Question

by Elise Deere
1
It was a dreary afternoon of rain and wind on the Red Lake Reservation. Ahmik and Ayasha were bored, so they called their cousin Namid to see if they could come over to visit. Namid hadn’t wanted to spend a lot of time with them when they were little because she was a few years older and thought they were immature, but now that they were all getting older, she enjoyed them more.

2
Ahmik and Ayasha bundled up for the long walk to Namid’s house. Even though it was spring, the harsh Minnesota winter hadn’t yet released its grip on the land, and they knew they were in for an uphill battle against the push of the wind, which would be as tough as Sisyphus' struggle with rock, if not worse. After much effort, they arrived at their cousin’s house.

3
Namid reminded them she had choir practice later in the afternoon. Namid’s choir sang hymns in the Ojibwe language. “My dad says that’s another way we keep our traditions alive,” Namid told her cousins. “Maybe you can come to the choir practice, too.” Ahmik and Ayasha spoke Ojibwe, but they didn’t know the traditional hymns, so they decided to go along with Namid to the choir practice.

4
When Ahmik asked where Namid’s father was, she explained that he was in a meeting with the office of the chairman of the tribal council, which governed the Red Lake Reservation. Her father was helping them organize a community event co-chaired by a state senator of Minnesota.

5
“I never understood why the Red Lake Reservation has its own government,” Ahmik said. “I know it’s part of our treaties with the United States, but I don’t know why everything got separated.”

6
“I don’t either,” said Ayasha.

7
“You must not pay attention in history class,” Namid laughed. “I’ll explain it to you.”

8
She pulled up a website on her phone and started showing them pictures from the tribe’s pages, with images that spanned many generations of their ancestors.

9
“Well, the first thing you have to know is that in the mid-1800s, our lands were claimed by the United States,” said Namid. “Still, we maintained sovereignty by making a treaty with the US government by ceding some of our lands to protect other areas.”

10
“I’m glad that plan paid off!” said Ahmik.

11
“Then, our tribe resisted the Dawes Act in 1889, which would have broken up our land into individual properties,” Namid continued. “This happened to many other tribes and might have left us unable to negotiate for our own government within the reservation. But since we refused to follow that act, the Red Lake Reservation never left the tribal council’s control.”

12
“Oh,” said Ayasha. “So we’ve had the right to govern ourselves since before the United States claimed our lands, and we never lost that right?”

13
“Right,” Namid smiled. “In 1934, the US government encouraged us to join the Indian Reorganization Act to vote to elect government leaders instead of using our hereditary chiefs. But we continued to resist and said we didn’t want to work with the US government, and we became the only sovereign tribal nation in Minnesota.”

14
“And that’s why we have things like our own government, health services, schools, and college?” Ahmik asked.

15
“And our own license plates for our cars?” Ayasha added.

16
Namid responded in the affirmative. “That’s right.”

17
“But now we have both a council of hereditary leaders and leaders that are elected by vote in our tribal government, right?” asked Ahmik. “We were the first reservation to have democratically-elected officials.”

18
“You’re right!” said Namid. “You must have been paying attention in history class after all!”

19
Then, Namid mentioned that if her younger cousins wanted to learn more, they could visit the library, which not only had many historical books with details about the tribe’s sovereignty but also current information about the tribe’s government processes. The cousins loved the idea. After they visited the library and each checked out a book about their reservation’s government, Namid’s choir practice started, and the cousins spent the rest of the afternoon singing songs and learning new hymns together. The three cousins felt closer than they ever had before, and with time, they would grow closer still.

Answer 1

Do you want me to edit, summarize, create classroom materials, or do something else with this story? I can do proofreading/copyediting, a short summary, reading-level estimate, discussion questions, vocabulary list, a lesson plan, a version rewritten for a different age, or other tasks. Tell me which and I’ll do it.

To get you started, here are two quick things you can use immediately:

1) Short summary (2 sentences)
Ahmik and Ayasha visit their older cousin Namid on a blustery day and, at her suggestion, join her Ojibwe-language choir practice. While they’re together Namid explains the history of Red Lake Reservation sovereignty, how the tribe resisted the Dawes Act and the Indian Reorganization Act, and how that history led to the tribe’s present-day government, services, and cultural preservation.

2) Five discussion questions (good for middle-grade readers)
- What are some ways Namid says the tribe keeps traditions alive? Why are those important?
- How did resisting the Dawes Act and the Indian Reorganization Act help the Red Lake Reservation maintain sovereignty?
- Why do you think language (singing hymns in Ojibwe) matters to the characters and their community?
- How do family relationships (Namid and her cousins) change over the course of the story?
- If you could ask one question about tribal sovereignty or the tribe’s history, what would it be and why?

If you want something else (a longer summary, a close read, vocabulary with definitions, a lesson plan with activities, or a polished copyedit), tell me which and I’ll prepare it.