BOIS FORT BAND RECEIVES NEW CLINIC
TOWER, MN – The Bois Forte Band is
celebrating the completion of its new 11,000-square-foot health and
dental clinic in Vermilion, which replaces a smaller clinic in the
community. Band members and guests gathered on Nov. 20 for the
official grand opening of the new Vermilion Clinic.
Along with an increased number of
examining and treatment rooms, the new clinic includes a pharmacy,
dedicated space for diabetes education, expanded lab services and
telemedicine capabilities that will allow clinic providers to
communicate directly with providers at the University of Minnesota
Duluth.
Funding for the clinic was provided
through loans and grants from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
Community, Indian Health Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
and the Iron Ranges Resources and Rehabilitation Board. Clinic
equipment was provided by Indian Health Service.
UPPER RED LAKE WALLEYE REGULATIONS
REVISED
ST. PAUL, MN – Walleye regulations
will be more restrictive on Upper Red Lake following record walleye
harvests the past winter and summer, according to the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources.
Effective Dec. 1, anglers can only
keep three walleye and the possession limit is also three. Anglers
must immediately release all walleye from 17- to 26-inches. Only one
walleye in possession may be longer than 26 inches.
The DNR and the Red Lake Band of
Chippewa jointly developed a harvest plan for Red Lake’s walleye
stocks in 2006 prior to reopening the fishery that governs walleye
harvest on an annual basis. The plan allows for some excess harvest
in an individual year, but requires a regulation adjustment to manage
harvest back within a target range on a three-year average.
Harvest reduction scenarios were the
topic at an Upper Red Lake Citizen Advisory Committee meeting in late
September.
“Previous advisory meetings were
easier when we were relaxing regulations, but everyone on the
committee understands the importance of protecting this fishery and
adhering to our joint harvest plan,” Joe Corcoran, advisory
committee member said. The regulation package had full support from
the committee as the best way to balance harvest reduction with
business and angler interests, he added.
SMSC STUDENT SELECTED AS WHITE HOUSE
YOUTH AMBASSADOR
SHAKOPEE, MN – Summer Brooks,
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, was selected as a Youth
Ambassador for the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference based
on her exceptional community involvement.
Brooks is is among fewer than 40 Youth
Ambassadors from across the country who have been selected to
represent their tribes at President Obama’s sixth annual Tribal
Nations Conference. At the event, she will have the opportunity to
interact with the President and members of the White House Council on
Native American Affairs. The Council, which includes more than 30
federal departments and agencies, helps federal officials work more
collaboratively and effectively with tribes to advance their economic
and social priorities.
She is currently the chair of the SMSC
Youth Leadership Council, leading the group that has developed its
own constitution, bylaws, election system, and objectives. She also
urged young SMSC members to attend a college fair and organized
transportation for them to attend. She has been involved in several
tribal programs, including the SMSC’s Young Native Pride and the
Gathering of Native Americans. She was also the runner-up in the
SMSC’s first youth royalty program. Summer is interested in
cellular biology and teaching, and plans to pursue a college
degree.
“I’m really excited for this opportunity to expand my
leadership skills and play a part in helping tribal governments and
the federal government work better together,” Brooks said, who
attended the conference with Chairman Charlie Vig, the SMSC’s
tribal delegate, from Dec. 1-3.
MILLE LACS BAND BUYS OKLAHOMA HOTEL
ONAMIA, MN – Mille Lacs Corporate
Ventures announced on Nov. 21 that it purchased the 236-room Embassy
Suites Oklahoma City hotel in Oklahoma City. The purchase represents
a strategic expansion into a growing market for the company.
“We are excited to enter the
Oklahoma City market with one of the strongest performing hospitality
assets,” said Joseph Nayquonabe, CEO of Mille Lacs Corporate
Ventures, in a news release. “The quality of the suites and the
proximity to key attractions around the city position this hotel for
exceptional performance.”
Located only six miles from downtown
Oklahoma City and four miles from Will Rogers World Airport, the
recently renovated hotel boasts an atrium, of almost 10,000 square
feet of meeting space, a business center, fitness room, indoor heated
pool and gift shop.
