News from the Mashkiiziibiing Community

Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians

November 20, 2019

Minogizhebaawagad (Good Morning),

Happy Wednesday! As we reach the middle of the week, we're happy to share the fun and learning that happened at this past weekend's Dagwaagin-gabeshiwin Fall Camp.

As we get closer to the end of the month and the Thanksgiving holiday, please note that Tribal offices will be closed next Thursday and Friday, November 28th and November 29th.

We are grateful to share many good things happening in the Mashkiiziibing community, and wish you many blessings.

Scroll down to see the good news and other activities happening in the Mashkiiziibiing community.

Elders Birthdays

Mino-dibishkaan (Happy Birthday) to Our Elders

November 20th

Lloyd Neveaux
Rose Wilmer

November 21st
Pam Nelis
Terry Deloney

November 22nd
Joe Nelis
Arlene Corbine
Bernice Wiggins

November 24th
Kate Nelis

November 25th Jeanne Neveaux	November 26th Cora Soulier Vern Stone
November 27th Kevin Ashmun	November 28th William Gilles

News

Dagwaagin-gabeshiwin Fall Camp Continues Cultural Ways

This past weekend, many programs and departments came together to host the Dagwaagin-gabeshiwin Fall Camp at the Community Center and at the Food Sovereignty building.

Children and adults shared in traditional cultural activities including making birch bark ornaments, medicine pouches, moccasins, quill work and more. Youth played Ojibwe Pictionary, and learned about furs, tracking, fire making with bow drills, and balsam wreaths.


	Peter Halfaday (left) and Joe Rose, his grandfather

Peter Halfaday, a chef in Ashland and a Bad River Tribal Member, prepared to host an Indigenous Food session, focused on hand foraging and gathering, and traditional foods. He explained, "Wild rice, maple syrup, fish and grown garden items - these foods go back to the old ways and have less sodium."

Many of the cultural sessions were hosted by community members including:

Brigette Mayotte and DuWayne Terry - Moccasin Making
Martin Powless - Quill Work
April Stone - Birch Bark Ornaments
Star Ames - Medicine Pouches
Gena Abramson - Balsam Wreaths
Dan Wiggins - Regalia Bell Making for Boys and Men
Gloria Rodriguez - Ojibwe Pictionary
Abi Fergus - Furs and Tracking

LeeAnn Rosin and Josh Johnson prepared a continental breakfast and lunch for attendees.

The outdoor sessions were coordinated by the Natural Resources Department, and special guest Alex Bretzlaff, a master survivalist, traveled from Red Cliff.

Maria Nevala held a Bear Fat Rendering session at Food Sovereignty, coordinated by Loretta Livingston and Joy Schelble.

"Bear fat is a medicine, and can be used in beauty products, candles, soaps, lip balm and other products. We cut and grind the fat, and then cook it to separate it and remove the impurities. We're after the medicines the bear has collected," Maria explained.

"The final product is an oil in a jar," Linny Lemieux said. "It can be infused with CBD and essential oils," Becky Lemieux added.

Maria shared that other sessions will be held in December, January and February that focus on infusing medicines, skin care and how to cook with bear fat. More information on the upcoming sessions is available at Food Sovereignty.

This is the third Fall Camp. According to Lori Lemieux, Indigenous Arts and Sciences Coordinator, "The event began as a way to make sure we're offering pertinent seasonal activities. We want to pass our cultural knowledge down, engage the community in family activities, and use prevention intervention in the drug epidemic. Culture is prevention."

The programs and departments involved in the planning of the Dagwaagin-gabeshiwin Fall Camp include Youth Services, Education Services, Social Services, Natural Resources, Tribal Historic Preservation, Accounting and Food Sovereignty.

Plans are already underway for the Winter Camp and Round Dance. More information will be shared as it becomes available.

Chi Miigwech to everyone who assisted in coordinating the event, and to everyone who attended!

Rob Pero A warded 2019 Outstanding Business Award

On October 24th, Rob Pero, a Bad River Tribal Member and owner of PeroDigm Design Studio, LLC., was awarded a 2019 Outstanding Business Award. Governor Tony Evers and Missy Hughes, Secretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), presented Rob the award.

"To meet the challenges ahead of us, we must recognize how important inclusion, equity, and diversity are to a strong economy," Governor Evers said. "These awards showcase the important contributions that minority-owned, women-owned, and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses make to our communities every day and how they are an important part of building an economy that works for all of us."

PeroDigm Design Studio, LLC., was selected from a group of Wisconsin-based companies certified as being minority-owned (MBE), and is an independent digital marketing and design agency located in Cambridge, Wisconsin.

"PeroDigm was created in 2012, with the singular mission of providing timely, innovative marketing and branding services to small businesses and non-profit organizations. We recently collaborated with the American Indian Chamber of Commerce to produce the Native Business Development Center, an online video series featuring some of Wisconsin's premier Native industry leaders. Our passion is to illuminate remarkable people, products and services using our multidisciplinary mastery of marketing and design skills including brand development and representation, public relations, videography, photography, graphic design, web development and management, and content management for the web and social media," Rob shared.

