Cass Lake, MN

Wants to know - what’s your talent -

James Allen, M.C.

Registration forms are available at the Cass Lake Municipal Center and the Cass Lake Community Family Center. Deadline for registration is July 10, 2008.

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In our meetings with the community, bringing back the Cass Lake Days was one of the desires discussed by the Talking Circle members.   Stories abounded of the fun and feeling of community spirit the festival engendered.  What the final outcome of talks with the City Council and the City’s Chamber of Commerce was a melding of the Cass Lake Days with the Cass Lake Rib Fest.   And two of the events that were deemed do-able in the short time available are the Cass Lake Idol and Talent Show (one event)  and a Slam Poetry Contest.

 I was put in charge of organizing the talent show.   My first thought was to get people on board with me that had some inkling of an idea of how to run a talent show.   Nadine Chase sits on the Cass Lake Community Family Center and had regaled Sharon Mitchell and me with tales of other talent shows she’d participated in, so I called her to pick her brain and get some ideas for the event.   Having seen Jim Allen perform,  I asked him to M.C. the event and I knew he had equipment we could utilize.

Sharon and I had already decided that we would use the Cass Lake Community Family Center as the site for the event.   Tom Blackbird, the director, was all for it.   He was with Nadine and me for the first organizational meeting held back in May.   Then, we had to have a meeting with the city council so that they could approve barricading the streets around the family center.  When that was achieved, I began work on the flyer for the show. 

One of the ladies that completed the Leadership Plenty Training has been invaluable.   Her name is Amanda Burnette.   She has volunteered her time and transportation in hanging flyers and wants to be involved in other projects such as building the Indian Village.   As time goes by, more and more people are expressing an interest in what the Cass Lake Horizons is up to in this community, and more important, they want to get involved.   After all, this is one of the things Cass Lake Horizons is all about:   getting the community involved.

While talking with our coordinator , we shared a story about the grounds blessing with her and she suggested we post it on the blog .  So here it is.

Rushing around to meet the spiritual leader  at 8am the morning of the blessing, I did not have time to get all the food prepared for the dish we were going to offer to the spirits. Being as how we are building this village on land owned by Indian restaurant entrepreneurs, I called Marilyn and said could you please cook me a breakfast and we will use some of it for the spirit plate. so when I got there i went into the restaurant and removed small portions for  the spirit plate.I added berries , maple sugar cakes.  Marilyn asked what to do with the rest of the plate and I said just keep it and we will have the spiritual leader come in and eat when he is done.

When we finished we invited him into the restaurant and told him he could have breakfast but one of us should eat the plate  that was made that I had taken the food off for the dish. He said we should all eat some of that food . So there we were six big Indians sitting in this restaurant all eating out of one dish. Now I never once thought about how that would look to other people and the owners really didn’t think anything of it either. I mean the waitress brought us six forks and the one dish. so there we were all taking bites of eggs sausage and potatoes and cutting off little pieces of toast. visiting and laughing and just having a good time . Then a man stopped by the table and offered to buy us something to eat, we politely declined. Then another person came by and pressed $10.00 in my hand and said  you can get another breakfast or something.  I was so engrossed with the plans for the village that I didn’t give it much thought until later………………OH duh……what a sight we must have been, sitting there  all eating out of one dish. dressed in our best going to cut poles in a swamp clothes.

well those of you on the rez and nearby  might get a chuckle out of that and the update for the village is the weather, childrens mental health {my other life commitment} and ceremony and pow wow has just brought everthing to a slow crawl but I assure you  we will be finishing this all up before the 4th of July.

