Cass Lake, MN

Odenah, The Indian Market………..is what we have named the Indian Village. We have a large wigwam up and a smaller wigwam and 5 arbors and over the weekend we had vendors at the market. As soon as we can we will post the photos we have of the building of the market.

We have been blessed with the help of the youth works youth who are here in town doing work projects for the summer. Each week a new group of kids come and they are just amazed and excited to be building wigwams. For some it may well be the high light of their whole summer. for us its a pleasure working with and sharing knowledge with them.We do some story telling and teaching with them.Its a win win situation for  everyone. Some one asked where our kids were and why they aren’t out there and I said well about 500 years ago ………………..and you know how the story goes.  Actually I want to keep a positive out look here but along the way of the village we have learned somethings and one of these days I will blog about it and what we have learned.Meanwhile enjoy the pictures of the village and check back for  pictures of the talent show and poetry slam.

The weather didn’t cooperate but the show went on and we had some class acts. But mainly we had fun and if there was ever a community who deserved to have some fun it is this community.

All this went on as a part of the big RIB FEST celebration the town does.  Well, we choose to believe it was a part of the rib fest , after all they did put us on the schedule. And thats about as much collorboration that  the Horizons Group has seen with  any agenda item we have tried to implement.  So success at last I would say. and just wait until next year. Meanwhile, I signed on As agent to “Candace and The BAD to the BONE Boys” So if any of you need a class act of song and dance to entertain you contact me and we will hook you up.

These young people were wonderful and it made all the work worth it watching them preform.

The poetry slam workshop was a sucess i would say. and we are getting ready ,maybe next year we will have a team going to the nationals in Chicago………..In fact we could send two teams One from the city and one from the rez.  Oh the opportunity for youth out there. Unfortunately it all requires committed adults to make this work and sometimes around here it would appear that all the adults have already been committed or close to being there. Oh wait wrong kind of committment………………..anyway we are looking for more people to help with  community projects. Pass the word.

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.

On or about December 12th, the Cass Lake/Bena Family Center, located in Cass Lake started making phone calls. Calls went out to approximately 128 families that their 400 children were not getting toys this year. The Family Center gives out toys every year, but this year for some unknown reason, their application for toys from the Toys for Tots Program in the Twin Cities wasn’t received, or wasn’t processed.

The new director of the Family Center, Tom Blackbird was filled with regret and very apologetic to every family he talked to. He called my friend Sharon’s house and I took the call. “I’m sorry,” he said, “But, the Family Center isn’t having a toy give-away this year.” When I asked why, he told me and I said I’d pass the message on to Sharon.
Every year, for the past few years, I have helped pass out the toys at the Family Center. It has given me a sense of joy to see the mothers and fathers that come through, picking out the toys for their children and seeing the looks on their faces as they fulfill their children’s dreams of a visit from Santa Claus. The children were not the only ones that were going to be disappointed.

When I gave Sharon the message, she gave Tom a call to get more information. She told him, “Well, I don’t know what can be done, but give me a day, maybe something will happen.”

She got on the computer, and every name that was in her address book, she sent the same e-mail, letting them know about the crises at the Family Center. By the following Monday, she began to get responses. People started donating money and toys to the Family Center. The RTC of Leech Lake even made a donation. Then, Sharon’s sister, Joanne called and she had donors lined up, but they probably wouldn’t be able to issue checks until after Christmas, so the foundation where Ms. Stately works, offered to wire the funds in advance so that the Family Center would have that cash available for the purchase of toys.

As of this moment, the Family Center has collected enough money and toys for the children of this community through the generosity of strangers, that they’re going to have the best Christmas ever. My heart is filled with emotions I haven’t felt for quite awhile, the joyfulness and gratitude, the humility, the renewed hope. It’s like when the Grinch’s heart started growing again, and he didn’t know quite how to react. When tears came to his eyes and he cried to his dog, “I’m feeling, again!” Well, that’s how I am. Just so-o-o-o happy.
Sharon has proven once again what can happen when a pebble is thrown into a pool of water, the ripple effect of our actions can touch people at all levels. I am thankful that Sharon tossed that pebble.   The response has given me a renewed faith in the goodness that lies within each of us.   Have a very Merry Christmas and remember this story as your children open their presents, how four hundred children on the Leech Lake Reservation almost didn’t have Christmas.