Rob grew up in Bayview, a community south of Milwaukee, and shared, "I was a military brat. I started visiting Odanah as an adult, as I was yearning to reconnect with my heritage and family."

"Winning the award is a huge deal for our team, our clients and those who have supported us and provided mentorship throughout the years. We are honored and grateful to get the recognition, which is a direct reflection of the hard work and commitment to relationship building that our team has put forth since our inception. We take great pride in being a Native-owned business, and cherish the opportunity to help other business owners, Tribes and nonprofits throughout the Indian Country," Rob said.

"I am happy to represent Bad River with this award, and I hope it inspires other entrepreneurs and business-minded individuals to step outside of their comfort zone, create a goal and reverse engineer what it takes to fulfill that goal. Talk to somebody who's accomplished what you want to accomplish and see what you need. Then do it! Anything is possible."

Congratulations Rob and everyone at PeroDigm Design Studio!

Lyle Corbine, Jr., Featured in Filmmaker Magazine

By Filmmaker Magazine


	SM/Photo by Joel Feld

There were several distinct phases in Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr.'s journey through cinephilia toward becoming a film director. As a preteen growing up on and around Native American reservations in Wisconsin and Minnesota, places where his parents worked (his dad is a casino executive, his mom a psychologist), he was into action movies and anything Schwarzenegger. Then, at 13, he saw Lost in Translation and "couldn't stop thinking about it." He says, "I realized that movies could be impactful in ways I never knew."

Another revelation came at 17 when Corbine, Jr. - now a high school dropout working at his dad's casino - saw Rushmore. "It woke something up in me. The kid in the movie was going through everything I went through - dropping out of school, being distracted by all the wrong things. After that movie, I went back to school - first community college and then University of Minnesota - and figured my life out."

President of the university film club, Corbine, Jr., also started making films, directing a couple a year using DSLRs and local crews. "I went through a lot of different styles," he says. "Zombie comedies, indie romcoms, people talking in a room pointing guns at each other - and then the arthouse versions of those as well." After seven or eight years, only one of the 14 shorts had been accepted to a local festival, but meeting and connecting at the festival with actor Ajuawak Kapashesit led to a revelation: "I had never made anything dealing with my Native background. I could use prototypical Native imagery but do it through my own visual language, my own voice."

The results are two striking shorts starring Kapashesit, Shinaab and Shinaab, Part II, both of which played TIFF and Sundance. They evince, perhaps, a Malickian vibe, with their somber voiceovers and fragmented, elliptical storytelling style, but Corbine, Jr., is mixing personal and Native history in hauntingly original ways. The former short captures the alienation of an Anishinaabe man who has left family and reservation for the city. The latter explores Ojibwe concepts of mortality through a son's grief. With roving camerawork, eerie scores and sound work bridging the external and internal worlds, the films are structured, as Corbine, Jr., describes, like a series of diary entries speaking to the complexity of contemporary Native American identity.

Corbine, Jr., has attracted much support from independent film nonprofits, including Sundance, the Knight Foundation and Cinereach; the latter is behind his debut feature, Wild Indian, now in preproduction. The film begins in the past with Makwa, a 12-year-old Native boy, impulsively shooting and killing a classmate, then covering up the crime. Today, a reinvented Makwa is a San Francisco businessman whose guilt is a wound flimsily bandaged by professional success, material wealth and a new baby. Corbine, Jr., says the story began with his thinking about his father, who felt guilt over becoming successful after he left the reservation - an emotional theme given narrative backstory when Corbine, Jr. remembered an incident from his childhood involving the murder of a Native boy in his neighborhood. "I can write to those feelings," the director realized. "It's like a metaphorical version of the guilt you sometimes feel leaving the reservation because you did kill somebody; you became a completely different person than if you had stayed there. So, with every draft [Makwa] became more cold-hearted - not unforgiveable, because we understand his actions. But worse and worse."

Tribal Council Members and Terms

Native American Heritage Month

The Warrior Tradition: The largely-untold story of Native Americans who served in the United States military.

The Warrior Tradition explores the complicated ways the culture and traditions of Native Americans have impacted their participation in the United States military. The one-hour documentary, co-produced by WNED-TV and Florentine Films/Hott Productions, Inc., tells the stories of Native American warriors from their points of view - stories of service and pain, of courage and fear.

View the resources of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).

NMAI is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.

New Employees

The Accounting Department welcomed Danin Godinez as the new Accounting Administrative Assistant on October 28th.

Danin is in her second semester at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, studying accounting, and shared, "This was a good field for me to get into. I like the job. It's a lot to remember and everyone is really helpful."

"Math is pretty simple. There are a lot of procedures to follow here, but if I know exactly how to do things, it makes it a lot easier. This type of job is something I can do, and I like the tasks," she continued.

Between work, school and her family, Danin doesn't have a lot of free time. She has three children ages 20, 18 and 4, and a granddaughter who is almost two years old.

Welcome Danin!

Thanksgiving Events