What follows is the text copy of my speech I gave at the TEC Meeting on 28 January 2022.
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To: Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Members
From: Mildred R. Holmes, Bois Forte Delegate
Re: Delegate - Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of each Delegate to ensure their understanding of what is involved in the process for current Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Constitutional Convention. The Constitutional Convention has been meeting since 2018.
During the first year, community members attended the meetings held on their reservation and within the urban areas of Duluth and Minneapolis. Much of what has been written and debated on has come from those early meetings.
Clarification on the following:
1. Overall Constitution or governing document at the level of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
2. Individual Constitutions or governing documents for each reservation within the parameters of the overall Constitution.
3. Each reservation’s individual treaty rights can be addressed within their own Constitutions. There are general treaties, and specific treaties each of which established the individual reservations and the rights, duties and responsibilities of each of the participants in that treaty.
Now, the Convention Delegates are fast tracking as the original Delegates have sifted through and brought together ideas and suggestions for the good of the whole, whilst keeping in mind the individuals.
One of the responsibilities of the individual members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe was to find out their Clan, ways to discover were disseminated during that portion of the discussion. Why, you are thinking? We are well aware that not everyone was given the opportunity to learn these ways. And we, the original Delegates, want the new, or replacement document, to include our identity as a tribe with individual Bands as directed by various Band members.
It was also discussed and agreed on that certain values and beliefs needed to be included as Articles within the new document: Rights of Nature, land, government, etc.
Another of the Delegate responsibilities is to be open to suggestions and ideas of others. There was a process in place to deal with voting and only the appointed delegates have the vote which is one vote per Delegation. Individual members can attend meetings and join in the discussions as long as they are civil and respectful. At times, one must agree to disagree which can happen if the process to get consensus breaks down, in which case majority rules.
As for those who say they didn’t agree to these stipulations, then they aren’t the original appointed Delegates and must therefore catch up within their own delegation.
What we want now from the general membership of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is further direction regarding Enrollment and membership requirements. And the removal of the Secretary of the Interior from the approval process of the Constitution and/or amendments needs to take place one way or the other. This removal was suggested by Secretary of the Interior in 2017. Now whether that means amending the current Constitution or replacing with a new document is up to each member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
We’d like a referendum vote on those two issues, not just amendments or resolutions. There are other issues which certainly can be addressed by the Delegates in bringing forward a new document or a changed document for ratification by the general members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
My personal opinion is that I don’t want to get my fellow Band members hopes up by having meetings to encourage discussion and decisions if “Nothing is going to happen anyway.” I’ve heard that too many times as I was growing up and lately as these meeting drag on going over and over the same issues. No, we are not going to start over every time a new person jumps on the Delegate committee as has been the case the past few months.
“We didn’t agree,” “We need to discuss with community members,” are not valid if the previously appointed Delegates already agreed. If someone didn’t attend the publicly announced meetings or by publicly announced Zoom meetings, then they cannot say they didn’t know. When I miss a meeting, I try to catch up with what I missed and if the issue was voted on by the group, I don’t impose my ignorance on the rest just because I wasn’t there.
I tried to have community meetings to disseminate information decided on at the Convention as educational points for members. Some are interested in one or another of what is presented. However, one common interest is the issue of enrollment and blood quantum. Now, the blood quantum issue was deemed to be irrelevant and an imposed requirement, whether by design or “trying to be helpful” and is no longer an issue for discussion. The Delegates unanimously agreed that it needs to be eliminated, deleted.
Enrollment in the MCT is based on being a DESCENDANT of a person on the original roll of April 14, 1941, which is known as the basic membership roll, and the final approval of July 3, 1961 by the Area Director of the BIA. I am a DESCENDANT of 6 of those on that basic membership roll. My mother was on that roll as well as grandparents and great grandparent.
For a member of the Tribal Executive Committee to say that descendants don’t have a say in what happens is not only disrespectful, s/he is also saying that all of the enrolled members who are direct descendants of someone on that roll have no rights, including those on the TEC itself. I, myself, am 65 and have been hearing this argument all my life.
All the way back to the first treaty signed with a foreign government, the Chippewa have refused to sign treaties until provision was made for all, including “half-breeds” meaning those children left with the tribe when their non-Chippewa father went back to where ever he came from after making his fortune by dealing with the Indians. Has this caring and concern for all the children born to an Anishinabe/Chippewa/Ojibway changed in my lifetime?
One other point I want to make is the reason for all the land being divided and sold is that “half-breeds” were allotted land and Indian Agents weren’t too particular if someone showed up claiming to be half Chippewa to find out if this was true. We need to stop calling our own people Half one tribe or another. You don’t hear “Europeans” saying they’re half breeds if their bloodline included non-Europeans.
Has Clan membership changed? I was told as a child what my Clan was even if I wasn’t allowed to take part in ceremonies. I’ve included all those who lived within my village, my reservation, my Band and as well as those of the MCT as family, as Clan cause we are all related or so I was told.
Where did the idea of denying rights to descendants come from? Not me. As far as I’m concerned, all descendants of those on the MCT basic roll have the right to voice their opinion and to help if they so choose. If they don’t voice their opinion or decline to help, they then agree to whatever is decided on when issues come up for a vote.
At least, that is my understanding of what we, as a People, as a Tribe, as a Clan member, a Bandmember, and member of the Anishinabeg are to do.
When I was always being told to be quiet or to shut up, I was amazed as I wasn’t just speaking for myself. I’d always been pushed by my contemporaries to ask, to find out. Being less than wise and mostly being on the excluded list from discussion as we were considered “not old enough,” we were left in the dark unless an older person took the time to explain things to us. I made it one of my life’s policies to explain things to my children as much as I could.
On the other hand, it could be that I was repeating something that had already been discussed and people didn’t want to tell me that it had already been decided. How was I to know if people didn’t say? Now this is one of the reasons there were “runners” or people who went around to let people know what was happening. I think this is one of the duties we, as delegates, accepted.
Yes, we make decisions for everyone with our one vote. This is why we are working at getting one central document that will address common issues to all tribe members. When this is done, we can follow up with our own communities as to the specifics for our own Band/Reservation. *Last night during our after meeting discussion, it was suggested that perhaps we could write 2, 3 documents that could be presented for the People to choose from.
So can we, as Delegates, agree to get this central document done so that Individual documents can be written and everything can then be proposed to all of the membership?
One thing sure, Bois Forte’s document will include issues specific to our locality as well as the ceded territory rights and obligations. We need the overarching issues so ours can be defined within those parameters as well as our treaty parameters. Perhaps treaty parameters needs to be kept separate.
Well, that’s a discussion for Bois Forte members. Not the whole tribe.
Chii-Miigwuitch, Thanks for listening.