During my study of GOM, as I was sorting through my data, interviews and archival accounts, I was stunned to learn that white people readily embraced GOM'S story, while many Ho-Chunks did not. GOM's descendants believed the accounts and those Ho-Chunks who did not, railed on GOM, and her descendants to this very day. My research was not to prove or disprove her status of a peace chief, but rather I used the Vasina Model designed my Jan himself and myself, to learn if her story was within the threads of our oral traditions, and it was. Her story was found among her descendants, in various clans and in the general population of the Ho-Chunk people.
Another case of irony is my work with the History Center of Olmsted County. I worked with the staff of this organization to secure a planning grant for a Dakota-Ho-Chunk Exhibit. One of the staff members, Cara Clarey worked tireless on the grant with the help of GRADS (my group) and Museology, plus several Dakota and Ho-Chunk experts. The HCOC received a 10K planning grant, but in the process Cara and another co-worker were fired because they did not secure the "proper signatures" and now the planning grant will be revised and resubmitted so that the Board will have "more control" and the exhibit will be "more manageable." The Board was always in control as they would have to approve all phases of the planning through the exhibit. Now the ALL WHITE Board will determine who will work on the exhibit. This just reeks with irony. Can you smell it?
This next example from my life hurts. My tears have stopped for now, but my heart is still aching. Son was discriminated against at Century High School while he played soccer in 8th grade because he made the C Squad and while he was a freshman. In academics, the English teacher/soccer coach did not follow son's 504 plan and did not put the assignments on the board or anywhere where son could access them. His math teacher also failed to consistently follow his 504 plan. Finally, someone at Century HS said, "Here is your 504 plan just tell the teachers they have to follow it." The MN DOE, 504 compliance officer said this was terrible and contacted someone at the Edison Building to try and change how RPS complies with the law.
In soccer, all the kids of color are placed on the bench or on C Squad. All the WHITE kids get to play on JV or Varsity no matter their skill level. True to the stories, if you are a kid of color you better be really good or you won't play JV or Varsity. Son made JV, but was immediately dropped to allow some WHITE kid to play. He was dropped down to C Squad, wasn't given a whole uniform, and when he questioned the coach because he was a good player, they railed on him and belittled him.
Enter me, Bear Clan mother. The more I questioned their actions, the more they clammed up until son got hurt. In Rosemount, son got injured. He was playing goalie and was getting hammered in the goalie box. Calls to the coach yielded no help. The coach didn't respond to him until blood was running down his leg.
Bear Clan Mother had enough and called for a meeting of the WHITE men in charge and it was there that they lied. It was woefully apparent to me, with 20 years of Human Rights experience, that they were NOT accustomed to having a woman, a woman of color question them. An interesting side note, when we waited to speak with the administration at Century, all white men, we couldn't help but notice that all the kids of color were squeezed into one side of the cafeteria and all of the white kids were on the wide open side of the cafeteria with wide windows and high seated tables. It looked like a picture from the 50s'.
At this meeting, lie after lie was spoken by these men: son was never on JV, son didn't show up for JV tryouts, son was never hurt, son was never railed on or belittled. I had proof of his position on JV (an email one of the coaches sent me stating that he was on JV - fools). We had parents and team mates ready to state that son was at try outs and practice. Paulo dad even met the coach to talk to him at one of the practice sessions, but Coach Drew went along with Coach Houghton and said, "I made a mistake, Paulo was never at tryouts." We brought son to the doctor (even tho Paulo is a doctor and I am a nurse) to see about his wound. Century HS wanted to see proof of the wound and we had to bring him to the PT to see if there was anything she could do. What the...no, we will treat the wound ourselves with the help of our pediatrician thank you! Finally Coach Fogarty, oops Principal Fogarty said, "If you have proof that your son was on JV, send me the email." I sent that email ASAP and nothing was ever done. All of these grown men lied and used my young son to cover their failings, to cover up their institutional and individual racism. Shame on them!
On and on this trickery went until they crucified themselves. Son attended a party at the Thornburg residence where alcohol and marijuana were allowed. The PARENTS WERE HOME!!! He did not partake. Of course we didn't know this, son was scared, but lucky for him or us or God is just looking after us in our many trials, son got sick that night. We took him to the ER and standard procedure give the times we live in, I guess, is to run a drug screen. They did and it was clean. He was sick.
One week later, we got a letter from the activities director saying that son could not play sports for 50% of the next season BECAUSE HE INGESTED a harmful substance. What the ...? We had a right to due process and could appeal the decision, but we had to put it in writing AND we had just one day to respond. Did they time this just right or what? When I called the director, he refused to take my calls. My emails were unanswered. I wrote a letter and my husband hand carried it to the directors office because if we wanted DUE PROCESS we had a time line. We waited and there was nothing. Days went by. Calls were not returned. Finally we got a letter from Century HS saying they made a mistake. What?
Bear Clan Mother (though I should say that Choka said I was Eagle Clan) was done. A complaint was filed with the MDE OCR, the complaint was accepted because they had jurisdiction and the claim had merit. Son was taken out of Century HS.
He is at Lourdes HS and is doing well. He is still a struggling freshman, unorganized and constantly plugged in, but son hurt himself at track practice yesterday while pushing off the starting blocks. He shaved his mile time down from 4:17 to 4:12. No one at his old HS or even at our church for that matter believed his time, but we have proof. The coach at Lourdes took a video of son running the mile and breaking the school record. Today son is limping, using hot and cold packs intermittently, but he may not be able to run. To come this far through all of the HELL he had to go through at Century, to go through HELL and trials at our church because he his Mormon attending a Catholic school, to finally be able to shine in track, and now he might not be able to run. Irony hurts.
The picture I chose to head up this rant, blog, purging, cleansing is one of me and my oldest daughter. She too went through so much trial. Abused by her biological father, struggled with and still struggles with depression and addiction, but today she is doing well. She is doing better than ever before. She is my counter to such hurtful irony. She is my hope that no matter how embattled one is, you can still smile, laugh, and live to triumph another day. Irony is with me, almost my constant companion these days, yet I know that if I hold on, keep moving forward, irony will be replaced by other feelings of a life well lived.
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