Actually the village had a visitor who is really excited about the idea . My old friend Sam English  is here  doing a bill board with the Youth Divison  for their second hand smoke  campaign. We told him the  spirit plate story. He laughed so hard.  We got to  talking about the village and the potential and he was all excited and said hes going to Hannaville Michigan but will be back here the 4th of July  for the pow wow. So he wants to see what we have done by then….so i said how about a little reception for you at the village, we will grill a little walleye, fluff up some wild rice, make you some bannock with maple butter and lots of fresh fruit. If you are really good we will do some rabbit soup with dumplings.and blueberry rubarbarb cobbler. He says we are on . actually he was never raised here so being born and raised in the southwest Im sure he would like that cusine as well maybe even perfer it so I will throw in some enchiladas and and rice and beans and can’t forget the glacamole chips and salsa. 

well gotta run ……..check back for the pictures , coming soon ……..maybe we will even get one of Sam at the village.

The Cass lake Indian Village is becoming a reality.  Today we had the ground blessing  { a cultural equivalent to a ground breaking but with so much more meaning to us and explanation to all our relatives as to what we are doing there}. We will be building a large lodge and two smaller lodges as soon as the weather permits.

We had scheduled today to be the day to start building the village but the thunder birds and big winds had other plans. We are not complaining about the rain. the past two years has been so dry that berries, plants and animals had a hard time  living. Not to mention the farmers and  and the forest fires that start under drought conditions.  So we are grateful for the rain but we felt it be best if we weren’t out cutting poles in a tamarack swamp today.  we have rescheduled the building of the village for the next nice day so with in the week I hope we will have pictures and  a progress report to blog.

The Indian Village was one of the projects  we picked for the community and laying the foundation { so to speak} has been a long  and tedious process. Working through all the layers of the bureaucracy and trying to  partnering with  various organizations to do this has been unfruitful.  We selected a site and for 2 months operated under the assumption the city owned the property we were going to build on and everyone who we talked to about it told us that it was a good idea and  went to the city council to get the action needed to solidify the project we were told that we had to get approval from a local museum board who has a building adjacent to the property.  So upon contacting the museum board  we were told “good idea, maybe next year” .  We were given suggestion to build it across the road on Indian land, where “they  always do things anyway”.  I responded with “yes we should just go across the road and stay there”.  Which has been a big factor in trying to accomplish anything in this town.  Any way ,after a big runaround we found out neither the city nor the museum board owned this property , Min-dot does and they will not give  approval for the village, citing a high risk intersection of highway 2 and 371. I actually think its more like the hi risk intersection of the “R” word and  Reality,  but what do I know??   I do know that the “R” word is alive and well in this town and the people who deny it are deluded and contribute to the problems, but those of you who are native know what I am saying. Those that aren’t are most likely saying “what is this about? or that kind of talk contributes to the issue. Oh well I’m just reporting what I am seeing through my Indian eyes.

Cass lake is a city located on the Leech Lake Indian reservation. and Highway 2  has been the dividing point between the city and the reservation. The Indians that did live in town lived mostly across the rail road tracks on what we now know to be a Superfund site. {That is a whole different story in its self}.

Mean while a business owner heard of our plans and invited us to build on Highway 2 next to their restaurant. So if you are ever in the area stop and see Marilyn and Larry Glass at Chucky’s Chicken. You can”t miss it , it will be the only restaurant in town with its own Indian Village and if its during the summer months we hope to have local artisans there selling their wares or actually making their crafts. We hope to have educational programs and are advertising …….Have your next naming ceremony or  wedding in a WIGWAM.  We hope this to be a gathering place for  people to use. Already we have been contacted by a person looking for a site to do a men’s group.   Endless possibilities there.  Educational  programming and hopefully some stimulation for the economy by supporting the local artists maybe even planning an Indian Market  a couple times a year.

Also more to come , after we  finish the start of the village we have great plans for winter time activities so check back for updates on the village and plans for the fall and winter. 

Also because I have an” I live here and I am not going away attitude” our other project will be ripening here soon but I am saving that blog for the Kat to write about so stay tuned…………………and then theres the issue of we have a nice little building on mainstreet that is the seniors citzen center that is only open a few hours a week.  so stay tuned as we continue to partner with the town folks and have fun in the process. What am I saying??? Im a town folk too and a city proerty owner even. A tax payer too!    hummn I just forget sometime!!