That Redskins weekend, learning a lot was going to mean covering: 1) a meeting of the Indian Mascot and Logo Task Force’s forum on race-based mascots, 2) Richie Plass’ exhibit of 300 items demonstrating Indian stereotypes, and 3) a gathering of protestors on the west side of Lambeau Field during the game itself. “We have a long way to go to change these things,” Walschinski explained. “Our newspaper staff is going to be busy this weekend.”
Walschinski started working at Kalihwisaks in 1993, after she graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, with a degree in Communications Processes. She worked for the publication for a few years, then as a videographer for two Green Bay-area television stations, WBAY and WLUK. Walschinski decided to come back to her roots and what she enjoys doing most: writing and editing. She has been managing editor of the paper since 2006.
She is also a playwright; her play, “Pow Wow Something” was performed in 2002 at St. Norbert College’s Walter Theater, located in the nearby city of De Pere. It is about a fancy dancer who hopes to win back his girlfriend. Walschinski said the topic of pow wows is personal to the Oneidas, but many Green Bay-area residents aren’t aware of their importance and history to the tribe.
“Green Bay is right next to the reservation,” she said. “For years, the 4th of July pow-wow has been a very visible event. Still, WBAY did not know the Oneida have a big pow-wow during the 4th of July weekend,” she said. “It’s not grass dancers and ribbon dancers so much. We do traditional Iroquois smoke-dancing where we use a water-filled drum, not a big drum, and create dust by moving our feet as we dance.That creates the impression of smoke. We dance counter-clockwise because that’s
the way the earth moves. The earth is our mother, and the moon, our grandmother.”
The Oneida, one of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederation, are divided into clans descended from women, originating in animals. “I’m a member of the Bear Clan,” Walschinski explained. “Women have held important positions in our tribe because we are descended from a line of clan mothers. Because of that, there have been fewer barriers for women to hold leadership positions. By 1964, the chair of the tribe was a woman, and we have had many members of the tribal council who
were women. Not only that, women have always been leaders pushing for better education and health. Our newspaper’s name Kalihwisaks means She Who Looks for News. ”
Kalihwisaks is available in print and online at www.oneidanation.org/newspaper. Walschinski said she and her team aim to provide the tribe with the highest quality local news content through many news-telling resources: the Internet, including Facebook, print, video and photography. The paper’s strong Facebook presence, currently ‘liked’ by over 2600 people, is an important facet to the publication. On the Facebook page, Walschinski and her team post photos, video, links to articles, and community updates. She also creates an online community by asking readers questions to generate story content.
Walschinski sees Kalihwisaks as a connection to home for the many Oneida who live away from the reservation and immediate area, notably in Milwaukee. “Part of the reason we went online is because there are so many of our members who don’t live in Brown and Outagamie County and they’re the ones who get the paper weeks after, so now they can connect instantly, “ she said.
The vast majority of articles, video and photos is locally produced; earlier incarnations of the paper relied heavily on wire stories. The locally-generated content keeps the small staff of four busy. The tribe subsidizes Kalihwisaks, and each Oneida household, as well as some subscribers, receives one of the approximately 8900 copies printed every week. The staff occupies space in the tribe’s Skenandoah
Complex.
The Oneida are gradually buying back much of their original reservation. It had dwindled to several hundred acres by the 1930’s. They have now acquired about one-third of the original reservation. It has taken a long time for the Oneida to realize a great deal of money from their casino operations. Walschinski recalls the first annual per capita payment of only $225; it came about the time she graduated from college.
What does the future have in store for Kalihwisaks? Walschinksi said she hopes to expand the newspaper’s staff and her team would like to eventually incorporate podcasts into the paper’s storytelling toolkit. “We would cover a mix of news and cultural items like language,” she said. “It would reach more people.”
“We’re very proud of what our tribe has accomplished in the past few years”, Walschinski said, “and our newspaper is part of that success, documenting what our people do and what is important to them. It’s part of the pride we have in being Oneida.”
- by Thomasina Merkel
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