My heart is very heavy with sadness today.
Rochester has a paucity of American Indians, but that is slowly changing. There is a trickle of Indians who come here in search of jobs or health care. Yet, with so few neej's, our history, culture and traditions get lost in the stereotypical views of yesteryear and are readily replaced by wannabees, thereby it is they who determine an ignorant population's view of "Indians". Rochester has an abundance of wannabees.
Growing up, I was cautioned by my grandparents to stay away from wannabees because they will try to fool you. To the wannabees who showed up at powwows: "treat them nice because they don't know any better". The wannabees who took Indian Studies classes and then projected that knowledge on as if they knew first hand: "just ignore them". To the wannabees who portray themselves as Indian: "don't worry, they are cooking their own goose".
When I first arrived in Rochester, nine years ago, I sought out my church and fellow Indians ASAP. NAC was still around so I went to a meeting. There were all of these white people at the meeting. It was not the same NAC that I remembered from the 80s'. I called up several people that once belonged to NAC and they said it had changed. There were no more Indians in the organization. The Indians that once belonged to the group formed their own group because there was a man who wanted to control everyone in the group, and he was white. Disbelieving this, I finally called the founder of NAC and asked him what happened. He was very reluctant to speak about NAC, which surprised me greatly. He said he was burned out, no longer active in NAC and encouraged me to attend the meetings. I told him what others had said to me and he didn't comment other than to say that Jim Wilson was an Indian as far as he knew.
Fast forward to 2011-13, Indian Heights Park, a sacred Dakota site. The park department asked Jim Wilson, the chair of NAC to be on a task force that would study IHP. The night that the committee was going to discuss the important of the site to the Dakota, Whitney White could not attend the meeting and asked me to go in her stead. When I attended the meeting, I was not allowed to speak and only Jim Wilson spoke on behalf of all Indians. Disturbed at this, I wrote an op-ed piece, which stated that while the committee was well intentioned, they were missing Dakota or Native American input. This wrangled everyone!! Yet, from that time forward, the public (Dakota) were allowed 5 minutes at the start of each meeting to address the committee. Many thanks to Leonard Wabasha who helped me convince the part board to preserve the park as a sacred Dakota site.
In time, NAC imploded on itself and one or more disgruntled past members or so it seemed given the knowledge they had from the letters Jim Wilson showed us at a Park Department meeting, Jim Wilson admitted that he was white. I must confess, I was shocked!!! I even ran over to Nakoma's store by IHP and told him about my astonishment. Nakoma said that he told Jim not to bring up the letter or letters and just let it go. Jim came out swinging even though he and his organization had duped all of us. He threated GRADS and said it was a GRADS person or persons that wrote the letter. Honestly! He was also forced to admit that he was white in an interview with Jay Furst (July 2013).
GRADS, on the other hand was elated with our progress! We held two sacred ceremonies at IHP, that Leonard said was restoring the park to the Dakota people. We even got a grant from the Minnesota Historical Society to bring back Elders from each of the last known bands of the Dakota back to IHP. GRADS felt good about this achievement and so very grateful to all those who helped; Peter Lengkeek, Dave Larson, Syd Bird, and especially Leonard Wabasha, and the Elders: Danny Seaboy, Clifford Canku, Betty Greencrow, Dave Larson.
Now fast forward to July 2015. Nakoma Volkman invited GRADS to attend an event sponsored by several organizations, including NAC. I was reluctant to attend, but felt torn because Nakoma said the event was going to be about the history of the park and we could talk about our activities. I asked Leonard about the struggle I had about this event and he said I should just tell them the truth. So I did. Betty, Shirley and I met with Nakoma and told him that we were concerned about partnering with NAC because they were not native and a bunch of wannabees. It felt liberating! In fact, we shared all of our concerns. Nakoma said that he too was concerned about NAC, but there was nothing he could do about it now, but he did say that he couldn't stand to see NAC fold up. He acknowledged that there weren't any natives in the organization and they were going to use the event at IHP to recruit new members, hopefully Indian members.
Last Wednesday evening Betty and Shirley attended a planning meeting about the event at the History Center of Olmsted County. I refused to go. I felt it was best to keep my distance from this man as Leonard suggested. At this meeting, Betty said Jim said that he had the right to do whatever he wanted at IHP because he was taught by Amos Owen, and Chris Leith. Of course Betty and Shirley didn't know these men, but I did. Jim said he was going to have a talking circle using his eagle feathers, he was going to use his pipe, and bring his drum. I knew these men would NEVER teach the ways to a white man, but perhaps to a man who was pretending to be native.
