Angela Greendeer

Can you please explain the impact of the Cranberry Industry to the Ho-Chunk?                                                         A lot of the Ho-Chunk work at the cranberry marshes.  I know that my uncle does, and that is a seasonal event.  The cranberry marshes are right across a road by a reservation that is in Tomah.  I guess the cranberry marshes have good employment for the tribal members.  It has a pretty good impact as far as getting jobs.

What is your occupation and where are you employed?                                                                                                     I am the president’s aide, up at the president’s office.  Where I am employed is here in Black River in this executive building.  There are a bunch of offices around here where people have many different jobs.  This is kind of like the Ho-Chunk main headquarters.

What role has the Ho-Chunk played in the Wisconsin Dells tourist industry?                                                                                                                                                                                         A big one as far as having the casino there.  The casino is a big attraction there in the Dells.  A lot of people go to the casino.  Entertainment, we have a casino, there is a buffet, and also a lounge there, and there is also a hotel that they have there.  It is pretty nice.

How is your life like now on the reservation compared to ten years ago?                                                                    Well as far as I know, because I have never lived on the reservation, but ten years ago it was small.  There were a lot more trees out there.  They did a lot of re-building out there.  They have a casino in the Sand-Pillar reservation called the Majestic Pines Casino.  There is a community center out there for the kids and for the community to come out and just do a lot of activities.  I guess it had pretty much got cleaned up more, and more updated, because there are two reservations out there, Sand Pillar and Mission

Do you have any specific religions like Native American church or Christian?                                                                                                                                                                                       Actually yes, there is a Native American church I really don’t know too much about that because we follow our traditional ways.  That is just going to a longhouse and praying.  There are a lot of good things that happen there.  People and families get together and doing.  I’m sorry I don’t know too much about the Native American Church.

Are you involved in any leadership or political issues in your nation?                                                                    Myself, no, I’m not.  

Is there any kind of governmental structure in your nation?                                                                                             Yes, definitely.  Well we do have a president and a vice-president.  We just did a general council.  We do a lot of decision making at these general councils.  A lot of the tribal members get together, we vote, and a lot of the big decisions are made.  Right now we just got a new president in office.  You have your vice president and your branches.  It’s pretty good.

Were there any key events in your nation’s history that you can tell us about?                                                                                                                                                                                              I would say personally the casinos, and just our nation expanding.  

Do you have any opinions on the world Indian vs. Native American?                                                                    Well, I guess Indian would really be a word that Christopher Columbus came up with.  Native American, I guess that would be more politically correct calling us that.

Describe your schooling.                                                                                                                                                            The schools around here are pretty good.  As far as when I graduated, they didn’t really do too much about learning, the Ho-Chunks.  Now they do have a class where they teach the children the language.  It is credited; you get a credit for passing the class right now.  I heard it is pretty good.  A lot of the children in the community take that class.  I heard it is pretty good.  I would suggest it to other children.  That is as far as I know about the education.

What cultural traditions have you maintained in your life?                                                                                            Well, I just recently moved back from Milwaukee.  Being back here, you listen to your elders; make sure you always listen to your elders.  Respecting people, as you would respect someone, treat someone the way you would want to be treated.  Coming here, that is very nice coming back here and being with a lot of people.  Teaching my children their ways too, and following.  Learning their language.

How do you handle negative stereotypes about Native Americans?                                                                               I really try not to let it get to me.  If somebody is going to say something, sometimes ignorance plays a lot in that.  A majority of the time you try not to feed into that.  If they are going to be like that, that’s fine.  I really try not to get too much into it.  It’s not a big deal with me.

Describe the role models through the years in your nation’s history.                                                                            Well, the key leaders they would be the chiefs that have come and gone.  Elders, because they have a lot of the knowledge as far as our culture and everything and history, they would know a lot.  They would be the best people to go to if you ever needed to know something about the nation, about our tribe.

