208 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b3d17859d4746c63fe14edd92018dbf9.pdf 44c4ae63f1bf047df26bf3e93eebce8b PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rationale divinorum officiorum [folium 75] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_075Duranti1477 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Durand, Guillaume, approximately 1230-1296 Description An account of the resource One leaf from Rationale divinorum officiorum by Guillelmus Duranti. Printed in Basel by Berthold Ruppel and Michael Wenssler not after 1477. Illustrated with red rubricated initials. [GW 9111; ISTC id00415000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Basel: Berthold Ruppel and Michael Wenssler Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Durand, Guillaume, approximately 1230-1296 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1477 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7bceeb720a601ff0cf4e92460b652514.pdf 4da06383f9412987bae3e07e6708e363 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rationale divinorum officiorum [folium 149] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_149Duranti1488 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Durand, Guillaume, approximately 1230-1296 Description An account of the resource One leaf from Rationale divinorum officiorum by Guillelmus Duranti. Printed in Strassburg by the Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (Georg Husner) on September 1, 1488. Illustrated with red rubricated initals. [GW 9135; ISTC id00434000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Strassburg: Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (Georg Husner) Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1488 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5ac41b38f2c31510b79b7da098315016.pdf 87401b7fa2d0a43bf34c6b55d9663a30 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rationale divinorum officiorum [folium 199] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_199Duranti1477 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Durand, Guillaume, approximately 1230-1296 Description An account of the resource One leaf from Rationale divinorum officiorum, edited by Johannes Aloisius Tuscanus. Printed in Rome by Georgius Lauer on October 16, 1477. [GW 9113; ISTC id00414000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rome: Georgius Lauer Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1477 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tuscanus, Johannes Aloisius (editor) Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7df38c058fb4656d7334bb159acad5ee.pdf 1b9aab53991d1718a4df57122d4f2950 PDF Text Text � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f91840b958c6851173c01e57a4bf6f70.pdf ba8303f09028f427eb5e48072d42470d PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rationale divinorum officiorum [folia 37 a-b] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_037Duranti1480 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Durand, Guillaume, approximately 1230-1296 Description An account of the resource Leaves 1 and 2 of Rationale divinorum officiorum by Guillelmus Duranti and edited by Johannes Aloisius Tuscanus. Printed in Vicenza by Hermannus Liechtenstein in 1480. Illustrated with red and blue rubicated initials. [GW 9120; ISTC id00423000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Vicenza: Hermannus Liechtenstein Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Durand, Guillaume, ca. 1230-1296 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1480 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tuscanus, Johannes Aloisius (editor) Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0bd05e3e262085c76a252a3a9ad123db.mp4 affd9252ed137c9d11360456ebf29ac1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d4f2070af0076e5af5c9e2a5baceb274.pdf 6451e834e8aec096d8b906d03dd28c2f PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Robert Durham (1:02:07) Background information (00:18)           Lived in California at the time of the interview (2012). (00:18) Born in Connecticut in 1975. (00:30) His father was a Vietnam veteran who attended a medical school in Mexico. (00:35) He graduated from high school in Globe Arizona in 1993. He then attended Arizona State University. He then transferred to a school in Kansas where he majored in History. He graduated in 2001. (00:58) He taught the 4th grade for one year from 2001-2002. (1:58) Robert remembers having to work on 9/11 and how his class asked many questions he did not know how to answer. (3:00) He enjoyed teaching but he did not enjoy teaching all subjects. In 2005 Robert joined the Army. (3:29) Before enlisting, he worked as an academic advisor at a community college from 2003-2004. (4:35) Robert’s father encouraged him to serve in the military. In 2005 he believed the conditions were right for Robert to serve. He did follow the news and the conditions in the Middle East. (5:15) After enlisting, it was determined weather of not Robert was qualified for service, then it was determined what he job he would be best suited for. (6:40) Basic Training (7:30)         Robert attended basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. He thought this experience was annoying due to the amount of discipline that was emphasized. (7:32) The Drill Sergeants were mostly E6s and E7s. They loved being in the Army and some had community college experience. (8:38) The physical training was not as bad as imagined if one was in shape before starting training. (9:20) Robert was the eldest in his training unit and the only man he could recall with a college degree. (9:48) The men that Robert trained alongside were form all across the country. (10:48) The only access outside of Fort Benning was mail. Each night the men were given a half hour to an hour to read and write letters. (11:10) While some training was general, most of it was geared toward serving in the Middle East with mock setups. (11:42) Robert graduated in December of 2005. He was then assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington as his duty station. (12:48) Service at Fort Lewis (12:52)  Robert was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, 1st Battalion, 23rd Regiment, Charlie Company. The unit had already been deployed to Iraq in 2003 and 2004. (13:02) �     Robert trained for 6 months of Iraq at Fort Lewis. He was assigned to be a light machine gunner. (13:38) Robert’s unit was known as a “striker” this was a self sustaining unit that could offer medical supplies or mortar strikes. In his training, Robert was taught additional first aid and how to call in mortar strikes. (14:09) The men work up at 5:30. They then did physical training for an hour or an hour and a half. The men then ate and began a scheduled training exercised afterword’s. (16:02) During down time men were able to go out to bars or use some enmities on the base such as movie theaters. (16:51) The men received their papers to be deployed in May of 2006. The men were given leave before being sent off to Iraq. (18:00) Travel to Iraq (20:00)       The military chartered a civilian plane that took the soldiers to Maine. Then they were flown to Germany and then to Kuwait. (20:02) The men spent two weeks to a month in Kuwait where they did more combat and tactical training. (20:44) The men would put on body armor and walk around in the desert with their weapons just to get used to the heat and environment. (21:20) The men lived in walled tents. The tents did have small air conditioners. (21:53) Soldiers often got inpatient while waiting on Kuwait. The men were flown to Baghdad. (22:50) Aside from all of the military activities, such as the moment of vehicles. There was little to suggest it was a war zone. (22:53) Service in Iraq (24:44)           The men were assigned to patrol streets and search a few houses on Roberts first day. He did not experience any action. (25:22) The men were briefed on the treats of insurgents and snipers. They were also told about the general conflicts that occurred in the urban areas. (26:04) One of the platoons entered a house on an assignment and the house exploded resulting in half the squad’s death. (27:17) Some days the solders just patrolled the streets, others they had to take a house, clear miles of homes, or raid a location. (27:55) The Iraqis did not like the soldier’s presences. The Iraqis hated that U.S. soldiers often invaded their house. (28:50) Sometimes the men had translators. This resource was often in short supply. (29:57) Robert rarely looked at the big picture in Iraq. He purely finished on his mission or assignment. (31:29) There were a few casualties caused by snipers, motors, and explosives set off by vehicles. More men were injured and survived than actually died. (32:15) The taking of casualties often just made the unit mad and did not affect moral to a great degree. The numbers of the platoon varied based on how casualties were replaced. (33:48) Knowing the men in a unit was very important. (34:33) Life in Iraq (34:50) �     TVs and a gym were available for entertainment. (34:54) The chow hall did very well and had steaks and ice cream on occasion. There was a Burger King on Robert’s base. (35:29) A truck with pay phones inside was available for the solder’s use. (36:37) He was attached to another unit after they had lost several of their men. They were patrolling farm land. This was very open and left the men feeling venerable. (37:28) Robert had night vision and the striker had technology used to locate targets at great distances. (39:10) Insurgency in 2007 (40:00)         In 2007 when the surge strategies began, Robert noticed little difference in the activities he and his unit conducted. (40:25) While the soldiers were given orders on how to enter and clear a house, the men learned to use particular strategies over time to improve how Iraqis reacted to them entering the house. (41:43) If a female soldier was with the unit, she would be used to search any women in the house. (42:53) There were more fire fights during the middle and end of Robert’s time in Iraq. (43:44) Nicknames were given to certain areas of the city to help the soldiers navigate the area. (44:50) Robert was in Iraq for a year and three months (2006-2007). (46:23) If and when a base was being mortared, there was a system to triangulate the location of the mortar. (48:16) The Iraq area reminded him a lot of Mexico. Many of the civilians did not like the Americans there. (48:55) End of Service in Iraq (50:40)      The men didn’t count their days before going home, but rather, counted their missions. (50:48) Robert was made an assistant gunner and then a heavy machine gunner after arriving in Iraq. (51:55) The men were flown from Baghdad to Kuwait where they stayed for two weeks. Then they were flown to Ireland, Main, and then Fort Lewis. (53:27) Robert reenlisted while overseas and was not up to be discharged until 2009/2010. (54:00) Robert was assigned to recruiting school in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. (54:54) Recruiting School (54:57)      Robert found this experience to be boring. It involved a lot of in class work. (54:59) The program lasted 8 weeks. (55:40) After completing his training, Robert was sent to Salinas,California. The area involved many who were unqualified for military service through gang influence and low education. (56:10) The assignment was three years. This meant that he needed to extend his service by three months. But because he was used to working a 9-5 day, he decided to get out and start a regular career. (58:15) Robert received a master’s degree in diplomacy and terrorism from Norwich University in Vermont. (59:20) �Life after Service (59:57)    Robert began working for an oil and gas company negotiating contracts after finishing his military service. (1:00:00) The military tough Robert to be thankful for little things that are available in life In the U.S. (1:00:38) Robert also pays closer attention to the news and world events as a result of his service. (1:01:40) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Durham, Robert (Interview outline and video), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Durham, Robert Description An account of the resource Robert Durham, born in Connecticut in 1975, served in the U.S army from approx 2005-2010 In the War in Iraq and during the insurgency in 2007. Robert graduated from college with a teaching degree and taught the 4th grade prior to enlisting in the military in 2006. He then attended basic at fort Benning Georgia before being assigned to the 2nd ID first of the 23rd Charlie Company in Fort Lewis Washington. In many of 2006, Robert was sent to Iraq. Here he cleared and secured blacks of urban area. in 2008 Robert returned from Iraq and became an Army Recruiter in California. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Kentwood Historic Preservation Commission (Kentwood, Mich.) WKTV WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-08-25 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DurhamR1442V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/41975ed171d3020ad9340aac6f2648f7.mp4 41fff71f77a8b183b85ce56380d1d6ca https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/97561c88b769b0e54893e5ef19f66293.pdf d97b76deb1f96de000b41decb24e9a0a PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Chester Dykema (00:22:00) Background: Dykema was born in 1927 Dykema entered the Navy in May 1945 and served until July of 1946, exiting as a 3rd class motor machinist. Did basic training at Camp Schumacher in California in August of 1945. (0:50) Enlistment: Dykema enlisted when he was 17 since he knew he would be drafted when he was 18 and the Navy offered clean linens and better food. (0:06) Towards the end of the war boot camp was cut down from 12-16 weeks to 6. Dykema recalls all the men there being 17 or 18. During basic the men were marched, fired arms and learned Morse code. (0:45) Hawaii: Just before the war ended Dykema was sent from California to Hawaii aboard an LST with 100 other men. War ended while en route to Hawaii. When he arrived he was assigned to Mobile Explosive Inventory Unit 4. Some of the unit was sent to Japan. (2:50) While on the LST going to Hawaii. Dykstra recalls being relaxed and not worrying about enemy submarines. While in Hawaii stayed in Quonset huts with a beer hall nearby. Dykema talks about the point system used to discharge men and being one of the last to leave. (4:20) Dykemaa sometimes ran the liberty boat from the West Lock to fleet landing. During the morning his unit would detonate Japanese and American ordinance in the hills and then have the afternoon off and sometimes hunted pigs in the hills (6:14) Dykema talks about the mail service and censors during his time in the service. Also had good and plentiful food, especially for holidays. (9:06) Mornings would begin at 7:00, and Dykema would often go to the beer hall in the afternoon where he recalled drinking a beer from Pennsylvania. On December 6, 1945 the Army and Navy reenacted the attack on Pearl Harbor. (11:14) �48 hour leaves were available. When on leave usually went to Honolulu, and dances at Schofield barracks with the nurses. (12:35) Dykema was amazed at the amount of knowledge and education the people around him had. Some in the navy were in their 40’s (14:03) Life after the service: After he was discharged he was met by his sisters in Chicago and rode back to Grand Rapids. Dykema attended GRJC on the GI Bill, worked for Life Savers setting up displays for 3 years, then started doing heating and cooling work from which he retired in 1985. (18:28) Dykema feels that the military teaches respect, physical fitness, and getting along with others, and is proud to have served. (20:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dykema, Chester (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dykema, Chester Description An account of the resource Chester Dykema joined the Navy during WW II in July 1945 and served until 1946. Dykema tells of life in Hawaii after the war during which the military was demobilizing, and about his life upon returning home. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Paggi, Daniel (Interviewer) Forest Hills Eastern High School (Ada, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-02 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DykemaC Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/450a1343562c281016aae4d0dc059e2c.mp4 6b23239ae2c7b6de26ea7f39ed06e2ca https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1ce6f90ed0f43b16ce4c79d3e38bb3f4.pdf 445ecc4df065e69b1c8430035d127aa7 PDF Text Text ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW LES DYKEMA Born: July 18, 1949 Grand Rapids, Michigan Resides: Interviewed by: James Smither PhD GVSU Veterans History Project, Transcribed by: Joan Raymer, March 13, 2014 Interviewer: Les, can you start us off with some background on yourself. To begin with, where and when were you born? I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1949, July 18th. Interviewer: Where did yo grow up? In Hudsonville, I spent my life there. Interviewer: What did your family do for a living? My dad was a truck driver and my mom was a maid. We did a little bit of farming. I went to the Christian high school and then spent a year in junior college because Calvin wouldn’t take me. I’m surprised that JC did, and after the first year I had a 1.5 grade point and my two friends had a 1.3 and a 1.2, so we weren’t coming back. The Vietnam War was heating up at that time. Interviewer: What year was this? This was in 1968 Interviewer: It was pretty hot by then. Yeah it was heating up really, really well. 1:01 We figured we would all go in together, because they were going to get drafted and I didn’t want to go by myself, so we went into the Military Police Corps. Interviewer: When did you actually go and sign up? 1 �We signed up on the six month delay program, okay, which means we could have six months to do what we wanted to and then we had to go in and that was November 15th of 1968, when we had to report. Then we went on to Fort Knox and on to Fort Gordon Interviewer: Talk a little bit about the experience at Fort Knox. First of all, you had to go for a physical at some point right? Yeah, that was in Detroit, and when we got to Fort Knox I volunteered for three years, I was not drafted and I knew I’d made a huge mistake—I hated it, absolutely hated it. Then I got called into the office, and I was probably three weeks into training, and my commander called me in and said that my dad had died in a car accident. 2:06 He said that I was going to go home and that I had to be the man of the family, take care of business and come back. So, I did, I left and went home and got home and was coming into the—we grew up in an old farmhouse, and my dad was there and I about crapped my pants, but it turns out that it was my aunt Charlotte that had died in a car accident, and somehow they got it all screwed up. So, I was there and I was a pallbearer for my aunt Charlotte and three or four days went by and my dad said, “Well, don’t you think you should be going back?” I said, “Hmm, I’m in no hurry”. 3:00 Well, a week went by and I got a call from one of my friends I enlisted with and he said, “You better get back here, because I talked to the commander and I let him know it was your aunt and not your dad, and he’s very upset”. So, my dad was a truck driver and he loves to drive, so he drove me back to Fort Knox and it wasn’t good, okay, it wasn’t good. He was very, very angry, so after training, me and there were a few others, we’d have to get our brooms and we’d march out to the tank training areas and sweep the sand to get the tracks—you 2 �know, it was a harassment thing, and then we’d come back and we did this for a while, it wasn’t pleasant, but I made it through and then we went to Fort Gordon. Interviewer: Did you have to restart the training cycle after being off just a week? No Interviewer: So, you just went back and joined in. I went right back and joined in. Interviewer: Were the drill sergeants any better than the commander, or was it all pretty much the same? 4:03 The sergeants were a whole different breed. I think I embarrassed my commander, you know, I think he looked like an idiot and that did not bode well for me. Interviewer: Did you have any trouble physically with the training and couldn’t handle that? No, I was nineteen years old, it wasn’t bad, I just didn’t like it and it was cold. Winter in Fort Knox is cold, it’s cold. Interviewer: Were you still in an old WWII barracks, or did they have better ones/ WWII barracks, and the same way at Fort Gordon when we got down there, now they’re all gone, but they had to be heated with coal and in military police training they get you up very, very early, they don’t give you a lot of sleep and you wait in line to eat, in formations. It’s constantly at parade rest, straight, two steps forward, parade rest, and it can take an hour, or an hour and a half before you can get in and get any chow. 5:03 Then you only have minutes to eat it and you’re back in formation. Well, it’s dark at four thirty in the morning and me and a friend—being that they were WWII barracks, there was an opening underneath the buildings like this and then it went where the steps would 3 �come in. Well, underneath the steps it’s somewhat secluded, so I thought it would be a good idea--we have an alarm clock, it’s dark, nobody would notice us gone, “let’s just go on in there, set the alarm and sleep another hour , hour and a half and then get back in line and have breakfast”, and you know, this worked so well, so well for about two weeks. We’d crawl out, nobody would see us crawl out in there, alarm, and then one day I heard steps and I could look up through the slots, and they were really polished boots, and just about that time the alarm went off. 6:00 It was four, or five, drill sergeants, they came right around and we were busted, we got busted. My job there, until the end, was to remove coal from a big coal bin over here to one over there in a wheelbarrow. So, that type of punishment and they didn’t care for what I did, but, you know, I got a lot of rest and you gotta do what you gotta do. Interviewer: You got a couple more weeks of sleep. What does the MP training actually consist of? Lack of sleep, a lot of discipline, a lot of discipline, never knowing—they do stuff, they come in with a white glove, they look around and they find any dirt, everything had to be GI—they come in the middle of the night and wake you up with pots and pans, you get up and make a formation, they check your boots, everything had to be perfect. 7:02 Everything had to be just exactly perfect. Interviewer: Were they teaching yo anything yo would use on the job? Well, you go through the typical stuff, you’re train with your forty-five, okay, you train how to deal with people, what’s expected, what not to do and it’s hard to say, you know, a lot of it is classroom stuff and I don’t even remember what they talked about to be honest with you. 4 �Interviewer: Military law maybe, what the rules are? Yeah, yup, what’s expected and so, you know, it went through its eight weeks and I hardly had any sleep, but I’ll tell you, at the end of that eight weeks, I think that any one of us, they could have put us on the roof of a building and said, “Jump”, and we would have done it, we would have done it. The training, it breaks you down and then it builds you up and then here’s the product, but I’ve never liked authority. 8:02 I’ve always had a problem with authority and I still do today, and it has not fit me well. Interviewer: But, you managed to get through that round of training without getting yourself kicked out, or sent back to the infantry, or something like that? No, I would have loved to have myself kicked out, but that wasn’t going to happen at that time. Interviewer: You got into the MP’s in the first place, because you were willing to sign up for three years, was that part of the deal? My dad was a MP, so father like son, I guess, I didn’t know what I wanted. I knew I didn’t want to do what Mike did, I didn’t want to go into the infantry, that was dangerous, you know. Interviewer: But, they were giving you the option, that when you enlisted you were able to pick at that point, and was that an exchange for going for three years? Yes Interviewer: You still have that—different people have different levels of control over what they do at different phases of Vietnam, so that places you where you want to be. If we were drafted we probably would have ended up in the infantry. 5 �Interviewer: Yes 9:00 If we go another year, maybe we can pick something that, you know, stay out of that area. Interviewer: So, when did you finish. Let’s see, it was November, December and January 15th we headed to Georgia and February, March, about the end of March. Interviewer: Okay, and what did they do with you at that point? We got orders and I remember my friend-- and I looked when he came running up and he said, “Hey we got orders, we know where we’re going”, and I said, “Where are we going?” He got quiet and he said, “I’m going to Alaska and Jimmy D is going to Alaska, but you’re not going there, you’re staying here”, and I said, “Okay, I like Georgia”, but that was only temporary, because anybody who could stay there was sent and after six months I was the longest there before they sent me to—which was fine with me, because Jamie was going to hook me up, which didn’t happen. 10:03 Interviewer: So, you basically spend six months on active duty at Fort Gordon after training. What were you doing there? I was fortunate enough to be stationed at a military recreation area and it had three large connecting lakes, one for officers, one for sergeants and one for the public and regular GI’s. It was a wonderful period of duty and we had patrol boats, you know, we lived on the compound, in the woods; I mean it was a very, very nice tour of duty. Interviewer: Now, you’re living in Georgia at that time and were you aware at all of any kind of civil rights things that were going on? Did that affect life at the camp at all? 6 �I heard about the riots in Detroit and that was about it--that was about it. 11:00 There was one situation where we went swimming and the sergeants area in the lake and they had a dock and we had one black guy that lived with us. We swam out to the dock and he was not a good swimmer and we came in, he dove down and he just kind of went to the bottom, which was, maybe, only ten feet to the bottom. I came after him and I went down there and here he was doing one of these numbers, he was going to drown and I took him by the legs and I kept pushing him up so he could get air and another guy came and we brought him in. What was interesting about that was everybody in that house that we lived in , there were about six of us who lived in there, everybody had gotten something stolen, everybody except me. 12:00 I think I know who was doing the stealing and I think I know why I’m the only guy that didn’t get anything stolen from him, but other than that, no it was—I never noticed any of that. Interviewer: Did you get to go off the base much? Yeah, we lived off the base and you could—it’s like a job, once you’re done with training you can go, yeah. Interviewer: While you’re there are other people getting called and being sent off to Vietnam, or other places? Yes and new guys are always coming in, and yeah, I got my orders and you have to take a bunch of shots and I had the dry heaves for about two days and it’s terrible, but then you’re ready to go. I went home and then I went over. Interviewer: Alright, you’re sent—and once you go home then from home do you go to the point of debarkation and where did you go out of? Yes and where did I fly out of? I think I flew out of Oakland, California. 13:04 7 �Interviewer: Did yo fly out of the airport or there’s an air force base there, Travis? I don’t remember, I know it was Oakland. We left there and stopped to refuel, I believe it was Anchorage and we went across and I think we stopped at Wake Island and refueled, and then went on. I’ve been over twice and the one time we flew over we stopped in Japan to refuel. Interviewer: Probably the normal route would have been Anchorage and then just Vietnam, because Wake would have been kind of out of the way. If you go by Hawaii you might stop at Wake. Maybe it was Japan and there was an island the second time, there’s an island there someplace where we stopped, a real small little dinky place with one building on it. Interviewer: Yeah, Wake and Midway are both like that and they’re both small. Yeah, really small and they had a thing to the Marines there. Interviewer: Yeah, it was probably Wake Island, because they defended Wake at the beginning of WWII. 14:01 Yeah, I’d go nuts if I was stationed there. It’s beautiful, but you’re in the middle of nowhere. Interviewer: So, when did yo actually arrive in Vietnam for the first time? About three o’clock Interviewer: In terms of the date? In terms of the date, I got there in October of 1969. Interviewer: At three o’clock in the morning? Yup, you see the Vietnam coast and you know everybody in the aircraft, because we’re all eighteen, nineteen, twenty year olds, and we’re all curious, you know, everybody’s 8 �peering out and trying to see what—it’s going to be a new experience and some of you guys aren’t coming back, so everybody’s pretty curious and pretty quiet and, yeah, it looked like a normal coast all lit up and stuff. We got down and at three o’clock we were all assigned. Interviewer: Where did you land? We landed, I believe at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Interviewer: Near Saigon? Yes, right outside Saigon Interviewer: You land at three o’clock in the morning. Now, what was supposed to happen, what was your plan at that point in terms of your assignment? 15:05 I just assumed that Jamie would have my name set aside, you know, that I would be called and he would be there, take me aside and assign me some cushy job somewhere. Interviewer: So, who was Jamie? Jamie Kernmeier was a friend before I went in the service and we did a lot of hunting together. He was a great guy, but it didn’t work out that way, you know, he was sleeping when I got there. Interviewer: What was his job there? He assigned all new incoming police to their units throughout the country, there out of Saigon. Whoever needed what, he just assigned it, so he was going to assign me next to Saigon and that would have worked out well, but it didn’t. Interviewer: So, what happened with that? There was somebody else that worked that shift that night and they assigned me to the 1st Cav and they assigned me to a place called Phuoc Vinh. 16:03 9 �Interviewer: Now, did you stay at Tan Son Nhut for a while, or did you stay around that area, or did you go straight out to your unit? You didn’t stay long, you got something to eat, you know, and then you got into different lines, they put you in different lines and took you form there—a bus comes and picks you up and gets you to your new units. Interviewer: How did you get out to Phuoc Vinh then, was that on a helicopter, or truck? No, it was just a bus type thing, and the bus drops us off. Of course the commander comes out and introduces himself and told us the sergeant will take you and show you your cot and here’s your spot and here’s chow, you have to be up at this time and give you your duties sometime today, or tomorrow and show you what you’re going to do. 17:00 Interviewer: Did they give you any—the combat—guys coming for infantry, artillery, and things like that joined the 1st Cav at this time, they went through what they called the “first team academy”, and a welcome to Vietnam course. Did you get something like that? A little bit, but I think that’s mainly for infantry, you know, because they’re the guys that are going to be humping out there, but I don’t remember much of it other than you got a “welcome to Vietnam” and just go over stuff that you need to know. Interviewer: What were your first duties once you’re there? They assigned me to a gate. I had a check all trucks coming in and out of that area and did a pretty good job, but I did notice that this moped would come in and this interpreter and he’d leave and just go by me and wave. This went on for about four, or five, days 10 �and I stopped him and wondered what was in the bag and it turned out to be military food, canned, and he was probably selling it in the village and making money. 18:02 I stopped him and he said—I was taking somebody else’s, and I could get a little bit too, so there was a ‘black market” thing going on and I refused, because I was trying to be a good soldier. I’m glad I had my M-16, because he started putting his hand on his fortyfive and I brought my sixteen up and radioed and they brought some more MP’s and the confiscated it and they took him away. I thought, “Wow, I did a good thing”, but then the commander brought me in and instead of saying, “Hey, you did a good thing”, he said, “I want to ask you something, do you know how hard it is to get good Vietnamese interpreters?” So, I was taken off the gate at that point. That started that downward trend in that Military Police Corps for me. 19:00 One thing led to the other and I got sick of burning shit, got sick of it, got sick of getting up in the morning, I got sick of being harassed by this sergeant, and I woke up one morning and decided, “I’ve had it”. I went outside the area and it was pretty early, six o’clock, and the infantry unit next door was in the field and they had a picnic table there, so I lay down on that picnic table and went to sleep. It gets hot, and it wasn’t long, a couple of hours, two or three hours, and it was pretty hot and I got up and went back into the military police compound and went back to my cot, and here comes this sergeant just spitting angry, just irate, enraged and started yelling at me and screaming at me. 20:00 Interviewer: Why was he mad at you? Because I didn’t show up for reveille and he had been harassing me, and I’m not conforming and I’d just had it. What are they going to do, they’re not going to shoot me, what are they going to do? The screaming and yelling was not that great, but then it’s 11 �like I didn’t hear him anymore, it’s like I could hear him, but my mind just shut off. I grabbed my M-16 rifle and I loaded it and as I was turning around, he was already running like hell out of the building, and I go right behind him. I’m not going to kill him; I have no intention of killing him. This man has fucked with me for quite a while and now I’m going to fuck with him, and I did. He’d run between these tents with these lines and he’d trip over these lines and every time he turned around and looked at me his eyes were about this damn big. 21:03 Every time he did I’d put that rifle on him and he’d and he’d squeal like a little girl, crawl and start running again and I chased him. I wasn’t going to kill him; I just wanted to really fuck him over. He went into the command bunker and then I retreated into an inter-perimeter bunker, unloaded it, set the rifle here and the ammunition there and maybe that much water at the bottom of the area, and I’m sitting there. It wasn’t going to be good; I was going to be going to LBJ, Long Binh Jail. Most of that are black troops and I’m nineteen, a military police kid, I ain’t going to stand a chance in Long Binh Jail, ain’t going to stand a chance, so you try to figure out your way, “What are you going to do now?” I stood up and I looked out the firing holes and I’m surrounded with other MP’s with rifles. 22:01 I’m not going anywhere; I sat back and said, “Okay, they obviously know where I’m at. If I come out of here with this rifle and get stupid, they’re going to shoot me. If I don’t do something soon they’re going to gas me out of here, just simply throw in a CS gas container and they’re going to gas my ass out of here”. Then this sergeant Jackson appears at the top of these steps going down, as the sun was behind him, so he cast a shadow down these steps. A M-16 when you take it out and pull it back it discharges a round—you put this—it’s got a button where you can hit it and it will chamber another round, but there was no clip in it, but it was ready to 12 �do that. He starts coming in and he starts saying, “I’m coming down and I’m going to take that rifle away and you’re coming out of here with me”, which would have been perfect for me. 23:03 Just let him play the hero, but I reached—I watched the light come up to about the middle of his back and I reached over to the M-16 and hit that button. He heard it chambering, but it wasn’t chambering a round, he just thought it was, and I’ve never seen a guy turn around, fall on his knees and crawl out of there so fast in my life. I’m thinking, “there was your opportunity, there was your opportunity”, and then I heard from my commander, he says, “Private Dykema, may I enter?” I said, “Yes sir”, and he came on down and he seen the rifle and the clips and I’m sitting there and he sits down next to me, “What’s the problem?” I said, “I’ve had enough harassment, I’ve had enough, I’m not going to do it anymore”. 24:00 He said, “Well, what if— sometimes when somebody like you and some of my sergeants don’t get along, would you like to leave the unit and go further to the front?” I said, “I would, I would”, and he said, “We’ll make that happen”, and he leaves. I peek out and I’m not surrounded by anybody and I take my rifle and clips and I walk out hoping I don’t get hit in the back of the head, or anything, you know, and I go in and I sit down on my cot, and nothing, like it never happened. About a week went by and I found the commander and that E-7 Jackson and I said, “Sir, you were saying that I was going to go, get out of here”, and he said, “Well, we’ve talked and you’re a problem and we’re not going to give another commander our problems, so you’re going to spend your year with me and E-7 Jackson here and he’s going to have a full duty for you”, and that’s where I started to have to burn shit again. 25:01 Then they finally kicked me out. The commanders list for toilet paper pretty well did it. 13 �Interviewer: Can you explain that, because you explained it off camera, but not on, and basically you had a process by which you got yourself moved out, so what did you do? Well, you know, my job was as a punishment was to what they call burn shit, and it was a half a barrel and you put these big gloves on and you pull it out and you go to a vat and you pour it in there and then you pour diesel fuel in there and stir it around like a witches brew and light it on fire. Not difficult, you got to me careful though when you move that, because it tends to get out of control—you learn real quickly, and you burn it twice a day. After I wasn’t going to be leaving, I started my own little thing where I would harass them. 26:04 I’d go in and I’d take my glove and I’d take out a turd, for a better word, that’s what it was and during the day when E-7 was there—the first time I put it under his pillow and got it all set, the way he made his bed, and put it under his pillow and the next morning he had found it. Irate, I mean irate—I was suspect, but anybody could have been doing it and I never told anybody I did that, so even when they offered a vacation at Vung Tau for three days, you know, anybody who gives this a name, and even the commander, at three o’clock, when I went into his command bunker and sat behind his desk and put his hat on, I opened the drawer and saw a list of problem soldiers and I’m in the top three. Interviewer: You went into his office? Yeah, he’s sleeping, he’s not in that area, he’s sleeping. 27:00 He never heard, its three o’clock in the morning and nobody’s up. Interviewer: So, you went in, sat at his desk and put his hat on. 14 �I put his hat on and looked around, opened his desk drawers and stuff, looking around, hey, what are they going to do to me, I’m already burning shit, okay, leave it to me. I found this list and I went into his private john and used it as toilet paper and left it there for him to find. Interviewer: So, this was a list of what? There were the top three and all three of us ended up being removed at the same time. One gentleman was on there because he had two grenades, one with E-7 Jackson’s name on it and one with the commander’s name on it and they found them in his foot locker, so obviously he was going to be gone. There was one other one that just came and started shooting—didn’t hit anybody, just shooting up between the tents. 28:00 So, there’s the three of us, there’s two incidents, I would have been the third, and I think that’s what saved me from going to Long Binh Jail, because the unit would have been investigated at that time. Yup, he came in one day and said, “Pack your stuff up, you’re out of here”, so I did and went to headquarters and there’s the other two guys on the list with their stuff and you know, you throw your stuff out and they go through your shoes looking for drugs, or whatever, stepping all on your clothes with dirt and you put it all back in and they go through the same thing with the other two. They’re right on ya, you know, they—they’re intimidating, they’re intimidating, they always are. They dropped me off at a combat engineers unit and that commander told me I wasn’t going to be any problem for him and showed me my job with the generators, eight generators, a little milk stool, and that’s where you sit. 29:00 “Stop, fill it up, check the oil, fill it up with fuel, start it, do you think you can do that?” “Yeah, I can do that”. Well, you sit on a milk stool 15 �between eight generators all day with a tin roof over you, you go nuts. I sabotaged two of them. I put dirt in the gas container and they died. Interviewer: How long had you put up with it before you did that? A week, a week was enough, I’m not going to have my sanity back, I’d had it and it’s time to change the dynamics of the situation. That would have done it, and it did it and a couple of sections went black and they needed those generators and obviously, I’m the obvious suspect, obviously. So, Bowman took me and it was twelve hours on and twelve hours off, seven to seven went in this underground, like a tube, and it had a switchboard and someplace to sit and then it had a door and it lit down there. 30:07 I thought, “Hey this is really cool”, and they said, “Well, we figure that while we’re sleeping you’ll be awake and while were awake you’ll be sleeping. You’ll be down here from seven in the evening until seven in the morning”. “Okay, this is cool, this is fine for a couple nights”, so at three thirty I go in there and I wake up the cooks, and at four o’clock I wake up the commander, and everybody had a set schedule that I had to wake up. Other than that— you don’t get a lot of calls in Vietnam, okay, it’s dead, no books, and oh my God, after three days, “Whew, boring”. After a week that changed the dynamics again, okay, and I figured, “I’ll let the cook sleep in and I’ll get the commander up at three o’clock”. 31:02 “I’ll get that first sergeant up at quarter to three”. I just screwed up their whole schedule and then waited for the thing to change, which it did. Bang, he came and pulled me in his office with two other sergeants and said, “Get your shit together, you’re going to Song Be”, and I said, “To do what?” He said, “You’re going to be part of a demolition team”, and I said, “No I’m not, I don’t have a MOS for that”, and he said, “You’ll learn on the job, chopper will be here shortly”. It did and it flew me out to Song Be, 16 �introduced me to my new unit and I should have just stayed comfortable burning shit, but that’s when I started working with them. Interviewer: Now, the demolition team, what kind of work were you actually doing with them? We were—you know I never wanted to be part of the infantry. We were attached to the infantry. 32:00 We were attached to tank units for mine sweeping in front of them. We did go into tunnels, but we didn’t find the tunnels like they found in the central highlands. You know, most of the tunnels we found were empty. They still made you go in and I never worried about finding anybody there. I was more worried about snakes, because it’s down—it’s cool down there and even to go in one, you know—I was a hundred and sixty-five pounds at that time, six two and everybody says only the short guys do it, but if you’re part of a team they’re going to get real sick of you saying, “Oh, I’d go in that tunnel Jeff, but you’re shorter than I am, you go every time”. No, you draw straws and the short straw goes in. Then you have a dilemma, if I draw right away there’s a one in ten chance that I draw the short, or I can wait and there’s a good chance that somebody else is going to draw it before I do. 33:00 But then, as they draw these long straws out, your odds get bigger and bigger until there’s two straws left. Eeny meeny miney moe, and how we always did it was, we took a flashlight and a forty-five, and it’s dark, and we would hold onto each other’s legs like this and I would always, first, take the flashlight and do this, because, obviously, anybody who’s in there knows they’re not going to get out alive, probably quick to shoot, shoot my hand, and in this case I took my forty-five and I slowly move through where I was going to put my face and chest and see if anything moved on it. When nothing moved, no shot, then you slowly lower yourself in 17 �and, you know, you look around, the ceiling is only about this high, you can’t stand up, and then you see another dark hole from about here to that wall. 34:00 There’s some things there, bandages and different stuff, but nothing of much value, and then again, you crawl in and you don’t get in front of the hole and do this, shine the light in, you get next door and put you flashlight on again and see if anybody shoots you. If not, you crawl through there and up and you can see there’s an opening on the other side and you crawl out there and nothing is in there and you blow it up, take munitions and we blow it up, collapse it. Interviewer: These are not big complexes and things, just little spider holes that might have a little tunnel and a couple exits? There were tunnels that other soldiers found that hospitals and all that stuff, but we never—where we were we never found any of that stuff, thank God. Okay, we do a lot of wiring; we do a lot of Bangalore torpedoes, but when they bring in—usually what we would do when they were going to start a new LZ and they needed an area for choppers to get in, our unit would rappel down with a C4 and we’d blow an area quickly while the other birds were just circling, waiting to drop their troops in. 35:11 We did that, and once we did that, we had to clear an area once we had security, and then we’d put in the wire, set up a perimeter, and we’d do the Bangalore torpedoes. Now, a Bangalore torpedoes probably an eight foot piece of pipe that fits into each other and we’d wire that with det cord and they’d blow, okay. It cleans everything level and gives you a field of fire. Interviewer: is that clearing out the brush, or whatever’s around outside the perimeter? 18 �Yeah, wherever, and we’d hook a bunch of these in, so they’d be long lines and then two feet over, again, and again, and again and then we’d wire them up. At that time we used electrical blasting caps and you’re supposed to have crimpers. 36:02 A crimpers is a little piece of equipment that you take the electrical blasting cap and you put the det cord in and you crimp it down. We didn’t have crimpers, so we used our teeth, which looking back was really stupid to do with electrical blasting caps, but nobody—nothing happened, but we were really, really, lucky. We had this all wired up and I’m sitting among it with two of my friends and we’re getting ready to blow it, everything’s set, and the infantry loved this shit, because they loved the fire, they loved to see this. I said, “I’m thirsty, I’m going to go up the hill and get some water”, we had water up there. So, I left and I walked about fifty yards and right over the trees you could hear this thump, thump, thump, and a helicopter came in and came right over the top of us, and the gunner had lashed himself in and was hanging out like this giving the peace signal as they came through and buzzed us. 37:01 I don’t know if that’s what—how it happened, but it triggered our munitions. Somebody said it was the AC/DC batteries in the aircraft and I don’t know if that’s possible or not, but electrical—it went and munitions goes very fast. You don’t really have time to—it’s just “whoosh”, and it just—and through the dust my two friends, they come out like they’re dazed and they looked okay, and then all of a sudden you look at their pants and they’d be starting to turn dark red, red, so you could see something was bleeding and their shirts started bleeding and their face was starting to bleed and just backs and everything. They came out and collapsed and medevac came and got them out. I don’t know if they survived or not. 38:00 Very fine shrapnel and I have no idea what damage it caused, but it wasn’t pretty, and I started thinking that a lot 19 �of these types of accidents happen and it was probably a week later where a chopper came in and they were looking for door gunners, volunteers, for Charlie Company 2/27 Ghost Riders Helicopter Battalion, so I talked to my—at that time there was another minor accident that we lost two more guys and we’re down to, maybe, six and we’ve only been doing this two months. We got a lot of time and I looked at that and I went, “I’m going to volunteer”, and they all said, “Are you nuts?” and I said, “Are you nuts? Do you like sleeping out here? Do you like doing this?” So, I put my name in and I didn’t hear much, and then we were sent out to a place called LZ Defiance. 39:00 The tank units were there and every so many yards was another tank. It was a small area and we were sent there to mine sweep as they patrolled. And, yeah, we find a lot of mines, they weren’t hard to find. They buried them at night, so in the daylight you could see where the ground had been disturbed and we never missed one. They were round, about like so, round with a big nipple on the top for anti-tanks. We’d dig them out and put them in an APC behind us, and we always cleaned them out, we never hit them, and we’d sweep and I hated sweeping. I wasn’t too afraid of an ambush, because those are tanks. That goofy guy up there on top of that tank, on that fifth, they wear that big—you know, are you going to ambush a tank column for Christ sake? I wasn’t worried about that; it was just the heat, and the sweeping. 40:02 There were three of us and every so many feet—one guy went in with an M-16, and another guy out further with an M-16, and a guy out further with a headset sweeping, sweeping for mines and we’d rotate every fifteen minutes. LZ Defiance, it was just right on the border and a lot of B-52’s would come through there, and it was part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, you know, and a lot of their markers, where they check, had been blown up, so you could hear activity, and they 20 �started to do what we call “mad minutes’. During the period, sometime in the evening you’ll get a call and the chain commander, “only fifty” and they’ll just in one minute fire into the dark. It might be M-60, it might be M-79’s, it might be the M-6 machine gun, you know, something, M-79 grenade launchers. There would only be one weapon, indiscriminately, “mad minute”, keep the enemy off balance. 41:03 It must have been about three o’clock in the morning and I’m awake, I can’t sleep, and I was talking to a friend and it’s a quiet night, and pitch, pitch black, there’s no light, and all of a sudden we heard a “pheew” and we looked, and probably fifty yards out a NVA soldier had hit our trip flares. It lit here and it lit here and it just lit them off and it was like slow—it was surreal, because we all seen him and he was like stunned. He was realizing what had happened, he had bumped into our line and he was totally lit up. 42:00 It was like we all shot about the same time, and it probably happened like this fast, but it didn’t seem like it, and the man was dead before he hit the ground, and then they hiss, go out, and everything gets pitch black again. “We’ll wait for the sun to come up again and we’ll go out there and see what we got”, and yeah, he was definitely dead. He didn’t have anything on him and we figured he must have gotten lost. He didn’t have a rifle on him, he was stumbling around and he didn’t even have a rifle, and was probably out trying to find his unit. Then a chopper came in to pick up our guys and take us back to Song Be. I was glad to get out of LZ Defiance, glad to get out of there. During the day where the B52’s—it was still smoldering and it was hot, you could see the heat waves and the smoke, it was like a trip to hell. 43:00 Interviewer: Could you hear, or feel, the blasts from the B-52’s when they bombed the area? 21 �Oh yeah--- well, if they’re far enough away you could hear the bum, bum, bum, bum. The B-52 is pretty awesome and I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end. They sent us back to Song Be and we wondered why we’re here and our Major said, “Well, the water truck goes down about three miles to this bend in this river and they’re pumping water out and distilling it, so we have water and somebody’s taking pot shots at them up in that ridge. They don’t want to go unless they get some protection”, so they drew our guys back and said, “Tomorrow morning go on up there and get up in that ridge and catch that guy coming in, and if you can take care of it”. Well, that was better than LZ Defiance, so we get up there and it’s getting light, we cross this little river, in the bend, and head up in the ridge. 44:03 One guy drops off and another guy drops off and it was kind of an open meadow area coming up and I looked, and I’m a deer hunter, and I could see something had come up there, probably an animal, but I wasn’t sure. It teed where this huge tree had been struck by lightning years ago and had a big old hollow area inside, and all the big leaves had grown over it. I took my rifle and I looked in, so I crawled in there, figuring I had the best spot and I was just all geeked, man, I was just really geeked, I had just the right spot, I’m going to watch him come up, he’s never going to see me, I’ll wait until he’s ten feet away, I’ll put two rounds in his chest and claiming that rifle, I was all geeked and thought, “This is all going to work out really well, I’ve got the best spot”. Then nine o’clock came, ten o’clock came and it got hot, eleven o’clock the bugs are on me from inside the tree and I’m picking them off me all the time. 45:02 I’m listening and the birds are chirping, you know, and I’m thinking, “Nobody’s out there, he’s onto us and he ain’t coming, he’s not that stupid, probably some doofus from that village down there” , and about two o’clock it got so miserably hot—and when we 22 �first got there I noticed this old tree with the roots going into the bend in the river and it kind of hung over, and there was a long rope there. I figured the village kids must get up on that ridge and swim. Boy, that sounded pretty good, I peek out and I see nothing, I step out and I see nothing, and I went and got the guys to see if they wanted to go for a swim. They all agreed, so we all went out there and went up on this ridge, got this rope and stripped butt naked. I was the first one, and there was a big knot on the end that you’d sit on. 46:00 I sat on it and leaped and it was a good ride, but there was a rock that came up and you had to lift your ass up or you’d hit the rock and you went out to the river and I let myself go. Shhh, it felt great, a little muddy, but it felt really great. I’d swim and crawl up the big roots of this tree and go up and the next guy, and the next guy would go. Then it’s my turn again and just as it was too late to stop, my eyes on the far bank picked up movement. My brain wasn’t seeing a figure of a man, but there was movement there, but it wasn’t picking up what it was, but there—I’d see movement, but it was too late and I’m going down and I’m looking at that far bank, and I’m lifting my ass up so I didn’t hit the rock and as I went out and just got ready to let go I seen it. It was like the huge body of a large anaconda and a big old black point went “bloop”, into the water. 