In 2013, Melanie Benjamin, chief
executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, issued a directive to
diversify the Band’s corporate holdings and strengthen the tribal
economy. MLCV began to diversify their investments beyond gaming with
the acquisition of its first hotel deal, the Crowne Plaza St. Paul
Riverfront hotel and the DoubleTree by Hilton in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Since then, MLCV has further
diversified by opening Sweetgrass Media, a commercial print shop and
acquiring 2020 Brand Solutions. It is in the process of several other
planned investments, including the rebuild of Eddy’s Resort on Lake
Mille Lacs and the development of a commercial laundry facility and a
medical office building in Hinckley, Minnesota.
The hotel acquisition is the second
step in a nationwide strategy to acquire hospitality assets in major
markets. Nayquonabe said MLCV is continually analyzing deals in
search of opportunities that meet its investment criteria and will
position the company for success. “We look forward to discovering
our next great opportunity.”
LEECH LAKE STUDENTS PERFORM AT US
CAPITOL TREE LIGHTING
WASHINGTON – More than 100 citizens
of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe shared their culture and traditions
during the Capitol Christmas Tree lighting on Dec. 2.
During the annual Capitol Christmas
Tree celebration (which was hosted by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar)
the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe performed a traditional drumming
ceremony, the Capitol Christmas Tree Facebook page says.
The students will also perform at
various tree lighting celebrations around Washington, D.C., according
to the Capitol Christmas Tree Web site. They will be honored at the
Museum of the Native American Indian, the Facebook page noted.
This year’s tree was cut from the
Chippewa National Forest, located on the Leech Lake Reservation. 180
students from the tribe left for Washington, D.C. on Nov. 30. The
tribe was involved with a similar trip in 1992.
The Capitol Christmas Tree was
decorated on Nov. 30 with some of the 10,000 ornaments created by
Minnesota students. The other ornaments will decorate the 70
companion trees throughout the U.S. Capitol building that were
provided by the Minnesota Tree Growers Association, according to the
Leech Lake Reservation Web site.
DAKOTA LEADER REMAINS REPATRIATED NEAR
REDWOOD FALLS
MORTON, MN – Almost 138 years after
his execution, the remains of Dakota Indian warrior leader Mahpiya
Okinajin, or He Who Stands in the Clouds, have been buried with all
the honors due a chief. Also known as Cut Nose, he was one of 38
Indians hanged in Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862, following the Dakota
Conflict.
Jim Jones, a member of the Leech Lake
Band of Chippewa and cultural resource specialist for the Minnesota
Indian Affairs Council, brought the remains home from Michigan for a
recent private burial near this western Minnesota town. Several
Indian nations sent representatives.
As head of the Dakota warrior society
at the time of the 1862 uprising, Cut Nose would have been elevated
by the conflict to status as a chief, Jones said, and he deserved
burial with the ceremonies due a chief.
Cut Nose and the 37 other Indians
hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history were buried in a
shallow mass grave, but their bodies were dug up the night they died
for use in anatomical studies. The remains of the chief went to Dr.
William Mayo, father of the brothers who founded the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester.
Jones said the first part of the body
that was reburied was the skull, found several years ago at the Mayo
Clinic. Working with scientists at Hamline University in St. Paul,
the council determined that it was Cut Nose’s skull.
After an inventory mandated by the
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Public
Museum of Grand Rapids, Mich., this year identified one item in its
collection never displayed as a piece of Cut Nose’s skin. It had been
tanned and tattooed with identifying marks. At the request of the
Lower Sioux Community of Morton, Jones went to Michigan to claim the
remains.
Cut Nose is mentioned twice in Kenneth
Carley’s "The Sioux Uprising of 1862," published in 1961
and republished in 1976 by the Minnesota Historical Society. He wrote
that Cut Nose and other Indians stopped a group of fleeing white
settlers near Fort Ridgely, but they were stopped from killing the
whites by a Sisseton Dakota woman who had married a white Indian
agent.
Carley also recounted how doctors,
"quick to seize the rare opportunity to obtain subjects for
anatomical study," dug up the bodies after the mass execution at
Mankato. "Dr. William Mayo drew that of Cut Nose, and later his
sons learned osteology from the Indian’s skeleton."
His body was taken to Le Sueur, where
it was dissected by William Mayo in the presence of other doctors,
and the skeleton "was cleaned and articulated for the doctor’s
permanent use." The Grand Rapids museum never displayed the
piece of skin, curator Eric Alexander said. It measured about 4 by 5
inches.
Advised of the find, the Lower Sioux
Indian Community submitted a claim, and the remains were given to
Jones for return to the tribe.