Kelly Jackson, Singer-Songwriter (Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe)

    

Used by permission

    Madison-area singer-songwriter Kelly Jackson is seated on a comfortable couch, in the middle of female friends and family.

     “I really like being home,” she says to the circle of kind faces. “It was a challenge leaving here and moving away from the rez. It’s a big change but it’s always nice to be back home and share time with my friends and family. This is like medicine to me.”

     In this opening scene from Jackson’s first music video for her 2012 debut album, “Spirit of a Woman,” it’s easy to see where Jackson gets a lot of her artistic inspiration.

     “My creative process is always rooted in who I am as an indigenous woman and how I can create a message others can feel and relate to,” she said.

     As a member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, she grew up listening to Pow Wow drums and classic country music artists like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. Jackson describes her music as “Native Americana” - an infusion of rock, country blues, jazz and folk and Native American musical influences.

     Born in Wausau, Jackson started writing music while in elementary school, and performed her first song when she was 11 years old. She took her longtime hobby to the next level when she became a mother and had time to pursue music. “It was a pivotal point in my life for me to make that decision,” she said. “It was sort of my own gift to myself. I wanted to conquer some of my own dreams and hopefully radiate how important that is to my own daughter.”

     Jackson reached a career milestone in 2010 when she recorded the Lac du Flambeau Children’s Choir performing parts of her song, ‘Gaawiin Niiwii Izhaasiin,’ which tells the story of the difficulties of a Native child being forced to attend the nearby Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Government Boarding School Complex. This song also appears on “Spirit of a Woman.”

    “It took me awhile to actually put things together,” she said of her album. “I started out with a collection of songs that I thought would be on the album and as the year progressed, I realized how important other women in my life were I really wanted to dedicated my album to all those inspiring women who shaped where I am today and gave me further empowerment to continue to record and write. The songs were selected for that reason.”

    The album also includes a guest performance by her son, David Jackson, who raps on the song, “Where Have You Been?”

    “Spirit of a Woman” was received so well that Jackson was nominated for several categories at the 2013 Native American Music Awards (NAMA), including Best Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year and Best Historical/Linguistic Recording of the Year. Jackson won the NAMA award for Best Folk/Americana Recording for her album.

     “It was exciting to be on the roster with so many talented singers and musicians, “ she said. “It was a striking recognition.”

     Music is not the only area that impassions Jackson. She runs ‘Indigenous Networks,’ a consulting firm specializing in many aspects of tribal preservation. She was the coordinator for the nationally-recognized “Legacy of Survival: Boys Dormitory Interpretive Initiative,” an intertribal project to restore the Lac du Flambeau Boarding School Dormitory building and create exhibits, archives, an Ojibwe language program and other educational activities that center around the preservation of tribal culture.

She also is the Tribal Liaison for the State of Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Jackson’s third and newest project is ‘Spirit of an Ikwe (Woman) Productions.’

     “This is a personal and professional development organization which focuses on revolutionizing the image of women in media and music through training and workshops,” she said. Jackson’s 16-year-old daughter, Demisha, is also involved in the retreats.

     Spirit of an Ikwe recently launched woman-friendly products, including a specially-designed t-shirt and jewelry made from recycled guitar strings, crafted by Madison musician Beth Kille. To help fund workshops for disadvantaged women, Jackson’s website also sells a gift package that includes the shirt, a piece of Kille’s jewelry, a CD and a special handwritten note from Jackson.

     For Jackson, the future holds many more creative projects, including “Renditions of the Soul,” an album that Jackson is still working on.

     “’Renditions of the Soul’ is slightly edgier, and a bit more rock-folk infused with some blues influences, and the content of the songs are not necessarily focused on the uplifting pieces, but radiate messages about being impacted by alcoholism in our community. There’s a song called ‘Walking with a Ghost.’ All of my music in the next chapter will be rooted in my native culture, so I intend to infuse the same sorts of influences like hand drums,” she said.

     For more information on Jackson’s music and Spirit of an Ikwe, visit http://spiritofanikwe.com
                                              -by Thomasina Merkel

                                           

Sandra Peterson, Artist (Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe)

Sandra Peterson.  Photo used by permission

Photo used by permission

      “I’ve been making baskets for more than twenty years,” Sandra Peterson said.  “During the week I work as a billing clerk for Tribal Water Utilities and I make baskets on weekends and whenever I have spare time.” 

