the guard.
POW-WOWS:
Indian Summer will not continue this year. The Pow-Wows had a drop-in attendance. There was a gentrification of the festival and a financial challenge. Other Ethnic festivals have ended there; African Fest, Asian Moon, Arab Fest, and Mexican Fiesta decreased the days they were held. It won’t be held again on the Summerfest grounds. It will exist but not as it was before. The insurance and union costs went up.
What is our focus going to be? Empower ourselves? or make money. Not everyone feels included at a Pow-Wow, especially if you don't sing or dance-you are on the outside.
In 2015, I was asked to coordinate the sobriety pow-wow. This was before there was a donation to run it. It was a great traditional pow-wow. No competition. We spent time with each other on New Year’s Eve. It was at the old Indian Community School gym.
Some said it was the best Pow-wow they had been to. It was community driven for fun.
COMMUNITY BUILDING:
The United Indians of Milwaukee split in the 1980s, is when the community went from cohesive group to several and that is the origin of the factions that I see today, to all the different Native organizations, tribes, and events, and everyone protecting their own.
A large gathering of people to share knowledge of various areas would be good. Many people come to the churches for the traditional part.
The focus in the city cannot be on personal success or we will fail as a community. The longer people are away from the reservation, the more they pick up other culture’s values.
Sometimes we think the reservations have all the answers, but they have the same problems as we do.
One answer may be a map of historic Indigenous sites. We can create a tourism map of Milwaukee. People can pay for a tour in which an Indian elder can present. A person can hear various aspects of history on different days. Each organization can say what is historical to them. We can work across organizations, and we can build a crew.
2020 Democratic National Convention coming to Milwaukee; opportunity to educate mass amounts of people.
CEREMONY:
The Teaching Lodge has been doing good work. How does it connect with healing and with parents? The storytelling the fire, the rituals brought collaboration in the community. We do not want to see someone unqualified or a Non-Indian doing a pipe ceremony publicly and led by a charlatan.
We can deepen our spirituality and ceremonies have helped many people to straighten out their lives. It has been my vision to bring back ceremonies to the city, since reservations do not always accept us there. The city has always been inclusive. We have our own Milwaukee way of doing things. We may have to keep these private so that they are not taken advantage of by non-Indians or community members who are ego driven.
I also want to see people learn about their clans and develop their clans in mutual assistance.
With losing Indian Summer Festival we can try to develop more cultural activities: Rites of passage, storytelling, medicine learning and gathering, and language. Younger people are motivated by different things. For men there is drumming, the fire, talking circle; for couples, sober and positive activities.
We need to identify people with healing gifts. This is not for them to charge for these or to take advantage of people. Sometimes ego gets in the way. How can we encourage the development of these gifts?
