Hear From SDI Intern, Laundi Keepseagle

"Híŋhaŋni wašté.  Emačiyapi ye Laundi Keepseagle. Good Morning. My name is Laundi Keepseagle. I am Dakota Sioux from the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. I have two beautiful daughters, Alexanndrea Germaine and Kyemoni Dakota. The blessing of my children laid out a new path in my life. I decided to attend college shortly after my first daughter was born.

I am currently a Sustainable Development major at the College of Menominee Nation and an active SEEDS member.  I am very inspired by one of my professors, Dr. William VanLopik. During his Intro to Sustainable Development course, I was first introduced to the interconnections of economics, ecology and social equity. I was drawn to social equity issues and hope to continue my education further in this direction. My major goal for the future is to open eyes and hearts to social equity issues happening everyday throughout indigenous tribes across the globe.

The Sustainable Development Institute Sustainability Outreach Event Planner Internship has offered me a running start on my goal. With this opportunity, I have been able to connect with the audience I find most important, children. Thus far, I have taught four classes on sustainability with an emphasis in science and art. I feel that hands-on learning is far more effective than lectures and this internship has given me the chance to explore this thought. I hope to step outside my box and not be afraid to fail. I want to make an impact on the community and spark interest in sustainability."  

Tsachila Indian Nation of Ecuador Cultural Exchange Visit

On Tuesday, October 23^rd 2012, College of Menominee Nation welcomed guests from the Tsachila Indian Nation of Ecuador. It was their first visit to the United States. College of Menominee Nation, CMN Sustainable Development Institute, and Menominee Tribal legislature representatives were excited and honored to welcome them to Menominee soil. “We are always interested in learning from other Tribes. It helps us understand our responsibility with other Indigenous Peoples,” said Dr. Verna Fowler during a welcome address, “It also helps us understand how lucky we are to live in the United States.”

Tsachila representatives Henrry and Diana Calazacon gave a presentation and shared their story. They were accompanied by UW Marathon County Host and Interpreter Dr. Ronald Lippi.

The Tsachila live on seven small reservations in Ecuador. The people are known for their medicines and diverse knowledge of rain-forest plant use. In addition, Tsachilas are fine musicians as well. “The music helps us harmonize with nature,” said Henrry Calazacon.  And although the Tsachila honor both a sun god and waterfall goddess, Henrry tells that their real god is nature itself.

Today, the Tsachila are faced with many challenges including deforestation and even relocation due to the discovery of oil under Tsachila reservation lands. Urban sprawl from nearby cities, primarily Santo Domingo, threatens land use development and accelerates pollution.

Legally owned Tsachila forests have been and continue to be taken over by loggers, ranchers, and issues are ignored by the Ecuadorian government. “When it came to standing up to firearms, it really wasn't much of a match,” said Henrry, “Traditionally, we have our own resources and food with fishing and harvesting, but now it’s becoming polluted. We have a very healthy diet when we can get our own food, but don’t know how much longer it will last.”

Though there have been lawsuits filed in efforts to keep rivers clean, Henrry notes that the big powerful influences disregard the Tsachila and have the following mentality: ‘They are a small minority, so who cares.’ Recently, developers found petroleum under one of the seven reservations. Henrry noted that although the people were initially happy to have this source of revenue, the Tribe was soon devastated when government officials began to re-claim the land for themselves and tell the Tsachila they must move. This is just one of the unjust issues the Tsachila people are facing today.

Like many First Nations, the Tsachila face the danger of losing cultural knowledge and traditional ways - for example, how to traditionally make Tsachila cotton skirts. As the great grandson of the one of the last great Tsachila chiefs, Henrry more than ever sees the importance of preserving this knowledge. “Many elder leaders are dying off, so we are now realizing the importance of teaching children the Tsachila culture,” said Henrry, “We are reaching out to others to learn and reach out to them.”

The Tsachila value and compliment the natural environment they live in. The people now face losing this valuable relationship with the forest and the medicinal plants within it. “We are very concerned about the loss of our plants,” said Henrry. To preserve the plants and the traditional knowledge behind them, the Tsachila want experts to visit and teach them how to preserve this knowledge and save their rapidly dwindling forests.  “In regard to scientific research, we welcome friends with open arms to share and learn from them as well,” said Henrry.