What kind of things do you do for recreation and entertainment?                                                                                   Well, just taking the kids out because we live in the country now.  Just taking them out on the farm, you know for fresh air.  In our tribe they have a study center.  The youth, the coordinators they do a lot of family things, have a lot of get-togethers.  We just did last night; we had a roller-skating family night.  So we went roller-skating with the kids last night, it was really nice.  A lot of families came out and took the kids roller-skating.  So, we just try to do a lot of family things, pretty much.

Could you describe some of your traditional activities, like the Pow-Wow?                                                                  Yes, there are a lot of those, a lot of pow-wows that go on throughout the year, mainly during the summer time.  They are all over, it’s not just our tribe that does them.  We do have a Memorial Day pow-wow and a Labor Day pow-wow; they are both here in Black River.  There is a Ho-Chunk pow-wow over by the casino and I’m thinking there is a Veteran’s Day pow-wow.  There were just two this past weekend.  There are a lot of them; I can’t really put dates on them.  Those are really the main ones around that people go to.  They are really exciting.  It’s really nice with the costumes that everyone wears.  There is traditional, family, and for girls there are jingle-dress dances.  You even have little kids out there, the tiny-tots.  Some of them are traditional, some competition.  They dance for prizes, and the costumes are beautiful.  It’s really nice to see them dancing.  I would recommend you guys check one out if you ever get the chance to.  You would like it.

What do you feel about the use of Native Americans’ logos for sports teams?                                                            I guess I really don’t have a problem with it; I honestly don’t have a problem with it.  I guess if you see, you’ve got your big-time ones that really get into it, you know.  I really don’t have too much of a big opinion on it.  I know a lot of other people do that really feel strongly about it, and really don’t like it.  And then you have the activists that want it all, everything banned.  I don’t really have too much of a strong opinion about it, I’m fine with it.

What are your practices involving medicine?                                                                                                                     Well there are a lot of home remedies that the elders use.  I’m not really too knowledgeable on that one.  Praying, that really helps you medicine-wise.  Praying, and we have a clinic right here.

How does religion affect daily life?                                                                                                                                       Daily life is just respect and respecting your elders, making sure that is a daily part of your life.  Respect is important, definitely, from your oldest elder to your youngest kid, all the time.

What are the major political issues currently being addressed by your nation?                                                           I  really try to stay away from politics.  I really don’t pay too much attention to politics, or what goes on.

Have you or any of your relatives or tribal members ever experienced any kind of boarding schools?                                                                                                                                                                                         I believe that my grandparents did, but they never really said too much about that.  My grandma passed away before I was born, and my grandpa rarely talked about that, but I imagine he did.

How difficult is it today in the modern world to keep your cultural traditions alive?                                                     I guess being away from it would be the hardest, because you aren’t with these people daily.  Being at the source is the best way to keep it alive.  Just being away, you lose it.  Otherwise, if you do, you do come back, that is one way of keeping it.  I just say being away from it is one way it can be lost.

Can you describe the importance of rice?                                                                                                                             Well, it’s used a lot in our food like when we have church, we cook.  I want to say there’s a special purpose for it, but I can’t really tell you right now.  But yeah, it’s used a lot.

Describe the traditional food and clothing and what it means to your culture.                                                              I guess wild rice and fabric.  Mainly when we do have our doing, girls wear squat dresses.  If you know how to make them, they’re really easy to make.  I don’t know how to make them personally, but it is what you would wear during this time.  It’s just a shirt and a skirt and you would wear it over your clothing, but that’s what you would wear when you go to church and I would say that that was the most important.  Then the guys would wear ribbon shirts.

What do you think of Columbus Day?                                                                                                                                      I don’t think too much of it.  There is a day but there really isn’t anything I can do about it.  I don’t celebrate it or anything.  It is a day where Native Americans were massacred.  For some reason, I don’t think it should be a holiday.

What do you think about the Ho-Chunk Bison Herd?                                                                                                          They play a big part in the tribe.  You learned about the bison ranch we have over here at the Distribution Center, they give out bison to the elders and it’s really good.  We have our own ranch out here.  I haven’t been out there, but I heard it’s really nice out there.  They do use the meat and distribute it to the nation.