47:04 Pretty soon I’m like this, swinging back and forth, and the water was about this far below my feet and they’re up there calling, “What’s the matter? What’s the matter?” I said, “There’s a great big fucking snake”, and they start laughing and said, “We’ll throw a concussion grenade, don’t worry about it”. You know, some had three second fuses, they’re supposed to have five and you do a quick—you do the math, you’re up there—1-2-3-ehh, ehh, ehh, “No, no, don’t throw nothing”, and then they’re laughing and said, “Well swim for it and we’ll cover ya”, and about that time I look below my feet 23 �and the water starts to move and I see this big head come up. 48:00 Its mouth was going wide open and closed and I saw the teeth, and I looked into those eyes, those yellow eyes and there’s a difference between terror and fear—I felt terror go up my back. That snake might have a brain only like this, but he communicated to me very clearly what the deal was, very clearly. In fact, so clearly, I almost lost my grip on the rope, and then the big head went down and everything in my being says, “climb”, and I reached as high as I could and I yanked myself up and this thing came out of the water where my legs would have been and his mouth snapped about two, or three, inches underneath my ass and “whoom”, he want back in. I looked up on the ridge and they were all standing there with their mouths open. 49:00 I climbed straight up down there and by the time I got down they had their boots and everything on and we went back up on that ridge until close to dark and came back. I guess my point of that story is that it doesn’t take the enemy to kill you. You can die from your own stupidity, and it’s an environment that you’re not necessarily on top of the food chain and that’s tough. Song Be was our little area where we’d come back and where we operated out of and I remember Sunday morning, we came back and I was going to build this thing where we could shave, you know, I got some wood and stuff. It was Sunday morning, about ten o’clock and I had the Stars and Stripes military magazine, you know, telling us how we’re winning the war, and I went in the shitter and there were about eight holes cut there and I was in there about a half an hour, did it stink, yeah, but there’s nothing to do. 50:02 So, I’m reading and reading and I got done and I walked out, I walked out of the shitter and I walked maybe two steps down and walk up here about as far as that wall and I look up and I see these soldiers just dropping like they’ve been hit with nerve gas, “wham”, 24 �hitting the floor and things seemed to slow again, they slow, and you realize that they’re hearing something that I’m not and you realize it was probably one of these Russian 122’s they constantly harassed us with. You know, Cambodia was six miles away, rockets have ranges of eight miles, and they tried always to hit the fuel depot right next to where we lived, or that little air strip. You can’t pick—my eyes never picked—but I knew it was between them and me and I wasn’t hearing it and just about that time the shitter blew up to pieces behind me. 51:03 I think—the concussion landed—I fell flat on my ass and I wasn’t hurt, because the—I was lucky, because the 122 Russian rocket, when it hits and blows, and if that had been a 120 mortar it would have been a different thing. I’ve got slides of it—I turned around and I was amazed that it was just—and they must have had fuel lines that ran underneath it, because that also started on fire. You know, you think that if you spent another frickin' ten seconds in there, fifteen seconds, they’d be picking the shit out of your remains and sent home. You think, “Wow, these little weird things didn’t happen”, and then about that time, the same thing, about the time, about a week later, Phouc Vinh was getting some— and there was a village and every once it would be popping in there, so they sent the infantry in there. 52:04 The South Vietnamese they held up in their area, they were not interested in seeking anything out, and the 1st Cav went in there and we got called, because they started hitting booby traps. There was an old French rubber plantation, old French homes, and so, our squad was sent in there to take care of the booby traps. You’re careful, and we always carried these little half pound blocks of TNT for that, and we don’t use C-4 on that, just these little blocks of TNT and it worked pretty effectively. We spent three days there, and first we brought a bulldozer in, because as we got into this old French rubber plantation that’s 25 �where the infantry started hitting stuff as they went, so they brought in the bulldozer and he took his blade down and we were following that in, until we could get into this meadow. 53:04 Legs started coming up and arms and stuff and it turned out to be a pauper’s grave where they were buried there, so the bulldozer backed up and covered them up and sat down and we marched in ourselves. Yeah, ya had to look, if you’re not looking for it, that’s when you don’t see it and if you’re looking for it you can see the stuff they’re doing. It must have been noon, we had covered a section of this rubber plantation here and we’re in the shade and we’re cooking some food and stuff and behind us, where we just came from, we hear this “bang”. “What the hell was that?” So, we ran—we had a couple of tanks that gave us support and cover so we’re not exposed, ran back there and you could look in there and I heard this moaning and we went in there and my Lieutenant, me and a Kit Carson Scout. 54:03 A Kit Carson Scout is a North Vietnamese soldier, a Vietcong that now works for us. They know a lot about booby traps, and it’s nice to have a Kit Carson Scout with you. We went in there and here’s this old Vietnamese farmer tapping these trees that haven’t been tapped in a while, because of the war. He’s trying to etch out a living and he hit an anti-personnel mine and he was moaning and he was bleeding badly. It had blown off the back of his heel and part of his foot, it had blown off, so the Lieutenant said, “We got to get him out of here, stamp down this stuff”, which is the stupidest thing he ever said. So, we’re stamping down and I hear a “click” and everybody—the Kit Carson Scout started jabbering and he took off. Lieutenant--they got the guy out and they took off. 55:00 They said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know”, the first time I started to cry and I started to cry, I couldn’t believe it that this scenario had happened. They called for a medevac and I was 26 �waiting for the medivac before I lifted up my leg. I was going to wait until they had the meds there, right there, because I fully believed I was going to lose my life, or I was certainly going to lose one, or both of my legs, and uh, uh, I cried. Then they were maybe fifty yards away, you know, and the rest of my group, they’re just standing there staring, the Lieutenant’s just standing there staring. The Kit Carson Scout is just staring at me while they’re waiting for me to make a decision, when this is going to happen. You know, I’m twenty and I can’t believe this is going to happen and then, sure enough, I knew that decision time was coming close because I could hear this thump, thump, thump, of the helicopter coming. 56:07 As it got closer I could look up and see that it was the medevac and they came and set down, kept it running, and they’re looking at me. I said to myself, “Okay, take a big breath and I’m going to count down from ten to one and I’m going to do this”. Ten, nine, my heart is just pounding and I’m sweating, and I got to one and I couldn’t do it. “Come on, come on”, they’re not hassling me about it, they’re just waiting. 57:00 I thought, “I’m going to try it again, try it again, and I’ll get down to one and do it”. Your mouth is dry-- and I count down to five and I leap to one side and it didn’t go off. We found it and it was—I wouldn’t have lasted if it had gone off, it was that large. I took a little block of TNT and put it on there and blew it and it left a hole this round and this deep. So, even there, you think everything is under control and it’s not. Then we went into Cambodia, when the U.S. invaded Cambodia, and I think it was early March [May] of 1970. 58:05 Our units, we were ready to go in and I remember that day. I got up early, hit this big area, and there were just a ton of helicopters come in just—and it was like the more helicopters and they slowly started to rise with troops and prior to that too, a lot of new ammunition came in and all that kind of 27 �stuff was starting to get stockpiled. We thought we were going into Cambodia, into their sanctuaries, but we weren’t sure, but we thought so, but as we got—you could look behind the aircraft and you could see this long line, like geese, and they got higher and higher. They got about five, six, thousand feet in the air and started to head toward the coast. Well, we’re not going to Cambodia; we’re heading towards the coast. Then they got above this cloud bank and then you could look out front, and the lead ship started to turn, and we’re going to Cambodia, in their sanctuary. 59:06 Then when we got there we were not the first line in. When we got there a chopper took us in, dropped us off on this little hill and I remember looking and there was like eight body bags with GI’s that had been killed. The bags weren’t dark, they were green, but they were kind of see through and you could tell if it was a black man, or a white man. Being on a hill their body fluids were moving to the end of the bag and as we got off—and I noticed when we got on it looked like there was blood and stuff on the—but you sit down and go, let’s do this. Then as we got off they were piling bodies on. Their radio operator had been killed and they had no radio operator for a squad, so the infantry grabbed me and took me. 00:01 They got this big old thing hanging above there and it’s not a good thing to have there, antenna up there, you know, it just “here I am”, but you do what you’re told and as we went into this twilight under the jungle, in the middle of the day it’s twilight, and I see this firs NVA body and he was lying face down, and I wanted his shoes, his Ho Chi Minh shoes. I went to the body and I grabbed his foot to take his shoes and the lieutenant came up and said, “Don’t touch that body, anything on that body is mine”, and he went again. I came back , didn’t take the shoes, but I flipped him over and he had been shot in the back and he had bled a perfect heart on his chest. 1:01 28 So, I flipped him over and I took that �ammo carrier and put it in my pack and we moved on. It started getting dark and my team—we didn’t stay together and I don’t have to go on patrol and I don’t have to do ambushes, I’m not in the infantry, I’ll be your radio operator. It’s night time now, so I got back with my squad and we found this pretty level area covered by kind of bushes, but it was kind of a clearing and he said that this would be a good place for us to sleep tonight. So, we went in there and there was another dead NVA lying in there. It’s getting dark, everybody gets, “That’s bad luck man, that’s bad luck, we can’t sleep with a dead man, come on man what are we going to do with him, drag him out?’ Other GI’s saying, “What the fuck you doing man? We got shovels, just bury him, bury him here”, so we did, not very deep, but we dug in and covered the guy up. 2:04 Then everybody felt more comfortable going to sleep. I used the guy as a pillow, I know, we different and you got to understand that you change, it’s different, you can’t apply the values, because there aren’t any. Everything you’ve been taught is right is wrong and the thing that’s wrong now is right. It was amazing this cache, the size of garages with tarps on them and we’d rip them open and we got our—I got a SKS still packed in Cosmoline, I got a CKS Chinese semi bolt action, I got shit at home that I got out of that cache, and we’d just clean them out, clean them out, and then we’d withdraw to a perimeter again and you could hear them having trucks turning on trying to get this stuff out. 3:02 I think it was the third day we started to find these holsters for 9mm’s, so we knew we were close to 9mm’s and that was a thing that I’d want. That third day, we’re coming back and there’s this opening, kind of a meadow, and they had—it looked like six nice new Chinese green deuce and a half trucks. We went over there and we just shot the shit out of them, just shot the shit out of them. In a war you can actually be a top vandalism and you never 29 �have to worry about it, and we just shot the shit out of them and then retired and it started getting dark and like I said, we didn’t have to do any perimeter. They picked us up and before they moved us to these three roads that came in and we’re going to set up a perimeter there. 4:03 The Air Force had knocked the shit out of all the buildings in there, so we set up there and it was nice, it was pleasant. I was sitting there one night—I never did get the pistol—and we’re sitting there one night and about three o’clock in the morning this light went “whoof, whoof, whoof” , a guy took a camera shot and about an hour later the same thing and the next day the choppers came in and they started kicking off sandbags and stuff and more ammunition and stuff that we needed, because what that was, was a picture of the land and then an hour later of the same land and then they had analyzed it and they found a large North Vietnamese army unit is moving towards one of the three of us. 5:00 It could be LZ Lee, LZ Betty, or our LZ, because we covered each other with our artillery. But definitely—and they had artillery pieces with them, so they said, “You guys can’t sleep on the ground anymore. Dig in and build yourself a bunker, this is what’s going on “, so we did and there were enough buildings blown up, so we took the wood and stuff and brought bunkers—well, sandbags up to here and put sandbags on and there was room for three of us to fit in there. We were waiting, we knew they were in the area and we’re waiting. Where our unit was, that part of the perimeter, some valleys came in and it wasn’t too far for them to go. We had a lot of wire out, we had fougas, and we had claymores all set up. I’m sitting there and I hear a whistle and “wham” the first round came in from our artillery. 6:05 What they do is, they figure if they’re going to get attacked they’re going to attack here, so they zero their guns in just over us. It makes you feel terrible, because why do I have to be in this 30 �particular section and then it’s just dark and they shut their guns off. So, if we need them and they’re coming through all they have to do is fire and they’ll be right on target. So, the first night I’m nervous, I got the starlight scope, I’m young, and I remember thinking, “Now there’s a stump there between that and—it’s just a stump. Well, I had ten to twelve and the guys were pretty well sleeping in their little areas and I keep turning it on and the starlight scope, it wasn’t the best technology, but you can see shadows and then fog comes in. the fog came in. 7:00 The fog comes in and then I can’t—I can’t—what a perfect night for it and I swear to God that stump was getting closer, and it wasn’t, but your mind starts playing tricks on you. Finally at midnight I woke up the next guy, he went and I crawled in on an air mattress kind of on a hill and it started to rain, it started to pour and pretty soon, being on a hill of course, the back of our little bunker started filling up with water, so your feet’s doing this. There was a Mexican further down and he started cussing in Mexican and I took my flashlight and looked and water was coming through and hitting him and then it hit me, but once you’re wet you’re wet and you go to sleep. I went sound to sleep and I never knew what hit me. It felt like somebody came up and hit me with a ball bat across the head and kind of pushed me out of the bunker, but my arms—I couldn’t get off and I’m tasting a lot of blood. 8:06 Everybody’s hustling to the perimeter and I’m afraid of we get overrun all they’re going to just shoot me in the head and I’m screaming, “Help me, help me”, and this soldier came and everybody’s got to get on that perimeter. He came over and he flashed his light and said, “Oh, God”, and left, which didn’t make feel very good and I figured half my head went, but that wasn’t the case. Head wounds bleed, it doesn’t mean they’re bad, they bleed, and I couldn’t see out of my right eye and I saw sparkles everywhere and just tons of 31 �blood. It was like an ice pick in my head, because it was raining and it was just hitting. They didn’t hit us, they hit—what it was, they hit LZ Brown and the dumbest thing they ever did, because LZ Brown was totally flat and they just fricking slaughtered them suckers. 9:00 They got me and they medevaced me out. Interviewer: What hit you? Was it a mortar? You know, I don’t know if it was a round that came in, all I know is that whole thing collapsed and hit me in the head. I don’t know, I was sound asleep and I don’t have a good idea what that was. I assumed it was, but I don’t know. So, I ended up being medevaced out, but not right away. We had dug down underground and we had a med station. When they took me, and I wasn’t the only one in there, there was like two other guys as well, and they had us on these cots that were about this high and the water was about this high, filling up with rain. The doctor came around and his eyes were like this big and he looked like he had lost it, literal. I looked at him and his eyes were that big and he puts a dobby-do in my arm and tapes it and goes to the next guy it’s raining and now it’s light raining and it’s in the middle of the night. 10:05 God bless these medevacs, god bless them and I hear this “whoom. whoom, whoom,” medevac in the mountains, in the middle of the night, in a rainstorm, come down. Now, they put me and these other two guys on the floor of the chopper and it started to rise and I’m thinking, “Go, go, get it”, because we were vulnerable and if somebody had a B-40 they’d blow us out of there. “Go, go, climb, climb”, and climb, climb, and pretty soon we popped out on top of the cloud bank and it was a beautiful starry night, and we headed towards Vietnam. The first way station was there and they brought us off there and they looked at it. Of course, he had missed my vein, so my arm was all puffed up and they put one in here and 32 �sent me to the hospital there outside of Saigon. 11:00 I think I might have had, maybe a nervous—I don’t know what it was, but I was in there and I still had my boots and stuff on and I was lying in this bed and I had a knife in my boot and it looked like the nursing staff looked like Vietnamese and I took my knife out and the next thing I know, these four gorillas in white come around and he disarms me like I’m a “pussy”. Grabs me and throws me on my stomach, holds me down, rips my pants off, gives me a shot and I’m fighting it, he does it one more time and I was asleep. I woke up and I was in this nut ward and I’m thinking, “This is bizarre”. I was getting ready to be shipped to Japan to the 249th general hospital. 12:00 So, I went to Japan and I got there and they gave me a cot and I looked around and it was different. Nothing was loose, everything was firmly attached and I asked if I could have my shaver and they gave it to me and I went into the bathroom and I thought, “Wow, this is going easy”, I never cut anything and they took the razorblade out. “Okay, I think I know where I’m at”. I came out and initially I could not speak, I tried, but I couldn’t speak, it just wasn’t coming, it was the weirdest thing I ever experienced, I could not speak. But, there was this guy from the 101st Airborne and he had his pajamas on and bloused combat boots and he had this record called Leapy Lee "Little Arrows”, and he would play it, and he would play it, and he’d play it. 13:02 I’m thinking, “I’m going to lose my mind, I’m either going to stuff that up your ass, or that’s not going to play anymore”, so I look it and I broke it and dropped it on the floor. I waited to see what he was going to do. You know, he didn’t come after me, but he started chirping and jumping up and down on his cot and I got up and I was going to hit the fucker in the face and here are these guys again, they grab me and “boom” take me away and we talked. At that time I had gotten my voice back and I said, “I don’t belong 33 �here” and they said, “Well, you’re going back to the states”, “Good, great”, and then the Army doctors came down and they said, “You look like you’re fit for duty” and I said, “No, I’m going back to the states”, and they said, “You go back to the states, you got thirteen months, we’ll re-levy you for another year, or this is what we can do. 14:02 We’ll let you go home for a month and see your family, we’ll let you out five months early, and you can get any unit you want”. Okay, I did that, I went home for a month, fell in love, I went to my doctor to have him take out my tonsils and that got me another month. Then I went back to him and said, “Take out my appendix”, and he said, “I’m not going to do that, your tonsils needed to be taken out and your appendix doesn’t. I’ve done everything I can for you”, so I ended up going back and when I got back I was arrested for being AWOL, because I never got the doc’s the instructions for that extra month, and then they just shopped me out to my old unit. Well, my old unit was back in the field and my old commander—I got back there, but first I was at Tan Son Nhut Airbase waiting for a helicopter ride, and here’s the old supply sergeant. 15:00 I said, “Hey, how you doing? You were supposed to pack my shit up and send it home”, and instead he said, “Wow, we never thought you’d be back”, and I said, “Yeah”, and he said, “Look at some of this stuff “ and the doofus pulls out this ammo carrier that I’d taken off that dead NVA with the perfect heart. He said, “Look at this shit”, and I said, “That’s my shit, you fucker”. I didn’t care about that and I said, “I want my rifles”, and I said, “Where are my rifles?” He said, “Your rifles? Uh, I think the commander took those rifles and gave them to some higher ranking people in Saigon. We never figured you’d be back”. “Boom”, I get up there and I said, “You know, my unit, I picked the 2/27 Charlie Company, that was the deal, that’s why I’m back here. I’m going to be a door 34 �and I’m not going on the ground anymore”, and he said, “Listen, we lost some people, you draw your pack, you draw a rifle and you be on the fricking heli pad tomorrow morning”. 16:02 “You’re going down to a place called LZ ---“, and God I forget what it was, so they took me in there and these guys were digging in, in the side of the hill, they were doing strafing below the hill and working with Bangalore torpedoes, in the bottom of the hill fires had started, so they’re working there was up towards the torpedoes. It was a bad situation, none of those guys liked it, it wasn’t an area I wanted to stay in, and this is not the deal I made. Then just before dark I see this chopper coming in really fast and as he came in I dropped everything. As they were kicking mail and stuff off the one side, I crawled in on the other side. The gunners looked at me and I said, “They don’t give a fuck” and the pilot never said anything to anybody. They went back and they had to stop in Song Be, my old unit, to refuel. So, when they stopped I slid off and went into the perimeter and fell asleep on top of a bunker. 17:03 I had two grenades here and I woke up in the morning and the grenades had rolled off, but there was a big rat curled up and sleeping on me, and these rats, if you left them alone it’s almost like, “Oh, you getting up now?” He got up and walked away. I waited to get the next ride, I kept asking, “Where you going, where you going?” “Saigon,”, “Can I get a ride?” “Yeah, get on”. I went to, I think he’s called the Adjutant General, he represents--he takes care of us. I didn’t go to my commander, I went--I didn’t use the chain of command, I went right to the Adjutant General and I explained, told him the whole story, and he said, “you go back to your unit and I’ll look into this”. “Yeah, right”, so I go back to the unit and of course my commander is irate that I went over his head, absolutely irate and he said, “Draw a pack, draw a rifle, and be on the helipad”. He brought me up to a mountain 35 �called Mui Ba Ra and the NVA had dressed themselves as South Vietnamese. 18:00 There was only one way—it was a communication center up there with one way there, otherwise it was a sheer dropoff and there was--a couple of GI’s were killed and I was one of their replacements and the NVA did not get up there, but there were some casualties, and it was good duty. We went up there and we’re at the top of the mountain and you could see the jets go at eye level and clouds would drift by and there on son Bay underneath there and we could see the Russian 122 rockets coming at night. They had this little tail hit that airstrip and we’re safe up here. It was about two weeks and it was nice. Then “boom” the chopper came in and asked for me and I got on the aircraft and it’s just leveled on this ledge and it just tilted and the helicopter just fell and I almost craped my pants. “Whoosh” right on back there and sat down and I went into my commanders unit. 19:01 He said, “Apparently, I can’t go home until you’re satisfied”, and he said, “What’s going to make you satisfied?” I said, “I had a Russian SKS still packed in Cosmoline that you gave away to some sucking ass in Saigon”, and he tried to intimidate me, he’s the commander. “Just stop it, just fucking stop it”, and he said, “What’s going to make you happy? I said, “That 9mm you got out of Cambodia will make me happy”, and he said, “I’m not going to give you that fucking revolver, I’m not going to do it”, and I said, “Then you ain’t going home are ya? What’s going to make me happy is that 9mm there. You gave away my two rifles; I want your 9mm”. 20:00 Then he got real quiet and real nice, and he said, “Listen, I just want to go home and I don’t want to give you the 9mm, but I’ll tell you what I can do. I’ve got a British 303 that was taken, will you accept that?” We sat there and stared at each other and I said, “Yes”, he gave it to me and he said, “You’re also leaving here and you’re going to 2/27 36 �Charlie Company, Ghost Rider, good luck”. I went there and when I got there—you know, I’ve been in country a long time man and it like a net because these gunners are like real close and when I first got there they looked at me and said, “Do you smoke or drink?” Trick question? Smoke? Flight One, which were all potheads and Flight Two, which were all drinkers. So I went in there and they said, “Listen, you’re going to have to sleep down at the end on this four by eight plywood that’s up off the ground and we’ll get you all settled tomorrow, okay?” 21:04 “Okay”, so I met these guys and we talk and getting to know each other and about two, or two thirty in the morning—I took my boots of, I never wore socks, or underwear, and the boots were real soft and even in the field I’d use them as a pillow. So, I took my boots off and wrapped one of my tee shirts around them and I crawled up on this four by eight piece of plywood. I’m sitting there and I looked up and I see in the rafters, I see rats, I see rats, and I started to go to sleep and I feel something on my toes. I took my flashlight and here are these three rats chewing on my toenails. It freaked me out, it just freaked me out and I hit it and ehh, they screamed and hustled away and they kept coming all night long. I got my insect repellent and I’d wait until they got to my toes and I’d spray them in the eyes, and they’d scream and this went on all night. 22:02 Well, it was an initiation, and this is where they put some marijuana and stuff to keep the rats on that side of the building. The rats were simply coming to their feeding area, is all they were doing. “Very funny guys, very funny”, and they said, “You’re in the first room on the right”. “Okay, alright”, so I walk in there and there’s a bunk bed, but it’s painted white and it’s got these black fists on it and it had some very nasty things about white people on it. I’m thinking, “Who’s my new roommate?” Then I meet him, he comes in and he’s a big guy, bigger than me, he 37 �was a big black guy, and he really never said much. He hated me, because I was white and now he had to live with me. He said, “Listen, I’m sleeping low, you’re sleeping high”, that’s all he said, so I went up there. 23:01 The problem with him was he had this eight track of Marvin Gaye and I can’t stand the song today, “I Heard It on the Grapevine”, and with an eight track back then, you put it in and it just plays, and plays, and plays, and plays. Well then this thing started between us, you know, and every time he got up before I did he put it in and I’d get up and pull it out, and at night before he’d go to bed, he’d put it in, and I’d climb down and pull it out. This went on for about a week—we’ve got to change the dynamic here, I’m sick of this. He left one morning, I pull it out and I took my boot and I smashed it on the cement floor and left, went out to my aircraft. I’m sitting in the gunners well, M-60’s not loaded, sitting in the gunner's well, and I look and here comes this dude around the building and he has found Marvin Gaye. I am the obvious suspect and he is pissed off. 24:00 He stated coming towards me and as he came towards me he pulled a knife out of his boot. I’m thinking, “You dumb mother fucker”, and I put the round of ammunition in my M-60 and I loaded that sucker. I brought that barrel down on his chest and every M-60, the pressure point to firing is different and you get to know you weapon, okay? Some fire right away and some you’ve got to pull back and then they fire, okay? Mine, you had to kind of pull back a little bit, and how I liked it set, and I started squeezing that trigger and he got, probably, from here to that wall away and it was right there—I would have killed him--he would have killed me, the guy’s too powerful, he’d kill me, and I wasn’t going to take a chance, I would have killed him. It was right there and I decided, “I’m going to do this’, and he stops, he looks at me, he knew that I would do this. 25:02 38 He takes the knife �and he puts it back in his boot and he gives me a smile and says, “You gotta sleep sometime”, and walks away. I’m thinking, “You dumb fuck, why didn’t you just leave the Marvin Gaye thing alone. Why didn’t you just leave his fricking Marvin Gaye thing alone?” For the rest of the day I’m always looking behind me and stuff. “Where is this sucker? Am I going to go around the building saying, “Hey pal, how you doing?” But, he’s right I can sleep, you know, he’ll cut my throat in the night. “What do you do? I wish I would have thought of this before. Now what do you do?” I went to my commander and just told him what happened. I said, “I’m scared for my life”, and what they did—nobody wanted to live with this guy, this guy intimidated the door gunners for crying out loud, he intimidated them all. 26:00 This was one nasty mother fucker, okay? I told him what’s going to happen and “boom”, they went and took him out, got his stuff, put him on an aircraft and he was gone. Then I got this room all to myself. I was a new gunner with a room all to himself. I did a little redecorating and painting, and that’s how I started being a door gunner. As the time went by I remember one morning, it was a Sunday morning, that the U.S. Army had heard—and I knew this after the fact, that the NVA had put in a large military unit and where would somebody hide that many men and equipment? The jungle, okay, but this rubber plantation called the “Chup Plantation”, it’s a French rubber plantation, you can’t see it from the top and it’s clear on the bottom. 27:06 The perfect place to bivouac lots of men at high light. So they figured that being—we were in a triangle, we patrol the triangle and that’s where the Ho Chi Minh Trail mouth came in, and that the “Chup” might be the spot. I didn’t know this, because the pilots didn’t say, “Hey, it’s a beautiful Sunday morning, let’s go see if we can find some trouble”, they just didn’t tell me what we were going to do. So, we 39 �lifted off, we went up and headed towards the Cambodian border, which wasn’t unusual. But, then we started gaining altitude, a lot of altitude, five thousand feet, we’re use to five thousand feet, eighty-five knots, which is about a hundred and five miles an hour, cruising. That’s what we did. It might look like that helicopter’s stationery, but we’re moving, and that’s why most of the shots go way behind our tail. Five thousand feet’s pretty safe, small arms fire, forget it. 28:02 Anything bigger, watch out. But, we kept going higher and it got cold. I remember, it got so cold and I was the right side gummer and I looked out, because we took our doors off and stuff, I looked and in the distance I could see this beautiful green area, like God had a yard and it was a manicured, a beautiful shimmering green that Sunday morning. We kept getting higher and I’m thinking, “Why are we going so high? We never go this high, it’s cold”, and we kept climbing as we got towards the “Chup” rubber plantation, kept climbing higher, and higher. I thought, “Well, everything’s pretty safe”, so I dialed into Saigon with my headset, there’s only one radio station in Saigon, so there wasn’t a lot of choice, but it was a good “rock ‘n roll” station and I dial in and it’s Led Zeppelin and “Stairway to Heaven”, so I crank that sucker up and I lean back in my gunner's well and we’re way up in the air. 29:06 Just where that guitar pick starts I hear this “beep”, and I never heard it before, never, “beep”. Well, if I’d have known what was happening, I would have had a seat belt on, and what is was, was that we’d been picked up, we found them and they have an anti-aircraft gun and we’ve been locked on. By the third “beep” they’ll blow you out of the air and you got to be falling, they shut the aircraft off, and all of a sudden it was just—there was no gravity, and that bird slowly went on it’s side, my side, and I floated to the ceiling. I had a 50 caliber; I could have engaged that 51, but I couldn’t get 40 �down to the gun. 30:03 It was an invisible hand, there was no gravity, I was plastered right there just going down towards the ground. Oh yeah, I could see where it was in those trees, oh yeah, because there was these clumps of green going whoosh, whoosh, just missed us. That gun, we’re falling and here’s that gun trying to catch us and I’m thinking, “You know, the ground’s coming up”, and I’m thinking to myself, “Mom, I’m so sorry, so sorry”, and I thought, “Well, you won’t feel a thing, you won’t feel a thing, you won’t feel a thing, and if they slow the aircraft we’re fucked, and if they don’t slow the aircraft we’re fucked”, and it was okay, it was okay. Then an amazing thing happened. As we’re getting closer to the horizon, the tops of those trees looked like God took a lawn mower and went errrr, because they just started splintering everywhere. 31:00 I’m watching and I’m thinking, “Shit”, and eek it stopped, because now they were just shooting the tops of the trees and not at us anymore. The pilots, when they righted the aircraft, I fell hard, I mean--I fell on this piece of steel plate and I was amazed how, when they went like that, how hard I hit, and I fell back like this and that’s the only time it had to happen, because I don’t know what caliber, but it came right through the floor, right between my legs, through the top, and hit a blade. I didn’t even know it until laterthe army-I’ll tell you later, but the blades were going “kerwhack, kerwack”, and I’m thinking, “We’re going to tear the blades, we’re going to”, and I could feel the aircraft starting to slow. Those noises, that M-8, “kerwhack”, those blades were taking stress, and I’m thinking, “They’re going to rip, they’re going to rip”. 32:01 Then I looked down and I’ve never seen so many NVA in my life and they’re all like this, shooting at us. I’m thinking, “Holy shit”, and I looked at the steel plate underneath me and It is moving, but I’m looking at the floor of the aircraft and an amazing thing, it’s like holes 41 �just materialized. They were hitting us all over the place and thought, “Well”, and I started to scream, I got on that 50 and I just started firing , and I’m screaming and I’m firing, and I’m screaming, and I’m not even aiming at anything. It was target rich and I figured I had to hit something, and I’m just a screaming and I’m firing, and I’m screaming and I’m firing and I hear the other gunner doing the same thing, firing, firing, and they spun our aircraft up. A ways away the South Vietnamese were moving up to engage at that time. We set that aircraft down, I got out, got the pilots out, because they can’t get out without your help. Unsnapped his door, unsnapped his harness, and took the steel plate, so he could get out. 33:01 We’re all sitting there and we’re looking and the bird is just shot up. Both pilots were fine, I was fine, the other gunner was fine. Of course, he should have been, because he was facing God, and I was facing down during that time, so I hang on for dear life, or you float out of the aircraft, and that was in the “Stars and Stripes”. A bird came in to pick up our air crew and another bird came in to lift it, because they didn’t dare fly it, and took it back to Phuoc Vinh. I went into my place where I sleep and I’m sitting on my bed and my hands just shaking, just shaking, just shaking, and he came in and he said, “Did you see your gunner's well?” I said, “Why?” He said, “Come out here and take a look at this”, and they had this lead wire that they put up where the bullet came and through where, and there was the hole above my head, and out where it hit the blade, and if I had been anywhere on that gun, it would have killed me instantly. 34:05 The only time I wasn’t was when they righted, because sideways it’s not going to hit the floor, it had to right. I said, “The only time that could have happened without killing me was when we hit hard and I fell back, because after that I was on the gun”, and I think that millisecond righting was good luck, it’s just good 42 �luck, good luck, and that was in the “Stars and Stripes”, in fact. That aircraft shot full of holes, they had a picture of it. We got a different aircraft and it wasn’t that long after that, and we had to bring a black Lieutenant into the mountains to an infantry unit. Interviewer: I’m going to take a break here for a moment. So you were talking about having to take a black Lieutenant someplace? Yes, and you know we did a lot of these types of missions, but before—I want to go back, because we were always told as door gunners, “Guys, if you’re taken prisoner, because you’re gunners, they’re going to fucking shoot your ass”. 35:07 “You know, just like they would a sniper, and you’re not going to make it. Only pilots are taken prisoner”. I had come up with a plan B and the plan B was to put warrant officer pins, I got from one of the pilots, put them in my pocket, and the idea was, if we’re shot down, I can take those pins out and I’m going to snap them on my collar and I will just become an officer, and maybe get by those front line troops that have been waiting so long to get their hands around my throat. But, I also thought, typical army, they’re going to spend this bull shit, “You fight to the death, because you don’t want to be executed”. Ah, that’s a bunch of bull shit, and we’re on patrol one time and we hear this “Fook, fook, mayday, mayday, fook”, and the radio starts to crackle and I’m listening to what’s going on and they directed our ship where it last went down—go over there. 36:03 “Here we go”, and we fuel the aircraft, we change direction, and went as fast as we could, but it took time to get there and when we sat down we could see the aircraft, it had been shot down, and it had been shot up really bad. I think they shot it up after it was on the ground and wiped shit all over it. They just fucked it up real good, and nobody was there. We’re looking around and first you go and make the circle, you want to make the circle, you 43 �don’t want to land, you just want to make this circle. You look, and as the door gunner-you’re right above the trees and I can see everything. I can see everything that moves, man, and anything that fucking moves is going to get a hole in it. You tighten and tighten until you’re comfortable setting down and the pilots were gone, and I looked and there were these two lumps in the field. 37:05 So, I ran over there and sure enough, there was these two gunners and they had their hands, not tied, but wired, behind them and it looked like they were set on their knees and shot in the back of the head, both of them were face down. So, we recovered those bodies and left and after that I always had the pins, because I didn’t want to go like that, but then some nightmares started too, I started having nightmares—“Bang”, they shoot the other gunner, and I feel those footsteps behind me and I wake up, it was just stupid shit like that, just stupid shit. Anyway, I need to take this black Lieutenant and we have to leave in the morning, because the monsoon season is starting. 38:00 The monsoon season—you see a could bank in the distance, it will be there and it’s gone, it’s there and it’s gone, there and gone, and then it’s over you and it rains like hell. Where we were going the monsoon was starting and we had to leave in the morning before the cloud bank came up over the mountains, that’s how we lose air crews, the mountains, it’s not from the enemy, it’s from colliding with shit. Sure enough the fucking guy gets there like a two o’clock in the afternoon and I can already see—this doesn’t feel right, I get this really bad feeling about this whole thing and I was getting pretty superstitious at that point, I’d been there a long time and I was getting superstitious. Our aircraft, which was a good aircraft, 428, was a strong aircraft. We lifted off with this guy, and when we went up--we usually looked for what we call the “Stairway to Heaven”, big lights coming through the clouds and a big one was like God’s 44 �golden and the pilot flew up into it. 39:04 I’m looking over the edge and I could see everything just close and as far as you could see was nothing but white cotton batten, as far as the eye could see. We started in that direction and we probably were about twenty minutes into the flight and I look and, amazing, there was this “Alice in Wonderland” mushroom cap as big as buildings above us and the storm below. Huge, and some of these stems were the size of holes, and big caps, and we were like that small. I’m going-I had my camera and I never took a picture. We’re maneuvering through and I’m looking and I just felt so small, but I was amazed at the beauty of this. He’d go right through a stem and you couldn’t see your hand, and we’d pop out the other side and keep going, it was amazing, and then that forest of mushrooms was behind us. 40:00 “Yeah, hey, that was pretty cool, that’s why I’m here, just to experience that right there”. Another twenty minutes, or so, and I’m looking over the side of the aircraft, they don’t look good, I don’t know where the mountains are, I have no idea how these pilots are going to know where the mountains are, and I’m figuring, “We’ll turn around and come back with this “jerk off” tomorrow and let’s not do anything stupid”. Then my headset starts to crackle and I’m listening, we made contact, and they are sown below us somewhere, but where? “We’ll come back tomorrow”, and the pilots come on and say, “Hang on, we’re going down”. “Going down? Are you out of your fucking mind?” Are you out of your fucking mind?” “I’m along for the ride”. “Mom, beam me out of here will ya?” “You can’t, you’re along--this is it man, you’re totally out of control of what’s going to happen, and considering that you got two pilots that are probably twenty-one years old”. 41:00 So, they started to circle, and we started to circle and I’m watching this this thick pea soup come up and I can’t see my hand ,a down we’re down and can’t see nothin', it’s like pea 45 �soup, and I’m getting like, “We’re going to fucking die, we’re going to fucking die, where are the mountains, where are we?” We’re moving down, we’re moving down, and all of a sudden—what had happened is, the mountain was here and we’re coming down and a wind shear grabbed our blades, and it turned the helicopter, my face down, and just hurled us towards the ground. No gravity—“bang’, I went up to the ceiling again and all I could see is this gray puss hitting me in the face. I’m thinking, “Keep your eyes open, keep your eyes open it won’t hurt, it will be quick, it will be quick”, and I’m waiting for my death. 42:03 Meanwhile, the black guy, he’s just screaming his head off, he’s just screaming and screaming and I remember thinking, “Shut up, just die like a man, just shut up”, and he’s screaming, and I’m waiting, and I’m waiting, and the pilots got back in control and we popped out of that cloud bank, but we were level, and the ground was really close, and “boom” we hit it level and those blades went “vooooo” then ‘whaaaaa, whaaaaa”, and I got out immediately, opened the door, unsnapped his harness, moved the steel plate away, so he could get out. The other gunner does the same and we’re sitting in front of the aircraft, all of us, and one of the pilots has his hands on the nose of the aircraft saying, “Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ”, and he just kept saying this over and over, “Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ”, so I knew it was close. 43:00 then I look and I see this poor black guy, he’s full of barf, barf all over himself, barfed on the other gunner, because the wind blew it, and he gets up. He tries to walk, he can’t walk, he’s so terrorized his legs give out and he falls. Then I see movement in the trees and my heart starts to race. I reach in my pocket for the pins. I had a 50 and I rushed back to get the 50 and it was US troops and they just blended right out of the jungle. Came up and picked up this poor fucker—which was still having a hard time walking. I wish I’d 46 �gotten his name and number, because I’d love to call him today, I would love to call him today and say, ”Hey Jerry”, “Don’t ever call me again, hey”, one of those deals, and they came in and they’d see our aircraft come in and was talking to their Lieutenant, I guess. 44:02 They said, “We’ve got to move you, come with us now or leave”. The pilots got back in the aircraft and we snapped them in and stuff and they brought the aircraft up about this high off the ground and we’re just sitting outside on the skid and the aircraft seemed okay, you know, just floating, floating, floating, set it back down and I hear the command, “We’re leaving”, and they did what they call a “Hammer head”. A “Hammer head”, you’re not supposed to—it’s very hard on the aircraft, but what it is, is they get that blade so it’s really, really, moving and they take the collective and they pull it up, which immediately grabs air and you just fly. “Hang on, hang on”, and I could see what they were going to do and that this was going to be a fun ride. I leaned back in my gunner’s mode and sure enough, we shot off that ground and we just went through this pea soup, I mean, it was a great ride, man, it was a great ride. 45:07 We “boom” popped out of the top and went, maybe, a couple thousand yards up in the air and then the aircraft started to choke, and started to fall. The pilots are, “chi, chi, chi”, and they got it running again it just settled in a little bit and we went home. I would have loved to have known that black guy--today, I’d like to call him. The only other thing, as I was getting close, they moved our units to the coast, from the triangle, and that’s when the US was moving out, so we took over for another helicopter unit that went north to the DMZ, so we took over their area. I was getting short at that time and I, maybe, had two more months left, and I was finally going home. My nerves were shot, and at that time we’re doing a lot of heroin, the gunners were, they’re doing a lot of heroin. 46:03 I remember 47 �coming out of this room and everybody’d take a pee right there, a little two foot size, everybody would pee there and I came out of the room and it’s like—I passed out, I black, face down in the stuff. I don’t know how long I was there, it couldn’t have been too long--somebody would have found me. I woke up, took a shower, and we had these big container barrels that would heat up, the sun would heat up in the morning and during the day. I washed up, and I had never blacked out before, and I didn’t worry about it too much—two months to go, two months to go, and then one day we had to go—they took out bird 428, and said, “You got to go a place called Dalat. Go up there”, and I didn’t’ know why we were going to Dalat, the pilots didn’t let us know we were going Dalat, it was up in the mountains and the only way to get there was through, what we called the Suk Ve [sp?] pass. 47:00 They said, “This is the only way we can get up through here, so stay on your toes, we’re leaving”, so we left and we took off and we started to gain some altitude and I’m looking in front of the bird, and sure enough it kind of opened up and that must be the pass, and it was. We went up and they went “whoof”, and we went up, and we were going and you could look down and way down there you could see a little blue ribbon, which was a river. We came past this sheer mountain, it’s like God took a saw and cut this mountain sheer and it was black. This beautiful black, so close, and of course, there’s a lot of turbulence that comes up next to that, and it seemed like we’re from here to that wall away, the blades, like I could almost—it was so massive and we were so high, like I could almost touch it. 48:00 I’m thinking to myself and the aircraft is moving back and forth, and I’m thinking, “Get the fuck away from the side of the mountain dudes, you don’t have to fly this—we got plenty of sky”, and I’m thinking this to myself. I’m sitting back and it’s like everything went black, not right away, I seen 48 �these balls and then everything went black. I fell forward and I went outside the aircraft, and I went into the gun and the trigger caught me underneath my chin and as soon as I broke that barrier, that high, it was cold and the wind was great and like when I hit, “bang” my arms went around, but I was awake and I hung on, or it would have been a long way down when you stop to think about it. I’m hanging on for dear life, communication snapped, I’m screaming, and the pilots can’t hear me, they’re just-- back of their heads, just bouncing and they don’t hear me. 49:06 The other gunner’s on the other side of that turbine and he don’t hear me. I’m screaming and screaming, I’m looking down and my legs are flying in the air, it’s a hundred and five miles an hour and I’m hanging on for dear life and I’m looking and it’s so far down. About that time I see the cotter pin that holds the gun in its mount, doing this, coming out and all I can think is “This goes and me and the gun are going to watch the bottom of that aircraft get smaller and smaller, and smaller. “What will they think happened? “He went nuts, took the gun and killed himself”. That wasn’t the truth, and they would never really know the truth, I’m hanging on and the typical barrel there’s a piece of steel for a firing pin, and my boot was able to get on that and I grabbed and I was able to swing back in. I put the seat belt on right away. It’s cold up there and I’m sweating and I’m just shaking, just shaking, and then we finally got to Dalat. 50:07 It was beautiful, it’s like a university town, we couldn’t believe it. We came up over the trees and I’m looking at all these red brick buildings and these ponds, and greens, and sidewalks, and it’s like, “Is this the twilight zone?” It’s totally unscratched by the war, it’s a beautiful university town, Dalat, and it was gorgeous. They set down and they said, “We’re going to have a good time tonight boys”, and I said, “I’m not interested”, and I told them what happened and they laughed 49 �about it. I said, “Okay, do what you want to do, I’m staying here with the bird”, and they said, “Okay, stay with the bird”. I slept on the floor of the bird and it’s not a comfortable sleep. The floor of the bird has all of these steel nipples and they’re not comfortable to sleep on and neither is that chair, or that—I slept there that night and then they came back. They were treated very well and we lifted off. 51:00 We went back through the Suk Ve pass, but this time I kept my seatbelt on and I was very scared that was going to happen again and if it does I’m not going to be so lucky, I will not be so lucky. As soon as I got back to the unit, we set the bird down, my job as the right side gunner was to take the two M-60 machine guns, break them down, clean them up, and oil them for the next day. The crew chief—and I had to keep the glass underneath the pilots feet clean too, so they could see how close the ground was when we’re landing. That was really all I had to do. Charlie—or the crew chief, each have to take oil samples from underneath to see if there’s fine metal shavings, because they don’t want the transmission to seize up , and go over certain safety thing on the aircraft every time. So, my job was pretty easy, taking the M-60’s, breaking them down, and putting them back together, and get ready for the next day. I went to the doctor, Cooper. 52:00 Well, Cooper and I were good friends, and we smoked a lot of pot together. He made a bowl out of surgical equipment, okay, and when they moved us to the coast we were part of the Korean White Horse Division at that time, and they were going a hundred and fifty. They treated us like we were special. For the first time the Koreans had helicopters to get their unit out. Helicopters would just bring them in, and they were a good troop. I went to Coop and I said, “This is what’s happened. Two months and I’m out of here and if this happens again I won’t be so lucky. My nerves are shot, I’ve done my part”. He said, “You know what, I think you got 50 �mono”, and I said, “I do, I do”, and he said, “I’m going to take you off flight status”. We all contributed a couple bucks each, three hundred bucks total, and we rented out own little whore house in a town called Ninh Hoa. 53:00 Well “doc’ had to go there almost every day to check the girls and he put me in the back of his—the same car that you see on “MASH”, the ambulance, the same type of car, he put me in the back, and then we’d go through these Korean checkpoints. Then I’d come up in the front and we’d be smoking marijuana all the way down to the Ninh Hoa whore house. They let us in, closed the gate, and it had tall walls, and barbed wire all the way around the compound. The house was in there, and we’d go in there and I’d always enjoy being with this French Vietnamese, very pretty, and I always just took her and it was five bucks, and I thought the price was pretty reasonable. We’d go there together and, basically, what I did—but, even as a door gunner--here I was, ten months I was a door gunner, I think we were unique in a the respect that our commander allowed women into us. Cooks didn’t get these privileges, mechanics didn’t get these privileges, and nobody did, but gunners and pilots. 54:04 That was four pilots, but there was never more than four pilots and four gunners and four pilots, at any point, not flying. One was on standby in case we needed him, the other one was down and he didn’t have to fly, so you always had those two birds down. You had four gunners, we’d play cards, we had girls down there and it was okay. There were a lot of pilots, they were married and they had wanted nothing to do with it. There were others, “I’m not going to do that, I’m married”, and I was one that said, “I’m good with this”, so that was kind of a special thing. So, anyway, I started going there with him all the time and things started to disappear. I had some stuff stolen and you don’t want to do that with gunners, you just don’t want to do that. I remember, and it was 51 �a black guy, and we would smoke it and we would snort it, but we would never use needles. 