Today, the Tsachila face these issues by encouraging higher education; in the past, Tsachila people, particularly women, were not encouraged to go to school for fear of cultural loss. Tsafiki, their spoken language, is taught in reservation grade schools, but students must then attend public schools for middle, high school, and college. Diana Calazacon is a modern example of strong Tribal female leadership and is working toward a college degree. “I am studying law and am aspiring to be a lawyer; I want to help my tribe with legal issues,” said Diana.

After their presentation, Henrry and Diana fielded questions and met with Menominee Tribal Leaders Craig Corn, Gary Besaw, and Myrna Warrington. Craig Corn, Menominee Tribal Chairman, explained how Menominee government is run, especially in relation to legislation, election, and Tribal Sovereignty. CMN SDI wishes to thank our visitors for sharing their story with us. 

"Hello!" from SDI Intern Deidre Wolfe

My name is Deidre Ann Wolfe. I am 29 years old and the proud mother of an amazing and beautiful girl named Nevaeh Boyd and the significant other of Jerred Caldwell. We are also happily awaiting a baby that will be here in early February 2013. I am also a member of the Lac Courte Orellies Ojibwe Nation. I have obtained associates’ degrees in pre-nursing and biological sciences from College of Menominee Nation (CMN) and am currently working on a bachelor’s degree in education. My current goals and intentions for my educational journey are to provide the best life I can for my family and to work for a Native American tribe. My teaching goal is to help inspire Native American children to reach their full potentials and continue on into higher education. I also want to incorporate my love of sciences into my teaching and open up children’s eyes to the possibilities, creativity, exploration and opportunities that science brings.

I am super excited now to have the opportunity working as the Sustainability Outreach Event Planner Intern. I will be working with Laundi Keepseagle who has the same position and our supervisor is Kate Flick. This internship is perfect for me because it gives me the opportunity to reach the community through science, technology, engineering, and math. The audiences we are planning to reach are K – 12 students, CMN and the broader community.

Planning these events is very exciting because there are so many possibilities. My personal goals for this internship are to build my creativity for my future teaching career. I also want to inspire people to be more interested in science and to help people connect with nature. A lot of children do not know all of the possibilities of science careers and the more awareness we put out there, the more educational success our community will have.

AASHE Experience

College of Menominee Nation representatives attended the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference in Los Angeles, California earlier this week!  CMN President, Dr. Verna Fowler, and two staff from the Sustainable Development Institute (Julie Edler and Kate Flick) attended.

In a candid interview with the two SDI staff, hear what Kate Flick and Julie Edler have to say about the experience:

So, what is AASHE?

It's the biggest campus sustainability conference in North America. It is an excellent way to get a grasp of what exciting initiatives are taking place on campuses around the nation. We attended sessions, gathered some new ideas and contacts, and are ready to head back to Keshena, Wisconsin with a new energy and some great projects to implement. Not to mention, guests at the conference heard about the College of Menominee Nation and learned about Menominee's model of sustainability. It was a great place to meet new people, learn, and share ideas.

What was the best part?
There were so many great aspects, it's hard to narrow it down to one "best part."  I have a bunch of key takeaways from a few different sessions.

Like what? What were the sessions like?
One presentation focused on developing campus sustainability tours. Since SDI is in the process of making one, it provided us with a few ideas. They highlighted how important it is to have communications and marketing in line with the school and reminded us that branding shouldn't be forgotten. They had their tour available to look at and QR codes to scan to see ideas for facts, information, and videos on their campus sustainability efforts.

Some AASHE workshops focused on enrichment workshops for health in relation to sustainability. We learned how important and helpful it is to interweave health and reflection throughout all areas of sustainability whether it be with the community, interns, or even within our own staff.

We've got other great processes to implement about working with students and interns at the Sustainable Development Institute. We learned new ways to train, evaluate, and help our students get the best experience they can. In addition, another session about "Trends in Sustainability and Education" as well as another session on preparing interns for the workforce highlighted new ways SDI can make the intern program better.

That's just a tidbit of the information from the conference. There is much more that we have to bring back. A special workshop on Wednesday highlighted how to build a better "Community of Practice." It taught us the importance of trained and experienced leadership skills and included ideas how to better communicate what's happening in a moment and where direction is headed.

Also, SDI has some workshops in motion and we got some great ideas and training how to better run them. SDI also has an idea for the possibility of doing a film festival, so we got some great contacts and facts about sustainability film festivals and how to go about doing that.

What's the weather like?
Beautiful! We really can't complain!

Julie Edler and Kate Flick will be back on campus on Monday and look forward to it!