Anishinaabe Syndicated : A View from the Rez

5. Iron Legs - 1993

69 5. Iron Legs 8 1993 The Todd County Museum is going to return the bones to the earth. D. Hayes told me he contacted Earl Sargeant and Hamline University . To paraphrase Spike Lee, thank you Todd County Museum for doing the right thing. Welcome to the world to James Warren Northrup IV, recently born in Pierre, South Dakota. Yup, they put the pork to us. In a burst of Christmas cheer, the RBC gave everyone a ham. Casino workers, rez employees, and Fonjalackers all got part of that pig. The Reservation Business Committee didn’t actually handle the gift. They caused paper to be printed. Each piece was worth exactly one ham at B & B Market in Cloquet. There were quite a few cars lined up when I picked up my pork. The word Somalia popped into my head. At the risk of looking a gift pig in the snout, my ham was mostly fat. After I cut away the arteryclogging fat, I didn’t have much left. There was enough meat for two sandwiches. The reservation gave out fifteen hundred hams, I heard. There was enough fat on those hams to waterproof all the boots in the Chinese army. My cousin says the RBC is taking care of us. Instead of giving out dirty old gambling per capita money like the other reservations, they give us the food directly. With this much good luck, we wonder if something bad is going to happen. We’re hoping the new casino is a success. Maybe next year we’ll get a dozen eggs with the ham. Question: What does the Shinnob Santa say? Answer: Ho Ho Ho-wah. 70 Anishinaabe Syndicated Fond du Lac Follies motored to Hinckles to learn about the pending 1837 treaty sale. It was an informational meeting held at a school gym for all parties to the sale. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was there. The state attorney general’s office sent two staff members. Mille Lacs Reservation was represented by Don Wedll. The Save Lake Mille Lacs Association had a table loaded with information about theircause. Great Lakes IndianFish and Wildlife had an interesting display. We learned that the agreement between the tribe and the state would sell two treaties. The 1837 Treaty was signed by Anishinaabeg from two states. It wasn’t just Mille Lacs. The treaty contains the specific language reserving hunting, fishing , and gathering rights in the ceded territory. The 1855 Treaty established the Mille Lacs Reservation. I learned that the agreement was permanent. I thought the treaty itself was supposed to be permanent. There is no provision for past damages. Anishinaabeg who have had their treaty rights violated for the past sixty to seventy years now give up their right to sue or collect damages . The proposed agreement ties gambling to treaty rights. The Mille Lacs people give up the right to build casinos on their 7,500 acres. Members of the political right ate DNR cookies with the political left-out. Cliff Skinaway from Sandy Lake was there. Rod Sando, new DNR commissioner of natural resources, walked around smiling. After listening to people talk about the agreement, I wondered if the state of Minnesota thinks they are buying our 1837 treaty rights. By our, I mean the Anishinaabeg from Leech Lake, St. Croix, La Pointe, Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, Sandy Lake, Snake River, Red Cedar Lake, Red Lake, Gull Lake and Swan River, and Fond du Lac. In Hinckles, it was said the treaty sale only involved the Mille Lacs people’s rights. The whole situation reminds me of the 1854 treaty sale here at Fond du Lac in 1988. That treaty sale involved the state of Minnesota , a federal court, Anishinaabeg treaty rights, and a settlement before the case went to court. The people here voted that sale down twice. At Fond du Lac we still have our treaty rights. Whilethinkingabouttheagreementtosellthe1837treatyrights, I wondered why the U.S. government wasn’t a party to the sale. The 71 Iron Legs Anishinaabeg signed the treaty with them. The state of Minnesota didn’t exist when the document was signed. The state of Minnesota is willing to spend ÷10 million in this time of budget deficits. They must think they are going to make out on this deal. As I drove home from Hinckles, I thought about my children and grandchildren fighting for treaty rights forty to fifty...