    Peterson and her husband David are master basket makers of traditional Ojibwe baskets or wiigwaasii  makak.   They make makuks, rice fanning baskets, and storage containers using traditional materials.  Peterson learned basket making from Jerry Maulson, an elder in the Lac du Flambeau community where she grew up.   Now Peterson and her husband David work together to keep alive   The knowledge is being passed on to their nephew, Jason Peterson, who also accompanies Sandra and David to gather the birch bark that is best for etching, winter bark. 

Harvesting birch bark.  Photo used by permission

     Winter bark is gathered in April and May.  It should be peeled off the birch tree when the weather is warmer, about the time when the maple sap is running most freely.  Then, it comes off easily.    At that time of year, birch bark has a thin layer of film that makes it ideal for etching. Summer bark is taken in June and July.   It has no film, but is easier to get off. 

     The bark is sewn together with strips of basswood bark known as wii goob.  A basswood tree about 8 inches in diameter is stripped of its bark and cut down.  The strips are soaked in water to ferment for three to four weeks, then coiled, and look like raffia.  Rims for the baskets are made from splints of black ash and cedar.  “I make baskets with either the white or the brown side of the bark facing out.  I follow the way the bark wants to turn,” she says.  

    Traditionally, birch bark baskets were made for practical purposes, for cooking, storing and consuming food.   They were of different sizes, some large, some small.  Birch bark traditionally was used for many purposes, for hunting and fishing gear, canoes, wigwams, and even musical instruments

and decorative fans.

    

Peterson's etched baskets.  Photo used by permission

    Sandra and David’s baskets often feature etchings made with a tiny spoon-like tool.   One layer of bark is scraped away, revealing a different shade of bark beneath.  Peterson’s designs come from a variety of sources.  A design of a deer or trees may be inspired by life or from a photo. “I can be inspired by a design on the internet.  Or I might also take a traditional Ojibwe beading design.  I cut around the design with my etching tool,” she says.  Etching a single basket may take anywhere from a week to months to complete. 

      The Petersons’ baskets are on display at the George Brown Museum, the Woodland Center in Lac du Flambeau and the Madeline Island Museum, where the Petersons have been artists-in-residence in conjunction with the exhibit “Art Traditions of the Anishinaabeg”.  Sandra Peterson has been a featured artist at the Burpee Museum in Rockford, Illinois and at the “Masters of Tradition” exhibit at the Dane County airport in Madison.  Peterson gives a seminar on basket making at Oneida every summer, and her baskets are in private collections in Germany and France.  She is also a moccasin maker and beader.  Her soft-soled Ojibwe moccasins beaded in red-and-white stripes outlined in blue and white took first place at the 2012 Woodland Indian Art Show juried competition.

Photo used by permission

 Sandra Peterson's baskets are available at  Woodland Indian Art Center in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin or directly from Birchbark Baskets by Sandra and David Peterson

Dr. Carol Cornelius, Educator (Oneida)

   

     As Carol Cornelius stood in line to receive her Bachelor’s degree in Education at the State University of New York at Fredonia, a student behind her said, “I have to ask you something.  Do Indians still live in teepees?”

        “This guy was going to be a teacher,” Cornelius said, shaking her head.   “He didn’t know how to teach about Native Peoples without the stereotypes.  The Oneidas are one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederation.  Originally, we were from New York State.  We lived in longhouses which are bark-covered lodges that house an entire extended family.  This student didn’t know that but there he was, about to be a classroom teacher.  Right then, I decided that I wanted to help change that.  I wanted to educate the educators.”

     Realizing that many people have a very limited understanding of other cultures, Cornelius committed herself to correcting that.  She completed a Ph.D. at Cornell University.  Now retired as the Manager of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederation, Cornelius continues to teach at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and the College of the Menominee Nation.  Her best-known book, Iroquois Corn in a Culture-Based Curriculum, discusses the role of Native cultivated food crops, such as the traditional Iroquois Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash - that have contributed so much to the food supply of the entire world today.  Cornelius’ alma mater, Cornell University, has seed stocks that the Iroquois people gave to them.  These seeds provide a genetic reserve for saving the many varieties of corn that would have been lost in the process of developing commercial hybrids.   Corn, beans, and squash play a central role in traditional Iroquois culture; ceremonies are built around them.  It is impossible for traditional Oneida to separate their spirituality and thanks to the Creator from their food supply.  

