MARGE ANDERSON

Chief Executive, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Delivered to the First
Friday Club of the Twin Cities, Sponsored by St. Thomas Alumni, St. Paul,
Minnesota, March 5, 1999.

THE VALUE OF INDIAN CULTURE

Aaniin. Thank you for inviting me here today. When I was asked to speak
to you, I was told you are interested in hearing about the improvements we
are making on the Mille Lacs Reservation, and about our investment of
casino dollars back into our community through schools, health care
facilities, and other services. And I do want to talk to you about these
things, because they are tremendously important, and I am very proud of
them.

But before I do, I want to take a few minutes to talk to you about
something else, something I'm not asked about very often. I want to talk to
you about what it means to be Indian. About how my people experience the
world. About the fundamental way in which our culture differs from yours.
And about why you should care about all this.

The differences between Indians and non-Indians have created a lot of
controversy lately. Casinos, treaty rights, tribal sovereignty - these
issues have stirred such anger and bitterness. I believe the accusations
against us are made out of ignorance. The vast majority of non-Indians do
not understand how my people view the world, what we value, what motivates
us.

They do not know these things for one simple reason: they've never
heard us talk about them. For many years, the only stories that non-Indians
heard about my people came from other non-Indians. As a result, the picture
you got of us was fanciful, or distorted, or so shadowy, it hardly existed
at all. It's time for Indian voices to tell Indian stories.

Now, I'm sure at least a few of you are wondering, "Why do I need to
hear these stories? Why should I care about what Indian people think, and
feel, and believe?" I think the most eloquent answer I can give you comes
from the namesake of this university, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas wrote
that dialogue is the struggle to learn from each other. This struggle, he
said, is like Jacob wrestling the angel - it leaves one wounded and blessed
at the same time.

Indian people know this struggle very well. The wounds we've suffered
in our dialogue with non-Indians are well-documented; I don't need to give
you a laundry list of complaints. We also know some of the blessings of
this struggle. As American Indians, we live in two worlds - ours, and
yours.

In the 500 years since you first came to our lands, we have struggled
to learn how to take the best of what your culture has to offer in arts,
science, technology and more, and then weave them into the fabric of our
traditional ways. But for non-Indians, the struggle is new. Now that our
people have begun to achieve success, now that we are in business and in
the headlines, you are starting to wrestle with understanding us. Your
wounds from this struggle are fresh, and the pain might make it hard for
you to see beyond them. But if you try, you'll begin to see the blessings
as well - the blessings of what a deepened knowledge of Indian culture can
bring to you.

I'd like to share a few of those blessings with you today. Earlier I
mentioned that there is a fundamental difference between the way Indians
and non-Indians experience the world. This difference goes all the way back
to the bible, and Genesis. In Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament,
God creates man in his own image. Then God says, "be fruitful, multiply,
fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds
of the heaven, and all living animals on the earth."

Masters. Conquer. Nothing, nothing could be further from the way Indian
people view the world and our place in it. Here are the words of the great
nineteenth century Chief Seattle: "You are a part of the earth, and the
earth is a part of you. You did not weave the web of life, you are merely a
strand in it. Whatever you do to the web, you do to yourself."

In our tradition, there is no mastery. There is no conquering. Instead,
there is kinship among all creation-humans, animals, birds, plants, even
rocks. We are all part of the sacred hoop of the world, and we must all
live in harmony with each other if that hoop is to remain unbroken.

When you begin to see the world this way - through Indian eyes - you
will begin to understand our view of land, and treaties, very differently.
You will begin to understand that when we speak of Father Sun and Mother
Earth, these are not new-age catchwords - they are very real terms of
respect for very real beings.

And when you understand this, then you will understand that our fight
for treaty rights is not just about hunting deer or catching fish. It is
about teaching our children to honor Mother Earth and Father Sun. It is
about teaching them to respectfully receive the gifts these loving parents
offer us in return for the care we give them. And it is about teaching this
generation and the generations yet to come about their place in the web of
life.

Our culture and the fish, our values and the deer, the lessons we learn
and the rice we harvest- everything is tied together. You can no more
separate one from the other than you can divide a person's spirit from his
body. When you understand how we view the world and our place in it, it's
easier to appreciate why our casinos are so important to us. The reason we
defend our businesses so fiercely isn't because we want to have something
that others don't. The reason is because these businesses allow us to give
back to others - to our People, our communities, and the Creator.

I'd like to take a minute and mention just a few of the ways we've
already given back: We've opened new schools, new health care facilities,
and new community centers where our children get a better education, where
our elders get better medical care, and where our families can gather to
socialize and keep our traditions alive.

We've built new ceremonial buildings, and new powwow and celebration
grounds. We've renovated an elderly center, and plan to build three
culturally sensitive assisted living facilities for our elders. We've
created programs to teach and preserve our language and cultural
traditions. We've created a Small Business Development Program to help band
members start their own businesses.

We've created more than twenty-eight hundred jobs for band members,
people from other tribes, and non-Indians. We've spurred the development of
more than one thousand jobs in other local businesses. We've generated more
than fifty million dollars in federal taxes, and more than fifteen million
dollars in state taxes through wages paid to employees. And we've given
back more than two million dollars in charitable donations.

The list goes on and on. But rather than flood you with more numbers,
I'll tell you a story that sums up how my people view business through the
lens of our traditional values. Last year, the Woodlands National Bank,
which is owned and operated by the Mille Lacs Band, was approached by the
city of Onamia and asked to forgive a mortgage on a building in the
downtown area. The building had been abandoned and was an eyesore on Main
Street. The city planned to renovate and sell the building, and return it
to the tax rolls.

Although the band would lose money by forgiving the mortgage, our
business leaders could see the wisdom in improving the community. The
opportunity to help our neighbors was an opportunity to strengthen the web
of life. So we forgave the mortgage. Now, I know this is not a decision
everyone would agree with. Some people feel that in business, you have to
look out for number one. But my people feel that in business - and in life
- you have to look out for every one.

And this, I believe, is one of the blessings that Indian culture has to
offer you and other non-Indians. We have a different perspective on so many
things, from caring for the environment, to healing the body, mind and
soul. But if our culture disappears, if the Indian ways are swallowed up by
the dominant American culture, no one will be able to learn from them. Not
Indian children. Not your children. No one. All that knowledge, all that
wisdom, will be lost forever. The struggle of dialogue will be over. Yes,
there will be no more wounds. But there will also be no more blessings.

There is still so much we have to learn from each other, and we have
already wasted so much time. Our world grows smaller every day. And every
day, more of our unsettling, surprising, wonderful differences vanish. And
when that happens, part of each of us vanishes, too. I'd like to end with
one of my favorite stories. It's a funny little story about Indians and
non-Indians, but its message is serious: you can see something differently
if you are willing to learn from those around you.

This is the story: Years ago, white settlers came to this area and
built the first European-style homes. When Indian People walked by these
homes and saw see-through things in the walls, they looked through them to
see what the strangers inside were doing. The settlers were shocked, but it
makes sense when you think about it: windows are made to be looked through
from both sides. Since then, my people have spent many years looking at the
world through your window. I hope today I've given you a reason to look at
it through ours. Mii gwetch.