- On this "Native Report", we highlight Jenny Van Sickle, a city council member who has been leading the Wisconsin Point Land Transfer Proposal with the officials from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

This proposal will return Wisconsin Point's sacred burial ground back to the Band.

And then we see how in Seattle, Washington, a group is helping the members of their urban Native community combat homelessness.

We also learn what we can do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders.

- [Announcer] Production for "Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, Anishinabe Fund, and Alexandra Smith Fund in support of Native American treaty rights administered through the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, DSGW Architects, personalizing architecture, online at dsgw.com, and viewers like you.

(bright music) - In this episode, Jenny Van Sickle, the first Native American to serve on the Superior City Council has been leading the Wisconsin Point Land Transfer Proposal with the Fond du Lac Band officials.

Van Sickle believes there is a responsibility to respect these lands and make sure they are returned to Agibowe people.

and make sure they are returned to Ojibwe people.

(soft music) - The work we're about to accomplish is historic on behalf of people we have never met and their relatives, who we also may never meet.

(speaking foreign language) My name is Jenny Van Sickle, and I am Tlingit, Athabaskan, (speaking foreign language), and that means my people are from the water, that my clan house is raven, and my crest is frog.

And I am from the Sun House.

I'm Tlingit, which is coastal, and on my grandfather's side, I'm Athabascan, which is more interior.

The Tlingit people have been settled in Alaska since the beginning of time.

I am a city councilor here in Superior, Wisconsin.

I am born and bred in the Pacific coastal waters of Alaska.

That is my home, that is always my home.

Especially in public service, Native people, Native perspective, Native language, Native experience is often treated as optional.

There is a responsibility to understand the history of the land you live on and how the generations of decisions and development have impacted a people.

In 2017, was the very first time the city of Superior had ever recognized Indigenous People's Day, in 2017.

So it starts to come into focus that there are probably a lot of stones unturned or that people would start coming to you about tribal matters, even though I'm not Ojibwe or I'm not indigenous to Wisconsin, or what is now called Wisconsin.

So making sure that you're not speaking on behalf of all Native people or all Alaskans, just trying to broaden the lived experience of a council that is underrepresented dramatically by women, women of color, certainly indigenous people, and we still have a lot of barriers to break down.

We have a lot more firsts to get to.

Every year a local radio station hosts a medallion hunt.

Innocent, fun.

But however the clues were worded or whatever, there was a substantial and upsetting miscommunication with the contestants and the people that were looking for this hidden medallion.

And somehow they ended up on Wisconsin Point rooting through the sacred burial ground out there.

Wisconsin Point is a part of the area that I represent.

I was outraged, and a lot of people were, to varying degrees, but it felt like it was an area that had been underprotected for a long time.

Our police department, they went out there right away.

They protected the site in that way.

And then the radio station, they did the right thing.

They called the hunt off and apologized.

I think they were upset by it, too.

To me, it just demonstrated a larger disregard for the area and for the history.

So after that happened, I was, I think really frantic to find a way to respond and to talk about it on a larger scale and how as a city we could do better.

And so I came up with this idea to change the name of the road.

I had already not been calling it Moccasin Mike Road.

In our documents and our discussions, I would usually write "MM" or something like that.

I thought that I needed to address some larger misunderstandings or the way that mockeries of Native people.

Whether it's in your Saturday morning cartoons or in Hollywood now, Moccasin Mike just really seemed to personify that, and I thought, if people could go down there and have that narrative change that maybe they would enter the Point with a little bit more reverence or a pause.

There was a larger movement happening in the United States where different companies were changing beloved faces or names.

I suggested this name change in the middle of that, and I think it really helped focus people's ire to something local, something that was theirs.

I spent the next few days just reading hundreds and hundreds, well over a thousand comments online just tearing me apart.

I wasn't even Native and I wasn't even from here and I should go back to where I came from.

In the middle of all of that, Fond du Lac reached out.

They had the wherewithal to say, "All right, I think this is a person that is clearly determined to do something.

Let's give her some direction.

Let's work on something together."

And Fond du Lac agreed the name was totally nonsense and obviously not a Native person, but they really had their own vision of how the city could be a partner.

I think that was March of 2021.

From that moment on, I, of course, full pivot.

Fond du Lac had goals around Wisconsin Point.

Then I was just totally on board to get that done no matter how long and difficult that process would be.

By July of that year, I had done enough research.

I had done enough just collection of all these articles.

I had to find the deeds that were in a firm somewhere in Milwaukee.

I spent months researching and having conversations with the State Historical Society.

There were so many people willing to help what Fond du Lac had stated as a clear goal, and that was to return the sacred burial grounds at Wisconsin Point to the Band.

I met with a lot of descendants.

I really learned the history, and it was just very human.

These were people standing right in front of me.

It was important to understand the city's role, that it wasn't some vague slight against Native people.

It was a deliberate decision by leaders in Superior at the time to appeal a court's decision about that burial ground and fight the tribe and fight tribal sovereignty and ownership to make sure that U.S. Steel could build there.

- This particular site is on Wisconsin Point.

