(soft music) - Hello and welcome to Prairie Pulse.

Coming up a little bit later in the show we'll take a look at the new Spirit of the Sandbagger monument in Fargo.

But first joining me now is our guest and it's Fargo State Legislator, Ruth Buffalo.

Representative Buffalo, thanks so much for joining us today.

- Yes, (speaks foreign language) thank you in the Hidatsa language.

- Yes, well, great.

As we get started we always ask, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and your background.

- Sure.

Well it's protocol and to hold myself accountable in learning our Hidatsa language, I'm going to briefly introduce myself in the Hidatsa language.

- [John] Please.

(Ruth speaks foreign language) - So I said, hello, good people.

I am, I said, my name, my Hidatsa name is, is woman appears, was a name transfer handed on to me is my late grandmother Ruth's Hidatsa name, woman appears.

And so I'm honored to be here.

And I also said it's a good day.

- [John] It is a good day.

- So, (laughs) - And again, thanks so much.

How has your adjustment been and changed becoming a state legislator?

How's it gone for you?

And can you talk about some of the issues that are key to you?

- [Ruth] Sure.

Yeah.

It's been an interesting adjustment.

It's amazing to the degree of, I think many people across the state, even country will refer to me as a congresswoman and so it tells me there's a lot of educating that we need to do in terms of state government and what exactly we do at the state government.

We're often referred to as citizen legislators.

It's, it's considered part-time.

We meet every other year and we are one of five states, I believe, that meet every other year.

And one of four states where our house state reps are four year terms.

So I've been doing a lot of educating, but it's nothing new to me as a former coach, wellness program director and educator, by default, as a native American in our country, I feel like we're constantly educating and filling in the gaps of, of our nation's history.

So I joke and say by default native Americans tend to be educators.

(laughs) So yeah, I, I am adjusting well and learning so much still, but also still have a passion to want to share as much information as I can to our citizens so they can be more well informed of these processes and participate in these processes.

- Well, today, Representative Buffalo, we, we want to talk about this issue or a lot about issues rather, but, but we want to talk about Columbus Day.

Recently, Columbus Day has gone by and, and now called in most states Indigenous Persons' Day or Native American Day in South Dakota.

Can you talk about the history of Columbus Day and why, why it's now called what it is in North Dakota and South Dakota?

- Sure, well, in North Dakota, we still have Columbus Day.

There was a bill introduced by Senator Kathy Hogan that was wanting to also recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day at the statewide level on the first the, is it the first Monday of each month?

So this year it's October 11th, but in years past, I believe the Indian Affairs, former Indian Affairs Commissioner, along with others worked to have a First Nations Peoples' Day, which is the Friday before Columbus day.

And so there was a bill introduced to have Indigenous Peoples' Day simultaneously on what is traditionally known as Columbus day, but that bill did not pass.

And so at the local level, I believe primarily on the Eastern side of the state, Fargo has recognized or now does recognize the first Monday as Indigenous Peoples' Day, as well as Grand Forks, which passed recently.

I believe Indigenous Peoples' Day passed here in Fargo in 2014 and then maybe a few years ago in Grand Forks.

So it's a growing movement locally here, but regionally and across the country, there have been huge strides in having Columbus Day changed to Indigenous Peoples' Day so that's just a little bit background of the logistical piece of it.

So it varies in city to city, even state to state.

And so the, sorry, were you gonna say something?

- [John] Yeah, well, I was going to say, yeah, you were kind of getting into it.

So, so can you talk about, you know, why the labeling of the day as Columbus Day is changing and maybe why is it hurtful to Native Americans, or.

- Sure, I definitely cannot speak for every Native American person in our country, but I can just share a bit of my lived experience and my perspective, and from what I've studied and researched and witnessed is that, as I mentioned earlier, as Native Americans, we are often referred to, or kind of have this informal training of being an educator, because oftentimes we want people to know the richness, the goodness, the good history of, of Native Americans, you know, we were the original inhabitants of these, these lands.

Like for example, right now the Red River Valley is actually the original homelands of the Dakota people and the Anishinaabe people and I recently learned that the tribal nation that I come from also spent time at the headwaters of the Red River, near Breckenridge and Wahpeton area.

So there's so much history here also that Lakota, Hunkpapa Lakota used to come to this area and hunt during the summer so there's lots of, you know, history in these, these lands.

