Tribal members chant and drum in a ceremony in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda Tuesday before the State of the Tribes address in the Wisconsin Assembly chamber. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Pride of heritage, “uneasiness surrounding the recent changes at the federal government level,” praise for Gov. Tony Evers and an appeal to adopt provisions in his budget directed toward Wisconsin’s 11 tribal nations were among the themes of the State of the Tribes address in the Capitol Tuesday.
“Our government-to-government relationship is forever transforming the work we do together. It contributes to shape our communities for everyone’s benefit,” said Thomas Fowler, chair of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, this year’s speaker for the annual event.
Fowler’s 50-minute speech celebrated the treaties going back nearly 200 years that, he said, established Wisconsin’s “reservations and territories in exchange for thousands of miles of our historical homelands and began the trust relationship between the federal government and tribes today.”
He highlighted the tribal nations’ initiatives and independence, but also their distinctive relationship with the United States.
“Tribal nations each have their own governments, languages, stories, traditions, values, beliefs and ceremonies,” Fowler said. “We operate our own health care facilities, law enforcement agencies, educational systems, social services and more. Our tribal people are both citizens of the United States and members of their own sovereign nations, and we are very proud of this.”
But he also spoke to historic injustices, the work needed to right past wrongs and the continuing education required to understand indigenous identity.
Fowler praised Wisconsin’s Department of Administration — the executive branch agency that most directly deals with Wisconsin’s tribal nations — for its description of that identity. “Tribal members are not racial minorities. We are citizens of our own tribal nations,” he said.
“Gov. Evers has repeatedly acknowledged the importance of respecting tribal nation sovereignty and has committed to empowering tribes to manage their own affairs and resources,” Fowler said.
Fowler called on lawmakers to enact a series of bills, including legislation granting tribes a larger role in licensing teachers and legislation requiring school districts to report the number and ages of children enrolled who have tribal affiliations — the latter of which passed the Assembly later Tuesday.
He also urged them to advocate for passage of a federal act calling for a truth and healing commission on boarding schools where Indian children, taken from their families, endured abuse for decades, their cultural heritage denied, and where many died.
The act, which passed the U.S. Senate at the end of last year but “continues to sit” in the U.S. House of Representatives, “seeks to uncover the U.S. government’s role in Indian boarding school systems,” Fowler said. “The tragedy of boarding schools requires remembrance, so that the spirits of our ancestors are not lost or forgotten.”
That history has contributed many ills, he said, including family separations, drugs and violence within communities, disruption of Native American parenting and damage to the health of families.
Tribal communities such as the Ojibwe are also looking to revitalize their cultural connections, he said, including recovering their native languages.
“I encourage all of us in this room to push further in our communities, to move into a place of normalized use of our language amongst community members,” Fowler said.
He also made a direct pitch for Wisconsin to legalize medical cannabis — a plant cultivated by indigenous peoples as an herbal medicine, treating pain, inflammation and “addressing spiritual maladies.” Medical cannabis also holds the promise of “moving people off highly addictive drugs, drugs which are killing our people,” he added.
Fowler spoke as well of missing and murdered indigenous women, a phenomenon “too common for our people” but still inadequately acknowledged.
“We need more state and federal resources,” he said. “We need adequate funding allocated to serve our understaffed police departments, more cohesive law enforcement training, strengthened alert systems, increased funding for tribal programs that provide shelter and increased mental health resources.”
Fowler urged lawmakers to do more to address water quality in the state, stiffening regulations on agricultural chemical runoff as well as threats from pollution, climate change and habitat loss. He called the December spill of 69,000 gallons of oil from Enbridge Line 6 “disheartening,” endangering the land, waterways, food, medicine and cultural practices.
“Our partnership with the state and the protection of our and stewardship of our lands has never been more important,” Fowler said. “The challenges are too vast to tackle alone. We must unify to secure the highest level of environmental protection possible.”
Fowler saved his last words for the scores of tribal members who watched from the back of the Assembly chamber and the galleries above it.
“We are not broken,” he told them. “We are strong and we will continue to rise.”
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