Reflections - CSS Students

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Mary Schwend

I’m proud and grateful to tell you about meeting Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids. We met them just days after they were sworn in as the first Native Americans to serve as U.S. congresswomen. We crowded into Deb’s office and I was overcome with the feeling that she was representing me. For the first time I felt that someone was representing my heritage, my people… our people.

Next, we visited Sharice. Again we filled her office and she asked us to go around the room and tell us about ourselves. We called out our tribal affiliations, Bad River, Red Cliff, Fond du Lac, Tlingit, and many more. These two powerful legislators have strong fresh voices and are standing up for 5.2 million American Indian and Alaskan Natives. They broke into one of the highest political arenas in the world and that makes me full of hope for the positive changes to come.

Mary Schwend is from Winona, Minn. She is a CSS pre-med student with a biology major. She is from the Sioux St. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Alexis Edwards is from Yakutat, Alaska, and is a member of the Tlingit Tribe. She is shown here with Congresswoman Deb Haaland.

Alexis Edwards

As a Native Alaskan woman from the Tlingit Tribe, the trip to DC was such an experience. There are concepts and issues surrounding Native Americans on a social and political level that I know about but seeing how those manifest in the Capitol was eye opening. I was beyond grateful to meet congresswomen Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids. I was able to witness and appreciate our resiliency, and how far our people have come. That being said, the sort of ‘European’ narrative that’s adopted throughout the monuments and facilities reiterated how far we have to go as a country in acknowledging my peoples. As a whole, I was not only reminded of the shortcomings in how US history is portrayed, but also the progress in the voices of indigenous people across the country.

Maddie Urrutia

On the trip, our similar backgrounds really allowed us to open up, connect, and get to know each other quickly, which made the trip so much more enjoyable both on the road and in DC. I really enjoyed everything we learned. Whether it was the Holocaust museum, the Capitol, or the Carlisle army barracks. Everyday was something new and something we could trace back and relate to our native ancestors and the suffering they went through in this country. One of my favorite things was visiting the army barracks and getting to walk where my ancestors once did, and learning about the oppression they went through. It was also interesting learning about the good things that happened and how some by their own will, attended that school because of the education it had to offer to get a good career in the workforce. I liked knowing that it wasn’t bad for all. Overall, I believe the trip was very educational and gave me the chance to find and expand my native identity. It wouldn’t have been as great of a trip if I didn’t spend it with the people I was surrounded with. Being with a native community while we discovered ours made this learning experience like no other.

Maddie Urrutia is a sophomore at St. Scholastica and studying social work. She is an Ojibwe and a descendant of Red Lake Nation.

Alisha Rae Smith is an enrolled band member and currently resides on the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. She has completed her Bachelors of Social Work at the College of St. Scholastica.

Boozhoo, my name is Alisha Smith.

I’m a first generation college student. I participated in the extended program, which means I was a student of St. Scholastica but took classes at the Fon Du Lac Tribal and Community College. Being an extended student of the College of St. Scholastica has had pros and cons: one of the biggest cons, was having a “disconnection” from my peers at the main campus. When hearing about the Washington DC trip, I was very excited and nervous. Nervous, because I didn’t know anyone else that would be going and excited because I was going to be meeting others from the main campus. Therefore, the highlight of my trip was to finally meet my connection from the College of St. Scholastica and the University of Minnesota Duluth. It will make the rest of my journey at the college more exciting and I know who to contact if I’m struggling.

The museums we were able to visit were educating and emotional. To be able to learn and hear about the traumatic events that people in earlier years had to experience were very emotional for me, this is something that is taken for granted. As an American Indian, to be able to continue to learn about the people who sacrificed their children, families and experienced traumatic events to be where we are today.

Anna Bankey is from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She is from Brainerd, Minn. She recently graduated with a B.A. in social work.

Anna Bankey

I almost made a choice to not visit the Holocaust Museum. Being the great grand daughter of a Nazi soldier and an Ojibwe woman felt like it would be too much for me to emotionally handle. I recently graduated with a B.A. in Social Work from The College of Scholastica in December 2018 as a non-traditional student. Then I immediately started graduate school at The University of Denver the week I was on this trip. My concentration under my MSW program is Mental Health and Trauma. As the group was gathering in the hotel lobby to depart for the Holocaust Museum, I was going to call the coordinator and bail out on this trip. Emotionally, I thought this is going to be hard to see. For all of us. Then I thought of the reasons why I am continuing my education by pursuing a Masters degree in Social Work so that I can work as an Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker focusing on helping heal others from trauma, I thought I need to do this.