55:01 He was using needles and I remember—we’d be sitting in the group and what was his name? I don’t remember, but he would literally be sitting there, and he’d be drooling on himself and he pissed his pants and we’d say, “Jesus come on”, like we’re better than that, right, okay? You’re no better than that, he’s just hard core. What he was doing, he was stealing from the gunners to feed his habit. It wasn’t hard to find, the stuff, and they found out about it and he barricaded himself in a room and he wouldn’t come out. There were gunners that would have certainly killed him and they went up to the door all the time and say, “Jerry, Jerry, come on out, we want to talk to you, come on out man”, and harass this man. Three days he didn’t come out, four days he didn’t come out, and I passed his door one time and I could hear inside, him moaning, like he’s in a lot of pain. 56:00 Something had to—the dynamic had to change and so, unbeknown to any of the guys that I live with, I went up on the hill there and talked to the doctor. I said, “Coop, I don’t know what’s going on, but he’s moaning, and something is going on, and if he goes out, these guys are going to kill him, or they’re going to hurt him so bad, you know, they’re pissed. Do something”. So, he came down with a couple officers and pilots and knocked on the door and the guy let him in and they took up to the med station up where his little areas there was. I know, because I was watching some of those gunners and they were just staring at him as he walked by. “See you later”, and that type of stuff, and later—they wouldn’t let him come back down, they took him, and they had these houses on the coast for drug addicts and they took him down there to get him cleaned up before he goes home. 57:03 Coop talked to me later and said, “Thanks a lot for that Les, do you know what I had to do?” “No”, “Well the man was impacted. 52 �He hadn’t taken a crap in so long, he became impacted and now he couldn’t, and he could have died”, and I said, “What did you do?” He said, “I had to take a glove and I had to dig it out”. That’s our Coop. Interviewer: Were the men of the unit hostile toward him, because he sort of crossed a line? He crossed the line and it wasn’t used to be that way, but once you find a thief among you, especially with these guys, they’re a different breed of cat, these gunners are, a different breed of cat. Ken Hoff was my crew chief, the other gunner on the left side and a consummate worrier. 58:01 Every mission before we would leave, he would throw a duffle bag on the floor of the aircraft that had a couple revolvers in it, had some pin flares and it had a radio, had food, it had ammunition, it had bandages, he was a consummate worrier. He also loved killing, and he was the best there was. He had balls so big— they’d give you this stuff that I would just not do. We had a new, what we call “Charlie pop”, new, not the aircraft commander, but they break these new guys coming in and that was the right seat. You know, Ken comes around and he crawls on the outside of the aircraft and we’re flying a thousand feet in the air and there’s these things to get up on there and he crawls up, he’s underneath the blade and he crawls and he looks down at the “Charlie pop” and smiles, and crawls back. I wouldn’t dare do that, I wouldn’t dare do that. 59:00 But Ken, even when we get—I’ll give you an example--there was a French rubber plantation and this is before we went to the coast, and after Cambodia we do what they call “purple teams”, and that was a Cobra and then us, we had to pick up any survivors, and then the low bird. Low bird was a little two man aircraft, a gunner, and our job was to make sure he recovered them, or engage if the situation was right, but that 53 �guy up there’s going to cover you. We’re on a typical patrol and we go and it’s inside Cambodia, and here’s this French compound. As we come over, I’m looking and I don’t see anything different and I look up and I see it. At the second level of this French veranda there was this machine gun there and we’re heading right toward it. 60:00 I love these guys—this Cobra pilot seen it and it was just like out of Hollywood, two missiles and it just exploded and blew those guys through those big doors, just blew them through. Then all shit started to go. There were generally green troops and it was chaos, it was where I got my first air medal, actually. We were shooting, it was pretty target rich, and there was this one NVA soldier, had his pack and his rifle, and we came around and I seen him and I was going to come and the low bird got in front of me, so I didn’t fire. I’m watching this and we’re kind of—the low birds here and we’re just kind of doing this and the Cobra’s doing his thing, and it must have been a kid, he throws his rifle down and runs, he throws pack down and he’s running and he keeps looking at the low bird and the gunner is shooting behind him and just terrorizing him. He’s running and his eyes are about this big and he runs to this big tree and he does the old squirrel thing. 1:02 He’s trying to keep the tree between him and that guy. I’m watching this and I’m thinking to myself, “Just end this, you don’t need to do this”, you know, they’re fucking with him, they’re going around, they’re just laughing and having a good time. “Just stop this stuff”, and he finally got to the top of the tree and it’s “rat-tat, rat-tat”-- down. No sooner did he do that and here comes a moped with another one on it taking off out of there, and the low bird gets behind him and shoots and there’s a right degree turn in the road, and he doesn’t want to slow up, can’t slow up, he’s not going to make that turn. Just before the turn they brought that machine gun up and hit him, and again, just like 54 �Hollywood that moped went end over end and into a field. 2:01 We go back and we’re going around, the low bird, going around this section of woods and there was this grass hut. I didn’t know it was there yet, I did in a few minutes, but we’re following the low bird, too low, but we’re fooling them, and the low bird, and all of a sudden the low bird blows up and fire is just—he got hit by something and we’re coming around, and I didn’t know what he got hit by, but he got hit by, inside this little grass hut thing they had a machine gun set up. So, when the low bird came around they just blasted them. Now, we’re coming behind that and the same way, on my side—I wouldn’t have noticed that, we would have gone there and we would have got blasted. Just, I still didn’t, my mind--I still didn’t know what was happening and all of a sudden this grass hut just blows to pieces and we fly through this mud and straw. That boy up there seen it, he seen everything, and he also seen us coming around and that would have ended my life there. 3:06 They would have caught me with my pants down and I would never have known until it was too late. But, that boy up there saved my life and saved our lives. The low craft hit, went up and landed in a field and we flew right behind it and set down. We ran and I grabbed this guy and he screams and the other guy grabbed and said, “We gotta get outa here man, we gotta get outa here, we can’t be on the ground like this”, so we just grab him and he’s screaming and we put him on the floor of the aircraft, and the other guy, instead of coming with us, he crawls on this missile pod on the Cobra and hangs on. “Let’s go”, and so, we’re lifting off and there’s this guy hanging on for dear life on this missile pod. This guy—what happened was, as soon as soon as we got him back—we helped him, we cut his nomex, because he had to wear a nomex and I noticed on his sleeves, it was like somebody had taken a white cloth, on both hands. 4:08 55 What it �was, was inside the nomex the skin had cooked and it was all skin that just peeled down and it looked like that. I assume that when we grabbed him by the leg, probably the same thing had happened. I don’t know what his back and stuff looked like, I doubt whether he survived those kinds of burns. The other guy wasn’t hurt nearly as bad, because he was hanging onto this rocket pod and we went back. That was it, the bird was down and it was just like Hollywood, but it was the real thing. Interviewer: Is it a very strange experience to go from being in sort of the relative comforts of home, you get up in the morning, you’re on a base with a regular schedule and then you can be, suddenly in a situation where all of this stuff is blowing up around you? 5:03 You know, you get—war is something you love, war is something you hate, war is something that scares the fucking shit out of you, but at the same time it gives you adrenalin. It’s a hard thing to say, it’s a love hate relationship, because you’re playing the ultimate game, man hunting another man, it’s the ultimate game and if you lose, you lose your life, and all the emotions that pair with that are involved. When I first came home it was weird. I’d come home, my folks picked me up at the airport in Kent County and I’d been gone a long time, and my family came and picked me up and took me home. I remember sitting in the car and seeing the buildings go by, but you’re not here, you’re there, if that makes any sense. 6:02 I moved in with my parents temporarily and then had some of the dreams. You know, your hands are wired behind you and Ken Hoff, he’d be on his knees over there and I’d be on my knees over here and we’d be waiting and you could see somebody behind him, all of a sudden in front of his forehead, and “pow”, he’d go down and I’d feel that same guy behind me and then I’d wake up, 56 �and my dad would wake me up, he’d come in and say, “Les, Les, wake up, wake up”, and the only other—you have dreams and the dream is---here I am in my underwear, in my bed, upstairs in this old farm house, and I know it’s hallucinations, but I look towards the floor and I see the tops of trees flying by. I’m thinking there’s a machine gun, a M-60, on my mattress, and I’m thinking to myself, “This is hallucinating, there is no M-60 on your fricking mattress and those are not trees”. 7:04 It’s so real and I’d get up on the gun and start shooting and the next thing I know my dad’s grabbing me, “Les, Les, wake up, wake up”, so I had to get out of there, so I went and got myself a place, and I haven’t been home since, and that’s my story. Interviewer: I would like to, if I can, to go back and follow up on a few more dimensions of this. When you were serving as a door gunner, what kind of physical facilities did you have? I mean, you had-- there was—the door gunners slept together and you divided into individual groups and so forth. What else was on the base? You know, you had your chow area, for instance, my job as a door gunner---I was up at, probably, five o’clock and I’d go out, bring the guns, go out to the aircraft, snap them on and wait there for what we called the ammo chief. 8:04 The ammo chief, he would come along, stop ask, “What do you need?” Well, I need so many rounds of this, some smokes on this, you tell him what you need and “bang” you got it. If we need smokes they get it and everything is set and ready to go. I wait, and it starts getting light and the pilots come and they get in the aircraft, you untie the blade. You’ve got to tie the blades down, and where you park these aircraft is like two walls maybe eight feet high, just straight, open at both ends and you put the aircraft in there. We bed it down there and 57 �then tie down with a snap on the blades, so the wind can’t damage it. You wait for the pilots to come on out and they get in and we just stand on the skid outside and they bring it up, check the dial, maybe bring it up and hover about so, hover back and forth, and side to side, then they set it down and we go get breakfast. 9:02 We’d go down to the chow house and the eggs, it’s always the dehydrated eggs , cold toast, greasy bacon, it tastes wonderful, coffee-- good deal, and then we go back and start up and whatever mission we’re on, we back that aircraft up like a car and then you go through what they call “transition” and there’s as you cut through the wind, there’s a shaking as it goes where it has to go and they call it “transition”. I remember, I had a little bag of marijuana, just really light and it was –because I’d smoke a lot in the area and the smoke’s gone, “pfffff”, who cares, and it relaxed me and it never interfered, it just relaxed me and I wouldn’t get so hyper. We went through “transition” and the next thing I know that little bag of marijuana floats up like this and it went through and dropped between the two pilots. 10:08 They picked it up and said, “This yours?” “Thank you sir”, and you know, a lot of the pilots smoked, a lot of them, they were kids. We looked up to these guys, because our lives were in their hands and they would say their lives were in our hands , so you did, you became very close, because you’re going to live, or die together period. We’re all in this thing together, and we’re not going anywhere. Prior to that, also, a new dynamic started to change the situation in Vietnam and that was probably four months before I was going to go. They introduced, I think it was, a Chinese shoulder fired rocket that would be a little bit heat seeking, and they’d fire it after the chopper went by, on your big turbine. 11:01 The unit that we took their place here was moved up there and they were just getting slaughtered. They were losing aircraft, so 58 �they were starting to strip our units to take their places, you know. Every day you wonder where you’re going to go. You talk to each other and they say, “428 is going north”, that’s our bird, “You’re going north”, “I don’t want to go north, I’ll stick—“, and you see what birds have to go there and take their place and do the job, get troops in, get ammo in, whatever it was. That really started to wear on me, because everything was seeming to come that I wasn’t ever going to get home. I was lucky falling out of the aircraft, very lucky, I was lucky in these other things, very lucky, and now this shoulder rocket, I could just taste fate, and so, Cooper did me a real favor. 12:00 I finally went on a R&R and when I came back it was time to go home. Interviewer: Where did you go on the R&R? Bangkok, Thailand, a wonderful place--me and Jimmy Parker, the youngest door gunner in the 1st Cav, he was like seventeen; lied—and he never had any luck. His dad was killed early, his mother was murdered by his step father, and his step father almost beat him to death, so his “granny” raised him. Jimmy and I were good friends, but Jimmy had become a heroin addict. I had tickets to Australia and all that was left was Bangkok, so I gave up the ticket to Australia and I went to Bangkok with Jimmy. We get into our hotel, and it’s just like a nice hotel here, and we check into our rooms, and I wasn’t in my room three minutes and there was a knock on the door and the hotel manager comes in with six girls and says, “You pick, they’ll take good care of you, you pick”. 13:00 “No, we’re going down to the “happy, happy””, because the troops said to go down to the “Happy, Happy” there’s girls down there. They went out and then “knock, knock, knock”, the same thing, so we rented a taxi for the week and he was always on call. He took us down to the “Happy, Happy” and we go in there and behind us there’s a couple GI’s who met 59 �their wives there, and that’s very cool you know. We’re sitting at the big bar and I’m looking through a mirror and I can see into this next room and there were some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen and they had little numbers, and I’m wondering what’s going on, so I called the taxi cab driver and said, “I want one that likes to smoke pot “, and he tells the bartender. So, instead of being discreet they get on this loud microphone and call, “Number 50”. 14:06 I turn around and look and these women are just staring at me. I feel like saying, “What, your husband is in the motor pool in Saigon, give me a break, leave me alone”. So, she comes out and she speaks fairly good English, we got talking and she shows me her medical card and she says, “It’s twenty-five dollars first day and fifteen dollars every day. I’ll take good care of you and show you a good time”, so we agreed. Then we get back to the hotel later and, you know, she’s about this high and I’m—Mutt and Jeff, and I’m checking in there and I feel like these daggers are pointing at my back and I turn around and here’s these same two couples sitting there in the lobby staring at me. I think, “Come on, give me a break”, you know, “Come on, what do you think I’m going to do, go and meet my mother in Hawaii? Come on, leave me alone, just leave me alone, and don’t try to guilt me on this, okay?” 15:02 She did, she did her job, it was wonderful, the best five days ever, and she actually had me thinking she cared, but of course they don’t, but that’s what a professional she was, it was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, reprieve. In fact, I ran out of money after three days. I got into a poker game before I went to Saigon and got skinned out of about three hundred bucks, so I was low on cash when I got there, so she picked up the tab. Then I thought, “This woman, I’m in love”, and then the aircraft is waiting to go back to Vietnam and I’m at the window and I’m waving to her. We wait there for a while and I 60 �look again and she’s hustling a couple other guys just getting off the plane, and I said, “Good job, you gave me the best time of my life and you actually made me feel like I was special and that’s just what you should have done. You loved me to pieces, you took care of me, God bless you, it’s time to go”. 16:02 When I got back and in two days I was used to flying, I was a flyboy, and then it was time to go home and say goodbye, and it was one of the hardest things I ever did, was to say goodbye to those guys, it was. A low bird came in and picked me up and I didn’t want to leave. At that moment if somebody had said, “Do you want to extend your tour?” I probably would have done it, that was my life, and that was my home. Home was a long time ago, this was my family and, “I’m going to miss this”, you don’t think so but, “I’m going to miss this”, you could also die, but we were family, man and you could see that leaving, and I seen that with other guys that left, that it was a hard choice. The low bird picked me up and I said, “Goodbye”, and they flew around again everybody’s waving and saying, “Goodbye, good luck”, and left. 17:06 Before we left though, there was another group that came in and wanted to know, since I was going home, Jimmy Parker was going home, Louis P. Dudas from Detroit was going home too, all three of us, if we were interested in being door gunners out of Bangkok, into Laos for a hundred bucks a day. It sounded pretty good for a hundred bucks a day. I’d been doing this in the triangle for three hundred and sixty five bucks a month. A hundred bucks a day, that’s three grand a month, you know, if I could last a year and what’s Laos compared to the fricking Ho Chi Minh, NVA army? If I could do a year, there’s, thirty six thousand dollars, and I can go home. We talked about it and so when we got back, ya, I went and got my passport, Louis P. Dudas went and got his and Jimmy Parker got his. 18:02 We got all set to go back and Jimmy Parker was 61 �killed in Galena, Illinois. You know, where a bus has to stop at a railroad track? He wasn’t even driving and they pull in this pickup truck and they couldn’t see and they came—went across and got hit by a freight train and both of them were killed instantly. Me, I bought a motorcycle and trying to elude the police, I hit a pole and ended up going out into a field. They didn’t know where I went, they went to the low part and came out and I was gone. I thought I was going to die out there and the wheat and stuff was this high and I could taste the blood. Lots of blood in my mouth, lots of blood, and I’m thinking, “You stupid fuck, you cracked your ribs and they punctured your lungs, you’re going to drown in your own blood, real good Les, real good, you come home and this is what happens, real good, real good”. 19:01 So, I laid back, I lay down, there was nothing you could do, it’s two thirty in the morning. I could see through the grass this barn and house over there with a mercury light that was lit. Lots of blood, I was coughing up a lot of blood and my arm hurt every time I’d move it, and that leg was really hurting, every time I moved it, so I laid back and waited. I waited, and waited, five minutes goes by and I’m thinking, “I should be dead by now, maybe I’m not”. So, I had one good arm and one good leg and I kicked my way to this farm house, the only farm house that didn’t have a phone, and banged my helmet on the door. Thank God they came and takes off and almost rode me over in the driveway to get an ambulance called and the ambulance came and picked me up. The bike was gone and my helmet had a gouge on it and thank God I had a helmet on, or I would have killed me instantly, and I ended up in the hospital for a while. 20:01 I cracked my spine, I almost lost a kidney, some cracked ribs, no broken ribs, I was just fucking screwed up, and that’s where I met my first wife, she was a nurse. 62 �Interviewer: That kind of put a finish to the plan to go off to Laos. It did, because I didn’t have medical insurance and what I did have left, I had to use to pay on my medical bills, I was broke. Jimmy Parker was dead and Louis P. Dudas ended up going to the UP, and to this day doesn’t talk to anybody. I tried to reach him, he is married, my second wife tried to contact him and finally found him, you know, and she talked to his wife. She says, “He won’t talk about it either, he doesn’t want to talk to anybody, doesn’t want to see anybody, he just wants to be left alone”. “Okay, so be it, no big deal”. I don’t think he did enough to go be a hermit somewhere, not like he survived from a death camp, you know, you can’t deal with things. 21:02 Interviewer: Well, it’s a pretty intense experience, doing what you guys did and It’s got to play out in different ways in how they deal with it. It does, you know, I can’t seem to attach to anybody as far as normal feelings, I just don’t. I’ve been married twice and divorced twice, I tend to self-medicate, I used to have a quick temper and I don’t anymore, not much anyway. Sometimes I talk to my brother and thinking, “Jeez, what would I be like if I’d never gone in the service?” I grew up in Hudsonville and went to church every day, or Sundays twice, graduated from a good high school, had a job at Spoelstra Pool Company, and I probably would have married somebody from my high school. 22:01 I’d probably work for John Spoelstra, I probably—I never drank; I never was affiliated with any kind of drugs, or anything all through high school. I probably would have been a totally different person. I probably would have bought my little house in Wyoming, Spoelstra Pool Company, cement working with good pay, I don’t know who my wife would have been, she would probably work too, raising kids, whoever they might be, and yeah, it would have been different. 63 �Now, I don’t go to church, I don’t like being in church, because it gives me the creeps and I don’t know why. Interviewer: Well, it does make for a remarkable story, I’ll tell you that. You know, my good friend Mike says that it’s unique and I don’t know if it’s so unique as me putting myself in situations that should never have happened, you know, but then surviving it too. 23:01 A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about it and I am truly sick of that, I truly am. I’m sick of listening to music; I’m listening to music and them memories come flashing back, you know, I’m, sick of it. I’m sick of thinking about it before I go to bed and when I get up, during the day for no reason, and this has been going on for a long time. It’s like my uncle Chet said, he’s passed away, but he lost his whole—he was in the army in WWII fighting the Germans, and his whole unit was wiped out by an 88 mm flak gun. He had dysentery, so he wasn’t there at the time. I talked to him and he said, “You know what Les, to this day, I can hear what a tank with that 88mm flak gun sounds like when they put it into gear”. 24:04 You know what a riding lawn mower with a stick sounds like, only much shriller? He said, “I remember that like yesterday yet and I always will, the fear of the sound of it”. You know, anything with high impact, like I tell my brother Lee, if you were in an accident and five bad automobile crashes, guess what, every time you get in a car you’re going to think about that stuff. Every time you hear a horn, or the screeching of a tire, you’re going to think about that stuff and this is really no different. My brother Lee, he had a freak accident when he was forty one at the Gus Macker, a tree branch—a storm came and it crushed his back and I said, “You don’t think about that every day?” Because it’s high impact, and when its high impact it seats itself in the sub-conscious and it doesn’t go away, it doesn’t 64 �go away. That’s fine, I’m proud of my duty and I’d do it again. I met some really great guys. 25:01 I had some very interesting experiences that I survived--stuff that I’d never have had if I had grown up and lived in Hudsonville and worked for John Spoolstra. Interviewer: Well, thank you very much for coming in and telling your story. Thanks for taking the time. 65 �66 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dykema, Leslie (Interview transcript and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dykema, Leslie Description An account of the resource Les Dykema was born in 1949 and few up in Hudsonville, Michigan. He tried college, but did not do well in his first year and in 1968 went ahead and enlisted in the Army and get some choice of assignment rather than wait to be drafted. In basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, he found that he did not much like the Army, and got into some trouble, but made it through and went on to Fort Gordon, Georgia, for military police training. Despite a few more run-ins with authority, he completed the training and spent several months there working at a recreation area on the base before going to Vietnam in 1969. He was assigned to an MP unit, and soon got into trouble with his sergeant and captain, and was eventually reassigned to a combat engineer unit in the field. He worked with a demolition squad for some time, including the period of the Cambodian incursion in 1970, before being wounded and sent to Japan to recuperate. He agreed to extend his Vietnam tour in exchange for a month at home and Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-02-03 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DykemaL1011V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/19c763a6f51b3df254bd24cbd18baac6.mp4 4f48f83188519bf278d63246f48048d8 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/16aeb2e7bc1a7204e4e995821222b50b.pdf a7306ad654c28352889adb5cf0197afe PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Iraq War, 2003Interviewee name: Eric James Dykgraaf Length of Interview: 58 minutes Pre-Enlistment (00:30) • Childhood (00:35) o Eric James Dykgraaf served in the U.S. Navy as an E-5 and his station was in San Diego, California. (01:07) o He backs up and mentions that he was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (01:21) • Education (01:26) o Graduated from Caledonia High and went onto attend Grand Rapids Community College before joining the Navy. (01:33) Enlistment/Training (01:39) • Background (01:40) o Dykgraaf joined the Navy on May 25th, 2000. (01:43) • Why he joined (01:46) o He joined with the prospects of going on after his military experience to join the FBI or do something criminal justice related. (02:02) Another reason for him was that he was influenced by a friend who was already serving in the armed forces. (02:30) • Living conditions (02:40) o In his first couple of weeks doing boot camp he mentions what it entailed from learning how to march, performing different maneuvers, to mastering the rules and regulations expected of a military man. (03:31) Mentions that he was in boot camp for 3 months. (03:37) • Where he went and what company he was with (03:58) �o Dykgraaf mentions that after boot camp he went to Pensacola, Florida where he attended air crew school. (03:58) Spent a month there learning about the fundamentals of how to escape from a submerged aircraft. (04:18) o After that he took a course in search and rescue for a month. (04:29) Was an Aviation System Warfare field operator whose job it was to hunt subs. In a nutshell, it was to identify submarines. (05:04) o Following this training, Dykgraaf and a bunch of guys went on to do AS-10 training where they learned the functions of a helicopter operator. (05:27) This period in his training was a chance for him to refine what he had already learned. (06:03) o October 2001, Dykgraaf joined the fleet. (06:15) In joining, he mentions that he kept an open mind. (06:23) Mentions that he spent 5 years in the Navy. (06:36) Active Duty (06:47) • Background (07:15) o Starting May 23rd, 2002 he started his last deployment lasting 5-months starting at Anchorage, Alaska. (07:19) During this time he describes the foreign food he had and their tastes. (07:58) o Mentioned that in his most recent deployment he went started in San Diego, and went to Anchorage, Hawaii, Malaysia, the Straits of Malacca, Perth, Australia and back home again. (08:52) • The Persian Gulf War/Operation Iraqi Freedom (10:05) o Gives a general rundown of the places he was deployed and the length of time that he was deployed in and around the Gulf and the greater Indian Ocean during his 1st deployment. (10:11) o Goes on to mention that when they would port in Hawaii, Japan, Hawaii, Malaysia, Perth, or Bahrain they would practice aviation exercises or unwind from being at sea for long periods of time. (11:57) Also, mentions that the longest time they spent at sea was 110 days. (12:18) o Spent Christmas 2001/2002 in Perth Australia on his first deployment. (12:50) o For certain military skills he acquired he had to keep training so he wouldn’t grow rusty. (13:23) Also had to make sure that they had enough equipment. (13:59) �o For many of his deployments he and his unit were stationed in and around Kuwait training. (14:41) Could not mention what he did there because it was strictly a military secret. (14:47) o Living conditions (15:02) ƒ While stationed in Bahrain he went to the market place and buy what souvenirs he wanted. As an American soldier there, he often wondered what the attitude of the local Iraqis was towards the Americans being there. (15:28) ƒ Further mentions that they worked with a local interpreter who would help them wheel and deal the inflated prices that venders and taxi cab drivers charged for their American visitors. (16:38) ƒ Dykgraaf mentions that he kept up with his family on a regular basis by buying a phone card and using a pay phone or his cell phone to call his family on the various deployments he was on. (17:02) ƒ Goes on to mention that it was easy to lose track of time in the Middle East because of the change in time zones. (19:05) After the Service (19:52) o Mentions that a day before he came to his oral interview that he was discharged but that he has 3 years of inactive duty with the National Reserves remaining. (19:57) o Goes on to mention that his experience over there has opened his eyes to how he sees the world. Now he takes things more seriously and lives every day to the fullest. (20:09) Just being in the military he said has affected his perceptions and supports it 110% despite the pros and cons that come with it. (23:25) o To a younger generation he encourages them to take life more seriously and to have fun with whatever they do. (24:35) • Q & A Time (25:07) o During this time he mentions that he flew with Black Hawks. (25:27) o Mentions that he had 11 different jobs while in the service. One day he could be shooting a 50-caliber machine gun in the desert, and another listening to subs to stay up-to-date with his military skills. (26:11) �o Dykgraaf discusses what vertical replenishment entailed and tells some interesting stories regarding it. (26:58) ƒ Entails one incident where one guy lost a $50,000 missile of ammo. (31:13) o Also mentions that with his involvement with various members of the Army, Army Rangers, Navy, Marines, Navy Seals, and the Israeli Air Force that he had a lot of respect for them. (32:04) • ƒ Mentions that on his 1st deployment he was aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. (33:32) ƒ On his 2nd deployment, he was abroad the John C. Status. (33:46) Also mentions other ships he was aboard but does not distinguish which one he was aboard on which deployment. For instance he was aboard the [Nemis,] (33:48), the Reagan (33:51), the Lake Chaplain (33:58), and the Shiloh (33:59) Living conditions (34:38) o During his free time, Dykgraaf spent his time playing Xbox and Playstation. (35:42), and exploring the ports that his ship would stop. (37:18) o Also tells some stories of what it was like to be out on the high seas. (38:11) o His squadron, the HS-4 never had a chance to go on swim calls which was quite typical on long-term cruises. (40:32) Also, mentions that his relationships and friendships were different with different groups. (42:01) • Perceptions by Foreigners of America (43:41) o While stationed in Japan, U.S. troops like Dykgraaf were well received but with limited access to the harbor and the port because they were aboard a nuclear carrier. (43:58) Were often met by huge protestors because of carrying nuclear stuff. (44:23) o Also describes what other foreigners’ perceptions of Americans were elsewhere. (44:35) • Discussion about Geneva Convention rights (46:17) o Dykgraaf also discusses how he understood after training how he should be treated according to his Geneva Convention rights. (47:08) �o While training he had been put through hypothetical situations up to the breaking point. (47:19) o Briefly discusses what he would do if he was put in a situation that was against his morals versus his Geneva rights. (48:45) o Discusses in depth, his week-long experience in the desert. (49:38) • Personal Reflection (51:35) o Dykgraaf mentions that his experience was a good one. He says that he still has not figured out how what he has learned will connect with his life now. o Recommended, the Coast Guard and/or the Air Force to future soldiers. (52:44) o Out of this experience, he gained a sense of honor, greater courage, and commitment. (53:24) o Discusses what the pay rate was for men in his military position. (55:28) o Further discusses that military men were not taxed in the Gulf because it was an area that was a tax-free zone. (58:54) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource DyKgraaf, Eric (Interview outline and video), 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource DyKgraaf, Eric Description An account of the resource Eric J. DyKgraaf is a recent Iraqi War veteran who served in the U.S. Navy as an E-5 from May 2000 to May 2005. In this account, DyKgraaf discusses his pre-enlistment, enlistment and training, and active duty abroad. Among the interesting things DyKgraaf highlights is his naval experiences and expertise while stationed in and around the Persian Gulf, aboard ship, or stops along the way. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ingle, Sara (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Navy Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-05-25 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DykgraafE Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/97b4142e00439225b48009adadac60c0.mp4 0938b62329c7bdff3e8223a967c7f318 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0fe83eaf9020d392cbd1ee6c4ee3c344.pdf 835a38d8cb11c0661e2f7bbf7ff390b1 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview World War II Milton DeVries, Albert Lobbezoo and Andrew Dykstra 53:58 Introduction (00:42)    Milton DeVries, is from Wyoming, Michigan and was in the 32nd Division, 127th Regiment, Company F. While in he served as a sergeant. Albert Lobbezoo is from Caledonia, Michigan. He was drafted on April 16th 1941, and served in the 126th Infantry and finished his service in the 32nd Division Signal Corps. Andrew Dykstra was born in Kellogsville, Michigan and served with the 32nd Division. Andrew was in Company F, 127th Infantry, and held the rank of sergeant. Before the Military (02:28)        Milton, was working at General Motors in 1941 and he was drafted into the Army on April 16, 1941. When they were drafted, they started out in Bigelow Field in Wyoming, and they went to Kalamazoo the first night. The next day they were brought to Fort Custer, Michigan and they were inducted into the Army on April 17. Before Andrew was drafted, he worked for several years on a farm. Albert also worked on a farm prior to his military service. On October 13, 1940, all men from age 21-29 had to register for the draft. Albert and Andrew knew each other before the war had begun. Military Service (05:20)         The men spent about two weeks at Fort Custer once they were inducted. They pulled targets at the firing range. Then they were sent to Camp Livingston, Louisiana and were put into the 127th Infantry. At basic training, the climate was hot. That summer, one of the largest military maneuvers in our nation’s history was held in North Carolina. It lasted for six weeks. The only equipment that they had was their rifles. The uniform that they wore was from World War I and the rifle was also a WWI issued 23. (07:27) In May, they were still wearing wool uniforms. When Pearl Harbor happened, the men were in Louisiana. Albert was coming home from church and he heard about it on the radio in the car. Every morning the men were told to pack everything they had in their barracks bag because they did not know when they would leave. The 125th Infantry was sent to the coast to guard the United States. They left Louisiana in February 1942. The Division was slated to go to Europe, but they were needed in New Guinea. (09:27) �    Albert drove a Carry-All, which is like a Suburban, from Louisiana to Massachusetts. From there they boarded a train and five nights and six days later they arrived in San Francisco. They did not get off the train very often, each man had a bunk, and the only time they left their car was for lunch and dinner, and to walk around a little bit. When they arrived in San Francisco, they went to Fort Ord. About a month later, they boarded a ship on April 16, 1942. The first night was very stormy, and the men remember passing Alcatraz and the storm picked up right away. (11:49) The Pacific (12:00)         While on ship, Albert was on the ‘poop deck’ playing cards and the attitude of the men was that they would not be gone very long because they would quickly whip the Japanese and then go home. The men did not know where they were going, but they made landfall first in Australia. When in Australia, the infantry was moved far away from the towns. They were in an Australian Army training camp which only had tents and a mess hall. The camp was called Woodside and it was just Americans there, no Australians. The Australians were very happy to have the Americans there. Especially the women. At the camp, they did some drill and a few war exercises. They moved to Camp Cable outside of Brisbane where they were given jungle training. (14:20) At this point, they still had no contact with the Australian Army. By that time, they had been issued M-1 rifles and summer uniforms. New Guinea (16:00)        Milton and Andy took a Kaiser built Liberty Ship from Brisbane to New Guinea. Barrels of gas made the below decks smell, so Milton and a friend managed to stay top side for most of the journey. They land at Port Moresby, New Guinea. The men were sent out in a field near the airfield and were told to dig in. (18:03) Part of the 126th walked over the Owen Stanley Mountains and the others flew over. All three men were able to fly. When they landed on the other side of the mountain, it was many days walk to Buna. Andy remembers flying to the airfield at Dobodura and walking north to Buna. On Christmas Day, 1942, they began the battle. (20:47) The men saw plenty of Japanese snipers, and many American soldiers were killed from them. A man named Yeutter in Weapons Platoon was the first one to be wounded, and afterwards, Milton got his tommy gun (Thompson sub-machine gun). Communications were poor, but Albert worked the switchboard at the 32nd Division Headquarters, which was pretty well protected. (22:26) �                    Andy remembers one time while they were on the front lines, they heard what sounded like firecrackers behind them, which turned out to be Japanese soldiers shooting explosive shells. When they first went into combat, they did not know where the Japanese were. They crawled along and when someone fired at them, they fired back. (24:41) There was no front line, because the Japanese were everywhere. In their company, 223 men went over the mountains in several planes. Once the battle was over and they returned to Australia, only twenty three remained. Not all were killed, but there were many casualties. They could usually smell the Japanese because they were so close. (26:15) Around Christmas Eve, Milton and another soldier named Pete, got into a boat and went out to a peninsula, and for three days they were surrounded by the Japanese. Thirty or forty men formed a circle and just waited for them to come. The Australians were approaching from the south with tanks, but the tanks could not effectively operate, so everything had to be done hand to hand. Andy stayed back with the supplies, so he was able to avoid most of the heavy combat. But one day he was walking down a trail and a mortar shell fell right between him and another man, but it was a dud and it failed to explode. Organization was non-existent because artillery and mortars were flying everywhere, and many casualties were a result of friendly fire. (28:33) Andy was in charge of the runners because he was a sergeant. He remembers that everyone was on their own. Nobody knew where anybody else was. At night, the Japanese would approach their positions and throw stones to try to get them to shoot and reveal their location. (30:13) Milton and his men were there for three days, pushing forward and fighting at Buna Mission. He was shot on January 2nd at Buna Mission. In the middle of the night, sometimes friendly fire would occur because people would be coming and going all the time, it was hard to tell friend from foe. During a beach landing, Al was coming ashore and he saw General MacArthur smoking a pipe coming up beside him. (32:02) The three men believe that MacArthur was one of the greatest leaders and generals that the United States has ever had. After the men were done digging their foxholes, they would be filled with water. The changing of the tides caused the ground water to rise as well. The food that they were eating was c-rations. Some planes were dropping supplies, but they were often shot at by the Japanese. Andy remembers that the first Japanese he saw were dead bodies on the beach, which was after Buna. (34:18) Most of the men had malaria, dengue fever and yellow jaundice. Al had jaundice so bad the medic thought he was dead. He was flown to a med-center to be treated. The men also had jungle rot on their feet, with the temperature up to 130 degrees and it rained everyday. (36:00) When Milton was shot at Buna Mission, he was sent back to an aid station, sewed up and put in a medical tent for ten days before he could be moved back to Port Moresby. �  Al made it through the entire war and went to the Philippines. When he came home, his unit was preparing to invade Japan, and only two original members of the 32nd remained; Al being one of them. The men fought in blue jeans, and the personnel on the boats taking people back and forth all wore combat uniforms. After Buna, they had k-rations for food, and they also had other supplies that they needed. After Buna (38:42)             Once fighting in Buna was over, the men were sent back to Australia to regroup because they had lost so many men. They stopped at a nice beach, Coolangatta, so they could swim. While swimming, a soldier was hit by a wave, taken out to sea and drown. The men remained there for about two weeks. After they got enough men to head back they went to Finschaefen. That is where Andy got enough points and was sent home. He left through Milne Bay. (40:27) Al went from Australia to the Philippines and was at the Battle of Leyte. (43:35) This battle was very tough, on the way up a mountain to establish a communication station; they looked down and could see the Japanese and tell them from the Americans by their shoes. Reports say that there was between twenty and thirty thousand Japanese there. They had one prisoner; he was skin and bones and scared stiff. If the Japanese knew he was still alive and was caught, they would have killed him. At a Japanese hospital, they saw that they killed their own wounded that couldn’t be moved so they would not be captured by the Americans. (45:35) From Leyte, they made a landing at Luzon. From there Al ended up in Baguio which was a nice resort. At that point, Al and the other member of the 32nd were able to go home. They left from Manila and boarded a captured German ship. The captain was also German, and he did not know how to navigate or read a map because it took them thirty two days to get home. (47:14) Thinking back to the battle, Andy remembers one of his runners was heading back from the front and he ran into General Eichelberger, who asked him how things were going. The runner offered to take him up to the battle to see for himself, he said that he wanted too, but they wouldn’t let him because of his rank. He was a good general. Al remembers back in Brisbane seeing MacArthur and his wife with their son walking to church one morning. After the War (49:18)     After Milton was wounded, he was shipped back to California and eventually sent back to Battle Creek, Michigan. He was there from May till August 16, then was discharged. Milton was given an office job at General Motors and stayed there for thirty five years. Andy went back to working on the farm for Westman Brothers for twenty five years. Al also went back to the farm. Bell Telephone offered him a job right away due to his signal corps and communications experience in the war. He turned them down. �   Then he went to Reynolds Metal for a while, built trailers, and eventually got a job at General Motors. Even though he worked for GM, he always drove a Ford, and when asked about it, he said he knew what a GM car was made of. (52:15) After the war experience, the men feel that people should not take for granted the freedoms that they have. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DykstraA0266V Title A name given to the resource Dykstra, Andrew (Interview outline and video), 2004 Description An account of the resource Milton was born in Wyoming, Michigan and worked at General Motors until he was drafted. Albert was from Caledonia, Michigan and he worked on a farm. Andrew grew up in Kellogsville and he too was a farm hand for many years. Like Milton and Albert, he was drafted on April 16, 1941. All three men served with the 32nd Division and were sent to New Guinea and participated in the Buna campaign. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dykstra, Andrew Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-10-04 Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/02d5a858cc845d10c5342732d745b1d9.m4v 53ab8ebb760737b6709f0642dc5cd65c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b481090488d57d44e307cd63690412bd.pdf 13b44ca9fb2c437c9740f29761516ab7 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project Korean War Glenn Dykstra Interview Length: (01:07:01:00) Pre-Enlistment / Training (00:00:30:00)  Born in Wautonga, Oklahoma in 1932 during the Dust Bowl days (00:00:30:00)  His father had just got out of the service when he married Dykstra’s mother and he worked at a cotton farmer (00:00:45:00) o His family had to move because of the Dust Bowl, so they moved to Michigan when Dykstra was four (00:01:06:00) o Dykstra remembers while in Oklahoma that his mother would cover them up with wet curtains at night so that they could breathe (00:01:23:00)  When they moved to Michigan, Dykstra’s father got a job working in Grand Rapids (00:01:49:00) o There was an uncle and aunt that lived in Grand Rapids (00:01:58:00) o His father worked in a cement block factory in Grand Rapids as well as farming part-time (00:02:17:00)  Dykstra was in high school for four years; he nearly graduated but it came along that he could join the Air Force at the age of seventeen, so Dykstra joined the Air Force and finished his schooling there (00:02:46:00) o He wanted to join the Air Force because he was sick of farming; while in high school, he did some farming and raised pigs by himself as part of the FFA (Future Farmers of America) (00:03:14:00) o Dykstra thought that being in the Air Force would be the magic thing to get away from the farm (00:03:37:00)  At the time, the Air Force had a recruitment center in Allegan, Michigan, so he went down there one day after school and joined the Air Force (00:03:51:00) o Dykstra’s father had served for ten years, including during World War I, and was wounded, but both he and Dykstra’s mother were okay with Dykstra joining the Air Force (00:04:13:00)  The Korean war had not started when Dykstra first enlisted in the military (00:04:35:00)  After Dykstra joined the Air Force, a man came to his house, picked him up and took him to Detroit, where he had to get his different medical tests done (00:05:11:00) o The military gave shots to all the newly enlisted men and threw some clothes at them, although none of the clothes fit (00:05:32:00) o All the new recruits were not upset by the way they were treated; they had been brought up in situations similar to Dykstra, meaning their families were not rich (00:05:44:00)  From Detroit, a load of about thirty recruits got onto a steam-engine train and went down to San Antonio, Texas and Lackland Air Force Base (00:06:10:00) �  o It was a twelve or fourteen day journey from Detroit to San Antonio and on occasion, the train would stop and beside the tracks were animals and cowboys would start loading the animals into cattle cars (00:06:43:00) o It was cold in Michigan and a lot of times, the men did not have heat in the train (00:07:18:00) o On the journey, the engineer would stop in a town and the men could get off to buy food, normally canned foods (00:07:58:00) o The first thing that the Air Force did once the men got to Lackland was took the men into a large building and started throwing more clothes at them (00:08:35:00)  The men had nowhere to sleep on the train, so they were tired but when they got down to Lackland, the first sergeant came into the barracks just after the men had fallen asleep and told them to get up (00:08:55:00)  The first sergeant told the men it was cold outside and to put their clothes on; some of the men complied and put on their overcoats which were twice as big as what they needed to be (00:09:39:00)  Then, at nine or ten o’clock, it started getting hot out, so the first sergeant told the men to go back inside and get on their jock straps but keep their overcoats on, just to keep them miserable (00:09:47:00) o Basic training was mostly handling guns and ammunition, just like the Army; the men also went to class but the classes were simply, just about maintenance and similar things (00:10:15:00) From Lackland, Dykstra went through several different schools (00:10:41:00) o At Rantoul, Illinois, he taught aircraft hydraulic school as well as aircraft and engines for propeller aircraft (00:10:55:00) Eventually, the Korean War began and Dykstra wanted to get out of teaching and go overseas, so he volunteered (00:11:24:00) o Once he finally got flying status overseas, Dykstra taught how to be a flight engineer; he did not have schooling in the subject but an older man taught him (00:11:48:00) o After that, Dykstra taught how to be a weight and balance technician, a job that involved figure the correct amount of armaments a plane could handle; while he was doing this, Dykstra was still at Rantoul (00:12:13:00) o Dykstra stayed at Rantoul for a few years as an instructor before he left and went overseas (00:13:37:00) Deployment (00:14:11:00)  When he went overseas, Dykstra went to Japan first, something everyone in the Air Force did; ironically, the Air Force personnel went overseas on a ship and the Army personnel flew overseas (00:14:11:00)  When he went overseas, Dykstra sailed on a troop carrier (00:14:32:00) o During the trip over, a lot of the men got seasick if they were not used to it and even some of the men who were used to it ended up getting seasick; Dykstra did not get seasick until after about a week or so (00:14:56:00) o The journey was a three week trip from San Francisco to Japan (00:15:21:00) �    o When the men slept on the troop carrier, they slept in bunks, sometimes six tall and when they started going back and forth, the men had to get out, lest they get seasick (00:15:37:00) o They had good food to eat on the ship, mostly beans and franks, but one time Dykstra was waiting in line with his aluminum tray (00:16:06:00)  There was a store on the ship where the men could buy crackers and stuff (00:16:48:00)  Anyway, another person’s tray slid past Dykstra full of vomit and that was the end of it for him; he lived on crackers for the rest of the journey (00:16:58:00) In Japan, the men stayed at what became Tokyo International Airport (00:17:20:00) o While in Japan, Dykstra was on flying status and started taking trips into Korea on B-17 bombers and C-47 cargo planes (00:17:45:00) o Dykstra did not go on bombing missions too much, although he did go on a few; if they had VIP personnel, then he flew with them on B-17s (00:18:20:00) o At the time, Dykstra worked as a flight engineer or crew chief; he swung back and forth between each job and received wings for both (00:18:44:00) As the Korean War got worse, it was then mostly Korean K-sites, locations to land the plane in Korea; in principle, these sites were secure, that was not always the case, and they sometimes took small arms fire (00:18:57:00) One time, Dykstra felt sorry for a man in the reserves who did not have the right type of training and had been shot at, which made quite a difference; the man was flying the plane, with Dykstra as his flight engineer and another man as co-pilot (00:19:49:00) o At a certain point, the plane had to go through a pass to get to the second K-site; the pass was just big enough to fit a plane through (00:20:21:00) o They got about halfway through the pass when they lost an engine and both the pilot and co-pilot did not know what to do, so Dykstra told them the feather the prop because it was dragging them down (00:20:42:00)  The pilots asked Dykstra how to feather the prop and he showed them how; they pressed a button and the prop feathered itself, which meant that it stopped running and turning (00:21:13:00) o The reserve pilot had never been through that before and when Dykstra looked at him, he was ringed with sweat; Dykstra told him that he was doing okay and to just steer and Dykstra would do the rest (00:21:38:00) o When they got to the end of the pass, they saw the runway but when the pilot requested permission to land, the control tower said that they could not land (00:22:44:00)  Dykstra deduced that the runway was jammed with aircraft and he told the pilot it was no problem, they would just land in grass on the other side of the field (00:23:11:00) o Once the plane stopped, the pilot jumped out and ran right for the tower; Dykstra could hear him yelling all the way out in the field and when he came back to the plane, Dykstra told him that that was the way it had to be, they could