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Dayton's Lt. Governor Spends Day at Red Lake

Visits Chairman, Schools, Political Ed Committee

For the first time in at least 20 years, a member of the Minnesota Governor's office spent the better part of a day on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.

DFL Governor Mark Dayton's Lieutenant Governor candidate Tina Smith made plans, with the assistance of Red Lake's State Representative Roger Erickson, to visit with Red Lake Chairman Darrell G. Seki, Sr., Red Lake Schools, and the Red Lake Political Education Committee (RL PEC) on Thursday, July 17, 2014.

Tina Smith, DFL Candidate for Minnesota Lt. Governor

After years enmeshed in DFL politics, Smith emerged as Gov. Mark Dayton's powerful chief of staff. The job proved to be the biggest test yet of her skills as a government reformer, hammer-wielding operative and bridge-builder.

Now Smith hopes to be Dayton's Lieutenant Governor after current Lt. Governor Yvonne Prettner Solon opted not to seek reelection as Dayton's running mate.

About 5-foot-5, Smith is rail thin, with wispy blonde hair and an easy, contagious laugh. When she speaks to small groups, she often lowers her voice; drawing listeners in close and making them feel they are in on a special moment.

"She's a natural leader, very charismatic, very smart," Dayton said. "People naturally look to her for guidance. They like working with her, and they like working for her. And she's very good with relationships, from all walks of life."

But Smith keeps things in perspective. "The reason those guys want to talk to me is not because I am me, but because I am the chief of staff for the governor. The moment you forget that, you are missing the party."

Smith 55 lives in Minneapolis with her husband Archie. They have been married for over 29 years and have two grown sons Sam and Mason.

Among those close to her, Smith is known for cajoling Dayton in a certain direction rather than confronting him toe-to-toe. She tries to surround him with a diverse range of voices and opinions, allowing him to draw conclusions and make decisions.

Widely regarded as one of the state's most capable and accomplished managers, Smith has been instrumental in helping Governor Dayton strengthen Minnesota's economy through job creation and economic development.

Visit with Chairman Darrell G. Seki, Sr.

If "job creation and economic development" is one of Smith's strong suits, that's just the kind of game Chairman Seki wants to play. He has been seeking allies for economic development for all Red Lake members. Seki is reaching out and at the same time as being approached by local and state governments, businesses, and institutions to explore job and economic opportunities. Job creation and economic development is one of Seki's high priorities and dominated his inaugural speech in June. Red Lake's large and young potential work pool is very appealing to companies looking to expand.

Smith arrived at tribal accounting to meet with Seki in the Treasurer's office meeting room at 11 a.m. Seated around the table were state and tribal officials. In addition to Seki and Smith, attendees included; Charles Dolson, Red Lake Executive Administrative Officer, Redby Representative Julius "Toady" Thunder, and Little Rock Representative Richard Barrett. Visitors included: State Rep Roger Erickson; Jamie Makepeace, Political Director for Dayton; Ashley Fairbanks, (White Earth) US Senator Al Franken's Statewide Native American Constituency Vote Coordinator; Kyle Olson, Dayton's campaign staff in the 7th Congressional District; and Stephanie Luger, staff for Tina Smith.

Jobs, Economic Development and Education

After introductions, Smith admitted she was somewhat unfamiliar with Ojibwe Country and was expecting to listen and be educated on the issues of concern to Red Lake Nation.

Seki emphasized the unique challenges but also the unique opportunities that is Red Lake. "The people tell me it's about jobs, jobs, jobs, economic development," said Seki. "We need to be creative to make this work as we are a closed Reservation. We are going to reach out to our neighbors. We want government-to-government relationships with Bemidji, Minneapolis, the County and State. We want to put many things on the table, we want to invest, we want partnerships and collaborations, we want jobs for our people both on and off reservation."

This includes maximizing training and education. Seki asked that tribes be able to compete for economic development funds from the state the same as others.

Authority Over Non-Members on Reservation

"We can't prosecute people who violate our tribal laws if they are non-members," said Seki. "That hardly seems fair, our people can be arrested by other government police. People from the Twin Cities are bringing drugs up to our reservation, they are hurting our people and we can't prosecute them. We are looking for creative solutions and collaboration without sacrificing our sovereignty."