It is the old Wisconsin Point Cemetery.

Most of the people that were buried there had indigenous ascent, generally Lake Superior Ojibwe.

About a hundred years ago, the city of Superior, in the hopes of developing the area, decided to seize that property from the owners of the people that had been living on the Point.

They exhumed the graves.

And when we say mass grave, it's because the people that were exhumed did not get individual graves in the new burial place, which was along the Nemadji River.

So that by any definition would be considered a mass grave.

And in the modern world would be considered an actual crime against humanity.

- And then it turned into also working with the folks at St. Francis to also then include in the work.

Not only would we return the burial ground, but that we would work with the folks at the church to make sure that we could also return the site of where they were reinterred in a mass grave off of their property.

'Cause there had been this narrative that they were moved to a Catholic cemetery, and they weren't, it was a city cemetery at the time.

- What you are approving today is transferring the deed, actual ownership to the Fond du Band of Ojibwe.

It is a precedent to the process to eventually enter it into federal trust and conceivably make it reservation land.

But this would formally give your authorization to transfer to the Band.

- This has been a very long and difficult process.

And I also just wanna say thank you to Allison Johnson, who is not here tonight, but also the Council, the Councils that have come before us, the Council of last year who started this phase of it, and the representatives and the senators, the descendants, the tribal nations that have reached out in support.

We have had such an incredible opportunity to build on their work.

- All those in favor, please signify by aye.

- [Group] Aye.

- Those opposed say no.

Motion carries.

- At the end of the day, the burial ground itself was 0.2 acres, and people had spent over 100 years trying to get back 0.2 acres.

Fond du Lac's flag, over there in the corner.

It's only been in this room for a year.

And we had ceremony to have them planted here.

Over here we have a map on the wall.

The mayors used to be on that wall, but now we have a full indigenous language map of this area, because this building is a part of something bigger.

And I think that the people that work here can always strive to have better representation in not only our staff, but our policies.

- In a future episode, we will show you the celebration of the reclamation of sacred burial grounds back to the Fond du Lac Band.

(bright music) - Presbyopia is the gradual decline in closeup vision.

It's an inevitable part of aging and tends to sneak up on us.

It begins in your mid-40s and continues to worsen into your mid-60s.

You start to hold reading material farther out to keep the letters in focus.

Eventually, your arms just aren't long enough.

Close vision becomes blurry and eye strain can cause headaches.

Dim lighting makes it worse.

Reading glasses can help if you've had good vision otherwise.

I wore dollar store readers for years and had them balanced on the tip of my nose.

My wife thought they looked ridiculous.

The eye is an amazing organ, and we tend to take its miraculous abilities for granted.

The ocular lens is inside the eye and is shaped like the lens of a telescope.

The lens has a muscle ring around it that curves the lens to help us focus on close objects.

The lens hardens with age and can't change shape as easily.

The biggest risk factors for presbyopia is age.

Almost everyone has some degree of it by age 40.

Diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, or cardiovascular disease can increase your risk of developing presbyopia.

Certain medications can also increase the risk.

Presbyopia is diagnosed with a basic eye exam.

The eye doctor will likely put drops in to dilate your pupils so they can see into your eyes better.

They'll use various lenses to find your best vision.

Treatment for presbyopia can be eyeglasses, contact lenses, or refractive surgery that could include lasers or implants.

A healthy lifestyle is essential for the health of your eyes.

Keeping diabetes and blood pressure in control, eating a healthy diet, regular exercise, and preventing eye injuries with safety glasses and sunglasses are all important.

Quitting or reducing smoking, alcohol, and drug use will help your life in many ways.

Talk to your healthcare provider about your eye health.

It's a beautiful world out there, and seeing it clearly is a gift.

Remember to call an elder, they've been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr. Arne Vainio, and this is Health Matters.

(upbeat music) - Washington State is home to the Chief Seattle Club, which has supported urban Natives in need for help for decades.

We learn more about how they have recently opened a new housing facility to further help the needs of their community.

(bright music) (music stops) - They're valiant.

They have been separated from their lands and waters where they grew up, their people, and they find themselves on the streets.

- I've been out here for over seven years.

When the Alaskan Way viaduct was still here, I slept under that.

It sucks to be cold.

- And they are tough and resilient.

How they do it is beyond me.

I'm not that tough, I'm not that brave.

And so it's concrete and doorways and little camps off the freeway.

It's just tough and dangerous.

And people ask, "Well, can't they go home?

Wouldn't they want to go home?"

And my own feeling is, yes, they would, but they can't.

Too much has happened, too much water under the bridge, and things happened that sometimes drove them away from home, things that are hard for them to carry.

And so they end up on the streets.

- Oh my gosh!

Well, I'm Julie Codd.

I was born and raised in Spokane and of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, actually 60 years ago this year.

I think it started in 1970, early '70s.

So I took it 20 years later.

I was just, I carried it on and I felt like it was a baby, really, because it started and I just nurturing it and it just, to see it now and see what it's doing, I feel like this is where it's gotta be.