not land when another plane was on the runway (00:23:45:00) Dykstra ended up flying around several famous people, including Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe for USO shows (00:24:27:00) �     o They also flew around Eisenhower and Nixon when they were running for President; he liked Nixon well enough, but thought Eisenhower was "too army". (00:25:24:00)  One time, they told Dykstra that they would be back to the plane at a certain time because they had a schedule to keep; an hour or two went by and Dykstra told another man that he would start the engines and have them running, then call the tower and tell them that the plane was running (00:25:53:00)  However, there was no one to stand fire guard and Dykstra went out to stand guard; when he got back to the base, Eisenhower wrote him up for not wearing his hat (00:26:46:00)  Later, Dykstra told a commanding officer that no one was able to stand fire guard, which was why Dykstra did what he did (00:27:30:00) The bombing missions he went on were actually practice missions (00:28:05:00) He also went out to the wrecks of several bombers because at that time, the jet bombers were coming out and they were "throwing labs"; if the plane got going real fast, real low and tried to abruptly pull up, they threw the labs off the front of the plane (00:28:16:00) o "Labs" were bombs bombs (00:29:11:00) o The pilots did this on purpose because it was a way to bomb the enemy without blowing themselves up, a tactic that the pilots used quite a bit (00:29:22:00) o The men practiced with the labs in the States (00:29:49:00) o On time, there was a crash, Dykstra and another man had to go out, inspect the damages and pay for whatever was damaged (00:30:03:00)  The crash occurred where a farmer was raising fifty acres of sweet potatoes and the plane had crashed in the middle (00:30:19:00)  When the two men got to the scene, they found a man to clear a path back to the plane and when he did, the men found that the plane had all of its wings; they smelled jet fuel and because it had been three days, when they started looking around, no one was there (00:31:03:00)  The pilots had blown the canopy, which was in the woods, and after looking around some more, Dykstra noticed smoke coming from the base of a tree; the two men in the plane had burned themselves up when ejecting (00:31:57:00)  The other man said it was just a parachute but sure enough, when Dykstra kicked it, there was a person in it (00:32:41:00) During the incident with the reserve pilot, the plane was hit several times with small arms fire (00:33:27:00) o They had to keep low because if they got up high, the anti-aircraft guns would get them (00:33:37:00) On occasion, when the sheet-metal people got a hold of the plane, they stapled beer cans to cover the holes up; they were short of all supplies, even ammunition (00:33:54:00) Dykstra was not stationed at K-2 [one of the K-sites], he just flew into there a couple of times (00:34:26:00) �    o During another time he flew there, the men told him to not take his clothes off and to leave his shoes on because "Bed Check Charlie" was going to be there (00:34:33:00) o Dykstra did not know what Be Check Charlie was but sure enough, when it got dark out, Bedcheck Charlie came; it was just a light plane and the pilot would throw hand-bombs out of the plane (00:34:49:00)  The bombs were enough to keep the people at K-2 busy (00:35:05:00) o One commander finally heard about the situation, got into a light plane himself and shot the North Korean plane out of the air (00:35:12:00) Dykstra would land in Korea on occasion, such as when he lost an engine; he was not stationed in Korea but he flew in and out a lot (00:35:50:00) o Sometimes the people on R&R in Japan would see the plane and want a ride back to their units in Korea (00:36:08:00) Korea was not a very organized place to be stationed (00:37:01:00) o The television show M*A*S*H was a pretty accurate portrayal (00:37:36:00) o There was poverty in the country and the Koreans had a bad situation with crops; Americans would end up bombing the crops (00:37:50:00) o However, the Koreans seemed to make it pretty good (00:38:12:00) o When the Chinese finally joined the Koreans, then a lot more Americans soldiers were killed (00:38:18:00) o If the average Korean knew what the Americans were fighting for, then they treated the soldiers okay (00:38:38:00)  The Koreans that Dykstra met seemed okay and he ended up fighting along side some of them if he happened to be in the area (00:38:51:00) The base in Japan was originally a Japanese base but when the war broke out in Korea, the Americans took the base over (00:39:41:00) o The Americans had quite a few fights at the time and it was dangerous getting out of the base (00:40:01:00) o One time, a friend of Dykstra woke him up at about three in the morning and said that he saw Dykstra had a flight going out of the base to China (00:40:23:00)  When Dykstra asked if he did, the friend said that the commander had put Dykstra’s name up there for the flight; the friend asked if he could have it, Dykstra said that he could and that was the last that Dykstra heard of the friend (00:40:44:00)  They lost some planes flying over China although they were not supposed to be flying over China (00:41:20:00) The Japanese people had a culture all their own (00:42:38:00) o If a soldier saw someone hit by a car on the street, he could not help them because if he did help them, then he owned them (00:42:42:00) o There were a lot of bombings in Tokyo; both damage from World War II and people setting off bombs; every once in awhile, people would set off bombs in the city just to make trouble (00:43:16:00) o When he first went overseas, the Japanese treated the American soldiers well but as things got worse, McArthur went over to manage the situation (00:44:57:00)  A lot of the Japanese people liked McArthur liked him and a lot of people did not but he was building himself up to be a king (00:46:01:00) �  o Dykstra actually lived with Japanese people for about six months (00:46:28:00) o Most of the houses were bombed out when Dykstra got over there and he ended up picking a Japanese dictionary from a bombed out building (00:44:44:00) o Dykstra stayed with people who worked on the base (00:47:21:00) o When the Japanese started flying planes, they did not know how to handle them properly (00:47:51:00)  One time, Dykstra was flying over the sea of Japan and all at once, the men were looking out the windshield and a plane went by with the tail markings of Japanese Airlines (00:48:09:00)  The Japanese plane only missed Dykstra’s plane by less than one hundred feet; any closer and they would have crashed (00:48:36:00) o There were earthquakes all the time in Japan (00:48:57:00)  One time, Dykstra had a man working for him and they had a big earthquake and the cement rolled up like a wave, although it did not break (00:49:03:00)  Dykstra went out to the plane to tell the other man to get out of the plane, but the other man said that he would stay and talk with the tower (00:49:22:00) o The men had to watch their steps in Tokyo (00:50:25:00)  A lot of men went back to Japan for their R&R and the Army had marked out where they could go; still, Dykstra ended up going to some of the places that he was not supposed to go into (00:50:37:00) o Anything the men wanted was in Japan and they did not have to walk too far to get it (00:51:09:00) o There were kids begging the soldiers for candy, but that was not a unique situation (00:51:28:00) o The Japanese had just started to get the fast trains when Dykstra was there (00:51:48:00) One time, Dykstra had a new guy working on the ramp who was supposed to be gassing the planes (00:52:46:00) o Dykstra had a bunch of VIPs that he was taking out that morning and they had just started taking off and all at once, Dykstra looked out the window and the gas was spraying all over the place (00:53:01:00) o The new man had forgot to lock the gas fillers down and the gas was spraying all over the plane (00:53:24:00) o Dykstra told everyone to remain calm and not make any sparks while they powered the plane down; the base commander ended up yelling at the man working with the gasoline (00:53:40:00) Another time, a soldier from Michigan wanted to fly above a tsunami; Dykstra said that it was pretty high waves and the fly high (00:54:15:00) o The man told Dykstra that he was going with him and Dykstra told him that the winds were very high in the storm and could change at any time (00:54:35:00) o The man was adamant to go and take some pictures, but he told Dykstra that Japanese were living out there already and taming the land once the storm had passed (00:54:44:00) � o As the men got out there, a large black cloud came closer and closer; the cloud turned out to be a wave and when Dykstra suggested that they pull out, the other man said that it was just a rain cloud (00:55:11:00) o They got out to the point that the wave was real tall and all of the sudden, a volcano came up and started spurting fire (00:55:43:00) The tower connections were not too good at the time (00:56:48:00) o One time, a man in the tower was watching a flock of geese instead of Dykstra’s plane (00:57:03:00) o The man kept saying that they were just about ready to make touchdown but when the plane did land, it was only about fifteen feet from a brick wall; if they had hit the brick wall, they would have blown up (00:57:18:00) Return to the United States / Post-Military Life (00:57:47:00)  Dykstra spent four years overseas, including time after the war was over; eventually, he came back and joined the bomb squad at Langley Air Force Base (00:57:47:00) o He still worked as a flight engineer and crew chief and several planes and ended up spending a total of eight years in the Air Force (00:58:23:00) o When he finally did leave, Dykstra thought that he could do better outside the military, which he did (00:58:36:00)  After leaving the Air Force, Dykstra went into electro-plating in California (00:58:49:00) o Over time, his kids grew up; however, California was a rough place back then for kids to grow up and Dykstra decided that he did not want his kids to grow up like that (00:59:14:00) o He owned a farm back in Michigan, so his family moved back (00:59:46:00) o When they got back to the farm, Dykstra’s family started raising asparagus; they had thirty acres of the crop and they would ship the crops to an canary in Fennville (00:59:53:00)  Growing asparagus was better than raising animals because he was married to the animals; he could not go any place, he had to feed them, etc. (01:00:29:00)  Dykstra learned a lot in the Air Force, including aircraft maintenance and mathematics and he still uses the mathematics to this day (01:00:53:00) o Dykstra believes that the Air Force is a good place to go and learn something because they do not take anything away from the men; they could keep going to school as long as they were doing well (01:01:49:00) o Out of the six years he spent in the Air Force, Dykstra spent six years in school (01:02:16:00)  Seeing the plane crashes is one of the things that Dykstra would like to forget (01:03:47:00)  The soldiers had it much harder than Dykstra did (01:04:07:00)  Whenever they would get shot at, they men could hear the bullets going through the plane; a lot of the pilots and people riding in the planes sent notes saying that they would the Koreans what they needed if they would stop fighting (01:04:14:00) o It eventually got to the point that the planes were being shot through the canopy and they had to change that out; they had to put heavy steel where people sat to shield them from the bullets and it worked out well (01:04:59:00) �o There were people in the plane who threw the notes out the open door, which drew a lot of small-arms fire (01:05:47:00) o They used mainly C-47s to deliver the notes (01:06:32:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dykstra, Glenn (Interview outline and video), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dykstra, Glenn Description An account of the resource Glenn Dykstra was born in Oklahoma in 1932. However, because of the effects of the Dust Bowl, his family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dykstra joined the Air Force when he was seventeen and finished his school while in the service. After training at Lackland Air Force base, Dykstra taught at several bases around the country. Eventually, he shipped out to Japan and flew both bombing and cargo missions into Korea during the Korean War. He also flew VIPs around, including Eisenhower, Nixon, Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe. Dykstra spent a total of four years deployed overseas, including time after the conflict in Korea had concluded. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-03-23 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DykstraG Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/27dddbf8406ed6da402d2ee2a0394543.m4v ff1fee98292b821a43340f6bd1a3fe3e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7d27c600347939ac47ec6f0a6f92e173.pdf 639ba631e5281c8730db40a886a1df4a PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Vietnam War James Dykstra Time (01:37:20) Background (00:09)        Born in Grand Rapids Michigan in 1947 (00:09) Family owned a wholesale distributorship (00:19) Had 4 siblings (00:53) Went to Seymour Elementary and Grand Rapids Christian High School (01:06) Graduated high school in 1965 (01:21) Went to Grand Rapids Junior College (02:11) Heard about the Vietnam conflict in 1967 but did not think it was as big as it was (04:30) Draft/Training (05:02)         Showed up for draft because it was his duty to serve (05:02) He was 6 foot 6 inches so he thought he would be too tall, but they raised the height limit (05:28) Took a bus to Detroit then a train to Fort Knox, Kentucky (06:11) Was in a platoon of college educated men from the Grand Rapids area (07:16) Hardest part about Boot Camp was the physical training (07:48) Being disciplined and following orders was not a hard thing to do (09:25) Was in Basic Training for 8 to 10 weeks(10:35) Was told he was to go to Military Police training at Fort Gordon, Georgia (11:39) Military Police School (12:21)       Does not remember much of Military Police School other than it was easy (12:21) Stayed in WWII era barracks which were heated by coal (13:55) Was in Military Police School for 8 weeks (15:25) Was sent to White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico (15:31) Was assigned to Rhodes Canyon, New Mexico (15:53) Lived in a ranch home with 7 other men as a security force (16:13) �    Guarded a top security site near where the atom bombs were tested (16:37) Stood guard in small “phone booths” as checkpoints near the proving grounds (17:24) Worked 12 hour shifts 7 days a week (18:00) Shot at targets in spare time (18:43) Active Duty (21:39)                        Was called to report to the Lieutenant who told him he was ordered to go to Vietnam (21:40) Flew from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Fort Lewis, Washington (22:34) Flew from Fort Lewis to Alaska then to Japan and finally to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam (23:09) Remembers the heat as being “oppressive” (23:54) Boarded a C-130 aircraft which brought him to Long Binh, Vietnam (24:24) From Long Binh was sent to Bien Hoa, Vietnam (24:54) Was not impressed by the local countryside and villages (25:39) Never before encountered a Third World country (26:30) Was sent from Bien Hoa to the 90th Replacement Depot (27:25) Joined up with a Military Police company in Long Binh (27:54) Was ordered to help as a military prison guard (28:12) Military prison was a stockade with double fences and guard towers (30:05) o Military prison had recently had a riot and some building were burnt to the ground (31:05) Military prison held around 700 people but it was built for 300 (31:38) Riot had started over race conflicts among inmates (31:54) Nonviolent prisoners were given work detail of burning waste and sandbagging and lived in tents (32:48) Dangerous and violent prisoners were left to live off the land and run wild within their confine (33:43) o Guards were ordered not to enter, but throw their food over the fence (34:32) Was ordered to round up the violent prisoners in riot gear and gassed them out (38:16) Threw the violent prisoners in cells made of shipping containers (39:50) Military prisoners were imprisoned for murder, cowardice, fraternization with the enemy, deserting, and going AWOL (41:02) Guards were always in a state of fear, ready for anything (48:41) While taking incoming fire from the Viet Cong, prisoners were kept in the bunker while guards stood outside (49:48) Guarded 12 hours a day 7 days a week at the stockade (50:48) Was put in charge of maximum security because he had taken a psychology 101 class in college (51:15) �              After returning from Rest and Recreation trip, was assigned to road patrol of Bien Hoa, Vietnam (52:47) Went to Hong Kong for R&R with a fellow Grand Rapids citizen (53:03) o Spent “wads” of Hong Kong dollars on new clothes and a nice hotel (53:36) Did not make any personal relationships with the inmates (55:42) Did not want to go on work detail because it was hot and humid, and he did not want to have to shoot a man for trying to run (56:22) Witnessed how “cheap” life is in a Third World country (59:18) o Hit and run victims were left at the side of the road for days (59:26) Main job in Bien Hoa was to make sure military supply trucks kept moving (01:00:21) At night patrolled the red light district for military men hiring prostitutes (01:01:21) Had the help of QCs or Vietnamese military police as interpreters (01:04:53) o The QC military police had lax discipline- they often did not show up for duty (01:05:44) Could not tell who was enemy Viet Cong and who was your friend (01:06:06) Knew he was in the armed forces for patriotism and to serve his country but did not know what the U.S’s reason was for involvement (01:07:23) Thinks the Vietnam war was a war for the high ranking individuals (01:08:17) o High ranking officers “lived like kings” in massive chateaus (01:08:25) Also ran convoy security for airplanes landing and unloading in Long Binh (01:11:20) Sometimes received sniper fire while running convoys (01:12:50) One time had to escort two women from Long Binh to Saigon at night (01:16:13) After Military Service (01:18:36)         The smell of a freshly oiled road brings back flashbacks of Vietnam (01:18:36) The smell of burning diesel fuel also brings back flashbacks (01:19:31) Flew out of Vietnam to San Francisco, California (01:23:39) Was handed his final military pay check on July 4, 1969 (01:23:49) Was called names and harassed by passersby in San Francisco while he was wearing his uniform (01:25:06) Dad brought him back to work the day after he returned from Vietnam (01:27:13) Went back to class at Grand Rapids Junior College but did not understand the student’s attitudes (01:27:53) Stopped going to class and worked at the family business instead (01:28:36) Influences from the Military (01:29:07)   Understood how fortunate he was to have grown up in a safe place like Grand Rapids, Michigan (01:29:07) Enjoyed traveling about the country more (01:29:47) �   Only talks about his experience in Vietnam with fellow veterans because others would not understand (01:30:25) Did not follow what was happening in Vietnam after he left (01:33:08) Was never approached by anti-war protesters directly back home (01:34:51) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dykstra, James (Interview outline and video), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dykstra, James Description An account of the resource Jim Dykstra was born in Grand Rapids in 1947 and was attending Grand Rapids Junior College when he was drafted for military service in 1967. Jim was sent to Military Police School where he guarded a proving ground in New Mexico. Jim was then sent to Vietnam where he served as a guard at the military prison in Long Binh where convicted U.S. service men were kept. Because he had a little more education than the other guards, he was put in charge of the maximum security section of the prison, but he eventually changed jobs and took over the road patrol outside of the prison Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-09-09 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DykstraJ Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eed96d4fd8c1ab45533f9a3845ac107c.mp4 d7814a4d0d2fa6aa5d7dc640d1cabee0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aa7ca0a860af44cd0f451b4da371b699.pdf e4908d07c3027413e17be325c9ae6265 PDF Text Text ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW RON DYKSTRA Born: Holland, MI July 6, 1948 Resides: Interviewed by: James Smither PhD, GVSU Veterans History Project, Transcribed by: Joan Raymer, June 20, 2013 Interviewer: Ron, can you start off with some background on yourself? Where and when were you born? I was born in Holland, Michigan of July 6th of 1948. Interviewer: Now, did you grow up in Holland? No, my mother happened to be vacationing on the beach in Holland and my twin brother and I decided to come early, so we always lived in Grandville, but I was born in the Holland hospital. Interviewer: What did your family do for a living at that time? My father was a salesman for Wolverine World Wide. Interviewer: Did your mother stay at home, or did she have a job? Yes, she stayed home the whole time with the kids, there were five of us, at the end there were five of us. Interviewer: So, you went to high school in Grandville then? Yes Interviewer: What did you do after you graduated? Well, I graduated from Grandville and decided it was—I went off to Ferris State College and took a two year commercial art course. 1:14 It took two straight years because I wanted to make my senior year a little easier and I could focus on my portfolio work, so I 1 �went two straight years and didn’t take the summer off, and when I did take the summer off I got drafted. Interviewer: Had you not registered for fall? I did not register for fall quarter and I should have. I should have been smarter than I was at that time and I was drafted. Interviewer: What did you know about Vietnam at that point? The time I was in school—I graduated in 1966 and there was awareness if you weren’t in college and didn’t have a deferment there was a good chance you were going to be drafted. When I finished my college, two years, it was 1968. 2:00 And by that time one of my best friends, who lived only a block away came home in a box and right away I knew that I was in trouble here, because of that, and my best friend, my best friend, had just come back, because he graduated in 1966 and he was drafted and he was gone. He had just come back from Vietnam, and he didn’t say much, he didn’t talk much. He was a different person when he came back, so I knew that I was in trouble once I got that draft notice that I was going to be a goner. Interviewer: Did you have much of a sense of what the war was supposed to be about? Yeah, I did, coming from Grandville, Michigan, you know everybody—―We’re going to fight communists and keep communists off our shores‖, I mean that’s what it was all about. My father, my grandfather had all served, and everybody said, ―Well, if it happens, it happens, you’re going to serve your country, you’re going to do—―, and we did, I mean, that’s one of those things that I knew that, but I didn’t like what that solutions was that was going to happen. 3:05 2 �Interviewer: When did you actually have to report for duty? I reported for duty on March 3rd, 1969. It was, literally, about nine months after I got my draft notice I was gone, I mean, it was—I got the draft notice—well it was less than that, I got the draft notice in 1968, let’s say, roughly, August, September of 1968, and I was gone by March 3rd. Interviewer: So, why was there a time lag in between? Did they just tell you when to report? Right, they basically said—well, first of all you had to go and get a physical to make sure that you were up to their standards. And I went—281 was the draft board in Grand Rapids and they bused you to Detroit to go through your physical and then you’d come home and say, ―Yeah, you’re ready‖ , and then they would give you a certain time when you would have to report, and then you were done. 4:02 So, then again, you would go into Detroit, they would do a final physical to make sure everything was all right and they would send you off to where you’re going to be having your basic training. Interviewer: Now, going in, were their people who were trying to find ways to beat the physical? Not to the level that I understood. In 1968-69, I didn’t see that as much as I did in 1970 when I came out. I saw more and more, and heard more and more of the drinking a case of coke, or eating a bunch of bananas, or trying to beat the physical thing; I didn’t hear that until I came back in 1970. Interviewer: Where did they send you for basic training? I went to Fort Knox, Kentucky and basic, just like everybody else’s training, went down there and thought I was in pretty good shape, I wasn’t a four letter athlete, but I did some 3 �athletic things and thought I was in pretty good shape, but boy, they tear you down, there’s no doubt about it. 5:08 The nice thing for me is when I got down there, and it was one of those things that was frustrating for me is that you get there, they’ve taken you away from your family, they’ve shaved your head, they lined me up in this big formation and they said, there were like two hundred of us in this formation, and they said, ―Anybody that’s had a felony fall out, anybody that’s had this fall out‖, and before you know it there was like twenty of us standing in this formation and I’m saying, ―What is going on here?‖ and there was a small little church that was right in front of us and they said, ―the rest of you guys fall out for two hours, and you twenty I want to go in this church‖, and, basically, what it was is that we were the type of people they wanted and in the building there were like five or six stations and they said, ―Would you like to volunteer for ―green beret‖, would you like to volunteer for warrant flight officer, would you like to volunteer for OCS?‖ 6:10 Every one of these you had to extend another year on your service, and all of us are saying, ―You got to be crazy‖. Well, hindsight is, I should have taken one of those opportunities, because it would have been instead of just being another grunt, gone into Vietnam and come back, you had the opportunity, but the potential of spending the minimum of a year to two years in Vietnam was a little bit daunting when, like I said, they have just taken you from your family and shaved your head, and now they’re offering you this great deal? It didn’t sound like a good deal to me at that time. Interviewer: Some of those jobs can be pretty dangerous too. Yes, they should have, chopper pilot or like I said, ―green beret‖, OCS you’re going to be in charge of a company, as an officer, so yes, they would have been on difficult—but, 4 �they had selected the best, they knew they had picked the people they wanted to offer this to. 7:02 I was one of them and I said, ―Naw, enough is enough guys, I’m going to stick with what I got‖. Interviewer: How did they handle that, did they just accept that and let you go on? Yup, they just said, ―Okay, fall out‖, and you know, you walk through and you had to sit at each station and you had to listen to their speal and after you’ve done all of them, you had to make a decision before you left the room. They said, ―Okay, you’ve got to make a decision if you’re going to accept one of these opportunities, and if not, you can fall back out with the rest of them‖, and that’s what I did. Interviewer: As you were going through basic training, how easy, or hard, was it for you to adjust to military life and military discipline? I wasn’t hard for me because my upbringing was to respect and ―Yes sir, no sir‖, that sort of thing, so for me it was an easy transition. You had to—you didn’t make waves, and I didn’t make waves, I said, ―Yes sir, no sir‖, and I did what I had to make it as easy as I could for myself. 8:05 It was tough, it was—it wasn’t fun, but it was one of those things, I made it as easy as I could for myself, so for me it wasn’t an easy thing to do, it was hard. Interviewer: Now, the people around you, how did they respond to it? A lot of them would—we had people who just went crazy type of thing, literally, and fought it the whole way. ―I’m not going to do this; I’m not going to do that‖, where I said, ―If that’s what you say, I’m going to do that‖. So, there were a lot of them that had a hard time and they were doing more push-ups and they were getting in more trouble for 5 �the things they were doing, because they weren’t, as we say, following the leader. I didn’t want to make waves; I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. 9:00 Interviewer: What proportion of them made it through that process? I would say that we probably had—I’m going to say ninety percent. You’d lose a few and they would be shipped off and brought back to another basic training unit, but it was—they beat you all down, but most of them were enough where they would say, ―Hey, we’ll make it‖. And before you know it we all looked alike, we all acted alike, because they had done what they were supposed to do, treat us as one person, you know. Interviewer: How long was the basic training, at that point? I think basic training was thirteen weeks from start to finish, and then we graduated from basic training. Interviewer: What was the next step? You’d get—they’d call—you’d have a big formation and then you’d be given your orders, and they would call out people’s names and where you were going. The minute they said where you were going and what was happening. I was called out and it was Fort Polk, Louisiana jungle training, done deal, I wasn’t going to be a cook, I wasn’t going to be a clerk, I knew what I was going to be going to do. 10:04 My best friend that went in, from Grandville, graduated with me, and went in with me, he was made a clerk and he was a clerk in Fort Knox for his two years. I was unlucky and ended up being in the infantry. Well, going to Fort Polk for jungle training. Interviewer: So, what was the facility at Fort Polk like? The facilities weren’t much different than the facilities at Fort Knox, because we were in the old wood barracks at Fort Knox that had a half an inch of paint on them, because 6 �every time a new unit came in you had to paint the barracks. They were fire traps. Fort Polk was very similar, but Fort Polk had the heat, the humidity that Fort Knox did not have. Fort Knox was Michigan climate, that type, and we didn’t have as much of a problem. You got down to Fort Polk and it was hot and wet, and it was nasty. 11:01 Interviewer: Well, now you’re in Louisiana in the summer too. Yeah, and I’m in the summer in Louisiana, exactly right, so it was snakes and scorpions and all that kind of monkey business. One of the incidents I had was we were on bivouac, which was seven days of being in—it’s in the woods there, it’s not the jungle, but it was trying to create the same effect. My one—they paired you up in pairs and then you had to go through this bivouac, which was seven days of trying to stay alive in the jungle, or in the woods. Well, he was a smoker and it was hot and it was nasty, and what we had to do is we had to dig a foxhole, and it had to be shoulder height to the tallest person, so he was probably eight or nine inches shorter than me, so he had to put a little step in there for himself, because it had to be shoulder height so he could fire his weapon. It was hot and he said, ―I got to have a cigarette‖, so he went to jump down in this foxhole that we had dug the previous day, well a rattlesnake had burrowed its self into the wall of the foxhole and when he jumped in there he came out faster than he went in. 12:12 We didn’t have weapons that had live ammo, we had a flash pressure on the end, so we had to call somebody over and they dug this rattlesnake out and it was a big long rattlesnake, and they shot and killed the rattlesnake, and I’m saying, ―This is ridiculous‖. Every morning when we got up you had to shake out your boots and check your clothes because scorpions would get into your boots and you slide your foot in. We had one man, he was exhausted after a long hike with a pack and he just fell down and didn’t look 7 �where he was setting and sat right on a scorpion. Then we had to do a compass course where you had to triangulate a compass course, my partner with me, he’d been breaking brush for probably two third s of it and he said, ―Okay, will you take over?‖ The minute I took over we walk into this swampy area and here’s this big old water moccasin six or eight feet in front of us and we said, ―We’re going to change and we’re not going to go where it tells us to go‖. 13:07 We got what we were supposed to get, but another one of those incidences where it wasn’t as easy as people think it might have been, it was tough, it was real tough. Interviewer: What sorts of people did they have training you? People that had come back from Vietnam, and that’s something that I took and I learned from, because they had been there, they had survived, and they came back to train us, and they knew very well what you were going to be going through. They knew where you were going, because they knew where you had been stationed for your AIT training. Interviewer: Where there particular tricks, or pieces of advice they gave you? Things they told you that wound up being useful? I didn’t pick up on any, I got more in the first ten days in Vietnam than I ever got from them. I just—I had gotten my body in shape because of the heat and humidity. 14:05 There wasn’t an ounce of fat on my body at that time, because you couldn’t have it, so I did that, and I learned that you had to be observant, had to be observant of every little thing, and that’s what we learned in the compass course and everything we did. You had to be observant of what you were doing at all times, it wasn’t just go out and do it and come back, you had to be observant of every aspect of it. 8 �Interviewer: But there were just the specifics of surviving in a particular area of Vietnam you got to that was going to be dependent on what you saw there. Right, when you got to say, Cam Ranh Bay, they would give you a basic understanding of what was going to go in in Vietnam, but when you got to your unit, now you’re getting specifics about what territory and what the unit is facing, so every little thing, you had to be sharp and pick up on it, and make sure you remembered what they said, and that’s the only way you were going to come home alive in my opinion. 15:09 Interviewer: So, you get through the AIT, and was that about thirteen weeks? That was ten weeks. Interviewer: so, at this point do you get to go home before they ship you over? Yeah, you get a thirty day leave. When you graduate from AIT you’ve got your orders and my orders were to Vietnam, so once you got those orders you got, say, a thirty day pass where I got to go home. That was a tough thirty days any way you look at it. When you know you’re going into where you may never come home and you’ve got thirty days with your family, with your friends, or whatever, it’s a tough time, I mean, it’s a tough thirty days. For me, I was an old person at that time. I’m twenty-one years old and most guys that were going through that experience were nineteen by the time they were going over. But it was still tough; it was still a tough thing to go through. 16:05 And you live fast and hard and whatever you can do for that month and then that last day, man, it’s over. Interviewer: Now, do you have to get yourself out to the point of embarkation? Yeah, like I said, I had somebody take me to the airport. Basically, you were given orders where and given a ticket and the time when you have to leave. 9 �Interviewer: So, where did you ship out of? I shipped—basically what happened is I flew out of Grand Rapids and went into, had to report to Seattle, and right out of Seattle is where you got your orders and everything was—they gave you everything you needed to go overseas. Interviewer: Then do you go out of Fort Lewis or out of the Seattle airport? The Seattle airport, Fort Lewis, yeah, because it was a military transport and we flew in—from Fort Lewis and basically they did—they were supposed to do a complete check of you at Fort Lewis and make sure you’re ready for in country. 17:09 Then they loaded you on a transport, and basically it was a commercial plane, Flying Tiger, or whatever it was called, it normally would fly cargo, but they turned them into—to get people over and it wasn’t TWA or Pan Am, it was a Flying Tiger, some transport line. Interviewer: Did they give you all of the preparation and stuff, before you left, that they were supposed to? No, basically, when I left Fort Polk, Louisiana they gave us a month’s supply of malaria pills. You were supposed to take a white pill six days a week and an orange pill one day a week. The orange pill gave you the runs and, basically, what you were supposed to do is your body was supposed to be getting you ready for what you were going to be in Vietnam and that’s the potential for malaria. 18:03 When you landed in Seattle, they were supposed to do a blood—draw blood and look at it and make sure that your body had taken and accepted that malaria pill. They didn’t do that, they may have taken the blood, they didn’t review it and look at it enough because my body was rejecting the malaria pills, and I never should have been sent to Vietnam. They should have found that 10 �in Seattle and said, ―You can’t go because your body is rejecting the malaria pill‖, and sent me back home, but that was not done. Interviewer: Then they fly you to Vietnam, and did they fly you directly from Fort Lewis to Vietnam? No, we flew into Guam and they landed on the runway and all you saw in Guam was B52s on the runway, and they told us to get off at the hangar and we could go in and use the restrooms in the hangar. Then they refueled the plane and then we flew into Yokota Air Force Base in Japan and landed. 19:03 The same thing, we flew into Japan and you could see all the bright lights and all that, and they let us go into this hangar and get a candy bar or go to the bathroom and they refueled, and then we went from Yokota Air Force Base in Japan right into Cam Ranh Bay. Interviewer: Do you remember what time of day you got in? It was, from what I can remember, we left Tokyo late, it was dark, so we got in early, early in the morning in Vietnam. Interviewer: What was your first impression of Vietnam when you got off the plane? Flying in you couldn’t see much because it’s not like a big lit city. Cam Ranh Bay was a lit city and it looked just like a regular air base, you know, when we flew in. The first sense was the heat and humidity when we got off the plane. It was nothing like what I had experienced in Louisiana, just nothing, it was just that much more heat and humidity. Other than that--that was the first thing I remember. 20:00 I think then the real anxiety set in, ―Were in trouble now‖, we knew where we were at and I knew exactly what was 11 �happening and I said, ―Boy, this is going to be a long year‖, and for me it the start of a long year for a young person. I mean, even at twenty-one, I was still young. Interviewer: What did they do with you once you got off the plane? They basically—they give you the information to what you—make sure your papers and orders are right, and then they , for two or three days, they go through some—they show you what a claymore mine is going to do, and how a booby trap is going to set up, yada, yada, and all these kinds of things, just basic training of Vietnam, heat humidity and what you may have to—what you may be confronted with. 21:00 They also talk about drugs, they talk about those kind of things, but then it’s a matter of—you’re probably there three, four , or five days at the most. Interviewer: Did they also talk to you about how to deal with the civilian population or anything like that? They may have, but I—it was the furthest thing from my mind. The most important thing was just to get home safe, so four or five days of that and they sent you to your unit, basically. They would divide up and once they got five or six guys they—whether it was a plane, a C-130, or a helicopter, it depended on how far you were going and they would fly you to your new unit. Interviewer: What unit do you get assigned to? I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, or as everybody knows, ―The Big Red One‖. Interviewer: And what particular unit within it were you assigned to? I was assigned to Alpha Company of the 21st Infantry and we were out of Dok Chang. 22:02 And basically, the area of operations for that unit was south east and north east of Saigon, and what terrain we were in would be rice paddies, Michelin rubber plantation 12 �[this was west of Saigon], which was the largest rubber plantation and the Saigon River, was, basically, what we worked out of, or what terrain we saw. Interviewer: Now was your company, when you joined your company, was it on a firebase, was it on a hill, or what? What happens is you go into your unit's firebase and you set there, you might be there two or three days getting acclimated, getting your gear, because at this point with everything you’ve done, you have not got a weapon, you don’t have your backpack, you don’t have anything you need to survive in the jungle, so they’ve given you all that stuff and then you go out on a resupply chopper, with the units. 23:03 Sometimes your unit would be coming back into the firebase and you’d join the unit then and sometimes you’d go out in a chopper, and I went in a chopper, a resupply chopper. Basically, every three or four days they’d get resupplied with C rations, and water, so you’d go out on a resupply chopper, and that’s what I did. I was a new guy in a new uniform getting off that chopper out in the jungle. Interviewer: Do you remember anything about that chopper ride? I was scary, it was scary because you knew what you were going into, but you didn’t know what you were going into. You knew that you were going to be that new guy that you hope will be alive the next day, let alone for a year. But, basically, got off the chopper and the unit, at the time, you know, a typical unit of about sixty five men and they were in a perimeter formation and I was assigned to November platoon. 24:00 I went over there, met the lieutenant and the first sergeant, and then I was assigned to a squad that I was going to be a member of. 13 �Interviewer: About how many men were in a platoon and a squad when you joined them? The platoon was probably about twenty or twenty-five men, so each squad was about a five man squad, five or six man squad. It was a small—there were only three platoons in a company and each company had, like I said, sixty-five or seventy men, so it was about a twenty, or twenty-five man platoon. Interviewer: Those are sort of-- significantly below paper strength for those units, which should have been a lot larger. Yeah, typically, that’s what we were—every unit I was ever with was about that strength and for me, that was just the way we operated, but as the new guy you were always pushed out in front, because the old guys didn’t want to take chances, so they always push you out in front, but it was a real learning experience, no doubt about it. Interviewer: Now, How long was it before you actually went out? Did you join them in the field at that point? 25:00 Yeah, I joined them later in the field, and typically the missions that we worked on in the 1st Infantry Division were seven to ten day missions. We’d go out and do search and destroy and, basically, looking for the enemy. We would move anywhere from two to four miles a day in the heat and humidity. Our pack was—a normal infantry pack weighed fifty pounds and that is because you had to carry claymore mines, hand grenades, five or six hand grenades, a couple claymore mines, I—typically the 1st Infantry Division we had to carry ten eighteen round magazines for our M-16, everybody had to carry at least one smoke grenade, besides all your food, a shovel, because we dug foxholes every night, so we had a shovel and trenching tool, and then some personal 14 �items. 26:01 You could carry letter writing stuff, or I carried a camera, I had letter writing things and not much personal. Anything you had to have in your pack, if it didn’t—if it wasn’t waterproof, you had to wrap it in plastic otherwise it was gone instantly. I remember going over there and my folks had gotten me a Bulova watch for graduation from high school and I wore my Bulova watch over there, and it was a beautiful watch, I loved the watch, water resistant watch, and it was ruined in less than a month. The humidity, it just ruined that watch, but other than that, that’s your thing, you had this pack you had to carry. We got up every morning, you made your meal, you packed your pack and then we’d move out for another mission, and basically we were given missions where we wanted to check out another trail or another—and you’d have to move two to four miles. 27:00 Some of it was canopy jungle where you were breaking brush just trying to get through and other times it was a little more open and you could move quicker, but because you never knew where there were booby traps and all those other dangers, you couldn’t move fast, so we didn’t move very fast, but we still had to cover a lot of distance. Interviewer: Now, when you moved, did you do it normally kind of single file spread out, or did you go across? The 1st Infantry Division was an organized unit; they’d already been in country, probably, five or six years. The 1st Infantry Division never walked on a trail, a hard trail, we all walked a file on each side of that trail, is how we moved into the jungle. One of those incidents where--I had problems with animals in Vietnam--we were breaking brush and a deer was spooked in between the two columns. It was close to where I was and it came running across and then it came up to another man, turned around, and had a full head of 15 �stream back at me, because we were probably fifty feet apart. 28:05 Well, it hit me and deer over there are about the size of a good size Collie, well, it hit me below the knees and I’ve got a weapon and a fifty pound pack, and it flipped me right over, the weapon went flying, and I could not believe how hard that deer had hit me, but it wanted to get out. So, that’s the way the 1st Infantry did, we just worked on either side of a trail, never on a trail, because we knew the trails were always booby trapped, we just knew they were booby trapped. Interviewer: Would there be booby traps, also in the jungle? Not, not as often, because a lot of units used the trails. We got to a point in the 1st Infantry Division where, even then, we’d hit some booby traps and we started getting frustrated, so we started setting our own booby traps. People don’t realize if you get frustrated enough losing men, losing legs and that, you’re going to do something to stop that. 29:04 So, we started setting out our own booby traps, and what we did was take a Claymore mine, a battery from one of our radios, we took a clothespin with a spring on it, we took the plastic straight part of a spoon and cut off the spoon part, and, basically, run trip wire into that plastic spoon, we put the Claymores facing the trail, you could put two claymores on one battery, you’d hitch them and run it to the battery. The battery would have a wire coming off, the wire would go on either side of the clothespin, then you’d put the plastic spoon between it, the clothespin would be tied to the tree and the other part of the trip wire would be tied to the tree and the minute that trip wire was pulled the claymores would blow. So, what we were doing, we’d send out a five man ambush position every night. 30:02 The CP, the company area would set up in a perimeter and they’d send out these five man ambush positions, and what we would do then, we’d put 16 �booby traps on either side of the trail that we were ambushing, and we’d set the booby traps. The friendlies could move from dusk to dawn, so the minute it got dark we knew we could set our booby traps out, but we had to retrieve them in the morning before it got light. We were very successful with them and I can guarantee it saved a lot of army guys lives, because we weren’t walking into theirs and they started getting frustrated with the 1st Infantry Division because we were blowing a lot of them away with our own booby traps. Interviewer: So, they were using the trails at night? They used them at night, yes. See, again, the Vietnamese, the VC and the NVA, they moved at night. We were afraid of the night, we didn’t move at night, we didn’t do anything at night, you didn’t move at night, and that’s what it was all about. 31:02 Interviewer: Now, when you were encamped at night would they attack you one way or another? Yes, yes, like, if, if, like I said—previously we had times where we weren’t setting out booby traps, they would walk into our kill zone, because every night we’d dig foxholes. Our five man ambush position, we would dig three foxholes facing the trail, putting out our Claymore mines, and then we would normally have one man in a foxhole, awake, at all times, and basically, if they walked into the kill zone we’d blow them away. Like I said, I was lucky enough to have a successful unit. We had a five man squad that I was part of. We’d set up on a trail that was coming right out of the Cambodian border, it was a hard packed trail and we had a five man squad, dug out foxholes, set up, had ten NVA, which NVA , they're just as equipped as we are. 32:02 If they walked into our kill zone we blew our claymores, every man fired an eighteen round magazine, our machine 17 �gunner ran a fifty round belt, and we threw thirty-five hand grenades before we went out to the kill zone, and we never took a round in. When we went out to the kill zone we had ten dead NVA. We needed a resupply of ammunition and Claymores, and hand grenades, so we were surprised to see a Major come in his little Loch to bring our resupplies and he was just dumbfounded. He said, ―My God you guys are great, this is wonderful‖, yada, yada, yada, gave us our hand grenades and ammo and then what we did, we threw the bodies in our foxholes and covered them up with a little dirt, and moved down the trail another fifty or a hundred feet. The next night we didn’t have anything happen, but the following night we had twelve of them walk into the kill zone, and we blew all twelve of them away and never took a round. Then again, the same thing happened, the Major came down to resupply us and he said, ―I don’t know what else to say, this is out— you guys, in three days killed twenty-two NVA‖, and we said, ―Well, that’s our job‖, you know. 33:10 But it’s one of those things that—I was in a great unit and I learned to be a great infantry guy because of that, If I’d been with another unit ―pff‖, too many others had poor structure. Interviewer: Were the other platoons in the company pretty good as far as you could tell? They all were, they all were, every one of them was—we just happened to be on the right trail at the right time and we happened to be doing the right thing here and there, but the whole unit was a good unit. I was lucky enough to be with a great, great bunch of guys and we didn’t lose a lot of men. Yeah, we had guys wounded and hurt, but we didn’t lose a lot of men, we lost some, but we didn’t lose a lot. 18 �Interviewer: When you joined the unit did anybody make any effort to kind of explain to you kind of how things worked and what you were going to have to do? 34:03 Yeah, you did, but typically somebody would feel sorry for you because you were the new guy staring off into no man’s land not knowing what you were doing, and somebody would take you under their wing and say, you gotta do this and you gotta do that, don’t do this, don’t do that. I had an issue one time where I had a dive watch on and toward the end I realized the only thing that’s going to survive the rain and being wet all the time was a dive watch. Well, I bought a dive watch at the PX and didn’t realize that the illumination was pretty bright, and I was moving my arm around and one of the guys said to me, ―You better put your hand—or cover that up , because somebody could see that and know where you’re at‖, so –but no, the guys were—they tried to help you along and it didn’t take long, it didn’t take a couple of months in the field and you were a seasoned veteran as they say. 35:00 Interviewer: You also mentioned that when you got there, there was a tendency to take the new guy and put him out in the front. Oh yeah, point squad, you’d be in point squad, no doubt. Interviewer: But, would you actually walk point in the point squad when you started? You wouldn’t walk point, maybe that first week, but you’d be on the point squad and the point squad—there were guys out there going to get—if anything’s going to happen, they’re the ones that are going to get it. 19 �Interviewer: Now, that period when you’re with the 1st Infantry Division, what kind of enemy activity was going on? Was it just the small patrol stuff? Yeah, we had a lot of VC patrols. The Michelin Rubber Plantation location was, basically, the straw hat, black pajama VC’s and we had a lot of them, and we were setting up ambushes all over the Michelin Rubber Plantation. They knew that they weren’t supposed to be moving at night and that’s when we were doing our best, and we were taking a lot of enemy kills. We were just, we were good at it, there was no doubt about it, and we knew how to set up a good position, so it was one of—from my perspective the terrain was as good as it could be for what you were doing. 36:10 There was some other terrain that you couldn’t imagine that no way you could see the enemy, but we were in areas where you could see them pretty well. One person always had a starlight scope in our platoon, so we could see the movement—you could hear the movement, you know, you, basically, pull guard two or three times a night, two hours a shift, and you wouldn’t get—you might get three hours of sleep, and trust me it wasn’t sound sleep. You were— even a twig breaking and you were wide awake, your senses were so honed in the jungle that I came back, I couldn’t believe how quick, a fire alarm could go off and I wouldn’t wake up, but over there, any little sound and you were awake instantly, and that’s just because your body knew what it had to do and man, you got sharp, you got real sharp. 37:10 Interviewer: Now, were there a lot of civilians and things in the area you were patrolling? Yeah, there were, and during the day, so—and we knew that at night they were telling the VC where we were at. We just knew that was happening, because during the day they 20 �were your friends and at night they weren’t, it was just one of those issues that—you knew that, you’d see them, when you were walking you’d see them, but you knew that was—you just knew that. The kids, the adults, you knew that somebody was coming in their house and threatening their family and they’re going to tell them where the unit is, so there’s no doubt about it. But, I had some, we had—I was one of these—come from this little west Michigan area and brought up in a strong Christian Reform background, and I had so many things happen to me that let me know that there was a reason that I survived Vietnam. 