Social Services

A lengthy discussion began on Beltrami County's closing of the Red Lake satellite social services office. Discussion centered on the state, county, and tribe joining forces to lobby the Federal Government to secure social services direct funding from the feds. This is in the best interest of all, a win, win, win situation, to work together to get direct funding. Minnesota, in hindsight, should have refused Public Law 280 when it came to Red Lake's unique sovereignty as 280 gave Minnesota and its political arm Beltrami County responsibility to the tribe, but with no authority. Red Lake can best serve its members, Beltrami taxpayers would find some relief, and racial relations might improve. It just makes sense for all concerned, and Smith was intrigued by the idea.

Other Issues

Seki shared the floor with everyone at the table. Representative Barrett spoke about the need for housing, mentioning Seki's visit to a home where 18 adults and 7 children share a home. "We need jobs, and then we need housing for those workers," he said. Representative Thunder talked about plowing Hwy. 1 and 89. "We can't get sand and salt from state even though we are doing their job maintaining this state roads, we're subsidizing state in a sense."

As the meeting moved to close, Smith summarized the meeting and said what she would take the issues discussed back to Governor Dayton. And Smith kept her word. Within two working days, Seki received an invitation from the Governor's office to visit the governor in St. Paul soon to discuss issues presented to him by Smith.

Red Lake School District

With a little bit of time to spare before the 1 p.m. meeting with the school district, Smith's entourage took some time to go to the building site where the new Tribal Government Center and Tribal College are being built.

Arriving at the District offices, the new superintendent Anne Lundquist met the group at the door. After a short exchange, the group sat down in a conference room and was joined by Red Lake Schools Building and Grounds Manager Chris Berg. Before taking the group on a tour of the Middle and High School, Berg advocated for a new lunchroom to be shared by both Middle and High School students. Berg presented plans for the new lunchroom, one of the schools priorities for the 2015 state legislative session.

Priority 1.

Construction of kitchen/cafeteria; construction of receiving dock and adjacent site work; $5,491,000 for the creation of a single lunchroom for the entire high school and middle school replacing two outdated facilities. Includes a new building receiving area, service drive and dock area as well as expansion of existing storm water retention, and fire service drive. Geothermal and solar options will be explored.

Priority 2:

A media center, central plant improvements, phy ed and fitness, HS media center, district offices and student services, with an estimated cost of $7,989,000. With the completion of the new kitchen and cafeteria, the original elementary school can be demolished. This area includes the steam boiler plant, middle school kitchen cafeteria and multiple elevation changes. Once removed, district/student services, media center, and technology labs and PE locker rooms and support areas will be built and expanded. A 2010 Department of Commerce and Energy Grant began the central heating plant expansion and decommission the old steam plant. Additional work remains and will complete other central plant elements including conversion of remaining existing areas to all hot water heating.

Red Lake Political Education Committee (PEC)

On the way to the next meeting scheduled for 3 p.m., the team decided to drive by the Red Lake Greenhouse, and Elementary school. The state group then headed for Little Rock Community Center. Representative Richard Barrett met them at the door. He welcomed Smith and then gave a short tour for the group of the new community center.

Red Lake PEC, a non-partisan volunteer group that does voter registration, holds candidate forums, does Get Out the Vote efforts and voter education, expressed similar issues as at Chairman Seki's meeting. Co-chair Michelle Paquin Johnson gave a quick overview of PEC activities, history, and successes. Johnson reported to Smith that Red Lake would be an absentee voting site in 2014 for northern Beltrami County, the first time in Minnesota history. Voters who vote absentee from northern Beltrami and Red Lake have to drive as long as two hours to cast an absentee ballot. These election absentee voters in northern Beltrami County can vote much closer to home.

Red Lake PEC is looking new board members who are interested in voting and politics and invites them to contact a PEC member to learn how to volunteer. In addition to Johnson, PEC members meeting with Smith included; Cheri Goodwin, Stephanie Cobenais, Mary Ringhand, and Michael Meuers.

 

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