I had a hard time letting go, of saying, "This is not my baby anymore."

It's grown and it's fantastic and it's thriving and the people are running it.

So that thrills me.

That's just what it was meant to do.

- [Voiceover] The Chief Seattle Club is a home for our Native, urban Native relatives.

In this city, most urban centers, Native Americans don't really have places they can call their home that have true Native essence, true Native spirit.

♪ Yummy, yummy, yummy, ♪ got me love in my tummy ♪ - Thank you very much.

- In fact, a lot of places it's the opposite of that.

It's just a constant reminder of colonization, of what was taken away from you, what doesn't belong to you anymore.

And as Native people, that's what we see in the field or in these urban centers.

Chief Seattle Club provides a home, a place that's truly for Native people, a place where they can feel that it is their home, it is a place where they're loved, it is a place where they are belonged, they're wanted, they're accepted, and a place where they could thrive.

And so yeah, that's what Chief Seattle Club means.

- About two or three years ago, we opened a center called Eagle Village down in the Industrial Valley.

The county was able to buy trailers that had been used by oil workers in North Dakota.

And then when the oil boom crashed, the trailers were useless.

And so the county was able to buy them for very little money and we remodeled them.

That's now temporary housing for about 32 people.

- This housing has helped me, give me the less stress in life about worrying about where I'm gonna go to sleep or where I'm gonna go to eat or whatever.

And it gives me time to look for something I can afford, which is real hard here in Seattle.

- When we opened up al, which is real hard here in Seattle.

we totally transitioned all them and now they're into permanent units here in this building.

And we've got another 29 people off the streets in there, right?

So we're gonna kinda like use that as a temporary holding as we're building up more housing.

We'll move, transition them into our housing projects and try to get more people off the streets into our shelter program.

- I really appreciate how they run Eagle Village.

It's quiet, it's a lot of nice people here.

(rhythmic drumming and singing in foreign language) - The main thing we provide here is a social hub, is a community, is a sense of, like I said, a place where you actually have a sense of belonging, to know that you go here.

You come here and it is your space.

It's just as much your space as it is mine, and we're here for each other.

They don't have that relationship with other organizations, with other places.

You can't walk into a public library and feel like you're wanted and belong, right?

That's what we provide, a sense of family, a sense of community, and bringing our people together.

Because we know that we're not gonna heal each other individually, one at a time.

We have to heal our community as a whole.

And that's what we're trying to do.

- This is my favorite.

Oh, I love this.

Ready.

It's my happiness.

It's my peace of mind.

Through my trials and tribulations, I always felt I was a nobody and I was to the last step of committing suicide.

And so I don't dare do that, think that thought anymore, but that's how low I got in life.

I gave up.

It's my accomplishment, I'm very grateful that has given to me, because I've never given that chance.

And being from living in Eagle Village for three years, finding myself in their shelter, if you see me starting and if you see me now, it took three years for me to come back to presentable, like there's nothing wrong with me.

It shouldn't be that way.

With a lot of grooming from this place, I've learned rules, I've learned how to be hygienic, how to appreciate what I've got, and just how to be very thankful for what I have.

(rhythmic drumming and singing in foreign language) - In terms of new housing, we are just now taking over a project out on Aurora, near the zoo.

And that's for elders.

It's a brand new building.

Beautiful building, great location.

So in terms of the Native community, I mean, we're talking about a really huge impact.

- This club has been good to me for over seven years.

A long time.

- I guess that should tell me that dreams can happen if somebody perseveres, and the club from those earliest efforts, with Father Talbot and then Sister Julie and Janine and all the staff, and they're keeping going, and Colleen and Derrick, and they just keep rolling.

And it's phenomenal, it's phenomenal.

- Not only are they providing a place to live, but they give their residents a sense of community and belonging.

(soft music) - This is the reason we do what we do, is for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

And this little guy, I hope he grows up strong knowing who he is, because you need to know who you are.

You need to know who you came from.

Because if you don't, then you can't develop into the person who you wanna be.

It's so important for our youth to reclaim who they are as indigenous people.

And it is also important to continue to do the hunting, fishing, and gathering, because that's based in who we are as a people.

It's our treaty rights, and it's kind of the reason we retain our sovereignty as Native nations.

We need to teach our young people they finish the job that's started, because so many times practices are started and they're not finished in the right way.

So you always put your tobacco out before you start doing something.

You always clean up after yourself.

You make sure you have left no trace out when you're finished.

So if you're doing a sugar bush, that you've taken everything down and haven't wasted any of the sap that you collected.

Because it is the life blood of our Mother Earth.

(soft music) - If you missed a show or wanna catch up online, find us at nativereport.org and follow us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram for behind-the-scene updates.

And drop a comment on social media if you enjoyed the show.

Thanks for spending time with your friends and neighbors from across Indian Country.

I'm Rita Karppinen, we'll see you next time on "Native Report".

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Production for "Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, Anishinabe Fund, and Alexandra Smith Fund in support of Native American treaty rights administered through the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, DSGW Architects, personalizing architecture, online at dsgw.com, and viewers like you.