But back to being an educator by default, as a Native American, a lot of our, the true history is not taught in the classroom or in the school books and so we're left to fill in the gaps in an effort to bring people together, to reach a better understanding of our neighbors.

And so to answer the question, why is Columbus Day hurtful, or why is there a shift happening?

I would say a lot of it is from people wanting to share their story.

And so when we dig deep into our country's history and the history of the founding of our country, we find that there, that oftentimes the true history is not being taught and so having Indigenous Peoples' Day on the first Monday is, is a step towards celebrating the original people of these lands and that they are still here.

- Well, let's, let's talk about if you will, the, the current state of affairs on North Dakota reservations and overall for Native Americans in North Dakota.

- [Ruth] Sure.

One thing to keep in mind is that I currently represent in off reservation district.

So I'm here on the Western side of the state, but I grew up on the Fort Berthold Indian reservation.

So I'm a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nation.

And we know that each just as each community, each county is different within North Dakota, the same goes for Indian reservations, each reservation is different.

For example, some are referred to as IRA governments, you know, the Indian Reorganization Act.

And so ultimately I believe that tribal sovereignty needs to be protected in anything that we do, be at the state level, a federal level, county level, any jurisdiction tribal sovereignty needs to be protected.

And so oftentimes there, again, we're trying to educate our friends and neighbors, colleagues on the importance of tribal sovereignty, but each reservation is different.

And lots of, there are, you know, some universal issues.

If we look at health disparities within the Great Plains region, which includes all of the tribe, five tribes of North Dakota.

We have off the chart rates in cancer, diabetes, youth suicide is still very high.

And so we have a lot of issues in terms of public health and trying to improve the quality of life for our, within the exterior boundaries of Indian, Indian reservations so lots of work that needs to be done, but if we can get a baseline understanding as community members in North Dakota of tribal sovereignty and trying to understand why things are the way they are by looking at policies, decades and decades of policies that were by design meant to harm Indian indigenous communities.

- Why are some reservations seemingly more prosperous than others?

- Seemingly seemingly prosperous?

I would, I guess it just depends on what our definition of prosperous is.

- [John] Okay.

- I see tribe tribal nations, who might not have the highest wealth in terms of economic development or casino revenue, because a lot of the tribal casino revenue is what supports or what keeps the tribal government running.

And so that in term, oftentimes is the only economic, source of economic development for some tribes.

I mean, you have to factor in their location.

How, how close are they located to a major city?

You know, we've seen a lot of prosperity in neighboring states, such as Mystic Lake, you know, the it's located near Metropolis and they're very successful with casino revenue and other endeavors.

But when I think of wealth and prosperity, I also think of the richness of sustaining our language.

Language preservation is really important because we know that if a language is lost a nation no longer exists.

And so it's so important that we preserve our language and keep, keep that alive.

And so it just depends on the definition, but again, there's different policies and choices that different tribal nations have made.

- [John] Yeah.

What's unemployment like on the reservations in North Dakota?

- I believe that it's still a struggle.

I was earlier this past summer, I was invited to participate in a missing and murdered indigenous women walk across Turtle Mountain Indian reservation and one of the people I met on the walk shared how the stripping of unemployment benefits affected him and stated, made sure he let me know that even within Indian reservations, it impacted him and his family.

So.

- [John] Wait, you know, one of the biggest news stories right now is, is Gabby Patino murder in Wyoming and the search for missing boyfriend.

And while this is a tragic story, it's created a discussion more and more, talking about missing, missing women and men who are indigenous and other minorities.

They sell, some don't get the same media coverage.

Can you comment on that at all?

- Sure, you know, if we look at what happened locally here in August of 2017 in the tragic death and murder of the late Savannah LaFontaine, when we saw firsthand again, the different gaps within different systems, I think the media did the best they could.

In fact, that was one way we were following what happened to her.

You know, we were surprised to learn that she was still missing three days later after it was announced that she was missing.

There are so much, there's so much work that needs to be done.

And so that is a huge disparity in media coverage.

Media does have a opportunity to share the truth, but it also has an opportunity to help families of the grieving families who have lost loved ones.

And so we've had different people across the state share discrepancies in the media that they've witnessed with indigenous women going missing, indigenous men, children going missing, but yet our, our neighbors are receiving a different level of coverage.

And so what can that be attributed to?

Whether it's blind spots, implicit bias, we need to address this and, and make sure that the stories are, are getting out there.

