Confidence, trash among items discussed at forum

Tribal candidates also address dogs on the loose
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

(Editor’s note: This is the second of two stories regarding an election forum for the Menominee Tribal Legislature.)

NEOPIT — Minor issues speckled among major concerns found their way into a forum on Jan. 3 as five candidates for Menominee Tribal Legislature made their case for why they should lead the tribe.

Confidence in government was one of the issues raised. The five candidates — Ron Corn Sr., Vincent Grignon Jr., Gena Kakkak, Karl Peters and Ron Waukau Sr. — noted that faith in the tribe’s ability to make things better on the reservation was shaky, at best.

Peters suggested that the way to change confidence in the tribe would be to help ensure everyone was gainfully employed. Besides providing jobs to those currently living on the reservation, he believes the tribe needs to find ways to lure back those who left the reservation for better-paying jobs and careers, so the people could spend their money in Menominee boundaries.

“I think employment is one of the biggest things that raises someone’s confidence, when they’re able to take care of themselves,” Peters said. “I would like to look at diversifying into different ventures that we can have right here at home to help provide employment and get people working.”

Low election turnout makes it evident that tribal members were not confident in their leaders and their work, according to Waukau. He pointed out the in-person attendance, which was less than a dozen people in the Menominee Tribal School gymnasium.

“How do you get youth and just tribal members in general to come out and give more input and care more about the issues in the tribe,” Waukau said. “That’s what I want to see — more people voting and more people giving input on the issues.”

Grignon recommended the tribe step up efforts to build homes on reservation land and help its people to ease their comfort of living.

“There’s no reason we should have a housing problem,” Grignon said.

Kakkak agreed the lack of housing is an issue, and for those who are homeless, services to help them get out of the hole are also lacking. She recommended helping Menominee with their education.

“We need to keep our Menominee people employed through education and training,” Kakkak said.

Corn, an incumbent, pointed out that the legislature has a lack of long-term vision, and he said a strategic plan would help the people to see that its leaders do have a plan for years down the line.

“We’re not strategic, and we can’t do everything,” Corn said. “If we were strategic, we could do some major things. Once we start committing to that kind of approach, we could see a lot of these issues related to our self-esteem … start to melt away.”

Litter problems

Garbage on the reservation also came before the candidates. For many of them, having the youth take the lead on the issue and pushing the adults to make communities cleaner seemed the best approach.

Peters suggested it will likely take the youth to take pride in their communities and learning to clean up not only after themselves but for others, as well.

“Sooner or later, it’ll catch on, and hopefully there won’t be any litter on the reservation,” Peters said. “It’s going to take the young ones to show that it isn’t right.”

Kakkak agreed, suggesting that the tribe hand the children some trash bags and let them take the initiative.

“We have to start working together,” Kakkak said. “You see a lot of challenges on Facebook, and our youth are tech-savvy, where they showed before and after cleanups. It takes our young people to do this, to talk about caring for Mother Earth.”

Corn suggested having an advertising campaign similar to what municipalities and states do for enforcing seat belt laws, noting that initiative came from kindergarten and first grade students.

“The youth say they don’t want the reservation looking the way it does, and they don’t want people throwing garbage everywhere,” Corn said. “We should have the youth police the adults.”

“Instilling it in our children (to) don’t be that guy, and when you do see stuff, don’t be afraid to pick it up,” Peters said.

Grignon said it would take youth and adults coming together to clean up their homeland.

“It’s going to take the community coming together and cleanup,” Grignon said. “This is a tough one because there are a lot of ordinances but we need to have proof of who did the littering.”

Waukau noted that the lakes, rivers and scenic areas are havens for litter and trash. Even with Earth Day cleanups in the spring, more needs to be done, he said.

“We pick up the same amount (of trash) or more, so how do we raise awareness?” Waukau said. “We need to raise awareness on recycling and more environmentally friendly things like using less plastic.”

Animal issues

Co-moderator Wapo Sanapaw expressed concern about the number of dogs running loose on the reservation and asked what the candidates could do to address the issue. All of them acknowledged there are already ordinances in place, but the problem lies in there not being anyone specifically responsible for enforcing animal laws.

Grignon pointed out the tribe has no “dog catcher,” but the tribal police have community service officers that can handle the animal calls, although that is not their primary purpose, as they also deal with code enforcement and other issues.

Corn echoed that point, noting the tribal police would prefer having police officers on the payroll instead of animal control officers.

“It’s crazy that you guys come up with this issue, because it comes up at every community meeting that we have as legislators, especially here in Neopit,” Corn said. “They’re concerned about dogs-at-large. It’s discussed to death, and nothing’s being done.”

Peters recommended that the tribe offer free spaying and neutering to prevent animals from breeding and adding to the problem, while Kakkak suggested working with Keshena Animal Rescue to host obedience classes on the reservation.

Waukau suggested looking at the ordinances in place and finding a way to strengthen them as a way to put more responsibility on the owner.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com

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THE NEXT STEP

Menominee tribal elections will take place next week. On Wednesday, voting takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the fire station, N3580 State Highway 47 in Neopit. On Thursday, voting takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Wilmer J. Peters Sr. Judicial Center, W3293 Wolf River Drive in Keshena.