38:13 There was a reason that I came home, there was a reason for all of that, because on one incident—every time we came into the fire support base, we came in for three days, two to three days, come in and get a hot meal, clean shower, and go out. In the field they would resupply us every three or four days with C rations and water, mainly, and then they’d bring out mail. The clothes would come in a—they would bring out three duffle bags of clothes for each platoon. The platoon leader—each squad would send over a man to pick up five shirts, five pants, five pair of socks and underwear. It didn’t matter what size, you just grabbed five of each and you gave them to your guys. 39:01 It didn’t matter if it was an extra-large or a small, it didn’t matter, and that’s what you grabbed out of that bag. It wasn’t very stylish, but it was clean from that perspective, every three or four days you’d at least get some clean clothes, because you were sweating so bad in the heat and humidity, and then you’d move in the—you’d do your thing for seven to ten days, so you might get resupplied only once. Once in a while they would bring out a hot meal from the rear. If not a hot meal, we learned that C rations, they were nasty, so what we had to do was, we had to spice them up, so a lot of guys used Tobasco sauce and other things, but we learned to heat them because some of them—I found one 21 �that was packed in 1959, and I was there in 1969, so that had been in a can for ten years. We, basically, used C-4 plastic explosives to heat our C rations and what we did is, every guy got a chunk of plastic explosive and, basically, you’d pinch off a piece and you’d roll it into about a half inch ball and you’d light it. 40:10 It would heat your food instantly and really hot. You’d use it for your cocoa in the mornings, because seventyfive degrees in the morning was cold, you were cold and you wanted something warm, and your meal, like I said, you could heat your meals with a C-4, and that was one of the things, at least you had a meal that was a little bit warm. One of those items that they would bring out, and the water, you had to use a purification tablet in all of your canteens. I was a sweater, so I carried nine one quart canteens on my back, that’s a lot of weight, but I needed that to move, I needed that for two or three days of moving. You had to use purification tablets in your canteens and they made it taste like shit, I don’t care what anybody says, it—they were terrible. 41:04 So, what I did, I had said, in my letters home, I’d said, ―look guys, can you send me packs of Kool Aid, every letter you write me send me Kool Aid‖, so what I was doing, I was putting Kool Aid in my canteens, and at least it would take some of that nasty taste of the purification tablet away, but you had to do what you had to do. So, from that perspective, like I say, we’d eat, we’d move, then some missions lasted longer, we’d go into the rear, we’d get a hot meal, clean clothes, shower, we could go to the mess hall and get meals, they had movies, you could have beer, and then they would call out another mission and you’d go out in the field. Basically, we would—normally we would come—they would bring us from the airstrip to the basecamp again in a deuce and a half truck, which is a two and a half ton army military truck, they’d load ten or twelve guys in the back of the truck, bring 22 �them to the basecamp and then you’d get cleaned up. 42:04 The barracks there in the base camp, fire support base, whatever you call it, were basically, wood side half way up, elevated off the ground, the top half would be screens and they would have a metal roof. Inside would be cots, and when you’d come in for your two or three days of stand down, is what we called it, you’d , basically, throw your gear at a cot and that’s what you’d sleep on, would be a cot, and then, like I said, you’d get resupplied. They would resupply us, they’d bring a pallet of C rations and say, ―Okay guys, we’re going on a mission and you better pack three or four days of meals, make sure you have your grenades, and make sure you have ammo‖. One time we were standing around a fifty-five gallon drum, we had, we were burning—C rations come in a cardboard box and they have a lot of wrappers and papers around some of the stuff and you’d throw them—so, we had this fifty-five gallon drum, it was burning, we were throwing our trash in it, it was cold, it was—getting ready for a mission, so it was early in the morning. 43:10 We’re all standing around it getting warm, like I said, seventy-five degrees is cold, anybody tell you that it’s not, they’re crazy. When it’s a hundred and ten during the day, the forty degree temperature drop, your body has a hard time adjusting. There were thirteen of us standing around that trash can, we don’t know for sure whether somebody had thrown some C ration cans, we didn’t know if somebody in one of these boxes, one of their hand grenades had gotten in a box, but it went in the drum. Well, all of a sudden the drum exploded and this fifty-five gallon drum turned into shrapnel. Of the thirteen guys that were getting ready to go out in the field on a new mission, there were only eleven of us that went out that day; no, two of us that went out, eleven of them didn’t go out that day. The guys on both sides of me were bleeding out of their ears and had shrapnel all over 23 �them. 44:00 Another guy across from us had nothing. Me and him, we checked our uniforms and I said, ―No, I didn’t get a scratch‖, and I knew somebody was watching out for me. So, of that day, there were only two of us that went out of thirteen guys. Interviewer: Now, were you going with the rest of the company? Yeah, we just blended in with another unit until these guys, whether they came back or whether their wounds were healed, most of them were just shrapnel and bleeding out of the ears from the concussion of this fifty-five gallon drum exploding, but it wasn’t just the enemy that we were fighting, it was all these other things that you had to be aware of. We would load up on the deuce and a half, after resupply, after getting ready for a new mission, we’d go out on the airstrip and typically they would dump us on the airstrip, we would set on our packs until the choppers came in, the choppers would come in on, typically, four or five choppers per lift is what we called them and each lift would hold, roughly, a platoon. 45:01 At the time we were loading the choppers our artillery at the fire support base was supporting—was already firing our LZ, our landing zone. Typically, the chopper pilots would have been given directions saying, ―When you take off from the airbase you have to bank left, and then do a big circle and by the time you get there the LZ will have stopped firing‖. I was on the first lift this time, our chopper pilot took off, banked right, banked right in front of our artillery, and the guns were firing. We heard a round go by the chopper, it was so close we swore we almost got shot down by our own artillery, the chopper pilot turned, landed on the airstrip and walked away from that chopper. He knew that he almost got himself, his co-pilot, the two door gunners and a five man crew almost shot himself down, so we had to get on another 24 �chopper and go out in the field that time. 46:01 So, you had to—everything was against you, it wasn’t that everything was working for you. Interviewer: You mentioned when you were with the 1st Division there were different environments you worked in. You were talking about the rubber plantation, and what was it—when you were on the Saigon River, what were you doing there? Well, the Saigon River was—some of them moved on these little sampans and little boats, so we had to keep an eye on the river, so we would ambush along—typically along the side of the bank of a river there’s a trail and some of them would move real close to the river and some would move on the river, so we had to set up on the river. But, the problem of being set up on the river, the Saigon River or any river in a wet humid climate, the mosquitoes were horrendous. I was on an ambush position one night where I’m supposed to be alert, listening and looking for the enemy, and the mosquitoes were just driving me crazy buzzing around my ears was just so bad. 47:02 I put my poncho on, tightened the poncho around my face, I stuck cigarette butts in my ears, I light a cigarette and was blowing the smoke around, you couldn’t see the lit cigarette because I was cupping it and I was blowing smoke around trying to keep these mosquitoes from driving me crazy. I’m on guard duty and I’m supposed to be alert, so, you know, and that’s when I came down, I know that’s when I came down with malaria for the first time was the operation around the Saigon River, they were just so thick, the mosquitoes. Interviewer: You didn’t have insect repellent or did you have it and it didn’t work? I think they liked it, I think they liked the insect repellent, and that’s why a lot of the guys—you’d always see them in the movies; the guys have insect repellent in the band on 25 �their helmets. We used it, but I just didn’t—I think they understood what it was and they didn’t care. They were bad, the mosquitoes, but it was one of those things and I know that’s when I got malaria the first time. 48:00 Interviewer: How much effect did the malaria have on you during that time in Vietnam? For me it was, again like I said, I should have never gone to Vietnam, but when I was dusted off the first time by the medevac chopper and taken to the 25th Evac Hospital they packed me in ice for almost twelve hours to get my temperature down. It was over a hundred and four for almost twenty four hours and they—the doctor came to see me and they had an intravenous bottle in me for four days and I went through twelve bottles and I had a scar on my arm for years after where that bottle had been in there for so long. When the doctor came to talk to me he said, ―Well, your body didn’t have this malaria in it like it should have, but now that you got it we’re just going to keep you here‖, and that’s another one of those army tricks, let’s keep you here, you’ve already done it, let’s do it, but that’s just what it was and it was a tough one. 49:04 Typically, for me the first bout of malaria, I was in the hospital for just over a week and probably lost five or six pounds, I mean, you just sweat it off, it’s just what it is. Interviewer: Now, could they control it after that, did they give you any treatment for it? No, no, after that, once it’s in your body it stays in your body the rest of your life I’ve been told and you can have reoccurrences at any time. I’ve been very lucky and I’ve only had one when I came home, but I had other incidences in Vietnam that affected me, because I had malaria four times and the last time I had it, I had two different kinds of 26 �malaria at the same time. They evacuated me to Cam Ranh Bay , to the hospital and I spent twenty-one days in the hospital and lost twenty pounds, so it’s just one of those issues, you just—again, the enemy isn’t the only thing that you got to get home. 50:04 Interviewer: You were also doing some of your patrolling in the rice paddies. Did you do things differently in the rice paddies? Well, the problem with the rice paddies is, you knew you had to walk on the rice paddies dykes, or berms, whatever you want to call them and you knew that the enemy was going to booby trap them, and to walk in the rice paddies—you’re wet enough, I mean, typically—when I first got there I wore socks in my boots and like everybody else at the time, nobody told me anything different, but your feet are wet so much that you get sores between the wrinkles. You know how, when your skin gets wrinkly and your feet are wrinkly so much that they develop sores between the wrinkles and you can just start pulling the skin off, it’s wet so much. So, what I found that worked for me was I just didn’t wear socks when I was moving through, most of the time during the day, and I would put the socks on at night. 51:00 Then the water would run in the boots and drain out quicker, it wouldn’t hold the moisture into your boots and your feet get nasty. That’s just another one of those—you can be a casualty that way, your feet get so bad that—or bamboo poisoning, everything we were breaking brush was bamboo. We had one of our guys that—typically in the 1st Infantry Division we couldn’t roll our sleeves up, they didn’t want us to and this guy rolled his sleeves up. Well, he got scratches from bamboo poisoning and all of a sudden his arms just swelled up and they were just weeping of this pus from the bamboo poisoning, just from the leaves of the bamboo tree. Each person is different, like in the 1st Infantry Division you had to wear steel pot and you had to keep 27 �your sleeves down. Other units that I saw, they were wearing booty caps, they would roll their sleeves up and things were different, it was just one of those years and the unit I was with. Interviewer: Overall the unit you were with, and that company, had pretty good morale and discipline and so forth? 52:00 Yeah, the whole time I was with the 1st Infantry Division it was phenomenal, and this was the late sixties, because we were looking from October—September 15th is when I got to Vietnam, so September 15th until into May I was with the 1st Infantry Division and they were a phenomenal unit. They had a great area, knew what they were doing and didn’t cut corners, didn’t cut corners, never—we had an operation where they told us one time, like I said, you don’t move at night. The enemy moves at night and we were scared of the night. We had an operation, we’d set up, we were all set and ready to go, and they called in a—we had orders to move two miles and it was dark. So, what they did, they called in a C-130 gunship, ―Puff the Magic Dragon‖, whatever they want to call it. 53:02 Well, it was popping illumination flares as the unit moved, but we had to move, like I said, about two miles and it took us, oh shoot, it took us over two hours, two and a half hours, to move the whole unit. We just got ready to—and how we moved is we had a guy, I wouldn’t have done it, we had a guy put a strobe light, tape it to the top of his weapon, and he had to hold the weapons, so he had to stay in the center of the unit so the gunship knew where to fly. Nobody does dumb things, but that’s what we had to do, so we get ready, we’ve got to the position they want us to ambush and we’re just getting ready to call the gunship off station and we took a green tracer into our perimeter. Well, green tracers, the enemies had green tracers, we had red tracers, and we took a green 28 �tracer. Well, the pilot had seen the green tracer too, or his crew, or somebody, and said, ―I’ll bed you down for the night‖. 54:00 Well, the mini-guns that they use were those electric mini-guns and they had three of them on this gunship. Well, typically there’s a tracer, four rounds and another tracer, well, these guns put out six thousand rounds a minute. He made two revolutions around us and never let up and all we had was these three red streaks coming into the ground. It was deafening, you had to cover your ears the noise was so loud, but we didn’t have any problems with the enemy that night, because it was just—it was the best thing that ever happened. You knew that you were going to be safe that night. They knew, because we were set up, we were able to set up, we went out the next morning and it looked like somebody had just taken and shredded the jungle like a donut around us and that was impressive, it was thoroughly impressive. Interviewer: Now, when you were doing these patrols with the 1st Infantry Division, did you ever run into any kind of significant amount of opposition? Did you get into any big fire fights? 55:03 We got pinned down one time and the unit was moving in a forward motion and the enemy had like a horseshoe shape and they pinned us in pretty good. This is another one of those—we knew we were I trouble, we knew we needed help, so we called in an F-4 for support. Well, the F-4 has a 50 caliber machine gun, a huge round, and basically, the pilot was on station and he said, ―Hey, pop smoke to show us where the front of the line is‖, we popped smoke, he did a couple of revolutions and he could see where we were located, so he made himself a mental picture of where we were and said, ―Okay, pop smoke where you want me to bring in the rounds‖, so somebody threw a smoke grenade way into where the enemy was. The problem was, the only way he could get in—we 29 �were in an area where he had to come over our heads to get the enemy. 56:01 Well, that’s not the right way to do it, you should come in from the side, but he couldn’t do that. So, we popped the smoke and he came in, and all we could hear on his radio, because I’m monitoring the radio, is ―Oh shit‖. He brought in the rounds too soon, not to the level where anybody got hurt, but somebody could have got hurt. He made his sweep in and he annihilated the enemy, literally. I don’t care what you say, he did what he was supposed to do and now we weren’t pinned down and we were able to move out of there. The shells are coming out of those guns so fast that I had a shell casing hit me on the arm and it burnt right through instantly, third degree burns instantly right on there. I couldn’t fling it off and it just stuck, but I knew, hey guys, that those guys out there had the other end of that round going at them. It was one of those issues that you say, ―Hey, I like what we got working with these F-4 jets‖, and this and that and the other thing. 57:00 We were able to move out of there without—and then get into a better position where we could take the enemy, and we moved them out, but they had set up on us and we walked into it. It was one of those things that we didn’t—nobody was wounded or killed, but we had guys get wounded. Nobody got anything from this F-4, but we had gotten some wounded from the enemy when they threw the ambush on us. I got that shell round and the medic wanted to put me in for a purple heart and I said, ―Don’t even go there, don’t even go there guys, come on‖. Interviewer: When you ran into them, were they just mostly using small arms? Yeah, most of the stuff we hit was RPG rocket launchers or AK-47’s, because the 1st Infantry Division, the majority of the units we hit were VC and a lot of times the VC had one weapon for three guys, they didn’t all have weapons. The NVA, now that’s a 30 �different story, the NVA were just as well equipped as we were, they had all the same— every man carried a weapon. 58:00 The VC didn’t do that, they might have one weapon for every three, or one weapon for every two. One guy falls and one guy picks it up and—but, they can still do a lot of damage, a lot of harassment, a lot of this, a lot of that, it’s one of those things that—what they used to do, we’d be moving, they would fire on us, we’d sit down and that would slow us up and then we’d get up and move again, then they’d fire on us again, and just harassment and that’s what we knew they were doing. That was slowing us down from our goal and that’s what they did. Interviewer: Now, you’re with the 1st Division for over half of your year in Vietnam. Over the course of that time, how much turnover was there in company and in the platoon? Typically, typically—when I got there you’d lose two or three guys, let’s say every week or every other week, whether back to the hospital or their time was up, because we weren’t like—everybody didn’t go over at one time. 59:06 I flew in, so there was always somebody leaving and there was always somebody coming in, at all times. It just seemed like there was always a new man and there was always somebody getting ready to be, as we called them, ―short‖. Interviewer: Did your officers also rotate out? The officers only had to have a six month tour, they weren’t a one year tour, so yeah, they were in and out quite often and that’s why, a lot of times, guys in the unit and sergeants were a lot better at knowing what was going on than this new officer that came in every six months. There were officers that were doing stupid things because the OCS had trained them one way, but it wasn’t the way the jungle allowed it to be, so a lot of 31 �times the first sergeant, the platoon sergeant, he was running the damn place, trust me, it wasn’t the Lieutenant a lot of times. The Lieutenant was normally—if he was a new guy he didn’t’ know what was going on. 00:00 He would have to go to his sergeant and way, ―What do we do there, what do we need to do there?‖ Interviewer: Was that what the smart ones did? Oh yeah, the smart ones did that and the dumb ones came over with that, ―I’m better than the rest of them‖, and they’re the ones that always go home in a bag, because that isn’t the way it is. You got to learn from the guys that have been there, from the guys on the ground. Interviewer: You weren’t taking a whole lot of casualties, so did the replacement system, basically, work for you? Yeah Interviewer: You come in individually; you get oriented and get experience. Yeah, typically, like I said, somebody would take you under their wing and try to help you get through that first week, first month, or whatever, so you could start counting those days down, and it worked well. I was that type, it worked for me, and I wanted to make it work for the next person that came in to me, so—but, it was—we worked, and we were hitting a lot of—we started hitting a lot of basecamps, and what a basecamp is, is just a whole bunker complex, and we started to hit a lot of those. 1:01 What they did is, they wanted somebody to be trained on a flamethrower, so they took me and said, ―Hey, we want you to be trained on the flamethrower. ―Great, wonderful, just what I want to do‖, so they took me in the rear, gave me a flamethrower and said, ―Okay’. Well, then the training officer said, he said, ―Look, you have, the first lever shoots the foam out 32 �there, and then the back lever is the igniter, that ignites it‖. He said, ―Now, it’s got a kick, so you gotta lean into it‖. Well, I’d been there a couple of months and I thought I was a ―bad ass‖, ―What is he talking about, I can do this’, and when I fired that doggone thing on the range for the first time, it went up on a forty-five degree angle and burnt all the hair off my arms, and I thought, ―Well, I should have leaned into it like he said‖, and I didn’t. What they did then, every time we’d hit a base camp, a bunker complex, if it was a smaller one, somebody would throw hand grenades in it and then I would torch it with the flame thrower before somebody would go in the bunker. 2:02 I didn’t want to go in the bunker, but I would do that. It was one of those things, I liked what we had, the flame thrower, and we had one of them where we were moving into an area and we walked into a battalion size base camp, it was a huge base camp and one of the biggest base camps they’d ever found in the area of operation we were in. We backed off and we called in a B-52 bomb strike and said, ―Let’s do this one up right‖. They brought in a hundred thousand-pounders on two different runs, so basically, the bomber would drop two hundred thousand-pound rounds, so we thought, ―Okay, this is going to be good‖. We backed off; I’m going to guess, about three quarters of a mile. Now, our artillery FO said, ―We’re way too close‖. He said, ―I want you guys to get down on your bellies, I want you pack on your back, I want your helmet on your head, and get behind something that won’t move, a tree or whatever you can find‖. 3:07 I got behind this six foot ant hill and I thought, ―Cool, no problem‖, well, when that bomber made its—I was on the radio, so I could hear the bomber say, ―Bombs away‖. When the ground started to shake the vibration from those first bombs was unbelievable, it just bounced and when they stopped I was about twenty feet from the ant hill, so I bounced across the ground with 33 �this fifty pound pack on my back and this cloud of dust had just come over me, covered us. The bomber made a second run and did the same thing. I said, ―I might as well get behind the ant hill, it’s all I can do‖, it was the same thing, and when we went to check that area, we walked into craters that were fifty feet across, twenty feet deep and were already filled up with water, and there was nothing, it looked like the surface of the moon, not triple canopy jungle. 4:04 I mean, it just shredded it, and see, there again, I’m glad I’m on the U.S. side when they got bombers like that, that was really cool. Interviewer: When you would run into these base camps were they mostly not occupied? Oh no, you’d normally—if we were doing our thing right, which we did a lot of, when we moved in we could smell the rice cooking. So, we knew they were there and if they stayed to fight, fine, but a lot of times they would go out the back end, and then all we would do is blow up all the bunkers, seize the rice, or whatever and try to get rid of anything we could. Other times we found caches of weapon and ammo in the bunkers and we would just take them and have them flown back to the basecamp. Interviewer: Now, at a certain point in your tour you switch units. It wasn’t really that I wanted to switch units. 5:00 What happened is the 1st Infantry Division was one of the first units, in 1970, that Nixon said, ―Oh, I’m going to bring some people home‖, and they brought a flag and a few people home, but the 1st Infantry Division was one of the units that pulled out because they had been there the longest. Because I had six months left in country—most tours of duty were twelve months, and I got almost thirteen months, but we won’t talk about that. So, I had been with the 1st Infantry Division about seven months and now I only had six months left, so I was 34 �transferred to the 23rd Infantry Division, or the Americal. Now, I went to their base unit and the unit was already in the field, so they said, ―We’re going to fly you out to where the unit is working‖, and I said, ―Fine, that’s not a problem‖. I’d been in country seven months and I was a seasoned country veteran and I knew what I was doing. I flew in to where they were at and as soon as I get off the chopper, everybody, all these guys are yelling, ―New meat, new meat‖, because they thought you were just a new guy coming in from the states. 6:08 Well, the sergeant there, he knew better and he said, ―Guys, he’s got more time in country than any one of us‖. What happened, within about a month I was made sergeant, which means, now I’m in charge of a bunch, but the problem with the Americal Division—they walk down a hard trail single file, all the men, right down that trail and they’re walking into booby traps every day, every day. I couldn’t understand why they would pull out a unit that is such a great unit and had their shit in order, to throw in this unit that is so bad. So, I got there and once I made sergeant I said, ―Guys, we’re doing this wrong, we ought to be setting up our own booby traps‖, so then I started training guys to set up booby traps, we started doing that, so we weren’t walking into them all the time. 7:01 But, as a division, they were terrible. Before we even started to set up the booby traps, one of the second , or third, missions that I was on we were on— we’d been working—Americal was up in the central highlands, most of the op was in mountainous areas and that, but there were some rice paddies, and we’d been working in the lower lands and they wanted us to move up to the top of this mountain, and then they were going to take us off the top of the mountain and take us back to the basecamp for a three day stand down. We’re going up the mountain and we hit two booby traps. Three guys were wounded, so when we got to the top of the mountain we pretty much knew that 35 �everything up there, we better be careful because it’s—whether it’s in the trail or in the bushes, you better be careful because it’s going to be booby trapped. 8:00 We set up a perimeter where we set up guys around the perimeter. We didn’t have to dig foxholes because we knew we weren’t going to stay. They were just going to bring in choppers and take us off, but they put up guards around the outside of this mountain, so now you got sixty-five guys—I had been in the middle of the unit and we’d set up the mortar platoon and set their mortars, and some guy had an M-79 grenade vest that had, probably, twenty-five hand grenades, grenades that he shoots from his little gun, on the vest very close to where my pack was setting. Well, I’d been setting in my pack reading some letters and just, you know, and my squad was in the guard position. Choppers were coming in, let’s say, within an hour, and one of my guys came up to me and said, ―Ron, I’d like to read my letter from home and I’d like to have a cigarette‖, because you couldn’t have a cigarette on the outside, so I said, ―Fine, I’ll go to the bunker‖, and I no sooner got over the crest of the ridge when the whole mountain blew up. 9:02 When that happened we had fourteen killed and thirty-two wounded off one booby trap. It was the largest booby trap that was ever tripped in Vietnam at the time. What had happened, some guy had walked through one of the bushes, he shouldn’t have, and they had booby trapped one of our artillery rounds and it was in one of the bushes. The bush was very close to the mortar platoon, all the mortars, and this grenade vest. When it went off, it went off as one big explosion; it wasn’t a series of explosions. When the dust cleared, I came up to where my pack was and the man was that setting on the pack took a piece of shrapnel in the chest, it went right straight through him and because there were so many wounded, he bled to death on this pack. 10:02 This guy had just showed me his 36 �girlfriend’s picture, just said, ―Hey, I want to read my letter and write a letter, but I want to have a cigarette‖, and I had said, ―Fine‖. Those are the things that you know should have never happened. They took fifteen of us off the top of that mountain and they put us in an area in the center of the base camp that had, I would guess, a fifteen foot high chain link fence around these three or four barracks. They put the fifteen of us in there and said, ―We’re going to bring beer in there ―, because they knew we all had some major problems because of what we’d just seen. So, they brought in—they gave us a meal, we had beer, we just didn’t have to do anything. What they were doing is, they took five or ten men from each other unit in the battalion brought them into that area and then they brought us back up to company strength and they we became another company going back out in the field. 11:02 Again, by this time I was a sergeant, I’d made sergeant then and they said, ―Okay‖, so now I was starting to train guys to set up booby traps and do this and that and the other thing. The unit became a better unit, but it still would never match up to what I had come from. We had some—they did things differently and it wasn’t an exciting time for me. Interviewer: Did that unit have, sort of, morale or discipline issues that were different from the 1st? Yeah, a lot of them, a lot of guys would ―sham‖, as we would call it, where they would say, ―I don’t feel good‖, at sick call and this and that. A lot of guys smoked dope and smoking—the first night in the field I literally wanted to break my weapon over the head of a guy, because he was supposed to be on guard duty and he’d been smoking pot and he fell asleep. I said, ―Guys, you just don’t do that, you just don’t do that‖. 12:02 The first time I went out as squad leader, I said, I said, ―Look, you’re going to carry extra flares 37 �and you’re going to carry this and you’re going to carry that, and I want you to carry an extra battery, because you’ve got to be in communication at all times. If you get ambushed, you need good communication‖, so we’re on our three, or four, or five days out on a mission and we get fired upon. I want to be able to call artillery and bring it in to where it’s supposed to be, so I want to put a new battery in. I asked this guy for the new battery and he said, ―Oh, I threw that out a couple of days ago, it was too heavy‖. Now, that’s when you say to this guy, ―I don’t want you in my platoon again, or my squad, or whatever, I don’t want you in this field‖, so a lot of that kind of stuff started to happen with –these guys were just—they wanted to get out of the field, they didn’t want to be part of what was going on, so it was not a unit where you got out there, you were proud to be in that unit. 13:04 All these guys wanted to do was get to the rear, ―I’ve got a cut, I’ve got to get to a medic‖, and that was just wrong. I could see that because I had come from a unit that everybody wanted to be there and wanted to help get the other guy home, but they didn’t care. I think that had a lot to do with the amount of drugs, later on in the war, that I happened to be there at the time when it was just starting to really take off. I never smoked a day in my life, I could smell it from a mile away, I knew when they were doing it in a bunker, I’d get them in the next morning and I’d say, ―Guys, it’s not what you’re supposed to be doing, I’ll tell the lieutenant, or I’ll tell the Captain, but I’m going tell them if you keep it up , you do that when you’re in the rear, you don’t do it in the field‖, and that was a real struggle, when it wasn’t that you were just fighting the enemy, now you’ve got guys in your unit that are supposed to be there to help you. 14:01 Interviewer: Did you eventually establish a certain amount of rapport, or credibility? 38 �You did, but I never felt comfortable with that in the unit. I don’t know if it was the training, I don’t know if it was just the way, the lackadaisical way they were , there’s no way I could ever feel totally comfortable with that. I got comfortable with a few and that was what I liked, but they were a strange bunch, and it was the whole mentality of the whole unit, and maybe it was because of the chain of command, I just don’t know, I just—I’ve never figured out why that unit was such a bad unit. Like I said, when that bomb went off I was dumbfounded, I was devastated, because at that point in time, you know, life had changed, because it was—I had been working the whole nine months, nine months, at this time, to stay alive, and I said, ―Now, I gotta get out of this place‖. 15:06 ―This place is going to get me if I don’t‖. I was lucky, I’d trained a five man squad to set the ambushes and set the booby traps and they got to be really good, because after ten months in country, ten months of fighting them, I got a job as a battalion draftsman and chief driver for a Major. Within a week of me getting that job, my five man squad got credit for thirteen kills on an ambush and booby traps, so I know that I did something right. But, as a battalion chief, you know, draftsman, and chief driver for this Major, basically, we had a bunker on top of our fire support base with a big chain link fence around it, and that’s was his headquarters and there was a huge map of our area of operation and it was covered in plastic and I had, I think, five different colored pencils that I used and I had to plot each unit where they were. 16:08 I had to plot temperatures, hills, anything that the Major might have to tell a General when he came up for a briefing, so that was my job, everyday keeping up with that. Across from this was my bunker that I lived in. Well, one of the first nights in the bunker, now I got this great job, I got hot meals every day, a clean uniform every day; I’m not dodging bullets and all 39 �that. So, I’m sleeping on my cot, in the bunker, and it was a pretty nice bunker because it had been there for a few years and the guys had really made it nice. I fell asleep and normally I sleep on my stomach, so I fell asleep that night and I had a sensation that there was something wet on my finger, so I woke up and I saw this rat taking off, and this rat had been licking me. 17:03 This rat was a pretty good size rat, and I thought, ―Oh, boy‖, so from that point on whenever I was in my bunker, I slept on my back and had my arms crossed on my chest, because I didn’t want that to happen again. But, as a Jeep driver, I had to drive the Major from firebase to firebase, where he would give briefings, or he would get briefings, as the Major for the unit. On one of these incidents, we were going in between two mountain ridges, we went right in the middle of them, and all we heard was this AK-47 open up on us, and it went AKKKK, I mean it was just—you could hear it and this Major said to me, ―Kick it in the ass Dykstra‖, and man, I nailed that Jeep and away we went. We knew the rounds were close and he did too, and he said, when we got back to our basecamp, he said, ―I want you to check the Jeep over, because I know those rounds were close‖. 18:01 Well, the Jeep I drove, originally they had a name on the front of it, well, the kids were telling the VC what the name was and they were shooting at it because they knew there was a Major in there, so we had—when I got there they had already started painting over names, because they knew that was a bad thing to do. Behind the seats, on the Jeep, was a radio, and the radio was—it was a good size radio and the bottom of the antenna was probably a two and a half or three inch diameter antenna and the antenna was probably twelve feet tall and it had one on each side. So, I get back to the basecamp and I check the Jeep over and the antenna on my side has taken a round right through the base, and that antenna is no more than two feet behind me. 40 �Now, I know, if that VC had led, as we call it, led you further, but he didn’t lead us right for the speed of the vehicle, so he opened up on us at the antenna instead of opening up on us at the driver, that’s how close that one was. 19:03 I said, ―My God‖, my Jeep, I had, because I was short, I had ten months in country and I knew—I doubled—most guys put sandbags behind the seat, down the center and one sandbag under your feet, well, I had double of everything, my Jeep squatted, it was just—because I just didn’t want anything to come up from the bottom, so that was another one of those close incidents. So, once again I know that there was a reason that I was able to accomplish my task and come home safely. Interviewer: Now, while you were assigned to that Major, you’re now living on a base camp, did they have Vietnamese civilians working on the base camp? Yeah, the civilians would clean, a lot of them, they would use them for cleaning and some of them they would even use them for doing the dishes and cleaning, so you didn’t have to pull KP and things like that. They were around there all the time and the civilians, you just didn’t trust them. 20:00 When I was driving the Jeep we had somebody in our battalion where a little kid had taken a hand grenade, he wrapped the hand grenade with rubber bands, really, really tight, and he pulled the pin and he opened the gas cap on a Jeep and he shoved the grenade in the gas tank and shut the gas cap. Well, it took a while, but the gas ate away that rubber band and blew the jeep sky high. Now, this was a seven, eight or nine year old kid that did this. We had kids that we found with these little homemade weapons, and what they were doing, they would take a block of wood, they would take an M-14 [round], which was a sniper round, they’d take an M14 and they would rubber band that on top of this block of wood, they’d cut off the back 41 �of that M-14. Now, our M-16 round will fit right inside that , they would put a smoke grenade trigger on the back of it and all they would do was pull back and they popped, and these little kids were using them as little guns. 21:03 You just didn’t know, you didn’t know who was friendly and who was foe. Interviewer: Now, would they get all the Vietnamese off the base at night? Yeah, they would have to leave. They would normally leave about an hour-- they would start to leave about an hour before it got dark. They would have to be in their homes, and then anything that moved was free game, anything that moved you’d shoot on it, and that’s what it was. Interviewer: Was there a town or a village in the area close by? Yes, typically when you had a fire support base you had a couple of villages, one on each side of it, or something like that, because that was just the way it was set up, that’s just the way it was. In every one of my incidents, that’s how it was set up. Interviewer: Would the men go into the villages during the day or that kind of thing? During the day they could, if they were off they could go into the villages and buy souvenirs. I had a portrait down of me by this Vietnamese artist and the guy was a phenomenal artist and I had a portrait done, oh, eleven by fourteen and a gorgeous portrait. 22:01 It’s something I’ll always remember, just because you got that young face in that portrait, young, innocent face in the portrait, but you could do that , you could buy souvenirs. I bought my photo album from there; there were just any odds and ends that you could use. Interviewer: Were there issues with crime or prostitution, or things like that? 42 �Oh yeah, but I hear about it and I see it in movies. I never was in the big cities, I never saw that. Interviewer: It wasn’t going on in those villages? Yeah, it was but, from my perspective I was always in the jungle or something, but yeah, at lot of times if you were—if you were pulling road security on Highway One, in The Big Red One, it was the main highway that runs through Vietnam form north to south, if you were pulling road security, and a lot of guys would do it on these amphibious type of vehicle, or track vehicle, and basically, a track vehicle would pull off on the shoulder and the infantry would set a position out there. 23:06 Typically, the prostitutes would come up in little Honda 50s, they’d have somebody driving the little Honda 50, they’d get off the back and they’d go service the guys out in the bush or in the tank, and that’s just the way it was, that’s just the way it was. Interviewer: Now, another one of the standard issues or things that were brought up about Vietnam is the racial issues. Did you see much tension? Yeah, well, I had some experiences that—I had—and I hate to use the term, but I’m going to use it the way I use to use it. I had some black guys in my unit that were the worst guys and I just couldn’t get them out of the unit fast enough, and I had other guys in my unit that I could depend my life on, but the percentage of those that you could depend your life on, in my experience was pretty small, pretty small, most of them were in the rear smoking dope, heroin, or whatever. 24:04 That’s all I ever saw, I didn’t—but they always used them as—that’s what I saw. The ones in the field, we had them, there was no doubt about it they were great, wonderful, but a lot of them like the guy that threw the battery away, he was black, and I just—those are the type of things that can get 43 �people killed and I’m not going to put up with that, and I didn’t. I didn’t want to, but if you’re forced to have them in your unit there’s nothing you can do about it. You do the best you can, but the problem is, you find them sleeping on guard, you find them doing those things and you say, ―This is going to get somebody killed‖, so it was—I saw them more in the rear, blacks in the rear, that was drugs, and drugs, and drugs, and drugs, and that’s just the way it was. Maybe I was blinded to the rest of it. Interviewer: Was that kind of situation worse in Americal than it was in the 1st Division? Yeah, I saw it in the 1st Infantry Division, but it was worse in Americal. 25:05 One of the guys in the Americal, they did an article in Time magazine in like seventy—mid seventies, and here he is standing there in front of one of these places smoking it, and he was with me in the unit. Time magazine, so yeah, I remember that one well, I remember well and what that was, but from, and again, I spent virtually ten months in the jungle and then I spent two months as a Jeep driver for a Major, with a nice bunker, I had my own music and I did my own thing and I didn’t get involved with the other. It happened, and it happened in the bunker—I didn’t have any part of that, I just stayed away from it. I didn’t come from Detroit or Chicago where they were doing it before they got there, and they were going to do it when they got back. 26:02 Grandville did do that, it just didn’t happen in the Grandville area. Interviewer: The statistics that I’m seen showed, essentially, that you had about the same rate of drug use at home as you had in Vietnam. But it was so evident there that—here you didn’t notice it as much, but there, it—little kids were selling you the damn dope for nothing, I mean, it didn’t cost you nothing. 44 �When we came in from the field , and this is the honest to God truth, even in the 1st Infantry Division, when we came in from the field, there would be, say, ten or twelve of us in the back of a deuce and a half, and they would get three or four joints going around the back of the duce and a half as we were going in, these guys were taking the edge off, because now they said they could take the edge off, and they would pass it around and anybody could take a hit off of it, going into the basecamp, and that’s just the way it was. And you could do that, you could do that for two or three days, you could drink beer if you wanted to do that for two or three days, but that’s all because you have to be right back in that—you just had to be so sharp from that point on, afterwards though. 27:08 Interviewer: During the course of your tour there, did you get R&R at any point, or leave time? Yeah, I took R&R in Hawaii and it was—again, I had just a little over nine months, I took seven days of R&R in Hawaii, had a great time, the weather was wonderful, but I knew what I was going back to. I hadn’t gotten my rear job yet as the driver for the Major, so I knew I was going back in the field, so you try to live and do as much as you can in seven days in Hawaii, knowing that may be the last days that you’re going to see that type of thing, you may never come home, so you spend a lot of money, it costs you a fortune, costs you, as infantry guy combat pay, the whole shoot’n match was two hundred and eighty seven dollars a month. 28:02 Now, you think about who wants to put their life on the line, every day, for two hundred and eighty seven dollars a month? I don’t think so. So, go to Hawaii, it costs you a fortune, costs you a thousand dollars between the hotel and the flight and all the rest of—getting somebody there, it didn’t cost you to get there, but it cost somebody else to get there, so all that, it was an expensive thing, but 45 �it was worthwhile. You get rejuvenated and made sure you had a good idea of what you were fighting for, what you wanted to go home to, and that’s what it was all about, so I had a great seven days, came back and in literally a month, I got my job as a Jeep driver. Interviewer: You mentioned that you were supposed to be there for twelve months and you wound up being there closer to thirteen. How did that work? What happened is, about the time I got my job in the rear—well, a little before that, again I found out that the army was offering a five drop of you came back from Vietnam with less than a hundred and fifty days on your tour. 29:04 So, I had—if I extended twentyone days, I’d come back and land in Seattle with a hundred and forty nine days left in country, my tour of duty. So, I thought, ―I don’t want to be‖—I knew what I was going to be doing, I knew they were going to take me and take me to Fort Polk or Fort Knox and they were going to want me to yell and scream at these young eighteen and nineteen year old kids, and I knew where they were going and I didn’t want to do that. I knew I was good, I could help them, but I just didn’t want to do that. So, I extended for twentyone days and I was, in the big picture, I was lucky, I didn’t realize it, I was lucky, I had twelve months in country, and I came down with malaria for the fourth time. The fourth time, I had two different malarias at the same time. I went to Cam Ranh Bay and I lost twenty pounds or twenty-one pounds in twenty days. 30:01 in the hospital they wanted to send me to Tokyo and then send me home, but I knew that if I went to Tolko, I’d spend a month in Tokyo and then they’d send me to a hospital in the states and I’d spend a month there and by then I’d been home a long time ago. I called the Major , I’d been in the hospital, at this time, about seventeen days, I called the Major and I said, ―Guys, you gotta get me outta here. They’re going to send me to Tokyo and I’ve only got ten days 46 �left on my tour, why don’t you just see of you can get the papers and have them send me back to the company area?‖ The Major did, I was sent back to the company area, when I got back I had seven days left in country. The guys in the bunker wanted to celebrate that I’d come back and they knew I was leaving, so they mixed me up rum and coke in a glass about this big. Now, I was not a drinker until I came back from Vietnam, there I wasn’t, I could smell it that far away. 31:03 Now, I drank two of those and when I woke up I had five days left in country. Now, I’d lost two days of my life, but I knew—the Major came down and said, ―Dykstra, it’s good to see you up and around, we thought we lost you there‖, and I said, ―Yeah‖. He said, ―I don’t want you to leave this bunker, I’ll have all the meals brought in to you, and you start getting your paperwork in order so you can get out of here. I’ll have my Jeep take you to the airstrip and get you home safe‖, and I said, ―Okay‖. The Major was cool in the bigger picture and how I knew that from the time I worked with him, he was an enlisted man that had been in the army for seven, eight, nine years and decided, ―Hey, I’m going to make this a career‖. He went to OCS, so he’s been down in the—with the grunts, he’s been down with the PFC’s and the rest of them, he knew it, so he was a cool Major. He wasn’t one of these Majors that had their nose in the air, he was a cool guy. 32:00 I like him for that and he treated me great, so it took me more time than I thought to get my papers and get—you’ve got to get everything in order, you gotta get your, everything, you gotta have your uniform halfway decent, you gotta this that and the other thing. You gotta have your papers, you gotta have a haircut, and you gotta do all those things. The company, they’re going to control some of it. They don’t want you looking like a rag bag leaving, they don’t want that, they’re not going to let that happen, so you did all those things. Well, the problem I had was the last 47 �two or three days before I was supposed to leave country the monsoon rains started again, because I’d gone through the monsoons in the 1st Infantry, now I’m going through the monsoons at the end of this tour and it was terrible, everything is socked in, nothing can fly, no choppers can fly. Well, the only way I was getting from my fire support base to Can Ranh Bay, or wherever I was going, was by chopper or C-130. 33:00 Well, nothing was flying. So, they decided that there were so many of us that had to get out of there that they put us in a deuce and a half and they sandbagged the duce and a half, they reissued us weapons, they had a gunship, a Cobra gunship, go over us and they took this truck and we trucked all the way to Cam Ranh Bay, because they had to get us out of there, which was wonderful. So, we get to Cam Ranh Bay, we get on that plane and that’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you in your life, when you’re going to leave. You hate to say it, because you’ve left all these other people, but I was lucky enough to leave some guys that knew what they were doing and they all came home safe, and they got credit for these kills and they were all great guys. So, I land in Seattle, now in Seattle they’re backed up because nobody could fly out of Vietnam for two or three days. Now, they’ve set themselves a goal to get everybody out in one day. Now, you get into Seattle, they’ve got to make sure your papers are in order, you gotta get orders cut to whereever, whether you’re going to be re-stationed to another unit in the states. 34:01 You get haircuts, they do a physical, they have to fit you in dress greens, fitted, with all the ribbons and badges and all the bells and whistles on it, and then you can go. Well, by the time they got done sending us to the Seattle Tacoma Airport for our flight home it was late, so I was able to make the last flight to Chicago, but I was going to miss the last flight to Grand Rapids. In Seattle I called my parents and I said, ―Here’s what’s 48 �happening, I’m home, I’m getting ready to fly out of Seattle, but I’m going to have to spend the first night in Chicago, in the airport, because I can’t get that last flight to Grand Rapids. I’ll see you the next morning‖, and they said, ―Fine‖. I didn’t realize at the time that my grandmother was visiting my aunt in Valparaiso and forty –five minutes from the airport. 35:06 Well, I’ve got two little cousins that I was sending illumination parachutes, hand grenade pins, I’d been sending them for the whole time I was over there, every letter I would send my aunt. My uncle was a professor at Valparaiso, so he’s the one I used to tell him what the war was about and what was happening. The real truth, what I was seeing in the jungle and what he was hearing about what was happening. So, I was always sending my cousins, these little kids, I was always sending them things in my letters. So, I get off the airplane, expecting just to walk to my gate and then I was going to sleep in the airport, and here’s my two little cousins holding up this little sign, ―WELCOME HOME RON‖. Holy mackerel and it was about ten or ten thirtyish when I got there. Now, these kids, at the time, were probably, I’m going to guess, six and eight, just little kids. 36:01 So, we—we sat there and we all cried—we sat there and we talked, and talked, and talked and it was almost two in the morning when I said to my aunt and my grandmother, ―You gotta get the little kids home. In another four or five hours I’m going to be getting a plane, you go do your thing‖, so, they left and then I sat in the airport with this—just excited, because now I know—got on the plane the next morning at seven thirty in the morning, landed in Grand Rapids, because there’s an hour difference, I landed about nine thirty in Grand Rapids. I got off and my whole family was there. I hadn’t driven a car in thirteen months and I said, ―Hey, I want to drive home‖, and they said, ―Fine‖, so I drive home and I’m about a half a mile from home, I 49 �get off the highway and I make a left-hand turn, and I get pulled over by a Grand Rapids cop. 37:00 Now, when I left, I could legally make a left- hand turn going up the hill, Michigan Street Hill, you could make a left going up that hill. Now, while I was gone, they had made that an illegal turn. Now, this was a young cop and he pulled me over and he can see I’m still in my uniform, and I tried to explain that to him, that I—I said, ―Look, this was a legal turn, I’m sorry, I just got back a half hour ago from Vietnam‖. He didn’t care, wrote me a ticket and said, ―If you don’t agree with it you can fight it‖. Now, this is my first day home, you know, and I thought, ―this isn’t the way it’s going to end‖, so three or four weeks later I went to court and the judge asked me to explain why I was there and I said, ―I got this ticket for making an illegal left turn‖, and I explained the story the it was legal, the guy pulled me over, I tried to explain to him, I’m in uniform and I’d just got back from Vietnam. 38:01 This judge just went ballistic on this officer. He said to the officer, ―I want to see you in my chambers after court‖, and he said, ―Mr. Dykstra I want to thank you and I feel so sorry that this has happened to you, I want to thank you for your service to our country and for our freedom‖, and yada, yada, and he said, ―I just don’t know what else to say to you, ―court dismissed‖’. I thought, ―Now the war’s over finally‖, but that’s just—it wasn’t an easy thing, from day one until the last day, it was a struggle the whole—in my opinion, for mine, it was a struggle for nineteen months, and thirteen of it happened to be in Vietnam. It was a long road, and when I came home I was a different person. Like I said, I have an identical twin brother that literally, the first time I was medevaced out of the field, my twin brother was crying in the basement. 39:07 My mother came down and said, ―What’s wrong?‖ And my twin brother said, ―Something is wrong with Ron‖. Well they got a call from the Red Cross 50 �that I’d been medevaced out, nothing major, but they got the call. Now, I’m in the field one day and my leg is just killing me, and the medic’s saying, ―What did you do? How did you hurt yourself?