More from Anna...

I had to see faces of the Holocaust victims and I had to see the faces and hear the stories of Holocaust survivors. I also decided that I had to see the faces of Nazi soldiers. While I was at the Holocaust Museum - I met a researcher who was working there that day. I shared with him the limited information I had pertaining to my Nazi soldier great-grandfather. My family had been searching for information on the German side of my great-grandfather but didn't have much success. The researcher located three soldiers by the name of my great-father. The first one was too young. And second one died while serving as a Nazi soldier. And the third one came back as a match on age.

There was a narrated interview story about my great-grandfather from a Jewish woman who was part of the group he was in charge of. The survivor said his name, and that he was the one soldier who risked his life to help bring food and water and medicine to the Jews he was overseeing. She said that he treated the prisoners like they were human. She mentioned that he was always drunk. The reason why we was drunk was because she said that he explained that from the first time he was instructed to shoot and kill a mother, family and children, that he saw them them fall into their own blood. He said that they all stood up again, and was instructed to shoot them again.

He told her that seeing this family fall into their own blood again and die was too much for him to handle. He told her that he can not stay sober anymore because of what he had been forced to do and what he had seen. She also said that he had a mistress and how he helped the Jews without being detected was that he would bring his mistress with him. They were given privacy so they could be together. It was during this time, these two would have privacy and be able to gather some prisoners and give them food, medicine and water.

She believed that if it wasn't for this soldier, that she would have died from starvation and sickness. She wrapped up the interview by stating she heard he "went away", and she never heard from again. In piecing this story together, when my great-grandfather fled the county and settled in the northern woods of the north shore near Duluth, Minnesota - he met my great-grandmother. She lived in a tipi in the woods and did not speak German or English. He did not speak Ojibwe. But they were able to converse in other ways.

These two had two children together. My great-grandfather never sobered up. He died by drowning when he was standing on a dock in Duluth was fell in the water. It is the impact of learning how historic trauma that has affected both the Ojibwe side of my family as well as the German side of my family that I curious about learning more.

This opportunity provided to me by Scholastica and UMD brought together so many aspects of power, privilege, oppression, genocide, and war trauma education for me. I hope to use these experiences to help others heal from trauma with my continuing education. Thank you CSS and UMD for this opportunity!

Adikoons Hayley Olson

I am so grateful for this trip and all the opportunities it brought. I feel so empowered and uplifted, like I am ready to take on another chapter of life. We had the unfathomable and impactful opportunity to be one of the first of many groups to meet the first Native American congresswomen.

Adikoons Hayley Olson grew up in Duluth, Minn. and is First Nations Cree. She is a UMN alumna and a CSS graduate student.

CSS STAFF REFLECTIONS

Chris Davila, CSS staff, is from Duluth, Minn. He has Mexican Heritage.

Chris Davila

To wrap up the D.C. Leadership Diversity Tour we attended the Carlisle Army Barracks in Pennsylvania, previous home to the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School. Every aspect of this trip has involved this stark contrast.
On one side there is this lack of physical and visual representation and recognition of Native people. Where it does exist such as the walls of the Capital, Washington team logos, museums and military installations, it is a poor, sad, inaccurate and tragic misrepresentation of Native people and culture.
On the other side I have had the honor to travel with a group of people united by their Native identities and commitment to supporting and advocating for Native people and lands. We found that physical presence in the warm smiles and tears of Congresswomen Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids, the first two Native Women of Congress, as they welcomed us into their offices, lifting our hearts and inspiring us.
We found, sought and remembered family heritage at the Cumberland County Historical Society where many from our group were able to find relatives that attended the Carlisle Indian Boarding School. Almost one hundred years after the boarding school closed in 1918 this group walks the grounds in the footsteps of their ancestors, where the goal was to strip them of their Native identity, but now with heavy hearts we remember. They are not forgotten, we will not forget and we remain vigilant and inspired to ensure that this history does not repeat itself.
I am reminded of my responsibility as an ally and the importance of developing relationships which are the doorway to navigating difference and creating understanding that then leads to responsible advocacy and action.

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