Though Betty and Shirley felt torn about going to the event, I knew that I would not attend, and I was disturbed at Jim's name dropping, and contacted Art Owen. Art said while he remembered Jim Wilson, he knew that his father would have never taught Jim the ways. He said that his family would be at this event on Saturday August 1st.
I contacted Jim Wilson by phone to appeal to his better nature and he was majorly upset! He cursed at me. He threatened me. Naturally, I swung back. We agreed to disagree. He wanted to be stop calling him a wannabee. Nope, because that is what he and his organization was according to Nakoma. Sorry, DNA has to be involved. This just infuriated him. He said that the Dakota were trying to control what happened at IHP. Nope, just trying to keep NAC from misrepresenting the Dakota. He said that had a right to do these things. I said yes I had heard this from Betty. I told him that I knew Amos Owen and Chris Leith when they were alive, and sadly they were gone. Thankfully his son Art Owen was still around and I talked with him about you, and he said his father never taught you anything. He back pedaled quite a bit and said it was actually Porky White and Cody Enoch, two Lakota men, they gave him the pipe. Really! I knew these men too! Sadly they are gone, but their families are still around. Oh, and Porky was Anishinabeg, did you know that? Obviously not. Such anger! Such vile language!
Jim in his desperation said that GRADS was trying to interfere with his religious freedoms. What? I asked him if he knew about the Religious Freedom Act of 1978? Nope sure didn't. It protects us Indians from exploitation. He was not a wannabee, he was an Osage. Oh, are you enrolled? No, it doesn't matter. Wow, really!? I asked him if he knew about sovereignty? Nope, what the #$@* was that? Naturally a white man would not understand these matters. He could do whatever he wanted at IHP because Mike Nigbur said so. What???
Everything has been taken from us and you do not have the right to exploit our heritage. You are using white privilege and choosing to be native or Osage, and our heritage, our ways, especially our spiritual ways are protected from exploitation.
I am Osage! Delusional at best. He is such a fraud and a con that he is believing his own lies, but also, he has convinced the Park Department of Rochester, Friends of Indian Heights, the Federal Medical Center, the Mayo Clinic, the school district of Rochester and Plainview, and many other organizations that he is native and so too is his organization of about 30 strong. How utterly sad for DMC.
When I called the Park Department to say that GRADS was not trying to interfere with the event on Saturday as Jim stated because Mike Nigbur issued an email aimed at GRADS to say that the event on Saturday was okey dokey with him. I said we had the right to raise our concerns and Paul Widman agreed with me, but said that he did not have the resources to check out Jim and his organization and their intentions, but he encourage me to do whatever I needed to do about the authenticity of the event. I told him that I could not, but the Owen Family possibly could, particularly Art. He wished me well.
Mike Nigbur, of the Park Department disagreed. He said that the Park Department could not prevent anyone from using the park. I said that was not my point. In fact, I said that he and Jim could dance naked for all I care, but if they were to perform any sacred ceremony up there, he needed to understand that our ceremonies were protected under federal law. Mike balked at this. He said that if I planned to attend the event and caused a disturbance, I would be escorted off the premises. Really? Try it little man!!! Such a JERK! Of course I would never cause a disturbance at a public event, but I will be damned if anyone could tell me that I didn't have the right to speak my mind. Naturally a white man could never truly understand the importance of having your religious freedoms taken away and then restored again.
The people of DMC don't seem to what to understand what it is like to go with your grandparents to the first Sundance in SD in over 100 years because now they were legal. The people of DMC don't want to understand what it is like to attend the first powwow in Mankato in the 1970s' since before 1862, and dance, only to have the powwow interrupted because there were 38 eagles flying overhead. I heard the MC start to count the eagles, 1, 2...10, 11...30... and suddenly he couldn't talk anymore. I didn't understand why the Elders, and my grandparents were crying, but I do now. I felt happy at the time, but as I looked around all of the old people had tears in their eyes. I went up to my gram to ask what was wrong, but she was so overcome she couldn't speak.
Now today, the people of Rochester don't understand why it hurts to see non natives pretending to be native, pretending to know the ways, pretending to have the authority to conduct ceremonies at IHP willfully using the names of departed Dakota Elders (and others) as their credentials , all this at a sacred Dakota site. No, I don't want to stop it or interfere, I just want to raise awareness and appeal to their better natures, but sadly they have none.
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