‖ I said, ―I don’t know, it’s just driving me crazy‖. Well, I find out from a letter, that my twin brother had gotten third degree burns from a grease fire, on his leg. Oh, this is weird stuff--I’m in the Seattle airport, I buy a pair of sunglasses and I think, ―Yeah, these are great‖, and I get off the plane in Grand Rapids, and he’s got on the exact same pair of glasses, so I know that him and I are identical, but from that point on we have not been identical. 40:02 Before that we were, every thought, when I’d start to say something, he’s going to say the same thing, but it didn’t happen after that, his life went one way and mine went the other, and it’s got to do with—it may not have to do with the military, but it had to do with Vietnam, I can guarantee that, it changed my life. Interviewer: How do you characterize that change? I had-- to go to the faucet and turn on a glass of water, to flush a toilet, I had, I had seen third world poverty. I just loved what I had and what was here for me, it was like—you just respect—I respected everything about the U.S. Grandville, stupid little Grandville, I respected it because it was a lot better than where I’d been, what I had seen, I mean, I’ll tell you it was. 41:01 From my perspective, yeah, it was totally, totally—and that’s what I think changed me. It wasn’t the war as much as what I appreciated and what I , you know, simpler things in life that mean more to me than they did before I went—I took them for granted. Interviewer: How easy, or hard, was the readjustment to civilian life? It was, it was—for me, at first, it was a little difficult, not a lot, but it was a little difficult. My language was terrible, everything I said was a swear word. I mean, it was—I had to 51 �watch what I said, because I was still—I came back and was living at home, and at that point it was a strange, strange thing. 42:00 I had an incident where my roommate in college, at Ferris, he was my roommate for two years and lived in Detroit, and I’d been home about a couple of weeks and I made arrangements to go and visit him. I decided to take the bus, because I didn’t want to drive that long trip, so I took the Greyhound to Detroit. His fiancée picked me up, and he and I were close for two years, really close, and I wrote him letters while I was in Vietnam too. We went out to celebrate that first night back with him, and we went to this little bar. He brought his fiancée with us, because we wanted her as the designated driver, and all she was drinking was an orange drink, and he and I were drinking pitchers of beer. I got--well, we both had a great time because I was telling him the stories and just enjoying life and being back with him and seeing him again. 43:07 So, we go out to the parking lot and the only thing we can think is that the bar had called, because there was a policeman across the street—we didn’t notice it when we got in our car, but he was across the street and watched us leave the bar. I was sitting in the front seat and my roommate was in the back seat and his fiancée was driving. We get to the first red light and the cop pulls up next to us and says, ―I want you to pull over when the light turns green, and you, (he’s pointing right at me) you, stay in the car‖. ―What did I do?‖ I know I was drunk, but still—so, we pull over, he comes up to the car, he opens the door, he yanks me out and takes me fifteen or twenty feet out into the middle of this field, and he—young cop, there’s a young and an older cop, and he’s yelling and screaming, and my roommate tries to get out of the car and he goes, ―You, stay in that car‖. 44:06 Well, the older cop finally came over and I’m saying, ―Yes, sir, no sir, I don’t understand why you pulled us over‖, I said, ―I just got 52 �back from Vietnam not too long ago and I just saw my roommate for the first time in a long time. We’ve brought his fiancée along so she could drive, what did we do?‖ Well, he thought I gave him an obscene gesture when I got out of the bar, he thought I flipped him off. Well, I hadn’t, and the older cop—the younger cop was egging me on because he wants to throw me in jail, and the older cop finally says, ―Fine’, and he could see that I wasn’t going to go there. I was still being very, ―Yes sir, no sir, I didn’t do that sir, I don’t understand this‖, and that’s the way I was and they finally let me go, but again, the adjustment, it was a little tougher. My best friend in Vietnam, a young guy that I trained three months before I left, he came back in about January or February and I got back on October 7th, 45:12 he was going to get married to his high school sweetheart, so I’d gotten a letter and I’d written to him while he was there. So, I went to his wedding and it was so great to see him, just to see what had happened and how he had done, and how the rest of the guys had done, but I lost touch with that young man, you always do, you always say you’re gonna, but you never stay in touch with them. But, you finally say, ―Hey, I’m home‖, and you’re home, he’s home and you say it’s over, but it’s never over. I got married about—I got married in 1973, so just about three years after I got back and I would have the nightmares and my wife would find herself on the floor in the bedroom and not know why she’s gotten there and not know anything about it, but that’s just what it was. 46:03 I used to have them a lot, but I don’t have them anymore, but it was one of those things—back then I never knew what was—everybody says, ―Oh, these fireworks are going to set you off “, and I went for years, and years, and years, and never had it. One time the fireworks went off, I got a whiff of that, it sounded like artillery, and dog gone it, if it—you just never know. But, I’ve been—I’ve got a great family and I 53 �made the best of what I could make. I tried to make myself a better person from what I had seen and the people I came in contact with, and the people that were—like I said, there were people that didn’t make it back and I got involved with just wanting to make—I didn’t want all veterans to be made out to be the homeless, down and out’s and beards and all this, I didn’t want that, I tried to do what I could do as a professional. 47:03 And to put a best foot forward and say, ―They aren’t all like that, there are a lot of us that are really part of this community, part of this whatever‖, and that’s what’s top in my opinion, to this day, and why I wanted to do this is just because of that, for my kids, for the future of these kids, and for everybody else. I enjoyed, like I told you earlier, I enjoyed, when I was giving presentations to high school and college kids about the war, letting them know that guys—it wasn’t a war, but it was a war. There were a lot of people and here’s how it affected these people, here’s what they went through and here’s how they went through it, and that, to me, meant a lot, because at the time the book didn’t have a lot about Vietnam, a paragraph, a page, maybe. Interviewer: At this point, you brought along and made a kind of outline for yourself. Check your notes there. I tried to cover everything. 48:03 It’s one of those things, I’m going to keep this for myself just because of that. I’ve never written it down before in my life and to know this was coming, I said, ―I want to make sure I cover everything. I don’t want to forget something that’s an important part‖. In the hospital, every time, you could sign up to make a MARS call, and a MARS call was, basically, from ham operator to ham operator. So, the first time I was in the hospital, I was able, in a letter, tell them, ―I’m going to be making a MARS call on this date at this time‖, so I made the MARS call, and what a 54 �MARS call is, is I’d have to say, ―Hello, how’s everybody doing? Over‖, and then they would know that they could speak, because somebody in four different locations throughout the United States would have to flip a switch and let the other person talk. I had a grandmother, at the time that was — had never driven a car; she was my favorite, lived in Grandville, had the oldest house in Grandville and lived there her whole life. 49:02 She was part of a church group and prayers and all that. Well, she couldn’t be at the phone, so I sent a Panasonic tape player home, I had one, and I’d make tapes and then my grandma—but a lot of time, my younger brother, who’s ten years younger than me, he would tape the phone calls, so he could take them over to my grandmother’s and my grandmother could listen to the tapes and it would just cheer her up, you know how that goes. But, the MARS call was a neat thing and you could do them in base camp too, you could call back if you could set up a time, but you had to get on a list and you’d have to be there, and they’d give you say, fifteen minutes to make a phone call home. I was made the radio operator for the Lieutenant in the infantry, with the 1st Infantry Division, about a month or a month and a half after I got to the unit, so I was still just new, but I was made the RTO, which means radio operator, which was great. 50:03 But, that meant I had to carry an extra twenty-five pound radio on my back. I had to carry smoke grenades, illumination flares, and you had to be on the first chopper into every LZ. And every LZ, you didn’t know if it was going to be a hot LZ or not, but you had—normally you could be on the third lift, so it would be a secure LZ, but being the radio operator I had to be on the first lift of choppers going in, every time. Interviewer: RTOs were often targets weren’t they? 55 �Oh yeah, because they had that big antennae banging around, not a good thing, I did it with passion, I called in this, I called in that, and I made sure when he told me, gave me grid coordinates, I knew that I was given the right one, because I didn’t want call in artillery on our own zones, you know. This was interesting—I told you I had problems with animals. 51:01 Well, the deer was one, but the other one I had was—I had a five man squad that we’d—at the time I was part of a five man squad and we’d set up an ambush position away from the company area. We’d just set up and it sounded like the whole NVA army coming down the damn trail. I mean, it sounded—and I’m saying, ―Just—get ready, get ready, let’s blow our Claymores and fire‖. Well, just about the time we started firing our weapons after blowing the Claymores, we could hear the squealing of pigs. We’d blown a family of wild boars away, mama, papa, and five little ones. Blew them—but now that we’ve blown our ambush, the enemy knows where we are, we can’t reset up our ambush, so the whole night we had to stay awake, the whole night because we couldn’t—the next morning the company, the Captain and the Lieutenants from the other—they came up there and they put the pig between a pole, carried the pig back to the LZ where they were going to get resupplied, and the pig went back to basecamp and everybody had pig. We didn’t get it, but they had it. 52:03 One other time, set up in an ambush position, in the foxhole, I had just come off guard, which means I was laying behind the foxhole and all I could see were these green eyes, in the jungle, coming at me. I didn’t want to blow the ambush and I said, ― Quiet, quiet‖, and all of a sudden ―pppttt‖ , it was a black panther, a black panther went right over my back, so I say, ―Animals and me didn’t work real well, you know‖. We had fifteen missions in a row, in the 1st Infantry Division, where we’d come from wearing—coming in from the 56 �rear we’d had clean clothes and dry feet, and we had fifteen LZ’s in a row where it was wet, the choppers couldn’t set down, we had to jump out of the choppers, our feet were wet instantly, up to here or further, and you start out with wet feet, and we had fifteen of them in a row, because the ground over there was always wet, just always, always wet. 53:01 Had a time on the airstrip, we were going out—this one here is one you don’t want to hear about, but it happens. Two guys, high school buddies, drafted the same time, went to basic together, went to AIT together, went to Vietnam together, and they were assigned to the same unit, best of friends. We’d been resupplied, setting on the airstrip like we always do, setting on our packs just waiting for the choppers to come in. Their playing cowboys and Indians and one of them shot the other one right through the heart and he died instantly. The guy grabs his heart and he dies, and the other guy literally went insane. He just killed his best friend, but the M-16 became like a comb in your pocket, you took it for granted, it was there, it was loaded, it was always loaded, you didn’t—and that’s what happens, it was an accident. 54:01 Accidental shootings and deaths happened a lot in Vietnam, happened a lot, and while I happened to have the opportunity to see one ten feet away when it happened, because I watched the guy grab his heart and he just died, he died. You know, it’s—you just never know when your time is going to come. We came in for Christmas; we came in for Christmas on Christmas Eve and we were in for three or four days, we were lucky enough to be in, and a lot of times they don’t send your care packages out to the field to you, you open them when you get back to the basecamp. My grandmother had sent a case, a case of Jiffy Pop popcorn-Christmas Eve, so we had Christmas dinner in the mess hall, so Christmas day I gave everybody Jiffy Pop. 55:00 That night, the company air smelled like a popcorn factory 57 �and I thought, ―This is cool, this is so cool‖, and it—I love popcorn and it brought me back to—for almost minute, I could say, ―I’m in my living room having popcorn‖, you know. It just was a great thing and my grandmother did something so simple, but it meant so much to me and I’m sure to a lot of other people. I know I’ve covered most of it and I just want—there’s so—oh, we—when I was with the Americal Division, I was up in the mountainous area and we were up on top of a mountain and down in the valley we could see the VC, or the NVA, moving around, so we knew they were moving. We could see the South China Sea coastline from the top of our mountain. We heard there was a destroyer off station, so we called back to the rear and we said, ―Hey, can you contact the destroyer and see if they would like to fire their guns to help us clear this position?‖ 56:08 They came back to us and said, ―Yeah, the destroyers would love to test fire their guns‖, so we give them the grid coordinates and we want them to, basically, annihilate that grid. Now, we could not see the destroyer, but when the destroyer fired its guns, we could see the flash, and I go, ―Oh, this is cool‖, and when that round went over the top to go down in that valley, I swear to God they were throwing a Volkswagen through air, I mean it was just ―Crrrrrrr‖, again, B-52’s, destroyers, ―Puff the Magic Dragon‖, we had all the good stuff, there’s no reason to monkey around as long as we did. When you see it, you were right, it’s an impressive thing, it’s an impressive thing. 57:01 From my perspective, I’ve covered everything that in my notes I put down. Interviewer: There’s one other thing that kind of occurred to me. You were going to sort of talk about morale issues and that kind of stuff and another issue that comes up kind of late in the war, is the issue of fragging officers and that kind of stuff. 58 �We had a bad incident and it was the unit, 1st Infantry Division. I got there, and within about a month to a month and a half after I got there. The first sergeant, all the guy did was sit and read, he never came out in the field, he always had his clean and pressed clothes, so we came in and got off a deuce and a half from a ten, twelve, fourteen day mission, and he’d line us up in a formation and he’d say, ―I want all you guys to take a shower and get clean clothes and I want you all to get a haircut‖, and he was just, just brutal about that. 58:03 These guys, the next mission they come home dead, so somebody fragged him, they rolled one underneath, because again, these barracks that we were staying in were just raised off the ground a foot and a half, wood floors, wood sides with screens, and aluminum roof, and somebody just rolled a hand grenade underneath that and lucky it didn’t kill him, but at least it wounded him enough where he went back to the states and the guys didn’t have to put up with it. Don’t know who did it and nobody cared, because we didn’t need that kind of harassment, we didn’t need that kind of harassment. Interviewer: Was the guy a lifer, was he a long term service guy? Yeah, he’d already been in the military fifteen or eighteen years and this was probably his second or, maybe, his third tour, you just never knew, but he was just—he pushed the wrong button. You don’t mess with the guys that are keeping you in the rear, making the same money we’re making out in the jungle, and you’ve got a cot, you’ve got electricity, and you’ve got hot meals, you can go and get a beer every night, watch movies, and you’re going to mess with us? 59:08 That’s what happens, I mean, that’s what happens, and it was one of those incidents that I’d heard about them, but I remember that one, because it happened and luckily nobody was killed. At least it got him out of there. 59 �Guys would let their hair grow, and if they want to put up with that steel pot and that heat and humidity, let them grow their hair if that’s what they want, let them go, let them do their own thing. Interviewer: That’s a small thing. Did you shave when you were out in the field? Yeah, yeah, between brushing your teeth and shaving, you aint going to waste the water, guy, trust me, water’s too precious to you to do that, so, I mean—but I was twenty one and I didn’t have to shave until I was twenty five, or so, because nothing ever showed up anyway, you know, but other guys, yeah, I had one guy that could shave in the morning and by noon it looked like he needed a shave, but he carried the machine gun, so nobody messed with him. 00:04 Interviewer: Well, it makes for a very good story and you’ve done a very good job with it and I’d just like to close out here by thanking you for coming in and talking to me today. Like I said, it’s an important story, an important part of the story, just one of a small number of people and the big issue that I always look at is that one in every ten Vietnam veterans was combat infantry. Nine of those other guys that are Vietnam veterans, they were in the rear, they had great jobs, but they still made the same money, they still—and that’s one of those things that people say, ―Well, there were five million people that served in the war‖, yes, but there were only five hundred thousand that were Vietnam— that were infantry, the numbers are small guys that actually got CIB, the Combat Infantry Badge, a small number of the big picture. We all were there to do a job, we all did, and we were—yeah, it didn’t end like we wanted it to, but we did our best to make sure it ended right, so thank you very much. 1:09 60 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dykstra, Ronald (Interview transcript and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dykstra, Ronald Description An account of the resource Ron Dykstra was born on July 6th, 1948 in Holland, Michigan. Following graduation from high school in Grandville, Michigan, Dykstra received his draft notice in 1968 and reported in 1969. After completing his basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky and his AIT at Fort Polk in Louisiana, Dykstra deployed to Vietnam. Originally, Dykstra fought in Vietnam as a member of the 1st Infantry Division. However, when the 1st Infantry returned to the United States as part of President Nixon's downsizing, Dykstra still had time let on his tour, so he transferred to the Americal Division, where he served for the remainder of his tour. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Kentwood Historic Preservation Commission (Kentwood, Mich.) WKTV WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-03-17 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DykstraR Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b84cf284b1d55acb5298c445f9761e23.pdf 32f2e1bf6d12a77f60680c30a484c0f1 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Cold War Era Michael Eames Total Time – (07:15) Background    He was born in Buffalo, New York – May 14, 1959 (01:31) His grandfather was born in Ireland o He traveled to New York City where he became a policeman (01:48) He has one older brother Enlistment/Training – (02:25)      He decided to enlist into the Army because he wanted to become a chef (02:26) o He wanted to receive the G.I. so he could pay to become a chef He graduated in June, 1977 and was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey in July (03:04) Basic training was extremely structured (03:11) o It had a lot of training – training with machine guns, grenades, anti-nuclear and anti-terrorist training It was much easier to learn how to cook than it was to do military training (03:32) He was able to learn a lot about hospital diets Active Duty – (03:50)     In January, 1978 he was sent to the Second General Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany (04:00) o It is the largest hospital in Europe The patient level was typically 150-350 patients (04:14) o They had to deliver hot meals 3 times a day He once served General Alexander Haig who commanded all of the troops in Europe He would talk to his parents on the phone (05:14) o When talking, he had to say “over and out” or the connection would not go through (05:18) o He was able to write a lot of letters After the Service – (05:05)   He was released from the service in June, 1980 (05:30) He attended the Culinary Institute of America Hyde Park (05:39) �   o The G.I. Bill was extremely useful He graduated in 1982(05:58) He was then hired in Sun Valley Resort in Idaho to become the head chef (06:03) The Army taught him a lot about life, people, and knowing himself � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eames, Michael (Interview outline), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Eames, Michael Description An account of the resource Michael Eames was born in 1959 in Buffalo, New York. He decided to enlist into the Army so that he could utilize the G.I. Bill and eventually become a chef. Michael spent time in basic training learning how to use machine guns and grenades while also receiving anti-nuclear and anti-terrorist training. He was then sent to Landstuhl, Germany where he served in the Second General Hospital. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Beering, Ryan (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-05-28 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EamesM1414V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0cfcbb94efcc5c7107b0b9d73701d150.pdf d46589bfb7016f9baf69fd96c707bddd PDF Text Text Indian Talk in Southern Michigan vol. l ro_l · November 1973 �41- I N D I A N T A L K IN Vol. 1 No. l LOOKING AROUND SOCTH3RIT 1.:ICHIGAN November 1973 Devoted to the news and views of American Indians in Southern :Michigan COf.INITTEE: Deejay Elle Irene Elle Shirley Francis Simon J. Francis Jr. Joe John Calvin No•l Joe Raphael GRAND RAPIDS "' i..:· -.. On October 18, 1973, a group of Indian people met at the home of Simon Francis to discuss the continuing of INDIAN TALK as a magazine of Indian news and views, covering Indian events and stories happening in and around southern llichigan. Thus, INDIAN TALK IN SOurHERN MICHIGAN was born. It will be published twelve times a year, at the beginning of each month. News of pow wows, meetings of Indian organizations, on f:be personal side, coverage of events concerned with American Indians, etc. will be its content. Thus, the Committee for !N'.DIAN TALK IN SuurHE.RN IUCHIGAN hopes to contribute toward Indian unity. "An Informed Indian is a POWERF'UL IlDIAB ! 11 PRINTED BY: eARTh o. Box 95 Portage , 'Mi. P. 49081 SUBSCJ'ilPI'ION: $2.00 per year or Any donation welcome PUBLISHED I.fONTHLY: · 1st week of ~ne mont.h SRM;-.J R.'.J.'IDS DITER-TRIBAL COIB'lCIL Indian Center, 756 Bridge-, OWL INDIAN OurR&i.GH com. inues to hold twice-weekly meetings on Tuesdays ana Fi·idays at. 8:00 p.m. at tne Indian Cem;er, ?bb J:3ridge, N.W. Got an alcohol problemr Call Larry, 452-7258 or Kathy, 456-6864. OIO bowling, Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. at Paragon Lanes, S. Division. Phone: (1-616) 459-2169 To keep it coming, though, iVE MUST HEAR FROM YOU! ti., is a beehive of activity: li~ondays - Ottawa Language Class, Mondays 3.nd Wednesdays - Adult Sducation Classes, Wednesdays Arts and Crafts Class, Saturdays - bowling at Chez Ami Lanes at 9:00 P.!'. (All other classes begin at 7:00 p.m.) Ph. 774-8331 N. EDITOR's ADDRESS: Shirley v. Francis 457 Briarwood Ave., S.E. Grand Rapids, Mi. 49506 Do you like the new INDIAN TALK IN SOUI'HERN MICHIGAN? Do you think we should keep it coming to you? Do you think there is a need for it? Write us a note and tell us what you think. If there is enough interest, we will continue to provide you with news affecting you, about your people, and give you a place to air your views, announce important happenings in your life, or get some gripe off your chest. At the armual election of officers last month the GRAND LODGE elected for the coming year Isaac Peters as Chief, J. w. Philpott as Sub-chief, Jeanette St. Clair as Secretary, and Robert Lee Smith as Treasurer. New Executive Council members are William Thatcher, Edward Gillis, Kathy Campos and Barbara Zoulek. A fifth member is yet to be chosen. Following the resignation of Shirley Francis, Shari Hutton was made Editor of the lodge newsletter. VALI...l!..~ AI.~CAN I~:DIA1~ )11 AMERICAN INDIAN GOSPEL CHURCH is still meeting temporarily at the Mel Trotter Mission, 225 Commerce, s.w., on Sundays :from 10 until 12. Rev. Joe Sprague, pastor. Phone: 241-4961. DETROIT The .iJEI'ROir ROUNU TABI..£ of the NATIONAL CQWEREUCE OF CHRISTIANS .:-.l!D JE~S, Inc. is holding a day-long planning session with I·'. ichigan area Indian people on November S, 1973, to form plans for an Indian a-.li~ion Ecuemenical Conference for sometime midwinter. Cn the pla-rining committee is Hary Simonait, Indian Counselor at ~avenport and Grand Valley State colleges. �-2-3· lO'O~+f 8::''.)Un.u Cont 1 d: ON THE PL.-lS0NAL SIDE .u.:...;..:~oo :~ COLLEGE invites all Indian people to participate iL ~~a ~~aCAN INDIAN WEEK activities from Sunday, Nov. 11 thru F::'~d.;;.y, Nov. 16. SUJ.~..Jil.Y (lioy. 11) ? - 4 p .m. Display of arts and crafts and reception.for American Indians and other visitors. Bring your personal collection for display and set it up anytime from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. .t.::O!WAY (Hoy. l?) at 8 p.m, In the Auditorium GEORGE BENNETT, Director of Uichigan Commission on Indian Affairs will speak. ..~lr.6SDAY Part I - "Treaties !.!a.de, Treaties Broken." l-'art 2 - "Bow the West was Won and Honor Lost." Part 3 - "Lament of the Reservation." (lfov. 16) at 8 p ,m. "lflNI-POWWOW" in college cafeteria. Lead Drummer and Singer: John Bush. Admission free. Tribal ::-. dress. Traders welcome. DIRECTIOliS: Take 131 express-way to Highway 43. Turn East on 43 and stay on it as it winds through Kalamazoo until ~·ou c roe to Nazareth College. Turn into main drive and go to main building. FOrt t.:OrtE INFORMATION: ::'!.ry Keichling : ~azaret.."'1 College, :iull Road, Kal.air.azoo, t:i. 349-7783 (da:,•s) 343-7548(eves.) Joe Raphael 3370 Dean Lake NE Grand Rapids, Mi. 361-1817 ED and GLO?JA S!l:!;I<OSKY, Grandville, hosted a gala Box Socia l on Halloween for members of the Ar.'lerica~ Ind ian Gospel Church. •. T OAl:NE SPMGUE auctioned off the goodies prepared b:r r..:.0NA 3USH, ELSIE and i.:ONA SAW?.:ICK, VIOLA ASHCHAB, !<--.LOIBiiC3 !:.A.l.Ci'.EGA3 (Gloria's mom visit.ing from Mt. Pleasant) and SA?.AE SPRA:iUE. rill, GRANT, JOE and the rest of the guys can testify what excellent cooks the gals are! SIMQNAir doesn't even unpack her suitcase e.nymore. She just returned fro~ t!te Convention of the National Congress of American Indians in Tulsa, Okla. 7· and is preparing to leave for an I!ldian Education Conference in Milwaukee in two weeks. J .SAllEI'TE ST. CI.J..IR will join her for that trip. MARY Shirley Francis 457 Briarwood SE Grand Rapids, Ki. 459-2169 RAPHA.i::I.. had her tonsils out Nov. 2. It was sure nice of and Dad (Joe and Judy Raphael) to wait until after Halloween, MO~ICA t~om eh, (Noy. 14) at 8 p.m. Film, "The North .American Indians", will be shown in the Auditorium. In three parts it is narrated by L~rlon Brando with music by Bufty St. Marie. Frtl~A.Y ~ ~onica? HEY! The football game is on T-V but where is hubby? In the basement, of course, get his hunting equipment in shape for DEER SEASON! That's where you'll find B9B FRANCIS Wt. ?le asant), his brother SIIWU ('.irand Rapids), J OE SPRAGUE (G.R.), AL c:..:.AI.:B.::RLAIN (Mt.P.) and thousands of others. Come hOOie safe, fellows. It's BACK TO SCHOOL for CHUCK and BEA BAI~--Y and SJ:l~ON FR.A:fCIS, who are attending Adult Education classes at the Indian Center, IREUE ELK, at Thomas Jefferson College, and SYDNEY !~IN, at College of Arts and Sciences of Grand V;:illey State College;. This intrepid group prove its never too late to become informed! Those people who attended the Ojibwa Spirit Ceremony at CL.Aru~HC~ and LlA.RY GILLESPIE' s, Branch, Mich., last month, are still talking about the house they are building. Built on the geodesicdome principle, it will look like a Chippewa wigwam, but on a grA.nd scale! The outside will be covered with cedar shingles. The vast interior will two sleeping lof'ts and no wa lls to cut up the space. Cedar logs, Lake Superior cobbles and natural colors will be used extensively both inside and out. It is loca ted in a forest of hardwoods on a slope v:ith a stream 2.t tte bottom. Six sliding glass doors in the living-room area open onto a deck facing the slope. Begun two years ago, Clarenc!" ~0~es to have it done within the coning year. Except for the c~rne!lt- '::ork '"nd fou::-idation, he i: nd a frita.nd have done it all, but 11 ::ar:· and the kids helped too.'' �-5-4- LOOKING BACK THE OJI3i'iA RSLIGIO!J: A ','iAY OF LIFE by shirley fr~ncis fl\\ t Last month we v.rere invited to participate in ceremonies of the Ojibwa religion at the Clarence Gillespies, Branch, lfich. I found it to be a deeply moving experience. ·1,e arrived about 1 0 p.m. r.1a ry Gillespie greeted us with an offer of mint tea and hot soup ti or coffee, if you want." Clarence had gone to meet Eddie Benton, Third Degree r.:edicine ?:an, at the airpot>t. He was coming in from St. Pat;l, I.linn. where he is director of the Red 3chool for Indian children. Simon's cousin, Betty Pamp and her daughters Judy and Joan were already there. Moose Pamp had gone nith Clarence. Others continue to arrive. About midnight Eddie Benton arrived. He immediately began the ~eat Lodge ceremony, which women may not attend. It was pouring rain, and so we waited in the Gillespie~' mobile home, drinking coffee and chatting. Off in the distance, in harmony with the rain, we could hear the drum,; Around 2 a.rn. the men came in, changed their drenched clothes and drank some hot coffee. Then we all headed for the "round house 11 - the new house the Gillespies are building - for the Spirit :::eremony that ·would be held on the completed loft of the second floor. ·tie seated ourselves on cushions and sleeping bags around the Medicine :r.1an and his three assistants - all young men froQ ~ichigan. The Gillespies had requested these ceremonies in thanksgiving for the Great Spirit's blessings, and they were seated to the right of Eddie Benton. With the preliminary preparations completed, the lights were turned off, leaving us enveloped in pitch-black darkness. Prefa ced by prayers in £116lish of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit, and beckoning his aid, this was followed by s acred I~ide songs and chants in the Chippewa tongue, accompanied by the sacred water-drum. Then light was returned, and the sacred pipe was smoked by all, passing solemnly from one to another. .:!:a.ch of the participants spoke of his feelings and intentions in fol·· lowing this way of life, of its meaning for him, and asked the others to pray for him. It was emphasized that if we could not believe in this w~y, to at least respect it. At the conclusion, Mary Gillespie gave out the traditional gifts to some of the people present. Tears suddenly welled up in my eyes when she handed me a g ift of red cloth and then shook my hand firmly. A Naming Ceremony was schedull'!d to begin "at the second light of dawn." Several months ago Pat Kay had asked Moose Pamp to be the Namer of her twin sons, Jude and Josh, now one year old. ,.e ~ere all gathered on the main floor of the "round house", and Uoose announced that he had studied each baby's characteristics '},·~ the oiib'11a reli.,.io::1: a wav of life, cont'd: that had been p~ovided him, and that he had chosen their names. Gr9.Ildpa.rents ~ee~ay and Irene Elk had asked me to be one of the four sponsors. ~ch sponsor declared their intentions to aid the babies should they ever need. Lloose encouraged their mother and the sponsors to help the children to follow the Indian way, to always be proud of their Indian heritage. "I have chosen their names, 11 he then said simply. "Josh, 1 Bam nosh Kung Noo Din', which means 'He Who Chases the Wind'. Jude, born last, will be known as 1 Ya Bin Dung Noo Din•, meaning 'He \Vho Sees the Wincf.• 11'h6 is t.he · oldest, will be known as The ceremony was concluded with a feast of sweetmeat (meat cooked with apples and raisins), fried potatoes, cranberries, a fruit mixture of strawberries and blueberries, fry bread, mint tea and coffee. We had to return to Grand Rapids that morning. Thus, we missed participating in the Spirit Feast that has become an annual occasion every fall among Indians who follow the Traditional Way. Nevertheless, what I did see increased my respect and appreciation for the beauty and dignity of that Way. A.I.M. LEADERS W SPEAKING TOUR: Ofi October 19 the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council sponsored a pot luck supper with A.I.M. leader DENNIS BANXS and A.I.M. attorney RAMON ROUBIDEAUX as honored guests. They are on a speaking tour to acquaint the general public of the facts leading to the occupation of Wounded Knee, s. Dak. last winter, and of the trials the leaders are now facing in both state and federal courts. In remarks made at the center V.r. Banks stressed the concern of A.I.I.I. for social change necessary to the American Indian. Ur. Roubideaux commwted that 11 the American Indian is waking up. He is making the white man respect us as American Indians!" and that it is time "that there is liberty and justice for all -like t!le Pledge of Allegience declares. 11 He spoke of the upcoming t.rials, saying "we are about to launch legal battles never before seen, on behalf of the American Indians. We must, for pur children, for the yet to be born!" Both gave major speeches at the new Student Center of Grand Valley State Colleges later that evening. The text(from notes taken that evening) follows: WHY ViOUNDED KHSE 0~. Banks 1 speech) We are here in place of cause there has been another A.I.?~. leader. lblssell went called to San S'r3.!lcisco on a Russell Means and Luke McKissick beshooting - this time fatall.T - of an to the scene right away. Luke was case he has there. �-7- -6- a,i.m. le ~ ders a.i.m, leaders on speaking tour, cont'd: on speakin?, tour, cont'd: : WJuld like to begin by giving you some backt,~ound on what happe~ed in South Dakota in January and February of 1973. There have al.ways been strange dealings with Indians in such towns as Japid City, Sturgis and Custer. Custer, especialy, is very antiIndia::. In fact, racist atti~udes have been strong in that state ever s~~ce Custer was defeated by the Sioux at the 3attle of the Biet'.~rn. Indianness has literaly been beaten out of the Indians there. The jails and prisons reflect this, 40%, sometimes 60%, of t~e inmate populations are Indian, } The traditional chiefs called A.I.M. to meet with them at Calico, S. Ua.k. on the 25, 26, and 27 of February, 1973. Two women from the reservation came in to the meeting. They were crying. They begged the chiefs and us to do something. "Where are the men?" they asked, "Li.ust the women lead the fight 'for Indian rightsf" They called us "weekend warriors" who were not men at all because none of us could stand up against one man." ?our times the tribal council has tried to impeach its president, Richard Wilson, because he has misused tribal monies, received kickbacks from a Rapid City construction company, has writt.e"1 checks for $1000,00 without the consent of' the tribal council, has hired his own family - put them on the payroll- and raise~ his ovm salary from $11,000.00 to $19,000,00. ;)avid Long, the vie president protested, and Wilson fired him. When the tribal council presented all the evidence to bhe B.I.A., nothing When Wilson got wind of our meetings he called for ·:i'ederal assistance, and 156 federal agents arrived. Facing them, the two women made us realize the real test before us. Up til now, all had been rhetoric. Here were the agents on one side, the women on the other. 'Do we have any guts left?' I asked ~yself. 'Have all the Indians who died, have they died for nothing? Are we just weekend warriors?' With these questions running through my mind, I had to admit, the Indianness hllil been beaten out of my people. I know how I used to cringe when I heard that the federal agents were looking for me. hap?e~ed. :'he B. I .A. was set up in 1849 to act as ti·ustee for all the tribes. Since that ~ime andiunder their trusteeship Indian land holdi.!lgs nave dwindled from 150 million acres to 50 million! The way they have set up their operation, it takes months to get anything done! The Indians are divided into areas with each under an agency. And each agency is broken up into sub-agencies. A claim i:mst be sent to one's sub-agency which sends it to the agenc;{ director, who forwards it to the area director, where in turn it is passed on to the deputy commissioner. He ~ust get it to the ilirector of the 3,I.A. But the B.I.A. is only one o'f a dozen departments under the Secretary of Interior. It must CO!ll<f' pete for attention and interest with the Bureaus of La.~d .IJanagement, bf Rec~;!;.ion';.!".of. • Realth, Education and '*elfare, and the Corps of Army Engineers! By the time a decision is made on a claim and that decision has made its way back iown to the tribe, six r"ionths have passed, There are tvrn types of reservations: Opened, and closed, The Oglala Sioux chose to have a closed one, and this entitles then to t:ieir own police. Article I of the 1860 treaty with them says t~~t if any one does bad on the reservation, the Indians \Till deliver up the wrong doer to the U.S. government to be tried and punished. Well, they did that with Wilson. Eight out of 11 ~eltl ers signed the request to impeach him. Nothing happened except that Wilson ordered all residen~s not born on the Pine Ridge rteservation to leave.it. Thus, two separate issues led to Wounded :Knee: the racist attitudes of the whites, and the overriding of the treaties made ~~th the Sioux. The traditional chiefs of the Oglala Sioux had begon to resist the U. s. government in the 1920's. Thus, the Heorganiza~ tion Act of 1934 provided for the formation of new tribal governments where the people elect the tribal council and president of the tribal council. -1\e were all gathered at the townhall in Calico when we deci-ded to move to Porcupine, S, Dak. On the way we stopped at Wounded Knee to visit the mass grave site of those who died there in the L:assacre of 1890. It came to us there that we could go no further, that ~e had to make our stand here in this place where so many had died needlessly. You know, the Treaty of 1860 never spelled out that there would be a B.I.A. to dictate to us, And as long as it does, as long as it si their trustee, there will be no self-deterlbination. Nitness the fact that it makes contracts with outsiders to use Indian lands. l ~ It is hard to ask for the abolition of the B.I.A, It argues with the Fisheries ~nd Wildlife Dept., the Geodetic Survey Dept., the 3ureau of Land J.:anagement, and all the rest, on our behalf. It watches over the Indian from birth to de~th. In fact, bot.h the B.I.A. and the Justice Dept. tried to dictate to us at Wounded Knee as to what kind of burial service we could have for our two fallen comrades! 3ut it was while I was at Wounded Knee that I realized a lot of people - Indians and non-Indians - all across the country were concerned about us and were beginning to help us. There arose a de-finite hope as Black, White, Chicano, Oriental - all colors began to come and help us, We Indians have four sacred colors, black, yellow, white and red: they represent mankind. We began to realize that the majority of people were on our side, and I �-8-9- a.i.~. leaders on speaking tour, cont'd: tC.o':~t., are got to 'Ifost of the warriors are not here at i'iouncled Knee, but across the country! ' Well these Sioux ladies Indian men are no longer weekend warriors! ~t t:-iere, all ~..::eir answer. O' -' !' One last word: to all those from Il:ichigan who contributed cause, who risked so much, we thank you. * * * * * * * JUST:".:3: AlID LIBERI'Y FOR US (Mr. Roubideaux' speech) I am an Oglala Sioux, born on the reservation, and I have law for 23 years in Rapid City. All my cases were on the white men. Now I am working for the Indians. And believe me, those 23 years were a vacation! pr~c~iced beh~lf of •~at is a hero? In the 1700's the American colonies were rule:: "!Jy Great Britain, and the people began to r esist the taxes and ~rutality of British rule. One of the ways they resisted ~as ~o dump a valuable cargoe of tea into Boston Harbor. These peo~le have gone down in history as heroes and patriots. ~ose Indians who gathered at Wounded Knee formed the greatest band of heroes and patriots you ever saw! ~hen the federal age~ts surrounded them they were heavily armed and traveling iu ~mored personnel carriers. Our brave band had 22 rifles among ther:, plus clubs, knives and a:few sets of bows and arrows. But they were prepared to die for this cause. They weren't going to be ¥i':lite men any longer. They were going to be Indian! It W'lS time to throw off the yoke of tyranny and oppression. In 1.268 the Second Fort La.ram~ Treaty was made with the Sioux, pronising that the western hali of South Dakota would be theirs forever -- until gold was discovered in the Black Hills. ••hen the Indians complained about white trespassers, soldiers were se~t out to keep the whites off, but they were soon siding with them '1c,!3'ainst the Indians! Crazy Horse, one of our greatest leaders, was killed. So was Sitting aull. And they got the Indian police to do it! Indian men began to disappear. The collaborators and traiters were wined and dined in Washington, D.C. The heros wa~.pUnished for sticking up for Indian rights. They were·' l"emoved fart.lier west, "disappeared" or outright externd,nated. John Collier, the B.I.A director in 1934, was a man who could while watching Indians starve. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 w~s a bureaucra~s dream. It contained no plan for a legal system on the reservations, but the B.I.A. used it to set one up. crJ a.i.m, leaders on speaking tour, cont'd: They used it to keep t:r. Indian quiet while the white nan picked his pockets. The Act did not provide for separation of powers in tribal government. All the power is in the tribal council, and Indian police enforce tribal law. If you get the wrong guy in there as tribal president, there is practically nothing you can do. Wilson's promises got him elected, and he may have been a pretty decent guy at first. But when he found out how much power he had, he couldn't resist! It is a dictatorship in evecy sense! When I decided to run for attourney general in 1970, I we~t looking for some statistics on Indians in the state. I was aghast at what I found • Only 8% of the state's population is Indian. Yet, 60:~ of all crimes are done by Indians. This shows they aren't conforming to white rules, and that Indians are arrested and put i~ Jail for things that a white man could do and go scott free! (,·:.:r babies die four times faater than vmite children. And 35 to 40;; of the state's prison population are American Indian, These statistics haven't changed much in forty years! I wanted to see some of our Indian prison inmates, an:l talk to them. I visited one of the prisons where the warden arrang~ to have all of them brought together. When I stepped up in front of them, looked over that sea of 500 Indian faces, all so young, I thought, 'My God, here is the cream of our race!' Unemployment on the reservations is 70 to 75%. :aut our p~l>­ tector, the B.I.A~, uses 95% of its budget to operate itself. B.I.A. workers receive tremendous salaries, and they are often inadequate to do their jobs! Their main job is to protect Indian resources. Recentl7 l was called on a case in Oklahoma dealing V<i.th the estate of a deceased Osage woman, made wealthy by the finding of oil. Eer estate was being contested in such a way that it would remai.""l. ir:. Indian hands. It would go to a museum that she had endowed. When oil was first discovered on Osage lands white men be~...n to .marry Osage women and then kill them to collect their oil i~ heri tance. One such man did just this, then married his dece~.=ed wife's sister and tried to do the same thing to her. The e·ri'.!ence wasn't conclusive and so they merely banned him from !:-.c:..~ terr~tory forever. In 1925 an Act of Congress was passed p~e­ vent1ng anyn~ne Osage land from falling into white hands fo~ ~-7 reason whatever. Well, this case I was investigating, guess -~c �-ll- -1~ a.i.m. leaders on speaking -tour, cont'd: w-~s caretaker of the museum fighting for the estate - the sar:ie man who h ad tried to get the estates of both those s isters! He wa s in his eighties n.nd the old buazard wa s still trying to do it! And yet A. I.I.:. people are c a lled hoodlums - by those t s lking the loudest while in the henhouse stealing the chickens! We have indeed a brave band of heroes who are g oing to see that the American Indians have a better way of life. There were 64 tribes represented at ~ounded Knee. And each has gone back to his own tribe. ~a ch is prepared to make another wounded rillee! But I have a great ~l of f a ith in the American people. rhnt is vfny we're on this spe Jking tour. Our lives, laT\:,'"'1.lage, our religion and culture have been taken from us - but no more! Pedro Dissonette, the A. I.!'. le s.der shot and killed a few days a;:;o - we don't know the full detA. ils yet - wa s the nephew of one of the women vfno had asked where were the Indian men. ilell, he W9.S a man. All we want is justice a nd liberty for us. And there is very little of both in to~ns like ~J3.pid City, Sturgis and Custer, But the American people, I know, are going to stand up and insist that we be given the liberty and justice that is the right of us all. * * * * * * * * * * * Following the talks t '.1 ere was a question and a nswer period, in which !,Jr. Banks brought out the fact that all these indicted face long prison sentences. He himself faces ones for 205 years plus life, as well as a state sentence of 150 years! M'r. Roubideaux brought out ~he difficulty getting their case together. Their investigators and legal advisors were repeatedly thrown off the reservation by the B. I.A. police - 11 v1ho, sadly, are Indian, 11 until Judge Bowes issued a restraining order, COlNElfl' IOl'l ~iii.J'Oill' by ~ar;; simonait The week-long Convention o~ the UATIONAL COUGIGSS OF AL'!ERICAN INDIAN'S l a st week drew Indian leaders from various organizations across the nation. Among them wel'-C - l eaders from A?.:ERICAlr I:NDIA1~ l'.OVEl:E!IT, Ai'.EEICAU IlDIAffS FOR OPPO:tI'L11'ITY, the American Indian Press, and many tribal leaders. Meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, each day of the a:> nvention was devoted to a specific purpose. Monday was N.C,A.I. Organizational .iJay. Tuesday v:a s Federal Tribal Relationship Day. Friday saw the election of officers. Perhaps of most interest to Ifdchigan Indian people was the election of Ernie Stevens to the office of Vice-President. 1h', Stevens is a consultant who aids Indians in setting up businesses, advising them how to obtain loans for this purpose; and so on, Disc<:ssed were such subjects as the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribal problems, ana reservation happenings. Leaders from the Fort McDowell Reservation in Arizona told of their struggle to retain their land. Two hundred seventy-seven Apaches live on this 15,000 acre reservation. The Bureau of Reclamation wants them to give it up in exchange ' for 2,500 acres somewhere else. Reason? The Reclamation .iJept. want to build a dam and flood their land! Mrs. Ada ·Deer was attributed the Outstanding Indian Year :for her single-banded efforts to have the llenominee of Wisconsin re-instated to · ·i·eservation status. Thanks untiring battle for her people it is almost certain that reservation will be restored in the near future. of the Indians to her the Consideration of the Indians' problems took a break 'Wednesday evening with the holding of a pow wo;1 in which around thousand people attended. J. LOOKWG AHEAD "The Indians' nearly 500 year old struggle against the domination of the white man," concluded J.:r. Banks, 11 ha s been the longest war in history, the longest racial war, the longest undeclared NATIONAL INDIAN EDUCArIOlT ASSOCIATION Hotel, I>'.ilwaukee, ~isc., November 14, anyone interested in Indian Education Contact Lorella Ellis, R. #1, Oneida, UwIJu'.; PO,;~.a COlWL'...l:\l!..lJCE in Phoenix, Arizona i n Septei:iber w~s by the American Association of C o~munity and vunior C ~ l1eges. Its purpose wa s to find ways to build avenues i nt;:i t::e adn.inistr&tions of colleg~ s in order to bri n.1" about c h an5 ~s t h::i.t woulci na ke eci.sier the InJi:m 1 s struzgle for upward mobility. llir;- Simonai t att~nded Il'ur 1 Grand rl.:tpius, and was chosen to :1e one of 12 appointed to the advisor;r council to the A.A.C,J .c. T¥.E FIRST ALL IN:)IAN' BANX will have its gr~nd opening in 'Washington, D.C. on Uovember 15, 1273. It will have Indian decor, and an all-Indian staff and management. But you will have to settle for u. s. currency and coin. ·.,.wJ. r! u r Ez sponsor~d conference at the Jl.Jarc Plaza Open to and a member of the NIEA. Wisc., 54155. 15, and 16, 1973, �L00KIUG IN TIIE r.:..\ILBOX OC1'. 7, 1973 De.£.hota, Shirley, I'm in Jackson State Prison. "Rain-in-the-Face" by St\\'eart A.H. Rodaa •e nave our own Indian group here. He was one of the youngest war iee p\.<t out a 1'Tewsletter 4 times a chiefs of the Sioux. His medicine was the Sun. ' r'!"-r• Next one comes out in Dec. ';.ould you like one? Could you Born near the forks of' Cheyene, send me some inf'ormation on OWi. N. Dak. about 1835. r:ow; OUTR;;ACH & AI"~RICAN INDIAN His f'irst important experience LOu~E? I'm sending you some aras a chief was in the attack ticles I wrote f'or the I.T. newson Ft. Phil Kearny .Dec.1866. He was a leading chief in the letter. I'm a 29 year old halfbreed Oglala Sioux, hope you like Bighorn fight. oy kind of articles. After that fight he followed Pleas put me on the "INDIAN Sitting Bull into Canada. P.ain-in-the-Face had 7 wives. TALY." mailing list. Thank you. He said, "I had to work for my USEN bless and keep you chieftainship." saf'e. He had 6 brothers, one of Whom Sincerely, was Iron Horse. Stewart A.H. Rodda Ho. 111580 P.O. Box E Jackson, Mi.49204 £/.iucating the American Indian by S. American Horse Rodda You can imagine a timid Indian boy or girl of 5 or 6 yea rs old being greeted ~y white children when they enter school by, "Eey, ~edskin, where's your war paint?!" American Indi ~ns are the countr:r's most disadvantaged minority. ''The first thing an Indian learns is that he is a loser." The average schooling for an Indian child is st.years. Statistics show that the average family incooe is $1,500. The suicide rate is 3 times the national av~rage. Reservation suicides are 10 ti~es the national average. "Our nation's policies and progr1ns for educating Al:Jerican Indians are a national tragedy." "'w'!J.ite schools cont:o.in the element~ of aisester for American Indians. Indians are r'lci-"'l outcasts in any school, among a whit-. :-".ajorit:r. '' The prejudice seeT:ls aloost inborn! Dea r Stewart, .. e certainly do want to receive your nev~sletter. :Sy now you hav-. receiv-.d CJY letter " nswering your questions. Ai:d we have added your nane to the rnni l.in~ list of IlTT.JIA'.; TAU: I!I S1._>U1'!2ER?: l'UCEI '};._.\f. !~~' ?:itchi-Sani be with you, too. Shirley �l � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v1n1_1973-11 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk in Southern Michigan, November 1973 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-11 Description An account of the resource November 1973 (Volume 1, Number 1) issue of Indian Talk in Southern Michigan by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e2dc185a7688589d764837a9f4721cbd.pdf e6cf92dae84b98841bd716378aa63ad6 PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN EVERY NATION, FROM EVERY HEART, ONE PRAYER ... THAT ALL MEN LIVE AS BROTHERS AND PEACE REIGN EVERYWHERE A CHRISTMAS WISH ---· - -FOR - -YOU AND ALL THE WORLD .. . PEACE ol. 1 No. 2 & 3 Dec. 1973/Jan. 1974 �-1- INDIAN Vo1. 1 TALK No. 2 & 3 IN SOUTHERN December 1973 .. Ja=m- 1971 Devoted to the news and views of the India• CommUllity in souther. Michigan EDITOR'S ADDRESS: Shirley v. Francia 457 Briarwood, S.E. Grand Rapida, Mi. 49506 Phone: 1 - 616 - 459-2169 COMMITTEE: TABLE OF CONTENTS KICBIGAI Dejay Elk Ire•• Elk Sb irley Franc is Simon J. Franch Jr, Joe Jolul Calvin Noel SUBSCRIPTION: Joe Raphael $2.00 per year (or donatioa) Joy Sorenson SPECIAL CORREPONDENT: Stewart American Horse Rodda ••••••••••••••• Jack••• PRINTERS: eAR'l'h P.O. Box 95 Portage, Mi. 49081 - 2 AREA NEWS'- - - - - - - - - WDIA.i.~ c:mmcH NEWS - - - - - - - - - - - 4 ANNOUNCEMZNT: NEVI CALENDERS - - 5 SUMl!IARY: 6 INDIA.~ EDUCATION A<::r WHAT TO DO ABOill PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE PROBLE1!S - -- - 9 LISA MOSER: GIHL WITH A 4 - SIDED JOB - - - 9 THE DEAD AN'.J l'HE DOUBLE STANDARD - - - - - 10 'TIS THE SEASON TO 3E JOLLY - - - - - - - - 12 SHORT nULL'S CHRISTMAS - - - - - - - - - 13 HAPPY 14 AI•~HVEIIBARY I .N. U. 14 WHAT CAN I DO? - - - - - - - INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN ia published by a committee or co•cerned men and women from the Indi. . community with the hope that through the priated word all may become aware or the connnon concerns or IRdian people, and thus aid and support each other in attaining their goals. INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN is not affiliated with any sect, organization or institution. It's only purpoae is to provide lines or communication -- between all I•dian groups, between Indillll people, and between Indian and non-Indian. WE APOLOGIZE fer the tardi•ess of this issue due te circumstances beyond eur contrel. Because it is so late we have decided to make it a combiaed issue fer December - Ja•uary, and packed ill leads ef articles and plenty ef foed fer thought! WHETHER YOU AGREE with authors er aot (we do•'t always either) write and express yeur epiwie•s. We will withhold yeur aame if you want us te. ,~c,ver BOOK REVIEW - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16 PRAYER FOR MANKIND - - - - - - - - - - - - 16 BACK TALK - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17 LETS WISE UP! 18 POW WOW UEWS - - - 19 HALF BREED SIOUX - 20 ON THE PERSONAL SIDE - - 21 - 22 IN rlE!.:ORIUM - - - - - - - - A t:HA1' 'iiITH GEORGE BENNETT- - - 22 SUBSCIUPl'IO:l BLANK - - - - - - - - - - - - 23 RECCOLU.'