In the community of the tribe, Among the Anishinaabek, in your band, you were all there to be covering each others backs and the community was more important than anything for yourself or for any leader.... We lived with situational leadership we only had people that were called chiefs because the Dominant culture forced those people upon us... They were not necessarily our leaders (because they were appointed by the soldiers) or they were only leaders for a short time (appointed to get us through the moment) ... To be considered publicly as a leader and to walk openly in that was a shame, because it so easily lead to pride. It was not meant for any single person to dominate the tribe. It meant you lacked humility so our leaders would begin giving away everything to the community in order to show that they were not better and when they demonstrated real humility it was then we saw them in private as our leader.... Oftentimes women served as leaders as well it was really situational and dependent on need. That is leadership! I don't see any of those people out there today... not in the churches, the political world, or in the business world or any where I can think of among this dominant society. The leaders we have are so often people seeking control and power and self. To the Anishinaabek that is the dominant society's shame and why we often quietly shun them or at least many of their ways. Sometimes it caused the dominant society great angst because our leaders were women, even as they are today.
Below is a picture of our Tribal Chair, Karen Diver who is leading us in the modern age much as our ancestors led us in days of old.... The soldiers who used to tell us who they would negotiate with would not negotiate with a woman like we have today... Very often they appointed in the place of some of our leaders "chiefs," but today they have no choice.
In the article, "Conversation leads to controversy between board and band"
Tensions are heating up between St. Louis County Commissioners and the county's two Ojibwe communities. County officials are concerned about a loss of taxable land to the bands, and a band leader is accusing some commissioners of bias.
Duluth, Minn. — With the economy in a recession and a budget shortfall threatening money from the state, counties worry more than ever about how to provide services, and how to maintain a tax base to pay for those services.
In St. Louis County, officials say they're slowly losing otherwise taxable property to the county's two Indian bands, as well as other tax-exempt groups like nonprofits and government agencies.
Maintaining tax base is a particular concern to County Board Chairman Dennis Fink. Fink raised the issue for discussion in a January meeting, and in particular he wanted to challenge the Fond du Lac Ojibwe band's effort to place a 33-acre parcel into federal trust, leaving it tax-exempt.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs recently gave the plan a green light, and Fink isn't happy about it.
"In 1997, when I took on this office, we were 59 percent publicly owned, according to the DNR. As of last year, the DNR put out another report and it said that we were 63 percent publicly owned, which means we haven't had a great deal of success of maintaining some kind of stability between the balance of what's public and what's private," said Fink.
Losing taxable property, he says, makes it difficult to pay for services like road maintenance, fire protection and search and rescue. County commissioners decided in January to appeal the BIA's decision on the one parcel, and to avoid selling additional county parcels to the Ojibwe bands until the issue was settled.
That decision irritates Ojibwe leaders, as do some of the comments recorded in that January meeting. There were no representatives of the county's two Ojibwe bands present at the meeting. Band leaders have listened to a recording posted on the Web site of a group called We Are Watching.
The recording, which is of poor quality, captures comments of Commissioner Peg Sweeney, whose district includes the northern half of the Fond du Lac reservation. At one point, she states that she represents "these people."
That phrase, "these people," is troubling to Fond du Lac Band Chairwoman Karen Diver.
"I never thought that I would see an elected representative who represents the northern end of Fond du Lac call them 'those people,'" said Diver.
Diver takes issue both with the taxable property debate, and with what she says is the tone of the discussion.
Diver says the band serves the greater public by repairing and maintaining public roads, and through its own economic development efforts which generate some $65 million a year in payroll and benefits.
This afternoon, local Indian leaders held a rally in front of the St. Louis County Courthouse, led by an Ojibwe drum circle. Ricky Defoe represents a Duluth American Indian Commission.
Read the rest of the story here... Audio of the meeting is included on the MPR website.
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Posted by: Singles rheinland pfalz | 03/31/2010 at 03:42 AM