Learning from those who were here first

From the time they were tiny, fuzzy buds, to now as they flush the last of their colors before blowing away in the wind, leaves serve as a reminder of the unique beauty in each stage of the earth's cycle and the life that is to come after a long winter.

As I drove home to Ely on a recent Thursday, along the winding, tree-lined Highway 169, this was the thought running through my mind. I had just finished reporting on the Summit on the Crisis of Indian Children in Minnesota at the Fortune Bay Casino, where tribal leaders from across the state had met to discuss the devastating state of many of their children due to opiate addiction – such as methadone and oxycodone – in the adults of their communities.

These opiate addictions have only led to tragic outcomes: burglarizing, elder abuse, poverty, poor health and the eventual destruction of families. Prenatal exposure to these drugs causes many children to enter the world already addicted to the same evils as their mothers. Many kids end up living with relatives or in foster care homes because their parents can't provide a safe and stable environment for them. Really, truly, tragic outcomes are threatening the future of their kids.

Yet, in the face of this cancer, these tribal leaders came together with such a strong and steady presence. They seemed actively aware of the state of their communities, appropriately concerned, and grounded in their love for each other. 

They talked with compassion, told stories – traditional stories – and reached out to each other and the present government social and county workers like they were all family. 

Steady. Compassionate. Respectful. Strong. 

If there's anything to learn from this American Indian conference, it's that unity and compassion are key to solving problems as a community. Accepting the criticism, facing the realities, tackling the demons and breathing the pain in-and-out together are what effective communities do.

Throughout the summit, it was repeated over and over again how these tribes and the state government have come together to solve this massive problem in recent years and protect the development of their children. 

A tribal leader from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe explained to me that this wasn't always the case. He said the state used to tackle American Indian issues without much input from the tribes their policies were affecting, and the tribes were stubborn in their ways, not willing to communicate with the state the way the state preferred.

"Now, we are working together. We've been fighting together," he said.

Many American Indians have worked to get college educations and governmental jobs in order to communicate with the Western World, he said. And the Western World has been listening to the Indian culture and involving them more in the policy-making process.

At the summit, together, they discussed the next steps in protecting their children from the affects of opiate abuse through the lobbying for amended state legislation. If established, this legislation would provide better drug education and treatment for Minnesota Indians, and better keep children in out-of-home care within their respective tribal communities. 

It seemed like it was starting to come together – and they even planned on more summits in the near future.

But after so many years of struggling with opiates, alcohol and child abuse, why were the tribes and government workers just coming together now and not earlier?

I asked the Mille Lacs Band member the same question, and he told me, "Part of our culture is to understand that things happen in their own time. And now, everything that needed to come together to make this right again has come together. It's part of the healing process."

I thought he was going to explain the string of events leading up to these conjoined efforts, but he left it a mystery, giving credit to the Creator for the timing. 

Now, I'm sure there's a timeline that could be looked back on, a list of cause and effects, just like scientists can pinpoint the environmental factors that lead to leaves blossoming and falling when they do. But the driving force behind all these causes – the Creator – is what this man from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe was getting at.

As I drove home from the summit to Ely, his words kept running through my mind: the healing process, the driving force, the earth's cycle. It seems to me that Ely follows a very similar cycle – the same as the leaves and the same as the Minnesota tribes.

There are worries about the economy, education and other issues affecting the future of Ely's children. And working at a newspaper that thrives on contradiction and boils down to the root of heated issues, I hear the blunt opinions almost everywhere I go. 

It's healthy to fight when there are major issues to tackle – necessary to fight – and Ely is in its combative part of the healing cycle right now. But lately, it's been reaching a point to where the quarreling can become unnecessarily classist, political and exclusive. 

This type of fighting is dividing the community. It's counter-productive and ego-driven.

The strong and compassionate interactions among the Minnesota tribal leaders and the governmental workers at the summit showed how effective and powerful a body of problem-solvers can be when they're united. 

The tribes ended the summit by asking all 100-some attendees – the tribal leaders, governmental leaders and me – to hold hands in a circle. Once we were all connected, one of the tribal women sang the most beautiful traditional song to echo both the pain and passion expressed during the summit. Then, we let go of hands, and I headed back to Ely.

Go ahead and roll your eyes at this, but it was for real, and it was grounding for everyone. To me, it was so cool. It showed that we can fight – and we definitely should fight – but in the end, we're in this together and we need to come back together before we can move on to the next stage in the cycle.

Since moving to Ely in May, I've come to love the place, and I hope as a community, we can follow in these footsteps and continue to move forward in this healing cycle. We owe it to the children.