.Z!IDZD READING - - - - - - - - - - - 24 designs are cepies of Ojibwa deeign.s fer beadwerk, I �-3-2- AREA NEWS GRAND RAPIDS INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL 753 Bridge Street, N.W. Grand Rapids, Michiga• 49504 DErROIT AMERICAN INDIAN SERVICES; INC. 800 West Baltimore Detroit, Michigan 48202 Phone: (313) 871-5330 Open daily Monday through Friday from 9AM to 5PM. Purpose: work •• alcehel and drug abuse and its related problems such as jobs and education. Adult Educatiea: GED schooli:ag -- Tuesdays through Fridays from 6PM te lOPM I•dian Culture: to lOPM clas~ in singing Mondays from ?PM I~dian Cenununity meeting --being scheduled fer oae evenillg a week. Call f0r more in:f'ormatio•. Some work or jobs available. ANN AEBOR NATIVE .AMERICAN POW WOW U•iversity of Michigan, Ann Arber Michigan League Ballr.eom January 12, lPM until micblight January 13, lPM until 5PM Open Drull Visiting drums and traders welcome. 306 E. Grand River Lansing, Mich. 48906 Phene: (616) 774-8331 Ope• daily Monday through Friday from BAM to 5PM Purpese: te provide a variety of' programs te the l•di&Jl cenmu..ity to meet a variety of needs: physical, educational, health, creative, etc. GENERAL MEETING: last Thursday ef the Adu1t Educatien: High Scheel Completion courses-Mondays &lld Wedllesdays from ?PM UJJ.til lOPM. m••th. Claa1 in the ott.awa language: Mondays at ?PM. Iadi&Jl Crafts and Creative Arts class: Wedllesdays at 71'14 u..til 9:30PM. Genevieve Shirley, instructor. New supplies just received from New Yerk provide materials to start students on various beadillg techniques -- loom, rosettes, daisy-chai•, etc. Opportunity for drawi:ag, leather-work (kits available.) "A werkshop, tee," students bri:ag their own. craf't-work of various kinda te explain and shew. Open te all ages from 7 er 8 en up, to both mea . .d women. Adult Regreatien: melt and women -- basketball and volley ball on We&Resdays at 7PM, West Middle School, 615 TurJler, N.w. INDIAN BASKETBALL TOURNAllENT ON SATURIJAY DECEMBER 22 FROM lOAJI until M WITH TEAM§ EXPECTED FROM ACROSS THE STATE. SPECTATORS WELCOJIE. AT WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL. You•i Petple's •Recreation: basketball oa Saturdays from 2PM until 5PM with opportuaity fer swimming afterwards, at Union High School, 1800 Tremont, N.w. LA+>fSING LANSING INDIAN CENTER Area News (continued) i' Phone: (517) 487-5409 Ope• daily Monday through Friday from BAM to 5PM. Purpose: a referral center -- works as a liaso• between Indians and agencies to cover all kinds ef needs: food, housing, jobs, education, health, etc. Craft class: Fridays from 7:30PM until lOPM. Open to all. GRAND RAPIDS Grand Rapids Public Mul!!eum: Jefferl!!on & Washi'ftgtoa,SE Plaias India• Exhibit, Jan. 18 to Feb. 24, 1973 League: Saturdays at 9PM, Chez Ami Bowling Lanes, 5401 Division Ave., s. Bewli~ OWL INDIAN ourREACH: deali:ag with alcohol-related proolems. MeetiDgs held ea Tuesdays and Fridays at 8PM at the G.R.I.T.C. ceater, 753 Bridge N.W. Also has secial and recreatio:R&l activities: Bewli:ag -- ParageR Bewli:ag Lanes, 2425 Divisiea, s. OR Saturdays at 2PM. For Couneeliwg: call (616) 774-8331 from BAM to 5PM Moaday through Friday. Other hours call (616) 452-7258 1 (Larry); 456-6864 (Kathy); er 458-3216 (Chet.). EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE: by Mary Sime1lB.it, Indian counseler at G.V.s.c. and Davenport, at the Ceater Wed. afteraoons. �-s- -4- Iadian Ghurch News (continued): Area News (continued): ~ MOUNT PLEASANT SAGINAW CHIPPEWA TRIBAL AFFAIRS OFFICE Isabella Chippewa Indian Reservati•n Route #4 Phoaes: (517) 772-5700 •r Meunt Pleasant, 1lich. 48858 772-5260 Open Monday through Friday with a variety of programs t• meet the •eeds of the reservatio• and rural I•dian colilliluaityi health, housilllg, culture, education, etc. Hosted a group of Indian organizations on Thursday, December 20 at 3PH te discuss the formatio• of a• all Indi&Jt Tecreation league. INDIAN MISSION OF SALEM Rev. Leuie Church, pastor Route #5, Allegan, V.ichig&Jl 49010 Phone: (616) 793-3473 SUNDAYS: services at 10.iM.with Su•day School classes followilllg. CE"-.IST.MAS PROGRAM: Moaday December 24 at ?PM. NEW YEAR'S EVE: service begias at 9PM, clcsi.g with Commuaion Service. ANNOUNCEMENT FROM UNIT 4, NORrHERN MICHIGAN c:JrTAWA ASSOCIATION: Dear Cuetemer: INDIAN CHURCH NEWS GRAND RAJ;ID_§ AMERICAN INDIAN GOSPEL CHURCH Rev. Joe Sprague, pastor 137 Meerse St., S. E. Grand Rapids, Mich. 49507 Phone: (616) 241-4961 SUNDAYS: moetillg temporarily at the Mel Trotter Missiea, 225 Commerce, s.w. from lOAM until 12 NOON. CHRISTMAS PROGRAM: December 23 at 8PM, Mel Trotter Mission. All are welcome. Because of the educational value of this large 16x22 calender, it is recemmeaded for offices and classrgoms as well as homes. This year it has a sturdy plastic binding that makes for easier hanging. The cest remai•s the same: $2.00, maki:itg it a beautiful but inexpensive gift. All prefits from these sales are used by the association for the furtherance of its goals. BRADLEY BRADLEY INDIAN CHAPEL Rev. Louis Church, pastor Route #5, Allegan, Mich. 49010 We have received our aew North American Iadiaa calenders fer 1974 f'rem Ak:Weeas:ile Notes. It is more colorful than last year and very complete i• the :narration of daily and monthly historical notes, and handsomely illustrated by leading India• artists. Phone: (616) 793-3473 SUNDAYS: Services at 11:30AM CHRISTMAS PROGRAM: Sunday, December 23 at 6PM Because we ran out last year we ordered more this year, but they are going fast! May we suggest that you order yours right away! Sincerely, JOE JOHN, chairma.JIJ. 326 Lafayette Ave., S.E. Grand Rapids, Mich. 49503 Phone: (616) 458-3569 �-7-6- SUMMARY OF l'HE INDIAN EDUCATION ACT: For your inf'ormation the Coalition of Eastern Native Americans has aummarized the Indian Education Act which has been funded recently for $40 million for Fiscal Year 1974. The Indian Education Act (Title IV of Public Law 92-318, Educational Amendments of 1972) is intended to serve the educational needs of Indians. The Act has five parts which provide for: Ac Financial assistance to Local Educational Agencies. B. Special programs and projects to improve educational opportunities for Indian children. C. Special programs relating to adult education for Indians. D. The creation of the Of'fice of Indian Education, the position of the Deputy Commissioner of Education, and t.he National Advisory Council on Indian Education. E. Miscellaneous provisions. PARL' A is intended t9_Pfovide financial assistance to Local Education Agencies {LEA sJ to develop and implement supple~ mentary educational programs designed to meet the special educational needs of Indian students. Tue following terms are defined undei· Part A: LEA -- (Local Education Agenc7) -- a board of education or other legal local school au-r.Aerity which administers public education in a to~nship, reservation, or other district. ENTITLEMENT -- an LF..A. must have at least 10 Indian children, or have at least 50% Iadian children enrQlled. USE OF FUNDS -- Part A money can be used for planning and other processes that lead to the development of programs specifically designed to meet the special needs of Indian children, including pilot projects. and ~stablishing, maintaining, and operating these~ kinds ~f programs that serve the needs of Indian children. ASSF.SSING NEEDS -- In designing a program, the LEA must assess the special needs of Indian children and consider including activities that build upon and support the heritage, traditions and lifestyle of the community being served in joint consultation with the Indian community and the parent committee~ Indian Education Act (continued): PARI' B authorizes a series of broad grant programs for special projects and programs to improve educational opportunities for Indian children. Priority is given to Indian tribes, organizations, and institutions in awarding grants under this part. ELIGIBILITY -- Grants can be made to Indian tribes, organizations, and institutions, state and local education agencies, and Federally-supported elementary and secondary schools for Indians. These grants can ·b• used for: 1. Planning, pilot and demonstration;.projects incluing: a. Innovative programs for educationally deprived children. b. Bilingual ~nd bicultural programs. c. Special health and nutrition services. d. coordination of other Federally-assisted Ind• ian education programs. 2. Educational enrichment programs and services, services not available now in sufficient quantity or quality. Examples authorized under this section include: a. b. c. d. e. f. g. b. Remedial and compensatory instruction. Academic and vocational instruction. Instructional materials and equipment. Comprehensive guidance, coUllseling, testing services. Special programs for the handicapped. Pre-school programs. Bilingual and bicultural educational programs. other services which meet the parpose of this section. 3. New programs and centers utilizing innovative educatioll8.l approaches and methods, designed to enrich programs of elementary and secondary education. P.AR:r C -- grants awarded under this section are designed to fund special programs which improve adult education for Indians. The defiJlition of "adult" is flexible and includes school dropouts, who are often quite young. Preference is given to Indian tribes, institutions, and organizations in awarding grants under this part of the Act. �-9- -8- Ind!. an &'lucation Act{continuedl: ELIGIBILITY AND PROGRAM'S PURPOSES -- local education agencies, state education agencies, Indian tribes, institutions and organizationg may apply for grants to support planning and demonstration projects which plan for, test and show the effectiveness of programs for providing adult education for Indians. These projects may include: 1. Programs to improve employment and education op- portunities for adult Indians. 2. Programs to stimulate provision of basic literacy opportunities to all non-literate Indian adults. 3 . Programs to provide opportunities for Indian a- dults to qualify for a high school equivalency certificate in as short a time as possible. 4. Programs to develop better techniques for attaining high school equivalency and employability. WHAT TO DO ABuur PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE PROBLEMS? As instructed by Part A of the Indian Education Act a group of Indian parents in a small community in southern Michigan set up a Parent Advisory Committee to advise the principal of their children's school on how they wished the Indian Education funds be spent. The principal, however, has decided to use the money to purchase new books for the school library. The parents feel that their children need other things more, such as tutoring and an improved hot lunch program. The director of Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs, George Bennett, would like to near from Parent Advisory Committees who are having these kindSof problems with their local education agencies, and will do everything he can to help them. He can be reached by writing or calling him at: Mr. George Bennett, director Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs 454 Hollister Building Allegan and Washington Streets Lansing, Michigan 48902 Phone: 517 - 373-0654 5. Survey and evaluation programs which define accur- ately the extent of the problems of illiteracy and lack of high school completion on Indian reservations. 6. Information on and evaluation of education programs offering opportunities to Indian adults. Public institutions and agencies, Indian tribes, institutioll!J a nd organizations are eligible for grants for projects which disseminate information about education programs, services and resources available to Indian adults, and evaluate the effectiveness of Federally-assisted programs that Indian adults may participate in. Indian communities and organizations should make the local school district, where Indian children attend, aware of the Indian Education Act and apply for funds to the Office of Indi. an Education in Washington, D.C. APPL I CAT ION DEADLINES ARE: PAR!' A: Local Education Agencies -- February 1974. PART B: Indian tribes, organizations, etc. --Dee. 28,1973 PAR!.' C: IadiaR tribea, organizatio.. , etc.--Dec.28, 1973 LISA MOSER: GIRL WITH A FOUR-SIDED JOB: Aa Native American Service Speciaiist in the Grand Rapids area public schools, Lisa Moser sees her job as having four sides or aspects: l. Keep an ongoing census of Native American studeats in the area schools. 2. Pinpoint those scheols with the highest concentrations of Native American atudeata at all three levels: elementary, juw.ier high, and high school. 3. Refer interested high school students for CGllege counselling. 4. Act as community liason between school and the etu~ dents' homes. The census she emphasized as bei111g absolutely necessary if the schools are to obtain funds from the India• Education Act for use to aid Native American students. "And the best way to do that, many in our area feel, is to improve curriculum, add audio-visual aids, and trai• teachers to be senilitive to the needs of Native American students," Lisa stated, adding, "This will help them better their classroom performance, thus giving wr___g_hildro the inceative te at.ay in school." �-10- ~11- Dead and Double Standard (continued2: Lisa Moser (continued): While her census work must have first priority now, she hopes to lla.ve it methodized sooa, so that she will be able to do more home visitations. "But right n.ow it is very important for parents to contact me if they think that their children are u'b on the census as Indians," emphasized Lisa. Her temporary office is in the Bilingual Office of the Board of Education While her permanent office is being readied at Sibley School. She spoke of her gratitude for the cooperation she is receiving from both the schools and the Illdia:a cemmu:n.ity. 11 The Grand Rapids later-Tribal Center has been real helpful," she said, "It is wonderful to be able to call there anytime of the day and get the support that I do." Lisa, a Native American herself, and husband Dan reside at 508 Prospect., N.E. They have a three year old son, Eri:a. Lisa can be reached by writing or calling; Lisa Moser Bilingual Office, Bd. of F.d., 143 Bestwick, N.E. Grand Rapids, Mi. 49502 :Ma. Phone: 456-4999 THE DEAD AND THE OOUBLE STANDARD: On Dec. 4, 1973 Native Americans held a ceremonial march in Detroit to celebrate the filing i:a Federal court of a petition to have the last portion of Michigan Public Law 750.160 declared unconstitutional, for P.L. 750.160 says: Any person, not being lawf'ully authorized so to d•, who shall wilfully dig up disinter, remove or convey away any human body, or the remains thereof, from the place where such body may be interred or deposited, or who shall knowingly aid in such ••• , er who shall mutilate, deface, remove or carry away any portion of the dead body of any person, whether in their charge for burial or otherwise, whenever such ••• is not necessary in any proper operation in embalming such body or for the purpose of a post-mortem examination, and every person accessory thereto, either before or after the fact, shall be guil~y of a felony, punishable by imprisonment. in the state prison not more than 10 years, or by fine of not more than 5,000 dellars: Provided, that this section shall not be construed to prehioit ti}~ digging up, dis1nterme•t removal or car awa for e c Purposes e e remains of prehitt•ric persons Two professors of &11thropology at Grand Valley State College were asked vtny 'scientific institutions' are se interested in the remai:as •f 'prehistoric persona' and 'erigiaal inhabita•ta'. Dr. Richard Flanders feels there is ne longer the iRterest i• them that there used to be. "There is really o•ly so much you can learn from bones," he said, adding that "much more illt'ormatio•"about &ll li.ncie•t civilizatio:a can be gette:a from the study of former village sites allld other places used by these peoples l•lllg age. He emphaaizecl that ".aoat. professie11&l archeel•gists have become very concerJted about hew the Iadia:a people feel regardi:ag this aJlld we are trying to f:i.Jld ways t• keep fr•m •ffendimg them.~ Dr. Fl~nders mentioned how the C•lli"erence o:a Michigan Archeology (COMA) had met with the late Johll Wi:ac~ester in June, 1973 to discuss this very problem. Profess•r Richard Maluuf alse showed concern for Native American feelings and beliefs, but he thillks that Anthropology ~~11 suffer i f these ancient remains c&JU1.•t be studied. When asked what ca:a be learited fr()l!l them be said, 11 A great deal. ~en a society has not left any books •r writings, we must 'read' everything els• they have left - tools, cooki111g utensils and cookillg' fires, foundations of their houses and temples, a:Rd so on. One of the most important sources are their burials; these tell us a lot about the people." But exactly vtnat can be learned from the physical remains of a people? Professor Malouf replied, "From the skeletal remains we can learn tne average height, their ages at death, the sex, and often we can ge~ some clues about 'I.hat kind of diet they ate from the condition of the teeth, and something of their physical condition: if they had broken bo•es or diseases of' t.he t>.:aea. 11 He returned t• the subject of village-sites. "Theee also tell us a.lot about the peeple - about their s•cial habits. We ca• •ften tell h•w l•ng they lived ia a place, perhaps what ki•d of geveI'Jlll1ent they had. From the kitche:a middens --that is our werd for gar~ dump-- we can efte• learn what they ate at various times and seasoRs, and about how many people lived there.'' As to the question of what this could mean to the Indian of today, he admitted it had little "except that our findings can give them more C<>JICrete kn:>wledge about their ancestors." �-13- -l2- Dead and Doµble Sta•d•rd (continued): 11 A:D.d as more and more groU1ld is cevered with parking lots and buildi:ag constructions," Prof'. Malouf' went o:n, "more and more archeological sites are being lost forever. This puts a questioa iA my mind. Whe• a prehistoric site is accidentally discovered during the construction of' a building or parkimg lot, would the IndiaB people ebject to archeologists being called in to remove remains found --whether it is bones or pottery-which they would like to study fer a short ti~e, and then return them to either an Indian group or arrange for their reburial themselves?" Both pro:fessors were emphatic i11. their certainty that "•• one is going out &Jl.d deliberately looking fer burials nowadays. We don't want te offend the India• people. There has been too much of that already!" If the other members o:f the Co».ference o• Michigan Archeology feel the same way as Dr. Flanders and :11.r. Malouf' say they do, the• it would seem that they would have no objection to the changing of' Public Law ?50.160, if the Indian people desire · it. SPECIAL FEATURE i ' ' (Jackson correspondent Stewart A. H. Rodda sent us this shert but true Christmas story.) My -.a.me is "Short Bull". I am Oglala Sioux. This is a true story of me back in the year 1966, on December 24 at white man's Christmas time. I was dowa there in Pikeville Kentucky with my Grand Uother. It was the night befere the Lord's birthday as we talked about her youth a•d the great things ehe did and saw with her ewa eye. the air was colder than ice on the river and the snow as thick as the leaves on the Oak tree. She told me her ll&llle was "Swan Creek" alld of all the wenders she 'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY saw her Father and her Brothers do when she was a ••• and lots e:f little I:ndi&ll folks were just that at the Christmas parties given for them. child. The Grand Valley American I•dian Lodge had the best tur:ia-out ever at their party on December 1. And why not! Bozo the CleWll from T-V 13 came to add to the merriement. The roems ef the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Center were wall to wall with people •f all sizes and ages at their party Saturday December 15, where Santa Claus (a• ably portrayed by Chuck J•lutsen) gave away gifts donated by the sweet Adelines and the Human Relations CemmissiGm of the Catholic Diecese ef Grand Rapids (in other words, Father Van Lente!) and lusci0us refresh ments had been prepared by Rita Blumke and Mickey Keogima. That night Altd right at the climax ef the story how the Bear almest ate her when she was •nly twelve years old _ her eyes shined like a great fire and the moon became as bright as the sun, then the warm wind started to melt all the snow. I was so scared to feel the warmth from the moon -- that "Great Frost on Tipi '' moeJl. It stayed warm for two weeks and I heard all kinds of tales f from her past, and the best stery she told me was when f1 her Mother knew Chief Red Cloud and was one of his favorite women at that time. ~ Gerry Short Bull Samons #132835 P.O. Box E Jackson, Mich. 49204 �-14,plS- 11& ,PPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY, INDIAN NATIONS UNITED! Om December 8, 1973 members of Imdian Nations United at the State Prison ef SoutheMl Michigan, Jacksoa, celebrated their first anniversary frem 12:30!'].! Ulltil 4PM wit.A i•vited guests frem the outside, The festivities begaa with a coffee and get-aquainted secial. The INU histery was presented during the banquet cf fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, hot biscuits and salad -- catered ia. Guest speakers w~r~ Harry Command, directer of American IndiaJt Services, Inc., Detroit; Joseph Joh•, chairma~ of Uait 4, Northern Michigan ottawa Association, Grand Rapids; and Kennetlt Pashenee. Awards in the f~rm of plaques e:agraved with aa eagle feather and it~s recipie:at's mame were presented, one ~f which was given to Jee Joha, inscribed as follews: THE EAGLE FEATHER In India:a Race, is a mark of hoRor and Distinctio:a. It was only earned with Great difficulty and was Never lightly regarded. The Indian Nations United is Glad to Award an Eagle Feather to JOSEPH JOHN The a~ernoon ended with closing commeats the missio:a ef I:adiam Nations United and the :fUture. - All Endless J~urmey - the first few miles ef our jourlley are now behind us my brothers I they >ve1•e len1g and difficult miles yet even :aew we canaet rest I fer the 1!llil:Ay miles ahead •f us premise te be difficult ••es also I only let us ask the Great Creator for his guidance throughout the remaiader of our long journey ••• IN FAITH FROU THE PEOPLE OF TnE I.N.U. WHAT CAN I DO? If you desire to help toward gaining recognition for !.1J. Native America• Indians If you believe .!l! Native American Indians have not beea treated justly If you believe the Bureau ef Indian Affairs should not discrimi;aate betweea Indians whether they are ef reservatio:a er ten-reservation status If you believe every Indian should be free te cheese wtaere What. Can I Do? (continued): he wishes to live (such as in areas of greater eppertunity) and still have !1l rights and benefits due him uader Federal Services for Indians "throughout t.he United States •• " If you believe that you should be consulted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs conceMling your tribal affairs - even though you are n.ot "erga11ized under their rulings" THEN YOU SHOULD - (1) Write your senators and representatives and t~11 "\ltem; (2) Cooperate by united effort (3) Get the cooperation ef all organizations, clubs, news media, uniens, churches and individuals. Ask that they write resolutions er letters ef suppert to governmental officials at State and National levels in order that Bureau of Indian Affairs "policy" .....\)e ~ha-nged. Ask that~ Indians, regardless of their status, be eligible for all rights and benefits due Indians ••• as stated by the Snyder Act ef 1921. (4) Insist •• your rights as a "first-class citizen" yeur rigat t• be heard and yeur decisions concerni-.g your affairs be honored b•th •• the lecal and legislative level. FOOD FOR THOUGHT Ceafiaement withi• areas ef definite bouadaries (reservatiens is the white man's idea - the Indian was free uatil confined by the white society. Your ancestors were never ''Federally" orgainzed vthen their lands were taken from them. ACT NOW ** IDN 'T WAIT Rl!lbert Domi:aic P. o. Box 235 Petoskey, Mich. 49770 �-16IN ADDITION TO I tmAT CAN I DO I .;;.;,;. -17- We suggest that each and every adult Native American "be a registered voter and vote their opinion at each election. Our legislatures ca?lJ!\ot ignore even a small vote bloc. Also, perhaps a person that does not vote has •o right to complai•. JOE JOHN, Unit BOOK REVIEW 4 1 NMOA by joy DOG STORY. By Oren Lyens. Holiday House, new York, 1973. 32 P• .$3.95. DOG STORY is the simple title of a new book by Oren Lyons, Onendaga traditional leader, about a tee•-age boy and lti• . dog. Fr111m the moment the boy first saw her, snarling at the end of her chain, he was drawn to her. Vr'heh the animal finally accepts the bey a friendship begins which makes them partners i• the ·J!erieus business ef hunting for feed that puts meat •• the table of the fatherless family. The author has filled the pages with finely drawn. black and white drawi:ags. It is a haunti:ag story that moves across the heart. It has been reccemmended by the Library Project Sta:t't' of the National Indian Educatie• Association. all ~RAYER FOR MANKIND The Earth Mother calls us come hither, Alld pray fer the visi~n nearly lost. The old that is strong does Bot wither, BACK TALK Letters from our re•ders Dear Shirley V. Francis, I am i•terested in the b•ok or paper. I would like to be on your mailing list. I am Potawat0mie IndiaR. I like te and de daitce. In my end •f the country there isn't much India• activity. I am trying to get a small greup together ••• I like te do all Indian cra~s, and trying te find a place to hold meetings ••• I have beeR bard at work tryi'Plg to learn. how to tan and turn deer hides into leather ••• Working 8 to 10 hours a day makes things slew going. I work the night shift ••• but I spend lots •f time on my Indian cra~s , as I am learning as I am doing. I lcn.ow it costs"t• de tnis kind of thing as money is hard to get for this subject, so am enclesing my doJtation. So God bless yeu all and thank you. Clarence White, South Bend~Ind. Dear Francis, I'm white but I still want very much ta learn mere about the real people ••• Grace E. Slanda, Hartford_,. COD, r.~s. Dear Editor, I have just received your most welcome D.'DIAN TALK IN , sourHERN MICHIGAN, and was very pleased tG kl'low that I was added to your mailing list ••• As chairman of the Indian Nations United culture group her in the Southerl!I. Michigan State Prison I was also happy to know that we were also added to your list, and I would personally like te take this opportunity to extend to you our most deep appreciation for remembering us behind the walls of the Iron-House, and hepe that such consideration will continue into the future -- as long as there is a Native American behind the four-grey walle ! -· · - ~ Gelelemand, Jackson. - · Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be the heop that was broken, And peace the Great Spirit will bring. Dear Friends, We were happy te,receive your news letter. It leoks real good. 'f.ish we could have been at the naming ceremony festivities ••• We sure send our best wishes for the success of the paper. It sounde like you got a gr~at bUJlleh of people to help en it ••• ~om Dashner says she likes the paper al•t tee ••• Best ef luck, fl!ary Berryman, Lansing, Mich. (Frem a Holiday SeaseR card sent •ut by the Lester Gemmills) 11 Bee Shoo Shirley, Vie were very disappointed with the articles you wrote •.;,fll INDIAN TALK. Legally, pro~essienally, and just as a fellow human yeu should clear your articles with the people you write about before they are published. We realize that you are just �-1.8- Back Ta1k - getting started with the booklet and ways of traditienal-minded people - als0 the difficulties ef this pesition. Vie have tur•ed dewn many requests by reperters, companies and private interests who wished to de steries, features, etc., about our persenal lives and place. Mainly because we new that this type ef publicity destreys the love and fellowship of the Sacred Hoop. Please refrain from writing or discussing anything in the :f'uture abeut our ••• lives and the sacred place where we live. It is our prayer to Grandi"ather that yeu will understand our mi•d 8.Jld hearts in this matter ••• We eurselves have tailed if we conveyed in any way that the sacred ceremony we had here was t• shew eff eur accomplishments - for that is ••t the traditi•Jt.&l way! Nane withheld (:&liter's Note: LETS WISE UP! 1. The OVTl We ~/~c~ ------.:::"'~~,,~'\ ._""', ~ -'// 'l / "~' '-\'\ / ~;;--: ,,---- /, >;?::--- letters from readers (continued): / -j I / ' _:f/ / / / I L-/ ,,::::::]'I r:>-1JV~ -- ' I , j /, , //, // / I ,', /,/' , / / , ' - ,, \' \ -.: - \' -- - : ,,x-:::'~<:::: ' ' ','\ ' "'\.~-· '< ,, ,::;,,.---_ -~ \ -19- ~ ' have a let te learn!) India~ Outreach's Ten Steps We admit drinki11g brings problems in our lives and i• ethers we ceme in contact with. 2. :aelieve in a Great Spirit "Ged", as we understand him. 3. Admit to the Great Spirit "Ged", that we are doing wrong and ask him fer his forgiveness. 4. Go back and see the preblems, which drinking has made in the past, in our lives. 5. Ask the Great Spirit "Ged" to change eur lives to a better pattern. - 6. Ask .the Great Spirit "God" t<> come int• ()Ur lives and lead us in the right way. 7. Continue to look back ever our lives and see the change. 8. Always be willing te forg ive our brothers and sisters and te help them Ml.en possible. 9. Always looking up in the morning, ask the Great Spirit "Ged" to help us threughout the day. 10. Thank Lim in the evening fer each little thing he has done in keeping us from hann and danger. I University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan League Ballroom January 12, 1 p.m.- midnight January 13, 1 p.m.-5 p.m. open drum visiting drums and traders welcome �-20- HALFBREED S I 0 UX by Stewart American Horse nsdda -21Half Breed Sioux (continued): Don't you think the half breed is immensely There is a chlDlge of heart taking ever Pr•ud of his Indian heritage? The people now, Don't you think he's concer~ed Prefers to be called Indian, he is about the Plight of the Indian people? Look at Quanah Parker, he was a half breed, And Chief and great leader of his people -- The The half breed has feeling too. Finding more places to be accepted. ON Comanche. We're not Living in the eld days any more, when The half breed was called THE ~ ' PERSONAL SIDE JUDY RAPHAEL is recoveriw.g from major surgery early in December alld is now h"me from the hospital. Husband Joe, Monica and Marcia were pretty glad to have her safe at heme again, at 3370 Dean La.ke Road, S.E., Grand Rapids, Mi. 49505. ~! The kalf breed is fighting a battle that All mixed brothers & sisters are, B~en and when the half breed raised en a reservatio•. th~t haven't They either Have to be Indian or white, but can't be -They can't live in two worlds. both. The way that The white man's laws were set up were Intended to divide our Indian people: Its school days o•ce more fer CHESTER EAGLEMAN. He takes a leave •f absence i~ order te enter graduate scho0l at Weste~ Michigan University. Chet was the guidi:iig light and first chairman of the Grand Rapids I~ter-Tribal Council. Few kRow ef the couatless lu•ch hours he gave up se that he ceuld speak t• various civic greups and organizatiens abeut the need for an Indian center i• Grand Rapids. Countless, tee, the eveni:iig aru;l weekend h@urs he gave up with Rutn and the children in order to meet with cemmittees, give more talks, a•d lay the fou•datiea fer the highly successful center that the Indian Cemmul'lity ef the Gra.lld Rapids area has teday! Good luck te a dedicated manl Its eff to Washington, D.C. for the Percy isn't a protest march or another invasion merely te spend the Helidays with Percy's In keeping with the energy crisis, Percy, Patrice are making the trip by plane. They tried to tell eur forefathers that a person of mixed blood wasn't an Indian. St. Cl.airs. Ne, it ef the B.I.A., but sister and mether. Jeanette and Liz and And at that time the white man was It was ice cream, seven-up and pepsicles fer ROSS FRANCIS, just as Mem aad Dad had premised, but with th0se tonsils just eut, they didll't taste all that good! Looked up to so our people believed that a Breed was just different. The half breed has always been put down. Because of his skin color he's the subject ll I can speak with knowledge and conviction. of jokes. JOE JOHN never misses an Gppertunity te plug fer the American Indians. He was the speaker at the November meeting •f the Blind Men's Discussion Greup 0f the Association f•r the Blind, where he speke on "presel'lt day events as they relate te the American Indians". Joe is a member ef this group also, and thus .is well-a~uainted with beth the preblems ef the Indian and •f the blind. This guy is just tee busy te let either ki•d get him doWJt! �-22IN .MEMORIUM -23- * * * December 1973 Baby Terisa Lyma Jarmo•, Sih•ees ("Little Ste•e") Mcrn-Dih-Nelt.-Nah, 10 menth eld darling daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tem Jarme•, Route #'2, Wayland, passed away after a sltert illness en Nevember 27, 1973. Mrs. Jarmo• is the former Marian Peters ef Bradley. Burial was in the Bradley I•dian Cemetary en November 30, 1973. 'nte whole I•dian cellllllUJlity weeps with the bereaved family ever their less ef their precieus one. Leek, my child, who is ceming u•te yeu; Look up, my little ene, JleW your treuble gees away, away; Leek! Abeve you flies e•e who guards yeu, Whese presence brings you jey. Now your serrew has departed. (Frem American I•dian Peetrx. Ed. by G. w. Cre•YJl• N.Y; Ballanti•e Beeks, Inc. p.332) A CHAT WITH THE DIRECTOR OF THE MICHIGAN COMMISSION ON INDIAN AFFAIRS; GEORGE BENNEI'T TUESDAY DECEMBER 12. 1973 Indian Talk: What de yeu see as the most pressing werk fer I•dian people right new? Afr. The most immediate jeb at halld is te get Title J:V ef the I•dian Education Act geing. Te get funds fer schools we must have an accurate census. Te see that the f'unds are used wisely in the local scheols there must be a• I•dian Pare•ts Advisery Cemmittee set up in each ene. This is vital. Bennett: Indian Talk: What is happening to the Cemmissien? Mr. Be:rmett: M seen as I was appeinted te the effice ef direc·- ter I began te think about the lack of stability ~t the Commission en Indian Affairs staff has. Net e•ly my self, but everyeJl.e of the staff is appeinted. That means with every guberaaterial election we face dismissal. Beginning JaJtuary l the Commiesien will be subject to ?:.ichigan Civil Service. Everyone including my self has had to take Civil Service exams recently to qualify fer eur ap~•inted pesitiens. Even though I may •et be arou•d after January 1 because of this, I strongly feel this will make fer a better eemmissien. Dear Reader: Si•ce this is ealy the secend issue ef INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN t• arrive at y•ur deer it is dif- ficult for y~u te decide whether you sheuld try eur "pig i:a a poke". That is understandable. I• these days of tight meney and ef energy shortages no one wants waste a single dellar, let alene two. But maybe that is why you sheuld subscribe to INDIAN TALK. Have yeu ever gene t• Where yeu heard there was geiJtg to be a meeting, oaly to find ~ut that it had already been held, er was going to be held the following week? Last summer ene couple heard about a pew wew, get on a bus, the• took a taxi (with their last dollar) e:aly te arrive at the pew wew greunds to learn that it weuld •et. begin until the next day. We hope that INDIAN TALK will keep many ef theae incidents from happenil'!g by keeping you abreast ~f the news as te when and where things are taking place. Have yeu ever tried te get your news and views published in yeur local newspaper? If they did wera you satisfied With the way they chopped yeur article dewa to five lines? And af'ter yeu werked twe days te get the right wording ~o express What you wanted to say! Of course editing is necessary • bu~ here at :qTI)IAN TALK we want your articles and letters, your news and •Pi•i•ns. Because ItIDIAN TALK was fou•ded fer the sole purpese of serving the I•dian cemmunity. Yeur twe dellars a year will bri:ag yeu news, views and ini'ormati•• impesaible te ebt.ai• more cheaply in any ether way. Sincerely yours, THE CO.l.!MITTEE for INDIAN TALK in SuUTHE&"i MICH •. - - - - - - - - - - - - Ttear here) - - - - - - - - - - - - - ::lear INDIAN TALK Committee: 457 Briarweed SE, Grand Rapids, MI. 49506 _YES, here is my two dollars(check or H.O. prefeIT&d) fer a year's subscription. _:re, I am not interested. ~-Keep NAI.!E me on the mailing list. ADDRES~'~S,,..-~~~~~~~~~~~-c=IT=--Y I will send $2.00 later. STATE ZIP -- �-24- RECCOMMB2IDEP REAPING o911lpiled by the Library Pr•ject Staff •f the Nati•aal I•dian Educati•n Ase•ciati••· AMERICAN INDIAN ARI': FORM AND TRADITION. By The Walker Art Center and The MiJUteapelis Institute •f Arts. Dutt•n, New Yerk, 1972. 154 p. ~12.95 hd. bk. /$8. 00 paper. · Catal•g ef the highly successful exhibiti•n of American Indiall art. This work iKcludes essays by s•me •f the m•st distil'lgUished pecple in India• art t•day. Reproductions are excellent. A must beek. ONE HUNDRED MILLION ACRES. By Kirke KickiDgbird a•d Kare• Ducheneaux.MacMillan, New Yerk, 1973 240 P• $6.95 A bl•ckbuster ef a be•k, Which at the same time relates.hew I•dia•s were parted from their land and argues fer its return, te ferm a viable land bnse. Thia beak is •e legal text, but is written fer the nermal persoll te understand a•d act upo•. Thie is a must beek. The auth•re are Native Americans. TO LIVE ON THIS EARTH a AAlERICA.'llj' INDIAN EDUCATION. By Estelle Fuchs a•d .R ebert J. Havighurst. Deubleday, Garden City, N.y. 1973. 375 p. $8.05. The meat impertant beek in the field ef Indian Edueatie•. Fuchs alld Havighurst presellt the syn•peis a•d ~i•di-.gs •f their m••umelltal study •f I•dian 9ducatien i• a well written and documented form. This is a must beek. YOUR LIBRARY CAN '- GET TJr8SE BOOKS FOR YOU! �(1) ' ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ V'\ I � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v1n2_1974-01 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk in Southern Michigan, December 1973/January 1974 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974-01 Description An account of the resource December 1973 and January 1974 (Volume 1, Numbers 2 and 3) issue of Indian Talk in Southern Michigan by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/faec7d81bab9e1ab8bd1f5521714dcbd.pdf be2a6c40d660c67ad3f2dc05a8286299 PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN ·· ~ ~:~ >i . # .. • • , •.• ., . Vol. 1 No.4 OBJIBWA OUILL DESIGNS Very Old Thunderbird Designs Feb.,1974 �INDIAN TAL K IN Vol, I No. 4 SO U THERN M ICHIGAN Febru£Y 1974 : Devoted to the news and views of the Indian Community in southern Ltlchi.gan COMMITl'EE: Dejay Elk Irene Elk Shirley Francis Simon Francis Jr. Nancy Grabiak Joe John Calvin Noel J<te Raphael Joy Sorenson EDITOR'S ADDRESSa Shirley v. Francia 457 Briarwood S,E, Grand Rapids, Mi, 49506 Ph: 1 - 616 - 459-2169 SUBSCRIPI'ION: $2,00 per year (or donation) DEADLINE FOR NEWSa The lfil'eh of the month. SPECIAL CORRF.s?O!IDENTS. Stewart American Horse Rodda •••••••••••••• Jackson (SMSP) John I.fuse (Ph: 313 931-6438) •••••••••••••• ,Detroit area Carol Bennett (Ph: 517 482-4645) ••••••••••••••• Lansing Uargaret Sowmick (Ph: 517 773-3743), ••••••• Ltt.. Pleasant Viola Peterson (Ph: 313 655-8492), ••••••••••• Flint area PUBLISHERS: P.08Q~'!!.....,..._ INDIAN TALK IN SClJl'HERN MICHIGAN is published by a committee of concerned men and women fr om the Indian community with the hope that through the printed word all may become aware of the common concerns of Indian people, and thus aid a nd support each other in attaining their goals. IN;)IAN TALK IN SvUTHERN MICHIGAU is not affiliated with any sect, organization or institution. It's only purpose is to provide lines of communication -- between all Indian ~oups, between Indian people, and between Indian and non-Indian. HELP WA:.ITw! Got news you want to share? Want to announce your engagement? Your job promotion? The arrival of the new baby? Your •1acation trip plans? !-ioving? Bought a house? OU TIIB p;::_~ONAL SIDE is our colurrm f or just such !!ews. Cont.act the Special correspondent for your area (see list above) or mail to the Editor direct before the 15th of the month, and we will see that YOUR news gets around! -1A::-!-i A.uOR ::tEFO.?.T: ~ ·.'ie have F3ul Johns on's peI'l'.!ission to :-e;irint] the following summary of the progress "!:le:'..~ !!lade in the lawsuit on behalf of the Chippewa, Ott.aw'3. and _.Pott.awatomi children of Michigan against the University of !Hchigan. P'ATUS P..EPO?a': THE FORI' MEIGS TREATY LAWSUIT "The university spends more money educating Indians from tlombay and Calcutta than it does Indians from Bay City and Cheboygan." --Paul J. Johnson On August 5, 1971 a lawsuit against the Regents of the University of Michigan was filed in Washtenaw (Ann Arbor) Circuit Court bJT Paul J. Johnson, Chippewa, on behalf oft.he children of the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomy Tribes, This litiga• tion seeks an accounting of the monies received by t.he University from the sale of Indian educational trust lands. In August, 1817 Governor Lewis Cass formally incorporated the University of Michigan and was elected President of the Board of · Regents. In September , 1817 Lewis Cass draf'ted and signed the Treaty of Fort Meigs: Indian signers to this Treaty were the sachems, chiefs and warriors of the Chippewa, Ottawa and Pot.awatomy Tribes. Most of the articles of the Treaty dealt with the cash sale of Indian lands: however, in Article Sixteen the Tribes conveyed 4 1 000 acres of land to the University of ~ichigan; no money was paid to the Trlb es for this land. The University agreed ,in Article Sixteen to educate Indian children. The Treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate and signed by President James Monroe. The original Treaty is on deposit in the National Archives in Washington, D.e. In January, 1826 President ~onroe issued a patent deed f or the 4 7 000 t.r-Jst acres to 11 The University of Michigan" under authority of ut.he sixteenth article of a Treaty, made and concluded" with the Tribes. This document is recorded by the Wayne County Register of Deeds, During the 19th Century the University sold the land. No complaint is made in the lawsuit against the buyers of the land, The Tribes insist, however, that the University bas a legal duty as trustee to make accounting to the Circuit Court for the monies received from sale of the lands. Also, the Tribes assert that the University, as trustee, has a l~l duty to account for profits realized from sale of the land. The position of Plaintiffs is that this money should be used to educate Indian children. �-2- ann arbor report (continued): the fort meigs treaty lawsuit In 1885 Thomas ?.:cintyre Cooley, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and former Dean of U. of M.'s law school, stated that the value of the lands was greater than that given by John Harvard to Harvard University and ~eater than that with which Elihu Yale endowed Yale University 'And quite as justly entitles Tontagini and his associate chieftains to grateful remembrance among the founders of colleges." At the time this lawsuit was filed in 1971, less than 20 Native Americans•- WePe enrolled in a student body exceeding 40,000. While totally ignoring the educational rights of the descend• ants of the Treaty signatories, the University has continued to display the bones of Native Americans as well as two ''cigar store Injuns" in its museums. The University annually indulges itself in a racist "fraternity" initiation known as ?iichigamua; this charade involves White students masquerading as Indians in a disgusting and degrading manner and assigning to themselves "Indian" names. ( • There are now 40 Indian students.--ed.) While the ~niversity in its official publications recognizes , receipt of 40 acres of land from Ann Arbor citizens for its · main campus at a time when it had been in existence for 20 years, it totally ignores receipt of 100 times that acreage from the Chippewa, ottawa and Potawatomy Tribes when it was , only a month old! The University of r.!ichigan is the largest tax exempt institution in the state. Its official "Fact Br-ochure" states that its budget this year exc2eded $300 Million Dollars and that the value of its physical plant alone exceeds a Half-Billion Dollars. The lawsuit battles have waged on, first in State Court, then in Federal Court, and then back in State Court where as of December 31, 1973, a motion is still being considered by Judge Deake. WF..AT WE ',,"ILL DO IN 1974 Although the usual procedure required by law is that a defend~ ant must t'ile Answer within20 days of the date it is served with the Complaint, the law makes . an exception in that, instead of filing Answer, a defendant "may take such action as may be permitted by law." That is what the Defendant in this lawsuit has elected to do; thus Defendant has been dilatory and permitted ~efault to enter against it; it has sued the Plaintiffs in federal court saying that they were wrong to be in state court; after being thrown out of the federal court it came back to state court and said that the Tribes were in the wrong state court; after losing on that motion the University then lodged the charge that Plaintiffs "have f&l.ed to state a claim"!!! -3- ann arbor report (continued): the fort meigs treaty lawsuit At such time as an Answer is received from the Defendant the Plaintiffs are ready to ~ove to the proofs in this case. Our expert witnesses are prepared _for deposition and the documentary proof is ready to be offered into evidence. Thus, if no appeal of the ruling expected shortly from Judge Deake is taken to Lansing, we may be ready to have trial on the merits sometime in late 1974 or early 1975. THE FUT'lJRE: DOES THE RU--LE OF LAW APPLY TO INDIANS? We deal here with the problem of enforcing a written agreement. We seek the realization of the reasonable expectations that were induced in the forefathers by the ;vritten promise made by the first president of the Board of Regents. The title of the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomy peoples to their lands was the most ancient, pure and absolute known to man; its validity confirmed by possession ani enjoyment antecedent to all pretense of claim by the Regents of the University of I.Lichigan or any other portion of the human race. The consent of the Indian peoples at Fort Meigs in 1817 was indispensable to a valid transfer of their title to tne Regents of the U. of M. The Chippewa, ottawa and Potawatomy peoples have existed as a distinct community for a period extending _ into antiquity beyond ~he aates and records and memory of man. We stand at the bar of justice of the Circuit Court for tne County of Washtenaw, itself named ror the Chippewa word "Washte-nong" meaning "t.he place of the great beyond." It is the destiny of this Court at this moment in the existence of this Indian community to interpret the Treaty that is a part of their washtenong. While sone say that even at this point we have been in Court too long, the complexity and power of the ideas and forces here joined require that the Court should move slowly but surely toward its responsibility of insuring that justice is done. The writer wishes to express his appreciation to those Native Americans who have given their encouragement and commitment to this test of the White Man's system of justice. It is my belief that the courts of this state will not turn their backs on 500 years of the development of the Law of Trusts. It is my hope and belief that great good for all the people of this state will flow from the final adjudication of the rights of the Children of the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomy Tribes. In the last analysis the vision of the sachems, chiefs and warriors in 1817 at Fort Ueigs will be reaffirmed and ttrese Plaintiffs will achieve justice. --Elmer E. ltbite �ANN ARBOR REPORT (continu~d): 'U!fIVZ..::> II'Y OF MICHIGAU 'S PRESENT NATIVE M:EIUCAN -4- P~~. Tbe condescending tone of the two-page brochure describing the l'Tative American Program at the University of Michigan is enough to disc:ourage any American Indian student from applying :for admission to that illustrious institution. The brochure states that while the University of' Michigan is anxious to have American Indians apply, it only wants those "for whot:l we can predict a probability of success." It then hastens to add that Native Americans will not be judged by "the same guidelines as other applicants" since it recognizea that "certain segments of our population, such as Native Americans, should be judged by a somewhat different criteria." It seems to me the University of Michigan automa~ically assumes that the American Indians will naturally be accademically below par for it states that while considering each applicant's school records a:z:D test scores, itthem." will also "try to look at the many variables that inf'luence 3ut the brochure warns the American Indian student that he will "have to go through normal application procedures." It then de' tails all the extra :forms he will have to fill out merely because he is an American Indian! If' he can't afford the application fee he must write a letter saying so and attache it to his application. Then he must get a form on which to request an application fee grant. :re must be sure to check #24 on his application "to be considered as an Opportunity student", and #25 "to be considered for :financial aid. 11 If' he is tra:is:fering :t'rom another college he should check #25 and #30. A:fter he is notified o:f his acceptance the American Indian St~dent will receive information on how to &et :financial aid. He will have to prove his American IndiannesSf!nd so while waiting :for this inforoation he should write to the Scholarship Off'icer at the Keeweenaw .3ay Tribal Center at Bqraga, Uich. for a form which he must then take to his tribal of'fice to have them certi:fy how much Indian blood he has. It doesn't say what or where he is to do with this 'form, but I assume he is to keep it handy and be able to show it on denand. Anyway, he must now tell the Office of Financial Aid that he is American Indian so that it can give him "certain necessa~ f'orr.1s so that it can conduct a need analysis ±:or them, "thus enabling them to prepare a "package" f'or him. This tidy package thst will ;;set him through school "may consist of' an Opportunity Grant, American Indian Scholarship Fund, US B.I.A. Grant or , Tribal Grant, Work/Study and/or a r:iinimal loan." In addition, r if' they · can afford it, his. :!'amily "may be asked to c::ake a · personal :fim~ncial contribution to tnis package.'' It is not evident to me that the University of' l:ichigan r~ally ~esires Native American ~tudents. even though the bro- ann arbor reoort (cont'd): -Su of m's native american program chur~ of~ers them a chance to live together in a single residence hall "so that the:r can aid each other with the adjustment and studies." But the University has put some very f'ine Indian people on its staff'. Since it has the reputation of' being one of the better schools of the country, and since the Fort Ueigs 1'reaty L!iwsuit won't be settled for some time yet, this native American Program may be your only chance. So ~nat have you got to lose? Why not contact Linda Dixoi:!< the Native Ar.lerican Admissions Counselor (who is Ottawa herself') at the University of l'.ichigan, 1220 Student Activities Building Ann Arbor, !.Heh. 48104, (313) 764-7433. --shirley francis DETROIT REPORI' received this very 'fine summary from1 lJohn Muse and his daughter Sandra. J fwe A SUMMARY OF INDIAN HAPPENINGS: 1973 The year 1973 has been another hectic year :for the Indian People across the country. THE AGOUY OF Tfu: B.I.A. Broken and leaderless as 1973 opened the B.I.A. was under the two-caretaker directorates of' Richard s. Bodua.n and Marvin L. Franklin. Its operations were scattered in three locations. Morale in the 16,000 employee agency ebbed to the vanishing point. In September President Nixon nominated and the Senate conf'irm~d in late November ?Jr. Morris Thompson to head the Bureau of' Indian Affairs. He will have his hands full trying to put this agency into some sort of direction. THE OCCUPATION OF \~OUNDED KNEE The whole world watched and listened as the American Indian Movement woved in and beld this tiny - village in Sout:h Dakota for 71 days, r8sulting in the deaths of two people inside and the wotinding of' two federal marshals outside. 'l'!Je looked for proper recognition of American Indians was not achieved as was hoped, and now trial dates have been set f'or leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks w'hile 103 others face long battles in court. RESTORATION OF WISCONSIN'S mmot.ililIBE TRIBE This story is one o:f the brighter ones of 1973. One o:f the most sophisticated congressional lobbj~ate in ID!1lan history · :la Ada ..!Ir,.._ - ... {, - - - ...'-' �-6- ~ -7- detroit report: a summary of indian happenings: 1973 (cont'd) Deer, who single-handedly waged and won lators to have her tribe, the Menominee to tribal status. [They were terminated with disasterous results~ , Who says one the battle with legisof Wisconsin, restored as a tribe in the 1950 ~ person doesn't count?! THE DEATH OF O.E.O. On January 9, 1973, President Nixon announced, with the disclosure of his new federal budget, that he would close the doors of the O:i"fice of Economic Opportunity, established by former President Johnson .~Jring his War on Poverty. O.E.O. had brought vast sums of money to the needy Indian people. In August 1973 it was put out of business but several of its functions were incorporated into O.N.A.P. (Of'fice of Native American Programs). O.N.A.P. will be under the jurisdiction of the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare (H.E.W.) Let's hope it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. THE FIGHT FOR THE DEAD On December 4, 1973 a historJ-making step was taken in Detroit with the filing in Federal Court of a petition to have Uichigan Public Law 750.160 declared unconstitutional. [$ee INDIAN TALK Vol. l Nos. 1 ~ 2, Dec./Jan. for word-for-word copy of that lawJ On January 9, 1974 Chief U.S. District Judge Fred W. Kaess signed a cease and desist order against the University of Michigan and the Michigan Archeological Society on behalf of the Concerned Indians of Michigan, representing the 32,000 Indian community of t:ichigan. At this time the court date· hearing has not been set. The decision of this case will have profound eff'ects throughout the land, wherever there is wholesale rape of Indian graves. ANTICS OF THE CITY OF ALGONAC Sometime in late 1972 - early 1973 the City of Algonac applied to H.;u.D. for 5.5 Million Dollars for an urban renewal project. The master plan was submitted for approval so that work could be st'1rted on the revamping of down town Algonac. On Fruit Street, a mere 2~ blocks from City F.all, is the landing dock of the Algonac - Walpole Island Ferry. This ferry hes been in existence for 90 years. For the last 25 years it has been operated by & can and his son. It is used daily by many Indian inhabitants of Walpole Island (a Canadian Indian Reserve). But the Algonac City Council did not see fit to include the ferry landing - Y.:hich is in the aree. of the proposed urban renewal in their master plan. It seemed they were about to remove the ferry landing dock completely from the dovm town area, perhaps altogether! The Concerned Indians of l~ichigan, i'.r. George Bennett - direc:to:r- at ~'liat time of r.!ic~igan 's Commission on Indian detroit report: a surmnarv of indian happenings: 1973 (cont'd) Af~airs - and many other members of the Indian com:nunity met with the City Council on behalf of the italpole Island people who depend on this ferry for transportation to their jobs. The Council finally agreed on December 18, 1973 that all due consido.ration would be given to keeping this ferry in existance. Let us hope they keep their word! FLINT NEWS The Genesee Valley Indian Association, of vmom Viola (l:I-s. Russell) Peterson is president, meets the third Sunday of the month ~~th a potluck beginning at 6:00 p.m., at the Internation· al Institute, 514 Liberty Street, Flint, I.~i. This or;;ani.zation is both service-minded and socially oriented with a heavy emphasis on education for the Indian community. So for a wonderful Sunday evening, drop around some Third su.