We know that there's a Standing Rock member or relative who has been missing since this past summer.

And so Spirit Chasing Hawk is still missing.

And so that's another example of, nobody's heard of it.

And why is that?

You know, is it stereotypes?

You know, I, I remember point blank the people responsible for killing Savannah even said to the cops, she always goes missing, her parents were just here last week looking for her, which was completely false, but it's this implicit bias or continuing to have stereotypes of, of Native Americans.

- [John] Yeah.

Do you know how many missing indigenous women and men are currently, are unsolved in America and Canada?

- No, not at this moment.

There's a few things we need to keep in mind when we think of data.

First of all, it is under reported or doesn't get reported in North Dakota.

We still don't have an active database solely for missing people.

It, all it needs, what I'm told is a $75,000 fiscal note to get a database established within North Dakota to track missing people.

And then also to give access to different jurisdictions, including tribal.

So data collection is a huge, huge issue to this day, but it's across the board in terms of identifying and properly recording.

- [John] Yeah.

You told me a little bit about your family history, but can you trace it back?

And when you, and when was your family first put on the reservation.

- [Ruth] Yeah, further back then being put on a reservation because as I mentioned earlier, these are original homelands.

And so we say as indigenous people, or as citizens of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nation, we, we tell people that we are hundredth generation North Dakotans.

So we're very proud to be here still alive today, after surviving detrimental policy after policy.

And we're here to celebrate our existence, celebrate our children's existence.

You know, the fact that we, all of us are here today, not only Native Americans, but, you know, everyone has a story and it needs to be told and it needs to be celebrated.

- [John] Okay.

Along with yourself, can you talk about some of the success stories of Native Americans in North Dakota?

- [Ruth] Sure, there's a lot of, so much talent here in North Dakota, you know, as North Dakotans period, you know, throughout the country, we're known for having such a hard, good, strong work ethic, but also our values and so being a Native American, grew up in a rural area, Mandaree, North Dakota family was always number one, and also how we took care of the earth.

You know, how, what are we, what legacy are we going to leave for our children and future generations?

So there's so much talent in North Dakota from tribal college presidents to fashion designers, models, singers, basketball players, rodeo superstars, I mean, across the board, there's, there's no limit to the talent that we have throughout Indian country.

- Can you talk a little bit about how movies and I, you know, shaped the image, of course, the, the cowboys and indians motif negatively, I guess towards Native Americans and I guess there, or even white actors playing Native American roles for years.

- Yeah.

It definitely played a role in, in the general public understanding, or even realizing that we still exist today.

And so today I think of the young Native American actors, film directors who are out there really busting through those, those glass ceilings or those stereotype.

Some, for example, Rutherford Falls is a series on Peacock TV.

Also Rez dogs, reservation Dogs is on Hulu, both directed by Native Americans.

So I would encourage our general public to tap into those.

Those are just a few on this huge list of up and coming rising stars.

- [John] Briefly, can you talk about higher education opportunities for Native Americans?

- [Ruth] Sure, you know, higher education, education is so important.

We have such a high number of tribal communities that have advanced degrees.

Also really want to make mention of our tribal colleges, the Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, out of New Town, North Dakota within the, located within the Fort Berthold Indian reservation was recently listed as one of the top colleges in North Dakota.

And having gone to a tribal college myself and taught, coached, and led a wellness program at a tribal college in Bismarck for seven years, they are very good educational institutions that really focus on the entire student while fostering our, our traditional values and thinking of the future.

- I wished we had more time, we're out of time.

So if people want more information, where can they go?

- [Ruth] For any of the topics I mentioned or?

- [John] For any of the topics you mentioned about Native Americans, about Columbus Day, anything like that, yeah.

- There's so many good resources out there, but one that comes to mind is IllumiNatives, they're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, it would say follow them.

They, they work to educate the masses on current issues and, and that we are still here.

- [John] Well, education is what we're all about here, and that's important so, but thank you for joining us today.

- Yes, thank you.

(speaks foreign language) - Stay tuned for more.

(soft music) Gracing a path to the Red River near Fargo city hall, Spirit of the Sandbagger honors the tireless efforts of the Fargo community to fight the river's historic floods, especially the devastating years of 1997 and 2009.

The monument is the brainchild of Mike Benson and the Fargo Lions Club, and many artistic talents contributed to his design and creation.

- [Woman] The flood projection has been raised to 41 feet.