      "The Oneida worldview is very different from what the dominant culture believes when it breaks the circle of life into parts, separating them from the unity of the whole," Cornelius said.  Humans are dependent on the natural world, she explained.  If we pollute our lakes and streams, we destroy our food supply  If we kill off all the wolves, the deer multiply beyond the capacity of the land to support them.  The circle is broken.  For example,  Ojibwe leaders insisted on having hunting, fishing and gathering privileges and the land that supports them written into treaties they made with the United States in the 19th century.  But local people did not understand those treaties or the logic behind them, and began a protest against Ojibwa who exercised those rights.   Beginning in the 1980’s, tensions heated up to the point that there were violent encounters and racist innuendoes near landings where fishing took place. 

       “Federal courts affirmed those treaty rights,” Cornelius explained.  “The Wisconsin state legislature then decided to pass Act 31.  Act 31 requires Wisconsin public schools to teach about Wisconsin Indian History, culture, and treaties at least twice during elementary school and once during high school.   In order for teachers to implement Act 31, they have to seek information and knowledge on Wisconsin Indians.  Universities need to require education students to take courses on Wisconsin Indians.  Some do and some do very little.”

       The Iroquois belief that the circle of life should be unbroken extends to other differences with the dominant culture.  First Nations people give thanks to the Creator for their way of life that includes survival in the natural world.  Mindful of the dependence of humans on all living things and on the Creator, the Iroquois have had a difficult time understanding why there was and still is so much rivalry between the competing Christian denominations that sent missionaries to them.   

      Cornelius remembers what a Lakota religious leader used to say: “When you get through arguing about your God, then you can tell us what to believe.”  This remark simply underscored the impact that the expansion of Europeans into the Americas had on the First Nations.  The European invaders assumed that they had a superior way of life and then began to conquer and displace the First Nations.  

     As the Iroquois saw it, the invaders seemed to have no respect for the circle of life, the unity of humans and the natural world. Respect for the natural world extends to people.  “People come first with the Oneida,” Cornelius explained.  “When there is a feast, our elders are always allowed to be at the head of the line. When the United States government makes cuts in help to the poor and to children and the elderly, they show to us how different their philosophy is from ours.  I see our influence out there, though,” she said, smiling.  “The Oneida came up with the idea that special parking privileges close to public buildings should be given to the elderly.  I’ve seen some of the big box stores doing that now.”   
        In order to further these values, the Oneida Nation started a tribal school in 1979 and in 1994, a high school.  The schools emphasize Oneida traditions and are teaching the language.  During the 1930’s, Floyd Lounsberry preserved many oral traditions in the Iroquois language, and these form the basis for current efforts to teach the language.  Today, Professor Cliff Abbot of the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay comes out to their school to help teach the language.  Currently, there are eight trainees in the Language Revitalization program for the enrollment of over 15,000 Oneidas.  Cornelius knows that reviving the language will be a slow process.  “Our goal is to produce fluent speakers who can teach our language to the rest of our tribal members so that we hear the language spoken on a daily basis,” she said.  

The University of Wisconsin – Green Bay has a major in First Nations Studies and there is emphasis on learning the Native languages.  “We are reviving the language, but it takes time,” Cornelius said, noting that the revival of languages like Maori in New Zealand and Hebrew in Israel were not accomplished overnight. She also believes that the Oneida schools can help correct the view that English should be the only language and that courses in Western Civilization should be the only requirement in universities.  “The College of the Menominee Nation is a step in the right direction,” she says.  There, courses emphasize the history and culture of the First Nations people.  

“Everything I do is about teaching respect for other cultures,” Cornelius said, underscoring the Iroquois worldview that people should not be killing other people.  “Instead, we should listen to the birds singing their songs and a thankfulness mind set every day of the year to the Creator.” Around her house on the Oneida Reservation, she has planted many things that help her create a sense of peace and remind her of how humans must live in an unbroken circle with all other living things.  “ The deer come up here, and the birds sing their songs and remind me of how we should give thanks to the Creator for all that we have, and keep our traditions.”