What are some of the environmental issues in your nation?                                                                                               I guess it would be anybody’s environmental issues.  I can’t really answer that one too well.  

Can you describe how your heritage in history is reserved through oral history?                                                     When you do ask your elders, they answer you the best and you just have to always remember what they tell you.  There are certain lessons they can teach you, otherwise they will tell you something for a reason.  You just have to pay attention and there’s always a reason for everything, especially when others are involved.  The elders really follow what we have been doing for years.  All you’ve got to do is to remember what your elders tell you and what you’ve learned through life and to let your children know.

Is protecting the environment important to your nation?                                                                                                Of course it is.  There are things that the tribe is trying to do to help the environment.  They try to keep other tribal members aware of what’s going on and try to make sure people carpool to work.  It’s just little things like that, but it helps out a lot.

How has Indian gaming affected your nation?                                                                                                                       I think that Indian gaming is doing pretty good.  It’s just that with the governor and everything, I’m not exactly sure.  Like I said I don’t really follow politics too much, but as far as I know, things are going all right.  It sounds like they’re doing pretty good out there.

What cultural traditions have you maintained in your life?                                                                                            Well, going to church, oral tradition, things that my elders have taught me, or things that they’ve told me, and trying to keep my children up with that.  My oldest is eight years old, so it doesn’t mean he’ll do whatever trying to keep up as far as what I would know, and just taking him around their elders and just trying to do the right thing, as far as being able to keep it up with my kids.

Tell us about your reservation.                                                                                                                                                 There’s two here and I believe there’s two in the Dells area.  I know there’s the Heights and the Dells and then there’s, I want to say by Christmas Mountain or some other one, and then there’s the Indianshin here in Sanpillow and of course we have the casino and the Pines in Sanpillow.  They’re getting more updated.  There are a lot of new buildings out there and homes.  Especially homes, because a lot of families want to stay there so they buy homes or they have homes built on reservations.  There’s some that look really nice out there because of updating and everything. 

What conflicts still exist today between Native Americans and Whites?                                                                         I guess it would be the logo thing, because the Tomah logo just got removed.  That’s one issue right now that’s going on between the tribe and the Tomah people.  That’s mainly it, or maybe somebody had something to say about something the tribe was doing.  But other than that, we try to keep peace between us so it’s the best way to keep that and everybody for that matter.  I also think it’s casinos because I know there’s another casino that the tribe did want to build but some people just didn’t think it would be a good idea.  They’re trying to run against it, they’re gaining compacts and everything.  There’s the logo issue.  Other than that, I don’t think there’s really much going on. 

How has education changed over the past ten years?                                                                                                         I guess the kids want to know.  The children, they want to know more because it didn’t seem like too much.  The kids were just following, but seems like they’re now trying to do this for themselves, following tradition.  They are learning their language, because a lot of elders are passing away right now, and they’re starting to realize that learning the language and asking questions from the elders is the only way we’re going to know.  The children want to be educated more, and like I said, there’s a class that’s taught too.  They do have language classes for the nation.  They have it on certain nights I believe, certain days of the week.  They have an all language class.

Are there any other industries or businesses that are key to your nation’s success?                                                There are the casinos.  There’s this building right here where everybody runs out of.  We have a clinic right over here.  Our community buildings, there’s a big one in the Dells, there’s a big community building out there.  It’s almost as big as this building.  It’s pretty big, the Bison Ranch that we have.  I know there are a couple more, but I just can’t think of them right now.  There are a lot of things that the tribe has expanded, and it’s helped out a lot with the tribe. 

How do you handle stereotypes about American Indians?                                                                                                I don’t know.  I kind of laugh at them, because they have little dolls with feathers on them and bands and wearing buckskin.  I mean that’s not what we wear today.  Like what I’m wearing right now.  You don’t come to work wearing buckskin and moccasins.  I just think sometimes it’s cute, sometimes it’s funny, but they’re always going to be around, so I just kind of shrug it off.