- [Man] Guard Troops started nonstop levy patrols preparing for the highest crest in history.

- [Man 2] Emergency response teams rushed to diag brakes in south Moorehead.

- [Woman] Crews tried to fill the gap with sandbags around two o'clock this morning, but couldn't stop the water.

- [Woman 2] City officials have issued an emergency evacuation.

- [Man 3] A slow drop in the south met the first look at the devastation left behind.

- [Man 4] This is now the worst flood in the history for Fargo Moorhead.

(somber music) - [Mike] During times of flooding all throughout Fargo's history, people along the river, their homes, where their businesses were in peril and where it was decided that they could sand bag.

People heard about that and came to help.

- [Man] The key to this sand bagging and diking effort is the volunteers.

- [Karen] In 97 that was our biggest threat and we saw all the comradery between all the people and the neighbors.

Everybody was there.

- [Newscaster] A half million more bags, that's the number that these hundreds of volunteers are targeting tonight here at the Fargodome.

- [Bruce] I was told that there were 5,000 people coming up from Minneapolis to fill sandbags.

And there were other situations like that all over the city.

We had help everywhere, college kids, the high school kids, all of those people helped out, but it was a lot of work.

But in the end we survived.

- [Mike] We had talked about having a Memorial made to the sandbaggers.

The name of the project is Spirit of the Sandbagger.

The Fargo Lions had a committee, they issued a request for proposal for a public art project.

I talked to Karen Bakke.

She thought about it a while and she came back and she said, I'll do that.

On the metalworking, they stopped and saw Brock Davis.

- [Brock] Mike Benson came to my shop and, you know, started the conversation about wanting to build a memorial sculpture for the sandbaggers.

And he had some paintings that he'd done.

He actually went down to the site and hand painted and drew what his vision was.

I said, you can tell me what you want and I'll build it for you.

- [Karen] Brock and I think alike, artistically and Mike was analytical, we needed that balance.

And I thought we were the dream team.

(laughs) (camera shutter clicks) Most of these people had a heart in it.

So they were more than willing to do the modeling and I'd bring them in, and we had sandbags and I'd have them throwing sandbags back and forth, trying to get the right pose and trying to get them to be real natural and forget about what I was doing as far as photographing.

After the photos were taken, then I put them in a lineup compositionally for the whole thing, as if they're filling the bags, passing them, and then stacking them and with the fireman supervising to make sure that the wall is going to be a nice strong wall.

I did the sketches and then I worked with a computer, gave my thumb drive to Brock and Brock did his thing.

- [Brock] We just started with the bridge structure.

The skeleton of it.

Had the rolled two by six aluminum cha or rectangular tubing.

And then kind of built what I call a ladder structure with the arch in it, and then wrapped it with quarter-inch aluminum.

And there we cut out all the silhouettes on the CNC plasma table.

Then Karen and Mike came over and we set them where Karen had her vision and Mike's vision all come together.

- [Mike] I can't say enough good things about both of those artists, because we wouldn't have this piece of art if it wasn't for Brock Davis and Karen Bakki.

(slow music) - Installation days, I always call them it's time to take the test day because that's when you take the test, see if you did what you're supposed to.

I brought the bridge structure down, industrial builders use the telehandler to lift it off.

I left right away to go pick up the silhouettes.

And I was kind of sweating the whole time cause they were going to set it while I was gone.

Once I got back, I saw the bridge structure up on the pillars in the telehandler with the forks on the ground and I was, a good feeling cause after that, it was some say, hun.

- [Karen] Working with Brock was a joy.

There was a lot of foot work.

And I was a little concerned about that when we started to get more people involved.

(slow music) - I always say, I'm dreaming with my eyes open.

It's it's fun just building and creating, never would have guessed that we'd have a structure like that downtown five, six years ago, when I started this.

- [Mike] If we ever have another big flood, the only people doing sandbagging downtown are those 21 sandbags.

And you'll be able to see them over the flood wall.

- Thanks again, to the citizens of Fargo and all the people that pitched in.

- [Mike] The damage that water can do is something that a lot of people underestimate.

But what people can do working together is also something that people underestimate.

(slow music) - [Karen] I hope that the community goes down, sees it remembers what their role was and how they helped be a part of that.

If a disaster, like this comes along, it's a reminder, we work together for the good of everyone.

(slow music) - Well, that's all we have on Prairie Pulse and as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Woman] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.