~day. They love to have visitors! GRAND RAPIDS The West Side CSmplex, l? Seward St., N.E., Grand Hapids, will be the meeting place for the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs Friday, February 1 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 2 at ~: 00 a. m. On the agenda vdll be the introduction of the new Director, l~. Jim Hillman, to the Indian community; complet.ion of plans f'or the Communication Laboratory to take place in FebJ and discussion of the plans ror the state-wide resource cent.er. LANSING Nr::WS: DECELmER 29, 1973 M.C.I.A. MEETING Upon his election to the directorship of the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs Mr. Jim Hillman announced his g>·als: (1.) Strengthen Indian communities throughout the state with technical assistence. (2.) The commissioners must becOllie the local experts, even though they are volunteers and work without pay, and have limited time available. Commissioner Cross spoke of 4 priorities for the Commission in 1974: (1.) He is hopeful for the good that can come to the Indian community of Michigan now that Congressman Jerry Ford from Michigan's Sth Cone.~essional District has been made Vice-President of the U.S. As V.P. he automatically becomes chairman of the National Council on Indian Opportunity; and of the Coalition of Eastern Native Americans' setting up policy for Bept. of Health, Education and welfare }ftd!an programs; (2.) Increase legal services to the Indian community. (3.) Increase the number of Indians in state government, business, in manpower training. �-8- -9- lansing news (cont'd): Dec. 2S, 1973 M,C,I.A, meeting LJEET JI;.; (4,) Implement a system of development whereby program dollars can be brought into Michigan and channeled into . local Indian communities, Commissioner Adams (Petoskey) said that the work of internally rebui1ding the Commission via (1.) better budget control, and (2,) the setting up of working committees should be continued. There was also a need to know about such programs as alcoholism and child protection - where they are and W'be:t they are doing, As George Bennett stepped d·own he offered to continue to help if needed, sayi~, "It was a privilege to haye served the Inaians of Michigan. F.e looks mvch younger than his 29 years O\;.t a few ninutes' twith the h'ndsome new director of the I.:ichigan Commission on Indian Affairs will convince yov. of the v:isdom already packed into his youthful frame. JIL: HILLllAN is a wiscons in i.ienooinee who has Sj,)Eont r.1ost of his li:fe in ::-:uron, Sou-th Dakota. :i'Ie received his education "It the University of wisconsin at Stevens' Point vr1-,ere he majored in Social Science. MOUNT PLEASANT The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council of the Isabella Reservation meets the first Monday of the month, 7:30 p.m. at the Council Community Hall on the Reservation, three miles east of Mt, Pleasant, · The Youth Center, across from the Reservation Housing Pre>ject, is open after school until about 10:00 p.m. From Monday through Friday at 12:00 noon a free meal is served to all persons over 60 years of age at the Youth Center, Donations are welcome, however. The Parent Advisory Council meets 2nd Saturday of the month at a:oo p.m. BENTON HMBOR Ks. Williamette Beavers informed us of the uncovering of the Indian remains by workmen building a drain at a home there. With all this talk about respecting the remains of our forefathers it wasn't very encouraging to see law enforeement officers and amat·eur archeologists standing over them and grinning like little boys Who have just discovered something they don't know w'hat to with it, the bones at their feet in two neat piles - all of the skulls in one, the remainder piled together in the other! They just couldn't wait to dig it all out! A professional archeologist ·,;ould have left them in the ground and tried to have gotten tioe to understand who those people once were, what their lives were like, when they walked the earth, •• what. were their hopes and dreams ••••• Fat chance of even a decent reburial now, after the souvenir-drunk diggers are through mixing the bones all up! A."ld so 3enton Harbor was the scene of another rape! :~ILLLlJU-i - NEW DiaECTO;t OF 1.:.C.I.A. conversati~~ Before coming to £.1ichigen four ye~rs ago Jim worked for t.'ie Indian people in Llinnesota at the State Employmt;nt Service. In Michigan he has worked for the Indian Community Action Program in St. Igruice, for Systems nesearch in Ulnsing, and for the Commission itself. rind what does he do for relaxation? He likes to shoot pool. Re swims and he reads. He also does beadwork when he h!!.S time. He a::id wife Donna (who is also from 'Jisco::isin) have three children. Son Dale is 6 years old, Debbie is four years and Lori is age 3. Come !'l.nd meet him in person at the ColTil!lission meeting in Grand Rapids Febru.!!.ry 1 and 2. 'w'es~ Side Complex, 17 Seward NW, ~ASICU INJUSTICE Thfa happen•<} in America! Remembering naymond Yellow Thunder it is not hard to believe that it actu'-'illy happened not ver'J far from Michigan, not very long ago. --ed. I A±'ter visiting with my sister wcl.Bar Eyes" md her family I w's ~lking down the street toward home. A police car began to follow me. Then they stopped me and the \Tuite police officers deml!lnded to know what I was up to. 11 Hey Indian, !'l.re you drunk or are you on dope?" "I don't drink and I don't take dope," I replied. "Damn Indian! You're lying to us! We'll teacl: you to lie. And don't get smart with us anymore, ~edskin. Get in the car!" "But what for?" I asked. The skin on my neck shivered. "For being drunk," the one sneered, and t.hen he hit me in the back of the head vdth l'I. ·black-jack, I f'ell to the ground. , ne of' them kicked me in the f'ace. They hauled me into t.he back of' T.he police car. My bands were handcuffed behind my back. I was lying face down. At the police station they dragged me in and put me into a cell. It had no light and no blankets. As the steel door bang ed shut I lay down on a board, It was bitter cold in there, �-11- -10- THOSE OµGANIZAT!ONS YOU HEAH A30ur ••• · wa!fisu in.justice <cont•g>: . After awhile I fell asleep. Suddenly I was a~kened by a torrent. 0£ cold. The ~hite officers had come in and duaped a ••• meet ±@ GREAT I.AKES INDIAN YOUTH AfJJ@C;§t 324 N. Pine St.. Lansing, Mi. 48933 ·':- ·· >pail of ice water over my face. Then they began to be~t me. · They kicked me in the ?lead 1'lhd face, saying !ill the while in - hate-filled voices, 11 Damn Indian! Damn Indian! D!Wln Indian! ·. Damn Indian! We'll teach you!" Then they banged my head up ~gainst the ~u. l'he pain was terrible. I was bleeding froo my m:n.;th and nose and ears. I needed medical attention :i~t the~' refused to ~ake me to the hospital or call a doctor. Nor would they call an attorney on my behalf', saying, "You I;idi~s are nothj,ng but. trouble!" 'The next d.3.y I v:ent to court. l told the judge that the police h~d be!.t me up end that they would not let me see a doctor. The police in turn told the \White judge that I had gotten into a fight down town and that I had been drunk. The judge fined me $60.00 plus court costs. "The next time yt:1U come into this court," he W-!.rned, 11 1 1 11 give you 90 &ys. 11 TI!is is a true life stol"'J. --Naoe · witr.held EluFLOYi~;'f PROI3LEUS? )' The purpose of our organization is to create an environment in Which American Indian tribal people can retain their cultures, practice their own religions and speak their own languages without social, economic and political harassment. · we want to improve co1llllUJlication between Indian communities throughout the Great Li!kes region. The Alliance will increase the awareness of American Indian youth regarding current issues affecting them and take action to correct discriminatory practices used against Indian people. Our intentions are to improve the methods of instruction now being used to educate Indian youth by working to initiate Indian Studies Programs at both the high school and college levels; require Indian counselors for Indian students; and provide scholarships for Indian high school and college students. The Great Lakes Indian Youth Alliance operates on the basic premise of aiding the American Indian maintain his tribal identity while living in a White man's world. F!ELP IS ON THE WAY. WE PAUSE TO LOOK BACK AND OUH HEA.Rl'S ARE GLAD The Commission on Indian Affairs through their newly-org~nized Agency Advisory Council is trying to do something about the employment problems of Indians in utlchigan. The Yichigen Ernployoent Security Commission h!.s appointed specfo.1 represent~tives to .. ssist Indian applic~nts. They ~re: DEl'rt~Ir: Roberta Everett, 2770 P~rk PEl'OSMY: Louise rleznik, 455 3ay St. 1iE LOOK ::<'OnWAiD TO Lr~'rrnG ~E ·~1E Ph: DI 7-2518 LOOK FOnWARD TO UPSEl'TING "APPLE CARl'S 11 AND J;JAKING STRONG GAINS ON THE POW WOW TRAIL. l:Ji; 2-223(l J3ernis, American Ll"gion Bldg. Ph: LA. 4-6425 The offices of the above representatives are located in the . t.':ESC offices of e~ch of the a'.)ove cities. :'he l.i.P. representatives will ~e visiting other LlESC offices. ?or ~ddit::.o:1al :i:nforeation contact Aimo u. t-'.zrt::.:-.en, Chair:nan of the ~ploJ'm~nt Cor.w.ittee, Agency Advisor:: Co·-i.~cil, rioom 415, 731') 'l'io-:i.:1;·:c, ::-d, .Oetroit, ::ich. 48202. Ph: 312 8:72-490J Est. 493. ·;,E GUARD OURS:i!LVES TO BE WATCHFUL TO FOLLOW T'dE f 1i WISDO~ OF i~~ G~T SPIRIT. -----------------------l;·e1'fr rre~-----..----~=~-=----~~----------------- I!lDIAN TALK COt::ITl'TEE, 457 Briarwood S.E., Grand Rapids, lli. 49506 ~YES! Eere is my two dollars (check or money order preferred) for a year's subscription. _Keep me on the mailing list. l:&'.E :ITY I will send money later. iWDi.l.OOS __ STiJE ·---------<:....I....P - - - - - - .. ~ -~ ... ~.,.:.:.: \'•';,. ·...... ·:..- i' • MA.'! KHO'rl 'WHO l1E AHE A.'lfil 11F..AT WE ARE. St. Ph: 256-3560 SAULT STE. L:AIUE: 1!e..urice Lel3lanc, 1118 Eesterday, Ph: L • ANSJi;: .; oa::-. AT THE INCR&{\SING UNITY OF OUR PEOPLE. ~..... ·- . ,~ .... �-13-12FIFTH A.~NUAL CONFElli:NCE OF THE NATIO!TAL DDLU-; ELJUCAl'IJN ASS:i. B007,E PROBI.li:ll5: WHAT'S BEm.:> DONE rn DEI'ROIT AND GRJUID AME?.lc.lli INDIAN SERVICES, 800 West Baltimore Detroit, Ui. 4.202 Even though this took pl'l.ce last November we ~-.1 - its importance has not di~inished l'he theme of the Conference was "Education on Indian Terms." l'he opening ceremony v1;,.s performed by L'lr, Floyd '>fuite Zagle, 78 years old. Me told the Indian people there to keep going to get higher education, as did the many differen~ speakers such as Milwaukee 1 s Mayor Henry Maier and the Governor of l'l'isconsin, V:r. Patrick J, Lucey (who came in late, which made many of us feel good knowing we are not the only people who operate on Indian time!) J ) The afternoon was filled with a variety of topics held in different rooms, l'hese involved Student Services, Higher Education, Legal Issues, Teacher Corps, Financial Aid Programs, ITealth Careers, etc. ~ch of these in turn were broken down for open discussions at all sessions, It would have been most rewarding if one could have individually attended every topic connnittee on the agenda. THAT MIGHT MEA1i WE WILL HAVE TO RAISE OUR SUBSCIUPl'ION RATE TO THREE DOLLARS. Why not save yourself a dollar by sending in your subscription ~nd TWO dollars today! A.'ld send us the names of others, lie have more than tripled our circulation list in three short months, BUT 'dE'RE GREEDY: WE '!VANT EVERYONE rn THE INDIA.t."i cor.u.ruNITY TO RECEIVE INDIAN 'l'ALK! ! ! PURPOSE: Tc identify issues and problems facing American Indians and to set priorities for remedial and preventative programs; to enhance future relationships between American Indians and governmental agencies; to find new approaches and directions in meeting the total needs of American Indians; to examine all existing Indian programs relating to alcohol and drug usage among American Indians; to explore any solutions that are uniquely Indian and to form proposals and programs in these and other areas with the help of all concerned Indian people. Because of its seriousness and prevalence, the excessive drinking problems of some members of the Indian community are being considered hopeless and impossible to correct ••• Tribal governme~ts have left the responsibility for developing alcoholism programming to the federal agencies, and the federal agencies are slow to ·recognize the value of alco~ holism progra~ as a means of combating Indian alcoholism. As a result, alcoholism programming is underdeveloped in the Indian corrrrnunities. The Conference brought out the fact t hat Education's opportunities can only be meaningful to Indian student.s if such things are taken into account as cultural linguistics and the social backgrounds of the students. It also brought out that more American Indian parents and students, in fact, all members of the Indian community should be involved in the life of the school system. It stressed the importance of placing heavy emphasis on history, culture, political structure, languages and arts of Native Americans. DID YOU KNOW WAT POSTAL RATES ARE DUE TO BE RAISED IN' MARCH? PH: 313 871-5330, 871-5331 DIRECTOR: Harry Command PrtOBLE}l: The following day W'l s filled with more topics and discussion, A' few of these were Indian Studies, Curriculum ~evelopment, Reservation Elementary and Secondary Models, State Responsibilities and Services, and Tribal Government Affairs. --Irene Elk Grand Valley State College rnc. RAPIDS r~) .~ Alcoholism is rated as one of tne most serious social and health problems conf'ro~ting the Indian community today. It has a tremendous impact, not only on a drinker and his family, but on every person living in the Indian community. Indian drinkers appear to have "excessive drinking" patterns rather than social drinking pattern•. There is little stigma attached to this latter type of drinking. The drinkers in the Indian cormnunity appear to use alcohol as a means of escaping or relieving their cultural, economic, social and personal problems, but by drinking they f'urther 'complicate their lives and their ability to make better adjustments. In spite of these desperate condition\ there has been little done by way of organizing alcoholism programs to conbat Ir.dian alcoholism. l'he need for developing such programs is desperately needed, 0 ,,L :;::;:;,:; ~; 0UT~CH 756 3ridge St. , l~, w, Grand Rapids, i.ii. 49504 ~1'.AT IT IS A:;IJ II' suc:::EEDs: PH: 616 774-8332 DIIIBCI'OR: Larry Shananaquet It is a group that is dealing -.dt!: ":.he drinking problems amo::ig the Indian people in the Gra!rl Rapids area. The officers o~ the group are all people who have overcome their ovm drinkir;g proble1:1s and want to share v:ith :.;ieir fellow Indians \•,h at they have found since ~hey stop~ed drinking. Because . ~hey can_approach WF'l �booze probleos ~nd Re asked help from God. Three we-tks later an automobile accident killed his brother and his friend and seriously injured Larry. At the hospital the doctors concluded there was no hope for his recovery. Larry had several broken bones, a punctured collapsed lung and a severe brain concussion. But five weeks later he walked out of the hospital. Still _h e felt that he had nothing to face but black, smothering depression and endless 1 empty time. While looking for a house he met Bernard ~fass 1 who introduced him to Gerald Vander ·Lugt, the pastor at Hillcrest Christian Reformed Community Church. Gerald worked long hours with Larry to arrest his drinking. In February 1971 Larry and his wife Carol made their profession of faith in the church that had come to mean so much to them. solutions (cont'd): the problem drinker at his ovm level they have ~een quite successful in reaching many for the first time. And those who keep coming back do so because they vrant to, not '::ecause they are forced. Their motto is "LET'S 'WISE Ul' 11 and their theme is 11 RELP US TO P.ELP YOU OVERCOl.IE OUR DRINKIKG PilOBLEL:. '1 They try to keep sober by getting involved in the organization's many activities. These include a bowling leame 1 miniature golf 1 picnics, dinners 1 etc. O> ~JIAT IS A MEETING Lli'\£? The meeting is called to order at 8:00 p.m. by the chairoan or cochairman. A prayer, meditation and thought for the day are read by one of the members from the 24 Hour Book of .Alcoholics Anonymous. At the Tuesday meetings the floor is le:f't open for general discussion on any topic desired by those present. At the Friday meetings the minutes of the previous meetings are read. Following this reports when necessary are made. Then the guest speaker or program is presented. All meetings are closed with the recitation by all of the Lord's Prayer. Refreshments and informal visiting follow• O.I.O. 's FOUNDATIOUS lfow Larry wanted to help other Indians who were t'!xperiencing the agonies he went through. With Chester Eagelman Larry and Carol conceived the idea of the "Owls Club". They laid the foundations in Novt'!mber, 1972. Father Richard VanLente, director of the Human Relations Commission of the Diocese of Grand Rapids, became acquainted with Larry and offered him the use of space in the West Side Apostolate Building for meetings. Because the mem- ' bers of the Owls Club found that dealing with drinking problems alone w.~s not enough the name was changed to Owl Indian Outreach, Inc. and its scopt'! increased to deal with the many prob~ lems associated with drinking. They now refer needy Indian ' families to the proper social agencies, provide recreational 1 activities for families, employment and counseling services, anQ work closely with such org"lnizations as the Civil Rights Commission, the loc"ll halfway houses, the S"llVl!.tion Army, the Sheriff's Depl'!rtment, t.he 6lst District Court, t11e Correction Deparl.ment, !'Ind with other I': lcoholism progr'l.m groups in Michigan. THEIR BY-LAWS Their purpose is to aid members of the Indian community with drinking problens. They welcome anyone who is inter-married, as long as one of them is of Indian descent. They will give moral support to any member who is truly interested in helping himself. Members will be considered first for any job opportunity; if none are interested it will be given to the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council. Anyone may join O.I.O. at anyt:ime for 50 cents a year. A member must. be sober for one year or more in order to hold an office. Offr cers must be elected every year and by active members only. To hold membership one must attend at least four meetings a month. A general board meeting is held four times a year. Any person attending any meeting intoxicated and causing a disturbance will be asked to leave. The chairman cannot okey the major spending of funds without first consulting the Board. Vi.HO IS LARRY SHANANAQUEI'? Larry is an Ottawa Indian raised in an Indian s&t~lement. Ee learned English when he attended public school. In 1955 at age 18 he le:f't home to work on construction jobs. He started drinking ai'ter work and on week-ends. During the winter months when there was no work drinking became his orrl¥ activity. At age 22 he was sent to Jackson Prison where he served 19 months for Breaking and Entering. ~bile in prison Larry learned many trades. He could have used his skills to obtain any number of high P.aving jobs and to lead a productive life. Inst.ead, he continued his drinking and his crimes. But New Years' .iSve, 1967 found 1.1\rry sober and thinking about the direction of his life. -15- booze problems and solutions (cont'd): -14- o. I.O. 's FUTURE 1\l The organization is fully incorporl!.ted as a non-profit group and hopes soon to receive its t'x-status number. This means that any contributions made to Owl Indian Outreach will be t"lx-deduc~ible. Larry hopes that with proper alconolic \.raining and the help of God the Great Spirit the O.I.O, can ~ring more Indian Brothers and Sisters to find solutions to their problems and thus be able to look to a better future. Since it is not yet fully fundee by local or state agencies Owl Indian Outreach, Inc. has been o;ier"-ting on donations, chiefly from religious organizations of all deno~i~tions. ''tie operate by faith, 11 concludes Larry, "and the Lord has never let us down.'' Conserve /;AJE.Rc;..yg - or~an1-ze - C~RPOOLS TO Pow wows ,d �-16- :?ROM OUR B?.OIHERS IN 1'HE IRONHOUSE ••••• iJl"OTI!ER TRU-6 S:'ORY In the year 1967 I was a young brave and I joined the United States Army. I was sentto Korea - the Land of the Morning Calm - over the seas to spend my time for 'peace'. Early one day While standing guard ne5r the top of a mounta in I kept my duty to control the only road that went on to the top. I was looking down into the beautii'ul valley. Then I turned to look up the mountain read; I saw a man coming down from the top of the mountain, from where there should have been no one. I did not fear this man, for he looked to be an old brave. He came to me for a drink of v.rater, ~nd having a sked me if I had any, accepted the cup I filled for him from my canteen. Re dranked until filled. Then this man with no name, returned to the t op of the mountain from where he had col'.'.le, and then v:i.nished fror.:i my sight. But before he left my side he spoke kindly to me, saying, "As long as you are of this world, I will care for you, so :fear not for no harm will come to you." So it was that from that time on I have been favored by the Land of the Morning Calm, and by the old brave that visited me with a thirst, the GREAT SPIRIT has touched my spirit. --Gerry "Short Bull" Samons Oglala Sioux, #132835 Jac kson, .Michigan 49204 THEN MY HEARl' WILL BE GOOD FOREVER My heart was doing real good Until they locked me in this old prison. I was all the time thinking How bad the Indians were treated by ~he White men. 'They took me away f'rom my Indian girl From my fishing and hunting. Now I am all alone. There are not many Indians in this prison We got to live like the White man And that life is not for us Indians at all. When I am out of this old prison I'm going to think its all a big game Because I will be with my people Living just like. the great Forefather did in the old days. Then my heart will really be good again forever. --William "Red Fox" Wood Cherokee Jackson, Mi. -17- OH T.H!!. PEilSuNAL SIDE ••••• To watch BEATRICE KE.LLh.-Y• s steady progress up the educational ladder is really inspiring! It seems only yesterday that she first enrolled in G.E.D. classes on Grand Rapids' West Side. Then there was a year of regular high school classes in the Adult Education program. Last August she entered the Licensed Practical Nurse Progr~m at Grand Rapitls Junior College, and on January 14 she began her hospital training at Butter\vorth Hospital in the Medical-Surgic'l Unit. A teenager? No! Bea is the mother of ten and a grandmother as well, but you wouldn't know it to look at her! And you've probably seen her: she's usually at the pow wows w:ith her fry bread and blanket dogs. One of Bea Kelley's Ad.ilt Ed. class mates is making her struggle for education too. But ~V.. LICSAU3Y hasn't been quite so lucky. For the past few years hubby Oliver has been dogged with ill health and has been unable to work. They lost their home a couple of years ago, had to store their furniture in a leaky old garage, and move into a small apartment. That isn't easy when you have six children. Finally, last Deceober B~rb found a house on Clancy N.E. in Grand Rapids, but all their ' furniture was ruined. At present eight people are sleeping on three beds, are eating off one small table and no kitchen chairs. If anyone has surplus beds (bunk beds would be nice) dressers, kitchen chairs, a large table, a bookcase, and/or 1 rugs size llxl3 ~.nd 9xl2 - please contact IIIDI.AI-T TALK or write to the I~icSaubys, 936 Chncy lJ. E, , Grand Rapids, Mi. 49503. They would sure appreciate it! If you haven't met JOHN r:us:s, co-director of Concerned Indil'ms of l.:fchigan, you 're in for a real trMt! Ee and Wife LElJOP.A live in D .. troit '-nd have h:'!.d SEVi!;I,"TEE:; children! (Their oldest son ~ssed away after a state-side accident upon his return from service overseas .) Eight are still at holi!e, ?tot only is he "lctive in en; but he is an active correspondent with the _ Zast B!.nd of the Cherokees in Iiorth CA.rolina; locally, he is president of the Cummunity Citizens' Patrol (which he helped organize ), is a five ye~r president of his neighborhood's 3lock Club, is a rnel'.'.lber of a Police-Comounity Relations group, and a member of the North American Indian Association. He also belongs to the Neighborhood Community Council which is composed of representatives from all the Block Clubs . He works with the police to both increase underst~nding between them and members of his neighborhood and to keep dowh crime. He acts as liason ,~nd pe~cemaker in his nei!Shborhood which is about 75% Black. The Jesults? "Very good relations al?lon_s all the people in our '"re-.,'' ', lhat ::l.o~s .John do for ~ livi:LS? Vie forg ot to .-.sk! "'hose Owl ~ither. p~ople Y..AT::'l in Gr .. nd R• pics ~ren't resting on their laurel\ S!':AGO~TA3'Y .iust :-et'..::'Iled f'rom ~ lcohol counciling school in D~troit, "nd LAR.~Y s:::-A?~.~TA~lTET is on his way soon to �-18- on the uerson~l side (cont'd): the University of Utah at Salt l.t'!ke Ci~y for similar training. As a member of the Planning Committee for the Alcohol Treatment Center being planned in L'Anse, liichig'-Il he will take part in the exciting new innovations being established for that center. It will be open to Indian people of both sexes and will be able to accomad~te 40 residents at a time. It will be set up so that both husband and wife \'lith :\lcoholic problems can stay together, and arrangements will be made so that their children will be provided for. l'..lA..."£iu'1ET SOViL-:ICK is no slouch either! S"!':e 's '::.he v:ife of C01:1missioner Arnold Sovnnick, kt. Pleasant. 7he l'.lother of four, she is Tre~surer of the Indian Education Committee of the Saginaw Chippewa at Isabell" rieservation, a I:ier:.ber of the ~ichigan Inter-Tribal Education group, and a teacher's aide as welll And in "'::.h1'1t p"rt of t'.:e Indian community locked away in the State Prison of Sou-':.hern 1.achig!:.n ~t J'!.ckson "'::.l:ings are humming because the Circle of Li re goes on v.'here~ver one is. S~E\VA....q'l' .AMERICAN ROil.SE RODDA is a 29 year old Sioux gentleman who has contributed so many articles to INDIAl~ TALK that it is impossible to print them all! Ee is also an artist. His major interest is in AMERICAlf INDIAN DEF&\'"Sb:, an organization he cofounded with Kent Poolaw of Anadarko, Okla. Frightful experiences have convinced him of the necessity of strong legal protection of the Rights of all American Indians, and he intends to dedicate his life to the acconplishment of that goal after his release. · It is a s.<J.d state of affairs vmen the Az::erican Indian must resort to violence to gain the attention of White America·· in an effort to seek a just change in their attitudes that discriminate against hin. It is an unfair, unnecessary imposition that is a product of Is it too m~ch Dear ~ditor ~nd White America's i;;ncrance. to ask of the non-Indian najority to consider their part in this dilemma? --Stewart American Horse Rodda Jackson Committee, I'he list of officers of our organization is enclosed so that you !!lay add (them) to your mailing list ••• ~iWe feel that publications such as Indian Talk in Southern Uichigan have a tremendous impact on anything relating to Indians. Its e:N:'ect will be recognized by the political powers. Also it renews and vitalizes hope for many of our people. It builds one of the !!lost needed qualities sorely l'cking in the Indian community of today. That quality is unity. Unity of thought. Unity of goals. Through the information provided in Indian Talk pride is exemplified in What can be accomplished. Timely advise is given. Noted Indian leasers of years of experience are permitted the unbiased opportunity to speak to Indians as Indians. The service provided by (it) is invaluable. It also serves to enlighten non-Indians to our positions. Ropef'ully it will also serve to encourage non-Indian support. POTAWATOMI INDIAN 1TATI01l, Inc. Dowagiac, ?lichigan Boo Joo Already! Enclosed is my two skins for the privilege of remaining on the Indian Talk mailing list. I've enjoyed the magazine immensely, and it has made me most conscious and prou~ of my pint of ?otowatami blood. DICK BREWER Kalama:aoo, Mi. De'-r I.Is. TRE Ul-lli""ooOTA TRIAL.5 -19- BACK TALK ••••• from our readers ~rancis: I am writing ••• to inform you that I find the Indian Talk in Southern Michigan a very usef'ul and worthwhile publication. I h!'l.ve been tr;ring to loc~te materials for the Dwight :a. ll'aldo Library at Viestern Michigan University for the past two years. '.'ie do r~ceive the NishMwbe News and a few oth~rs of that type and I would appreciate any other recommendations that you ma;: have in the area of materials about I.:ichigan and I.'.idwest Indians of past and prt'!sent. Peter P. £,ialanchuk Social Science Librarian Dwight ~. ~aldo Library Western Mich. University IVilamazoo, Mi. 49001 (Readers: can you help !~r. r ·~1'-nchuk out? --ed.) Dear Shirley, I think the idea of the Indian Talk paper is just super! ••••• t:y boss in particular is very interested and has men- �-20- back talk :f'rorn our re~ders (cont'd): TABIB tioned this to others. Re Vl'!S re!'!lly impr,..ssed with the c-:m·• tent ••••• In fact, he xeroxed a copy of (it) so that (others here at Bro~son) ~ospit'!l could see just wh~t the Indian is doing to help the Indian cause. Until I sho\'!ed (him) the November issue he h'!d just refi.;sed to believe th~t Indians were trying to help themselves or that there were many Indians in the lower part of the lower peninsula. Also, I !l.r:J doing a psycosocial study of the American Indian in relation to medical treatment versus the (traditional medicine). ~nfortunately I cannot find much material at all. If you Have knowledge of where I can find some material, I would appreciate your cont~cting me. L".aybe someone else might know ••••• (Cherokee) Rosemarie Wood, I.'..S.W. Bronson Eospital Kalamazoo, Mich. (qeaders: Clo you have maserial for Mrs. Wood?) I have just had the opportunity i..o rMd througn INDIAN TAIK IN SOurHERN MICHIGAN and nave found it. very informative as well as educ· onal, and feel that it would be a great asset to the I.N.U. members ••••• Upon the request of our Chairman it has been given my duty and privilege to request that we of I.N.u. be added to your mailing list. We would like to have about 15 copies to be distributed among the membership here at SMP, plus one to keep in the I.N.U. library for future use by the Native Brothers unfortunate enough to come through the Iron-House ••••• It has become the policy of I.N.U. not to be so reluctant in the future to express our gratitude and to set up communication between the Native communities on the outside and (those) inside these walls. Therefore, we are always ela.ted to hen.r from everyone, :md sincerely hope that we may alway~ look forward to their moral support in keeping the I.N.U. and other Native groups a reality vnthin the Michigan penal system as well as across the ~tirm •••••• r~..,y our divine Creator bless ~nd watch over people at INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN. Ronald L. Moore Vic e- chairman Indian Na t i ons Uni~ e a c/o Special Activi ties 4000 Cooper Stree~ Jac kson, Mi . 49201 fuel- insulate. a,,J caulk arouaJ Wtnclows ------- CONTENTS ANU ARBOR REPORl': STATUS REPORl': The Fort Ueigs Treat Lawsuit •••••••••••••• l U. OF M. 'S Present Native American Program ••••••••••••••• 4 DEl'ROIT REPORl': A Summary of Indian Happenings: 1973 •••••••••.••••••••••• 5 FLmT NEWS •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 7 GWD WIDQ ••••••••.••••.•.....•.•••••••••.••.•••..••••.••••• 7 LANSING NEWS: December 29, 1973 M.C.I.A. Meeting •••••••••.••••••••••••• ? MOU'NT' PL:EA§MJT •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 8 Bml'ON' l!Al1BOR. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 8 MEET JIM HILLJVJAN - New Director of M.C.I.A ••••••••••••• , •••••• 9 · DM.r Editor: Sa.ue OF O.r,c/ c)a()t"S I • wASrcu INJU'STICE •••••••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 9 EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS? Help is on the Way •••••.•••••••••••••••• 10 THOSE ORGANIZATIONS YOU HEAR ABOUT: (This month) The Great Lakes Indian Youth Alliance •••••• 11 SUBSCRIPTIOlI BIJ'1-lK, •• •••• , •••••••••••••••••.••••••••••••••••• 11 5TH ANNUAL C01lFE.RENCE OF THE NAT' L INDIAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: a Special Report prepared by Irene Elk ••••• 12 BOOZE PROBLEMS: What's Beiru< Done DEI'ROIT: American Indian Services, Inc •••••••••••••••••• 13 GRA!TD RAPIDS: Owl Indian Outreach, Inc •••••••••••••••••• 13 FROM OUR BHOTHERS IN TH:C: IRON-HOUSE: A.ntn,her True Stary by Short Bull ••••••••••••••••.••••••• 16 Then t:y Heart Will Be Good Foreyer by Red Fox •••••••••• 16 01; 7::E PE:a50!l.AL. SIDE ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 17 THE lITiilr"l!SOTA T:\IALS by American Horse ••••••••••••••••••••••• 18 BACK TALK ••••• from our re!lders •••••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••• 19 �'<'~'~ INDIAN TALK in Southern Michigan f ' , .~ 467 Briarwood Ave., S.E. Edward V. Gillis 2512 Union, NE Grand nap ids, Mi. 49505 eOh \ .i>•. t � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v1n4_1974-02 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk in Southern Michigan, February 1974 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974-02 Description An account of the resource Februrary 1974 (Volume 1, Number 4) issue of Indian Talk in Southern Michigan by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3c2efc77d308a71802da7376d1a99017.pdf 6e0e4bfa5d27bddcbd6f761d2d39f80c PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN Beaded medallion, about four inches in diameter, was traditionally worn as an ornament on a headband, a bandolier, or on ceremonial clothes. Vol.1 Na5 March,1974 �INDIAN TALK Vol. I No. 5 Devoted to the news and views of the Indian community in southern Michigan COMMITTEE: DeJay Elk Irene Elk Shirley Francis Nancy Grabiak Joe Jo~ Teresa Johnson Calvin Noel Gloria Shenosq Joy Sorenson J.fary Switzer TABLE IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN MARCH 1974 AnEA. SUBSCRIPl'ION: $3,00 a year (or donation) 15th of month FLINT ••••.•••••.•••••.•.•••.••..•.......• 2 LANSING NEWS •••••••••••••. , ••••••••••••••••••• 3 l:.E: CO!'.P13NICATIONS LAB: DISTILLERS OF CHANGE ••••• 4 LOOK AT WHAT'S COMING UP •• (coming events) .......... 5 SlTBSC"ttIPT I ON BLANK ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 6 APACHE CREATION •••••••••.•••.••••••.•••••..•••.•••• 7 O!l NEWS DEADLINE: CONTENTS ;)ET qoIT REPORT •••••••••.•••••••••••••••••••••• 2 SEND ALL LEI'TERS TO: Shirley Francis 457 Briarwood S.E. Grand Rapids 1 lli, 49506 Ph: (616) 459-2169 NE'vlS FRO?.~ OF THE PERSONAL SIDE •• , •••••••••••.••.••••..•••.••• a !~ATIVE Al'iE"ZICAH CONFEP.ENCES IN TRAVERSE CITY ••••• , .10 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS: Stewart American Horse Rodda, ••••••••••• Jackson (SMSP) John Jluse (313) 931-6438 ,· •••••••••••• • • ;Detroit Carol Bennett (517) 482-4645 •••••••• •• •• Lansing Margaret Sowmick (517) 773-3743 • • ••• •••• Mt.. Pleasant Viola Peterson (313) 655-8492, •••••••• • •Flint Mary SWitzer (616) 243-2774 ••••••••••••• Grand Rapids HISTORY FROM OUR POINT OF PUBLISHERS: ilA.CK TALK: letters from our readers ••. • •.••••..••• 20 . ............... BOOK REVIEW •••••.•••••.••.••....•.••......••.•••.• 16 VIEW ••••••••••.•••••••• ,17 EDITORIAL: ABOUT WAT U OF M NATIVE AMERICAN PROGRAiv'. •• , •• 19 "THE INDIAN REVOLUTION", •••••••• • ••••••••••••••••• 21 ; 49081 INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN is published by a committ ee of concerned men and women from t h e Indian community with the hope that through the PRINTED WORD all may become aware of the common interests of Indian people, and thus aid arrl support each other in attaining their goa ls. INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN LITCHIGAN i8 not affiliated with any sect, organization or institution. Its only purpose is to provide lines of colllllunication -- between all Indian groups , between Indian people, and between Indian and non-Indian. • THE POW WOW TRAIL •••• is just around the corner. Pow wow time is a happy time, a time to renew aquaintences, to sing, to dance, and to Just plain socialize: So the more people who make it to a pow wow, the more success:f'ul it is: Keep INDIAN TALK informed of the pow wows coming up in your area, and we will see that the hundreds of families on our mailing list hear about them! A VERY SPECIAL TRAl'IT.S • •• , to each and every contributor of material. Please forgive us for not personally acknowledging your vitally important support. Without you INVIAN TALK would not exist! Please, dear Author, forgive us too if we deem it necessary to edit your material. We only do so after care:f'ul consideration. .\:ID AN E:(CALLY SPECIAL TIIA.ll"KS •••• to our subscribers, with out whom INDIAN' 'I'ALK would not exist either! �2 3 -~NEWs- area news: detroit report (continued) :<'ROM FLINT ?AR£NTS ARE BLSILY ~i"GA~I:W I:I GF:I'TING THEI:k CARlJEN SCHOOL D.i.. rRICT assessed regarding the needs and wis1: es of their Indiar. students. Mary Gibson chairs the Parents Advisory Council, Which is determining how best put to use the Indian Education f'unds they are seeking through Title IV. Classes are bejng held Saturday mor. ings f or the children ages 3 to 18, of the members of the ~nesee Valley Indian Association to teach them Indian traditions and arts and crafts in efforts to develop in the youngsters their sense of Indianness while at the same time having f'un. The class is a t Mary Gibson's, 4039 Otto St. , Flint, J.!i • ~ proposal was made at the last Commission on Indian Ai'f'airs 111eeting that Michigan native Americans make an effort to obt<'in \Toting representation in both the Michigan Senate and House. We need a :f:'ull-time person to lobby for our concerns. No one can ~fford to pay an outside person to work with these groups. If Michigan is to truly have a representative government, how can Indians legitimately be excluded? How this is to be accomplished has not yet been decided. If you have any thoughts on t his subject write to M.C.I.A. Director Jim Hillman, 454 Hollister Bldg., 106 Allegan St., LJ'l.nsing, Mi. 48902. Congradulations to the newly elected officer s of the Michigan Indian Confederation! Sleeted were: Victor Kishigo, president; Jack Randall, vice president; Louis Koon, secretary-treasurer. Gerald Chingue is the hired director. John Bailey and Louis Baca are members of the ZXecutive Board. POETS! A:n anthology of poetry by Native American authors is being assembled by Klallam poet Duane NiatUm. Send your choice pieces to him at: Native American Autnors Program, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 10 Xsst 53rd St., New York City, N. Y. 10022. Duane is author of "On the Death of an Elder Klallam" published by Balleen Press. (?rom Genesee Valley Indian Assn. News) DErROIT REPORI' The North American Indian Association is 33 years old. It "' ,,s formed as a social organization for the retainment and rejuvenation of Indian culture and traditions. It meets twice a month, on the lst ani 3rd Sundays of the month with dinner at 6 p.m . followed by a business meeting. For more imformation write to: North American Indian Association, 19317 Fenmore, Detroit, Mi. 48235. ., At the January 6 meeting of the North American Indian Association the following officers were elected: president, ~va Kennedy, vice-president, Hazel Sebastian; Secretary, Katherine Dailleboust; and treasurer, Aaron Baker. On the Executive Board are John L'use as chairman, Fred Boyd, Jim Revels, Doris Aikens, and Greg Lambert. On January 18 at Cody High School in Detroit a "Battle of the Bands" rock concert was presented. Part of the proceeds from this performance went to the Concerned Indians of Michigan, to the North American Indian Association, and to the Original Band of Sault Ste. :Marie .:hippewa. The rock concert was sponsored by Students United with Man (S.U.M.), headed by Mr. Harold Cook. S.U.M. helps various ethnic groups, especially the Chippewa in Sault Ste. Marie. If you are interested in learing the Ojibwa language, there is a class taought by Winona Arriaga at her home in Detroit. The classes are held monday through Friday from 2:00 p.m. on, and on Thursdays starting at 6:00 p.m. Her address is 4534 Lincoln st, Detroit. Phone no. (313) 831-3104. Monday February 11, Fred Boyd, director of Concerned Indians o:f Michigan, and John Shano testified in court on behalf of the 32,000 Indian people in Michigan against the compulsory no-fault insurance law. This insurance law creates hardships. Since Indian people are among those with the lcwest income in the state they are forced to buy inexpensive used cars for necessary transportation. In most cases the no-fault insurance premium costs ~p to four times the worth of the auto! If they could afford this amount of insurance, Boyd said, they would purchase a ·much better car. No final decision has been made by the courts. On LANSING NEWS On March 6 at Lansing Community College the dedication of a new collection of Chicano and Native American titles took place at an open house from l to 5 p.m. in the Administration Bldg., corner of Washington and Shiawassee Streets. Along with the book dedication were a mini-powwow ani a two-week long exhibit of Uichigan Native American artifacts. �s 4 LOOK AT \mAT'S COMING UP! GRA..'ID RAPIDS cour.:mHCAI'IONS I.A30RATORY: DISTIT.IiP:R OF- CHANGE A "communications laboratory" took place in the Zont.a Rooms of the Grand Rapids Public Library February 23, 1974, froci 10 a. m, to 10 p.m. This is a structured dialogue between representat ives of two groups which have a need for creating a more pos itive work relationship t...~an currently exists. During the process of discussing the agenda of each group, misundersta:-Cings are clarified arxl appreciation is developed for the other side's point of view. Thus, comnunication emerges and a measure of t rust is built up; the groups then collaborate in devising procedures enabling them to work together. The Grand Rapids laboratory dealt with relations between Seven Indian people ( sel~cted by the Indian coO!llUility) and seven non-Indian individua ls gelected by the non-Indian community) participated. :'he purpoue was to provide the Indian and the non- Indian communities wHh a mechanism by which their energies would be utilized cocr..., ratively f or their joint benefit. The Laboratory was de~ gned to lead t o th e elimination or reducti on of problens \'i1 ch exist at the present time or may devel op in the future and he' 'e created or are capable of creating a gulf between the t wo gi oups. Sponsored by the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council, the 'La : > ratory was run under local auspices. Funds for the program we e provided by the l!id-I.achigan College Consortium. .:Occt.or : i ng Goldaber, an internationally known conflict management s~~cialist, sel1'V'ed as the facilitator of the Laboratory. He is a Joc iologist at Brooklyn College of the City University of New \c.,rk, and he has worked with Indian and non-Indian groups in a:imilar settings elsewhere. i.h1; I ndian and non-Indian cotmnunities. Contrary to what cri.ght first be thought, the "coilll!Unicat ion laboratory 11 is not sensitivity training. Sensitivity training deals with elements of an individual's personality. The ''Communications LaboratorJ", however, is strictly an issue-orient ed dialogue dealing with relationships bet, een groups. While it is still too soon to form definite judgeoents o~ its success, those who were involved in the Grand Rapids Lab are h opeful. Inf fact, many came away from it very enthusiastic about it as a means to initiate change. The 14 Indian-non-Indian participants now call each other by their first names. The non I ndian participants are all people who are in more or less positions to effect change, since they hold positions in the business world, the educational structure, in government, etc. ~bere the "Communications Laboratories" have been held elsewhere, both academic evaluators and journalist observers agree that they have either defused tensions or prevented them and states of alienation from growing. LA.l'~SING: r1 • AMERICAN INDIAN FAIR The Michigan Indian Benefit Association is tentatively planning an American Indian Fair where Native Americans can sell their arts and crafts. The date would be set for a weekend in May, namely a Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday :from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. If interested in selling your crart work at the Fair, please contact Carol Bennett, c/o Lansing Indian Center, 306 E. Grand River, Lansing, Mi. 48906. LANSING: ALL INDIAN BASKEI'BALL TOURNAMENT March 22-23, 1974, at Jenison Fieldhouse, Michigan State University at East Lansing, the State YMCA or M:rcnigan is sponsoring a basketball tournament. Both men's and Women's teams from Michigan a.nd other states are invited to part:teipate. Registration fee is $15.00 per team. Co-sponsors are Michigan State University, Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs, and Lansing Indian Center, with the trophies being provided by the Commission on Indian Affairs. Tournament Director is George w. Pamp, Director of the Native American Outreach Project of the St.ate YMCA. Cont.act Lansing Indian Center, 306 E. Grand River Ave., Lansing, . Mi. 48906, (Phone: (517) 487 ·,5409) for information regarding housing and meals. Contact George w. Pamp, Basketball Tournament Director, State YMCA of Michigan, 301 w. Lenawee St., Lansing, Mi. 48914, to obtain registration blanks. ALL TEAM REGISTRATIONS A.~ ENTRY FEES ARE DUE MARCH 13, 1974! On GRA1ID RAPIDS: ALL INDIAN POW WOW Grand Rapids' first All Indian Pow Wow will take place here on March 30 and 31, 1974, in the Aquinas College Physical Education Asse~bly Building, 1600 block of Fulton St., E., Grand Rapids. The Saturday dances will begin at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The Sunday dance will run from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. There will be an open drum, and a dance contest - all divisions. Supper will be provided for all participants. All dance participants must register by 1:00 p.m. Saturday, March 30. All dance participants must be in Grand Entry. No Indian time! Indian traders invited. Please, no imports. Traders' fee: $5.00 per day. Raffling off a beautiful hand-painted Indian plaque as first prize, a handtied shawl as 2nd prize, and bone hair ties as 3rd prize. You need not be present to win. For more information call Buddy Raphael (616) 361-1817, or Frank Bush (616) 792-4042. �7 6 look at wn~t's co~ing up! MOUNT PLSAS.r'J;;:': APACHE CREATION (continued) COLLES:E INDIAH .5.::)UCATio:J POW WOW: .., A panel discussion will be held ?.".arch 17 from 1:00 to 5:00 p. m. at Warriner Auditorium, Central Michigan University. Sponsored by the Real Indians at C.1.1. U., the panel will discuss (A) Grants and Applications, (B) Indian Studies, and (C) Student and F•eservation. A POW WOW will follow from 5:00 to 9:30 p.m. in Finch Gym. Dance Contests will offer first and second prizes :for FancY; Straight and Shawl dancing . For more info rmation contact the Real Indians of C.M.U., c7o Wolverine Room, University Center, l':t. Pleasant, ta. 48858. Or telephone Betty otto (517) 773-3284, or Richard LaFromdoise (517) 773-7277. When USEN: created the Apaches He also created Their homes in the West. Fruits and game as they needed to eat. ..1 The North American Indian Association is sponsoring a Native American Pow Wow on Ua.rch 23 at the Hazel Park High School, 23400 Fughes St., (north of 9: Mile), F!azel Park, Mi. Dance per:formance are at 2:00 p.m. and at 8:00 p.m. Trophies will be awarded in the dance competition. For more information contact Dean George at (313) 846-1837. Their health when disease attacked them He made :Many kinds o:f herbs to grow. WOW COI.'.IKG IN MAY Medicine. He gave them a pleasant climate and all they Thus it was in the begining: J.~L~AUKEE, the Apaches and their Homes each created :for the other by USEN himself. When they are taken f'rom these homes they sicken How long will itb e till it is said: There are no Apaches? The 1974 Kalamazoo Valley Pow Wow is scheduled to take place on May 24 - 27 at Camp Rota - Kiwan, Texas Drive, Kalamazoo, Yd. Everyone welcome. Meals will be provided. There are excellent camping :facilities. Four dance sessions are being scheduled. There will be Indian singers. Traders welcome. For more infort:iation write Kalar:iazoo Valley Pow Wow, 734 w. Kilgore, Kalamazoo, :m. 49001. our OF STATE: He taught them where To find these herbs, how to prepare them for And die. PO~ To restore Needed for clothing and shelter. DEI'ROIT: NATIVE AMERICAN POW WOW KALAMAZOO: He gave to them such grain, * * * * * * * Their great chief Geronimo was born June 1829. Geronimo was eighty years old vmen he died, February 17, 1909. He died in a military hospital, In his own country, WIS. POW wow r.rarch 23 - 24 there will be a pow wow in lc~±lwaukee ~ wi s. t;nfortunately t:h.at is all th e information we have a t prese" r.. If anyone has more please contact IlIDIA!f TALK. And i:f you wan;. to attend this one, call us . We should be getting more deta il~ on it soon. Our phone ro. (616) 459-2169. On Still a prisoner of war. --Stewart American Horse Rodda-Oglala Sioux POSTAL RATES HAVE GONE UP •••• SO WE HAVE TO RAISE OURS TOO •••• NAJ~---------------' CITY A ONE YEAR STATE ZIP~~~~~ miREE DOLLAP.S ! ! ! ! S~1BSCRIPI'ION IS NOW •••• �8 9 ON THE PE?.S OIAL SIDE 2n tbe personal side continued: A number of cries of distress from the Indian community have reached us. Truly, when one of us suffers we all suffer. Can you help? \/ The night of February 17 a fire destroyed everything except what the GEORGE SOWt~ICK FAMILY had on. Living in Salem, Michigan, they were taken in by friends until a new house was found. Members of the Christian Indian community rushed to their aid, but much is needed yet to give this fine, struggling family a fresh start. J.!oney for fuel, utilities and groceries is still desperately needed. Send your donations today to Inter-Tribal Council Indian Center, 756 Bridge St. N.w., Grand Rapids, :Mi. 49504. -~ Reverend JOE SPRAGUE has accepted a call from the Indian Christian colmlUJlity in Mt. Pleasant. But he is still helping out at the .American Indian Gospel Church here in Grand Rapids until another pastor can be obtained. A distress call from JIM EAGLE of Hale, Michigan, a member of the Traditionalist Indian community. He informed µs that his former wife - a non-Indian - has sued for custody of their eight year old son, Scott. Who, by the way, is in line for hereditary chieftanship of the Remnant Band of the Cherokee. What is so startling is the fact that her suit for his custody is based on the grounds that the Indian way of Life is unsuitable for bringup a child! Jim Eagle is akking his Brothers and Sisters in the Indian community to write letters to the judge hearing the case, explaining aid informing him about the true Indian Way. "Please ask them not to write protest letters," Jim said, "as this might make things worse." Set your thoughts down now, today, and send them to: Judge Ronald Ryan Callloun County Circuit Court Marshall, ICi. 49068 (Re: Scott Eagle Custody Case) We stopped in to visit with the Oliver and Barbara McSauby fami• ly the other day. We were amazed at Barbara's managing ability! ~ven though they are so short of beds that some of the children must sleep on the floor, and so short of dressers that clothing must be kept in boxes and baskets, their home was as neat and clean as a pin! "But it sure is hard, 11 smiled Barbara. "And you can't buy used mattresses anymore." Although they are only using the first floor in order to conserve f"uel, their f"uel bill was nearly $50.00 last month. One of the problems is the fact that their rented house doesn't have a single storm window! Write us at INDIA.i'l TALK if you have a mattress in good condition or a set of springs or a frame for them. If you have a dresser let us know too. And we'll see if we can't find some way to get your stuf:f and the 11cSaubys together! And who has been enjoying Florida sunshine this winter but WILLARD and LfARGE BI' . TOE, HENRY 11WCKl!AN 11 MARKS, and RAY AND IRENE OTTO. They are combining work with play at Eloise, Fla. Their Grand Rapids-bound pal, JOE JOHN, has informed us. And ERNESTINE and HERB WABINIKEE & STANL!tt BIG.JOE are soaking up their sunshine in Lakeworth, Florida. Your prayers are needed for little KIMMIE CHAMBERLAIN, Alvin and Kathy Chamberlain's oldest child. She has been seriously ill and has just returned :from the hospital at --5aginaw. Bet she would Just love to receive letters and cards! Send them to Miss KiDlllie Chamberlain, R. 1/4, 7362 Tomah Rd., Mt.. Pleasant. We met CECILIA WARREN at the Indian Education Con:ference at Traverse City. She is a lady who lost her parents while very young, and she was educated in both government and ~hurch-a:f­ iliated boarding schQols for Indian children. She taugh~ for many years, has encountered racial prejudice in unexpected places, and bas come up smiling! She returned to school to get her Masters degree in urban counseling. Finishing that, she has been at Lansing Conmrunity College since last Fall, in the Department of Marketing and IAanagement. A fine lady: I' \ j Its hard to believe that it ever actually happened, it went so :fast. But the SIMON FRANCIS family have 14 rolls of colorslides to prove they spent a week at Anaheim, California last month. Simon was sent there by hi's employer to attend a convention. So what did MARI'IN, GEORGE, ROSS AND MAURY and Mom do? Three days were spent at Disneyland, one day was used to take in a tour of Universal Studios ("where they film Emergency!"), and one day was spent at Newport Beach soaking up the Pacif'ic Ocean. Those Californians are sure friendly, but Michigan and her people are HOMEl FOR HELP has reached us at DIDI.AN TALK. It comes :from inside the 'Ironhouse' at Jackson. Our friend and Special Correspondent Stewart American Horse Rodda needs a home and a job placement when he canes up for parole in 4~ months. He woots to settle in either Jackson, Lansing, or Grand Rapids. If you think you mizht be able to help him cont.act us at Indian Talk. Please, don't let another fine Indian life go down the drain! ANOTREH ~ �10 11 NA?IVE AMERICAN CONFERENCES IN TRAVERSE CITY A two-dav series of Native American education Conferences were held at 1:.r:e Park Place Motor Inn on February 23 and 24, 1974, conducted 'by Paul Johnson, Minority Affairs Consultant for the Michigan Education Association (?.1.E.A.) Assisting as resource persons were Eddie Benton (Ojibway), Jack Porter ~Ottawa), Richard A!l1rews (Ottawa), Alvina Anderson (Ottawa), Clarence ~oses (Oji~y) and Lester Gemmell (Pit-River). Attending were educators -both Indian and non-Indian. and menbers of tribal governments and Indian organizations. The conferences had four objectives: (1) discuss Indian Legislation, particularly the Indian Education Act (Title IV) and the impact it will have on all school districts in I.1ichigan, (2) broaden the perception and awareness o'f participants to "cultural identiy" and its implications and impact on school curriculums, (3) provide participants with information which will assist them in facilitating educational cha!ig'es for Native Americans in their communities, and (4) facili+..ate strategies to increase the staffing and funding of the O±'~ice of Indian Education of the State Department of Education. native american confe r ences in tra ver s e city (continued) f' f ' ., Paul then showed the f ilm, "Indian Reri tage: The Treasure,'' narr a ted by Walter Brennen. In the discussion that followed, Jack Porter voiced his reaction. The Indian does have past cultural identity, he said, and the film was about the past. But just now the Indians are being given the present. Ee has to be given the future. The film tended to hint that the Indian is fading away. This is not true, he concluded, for the Indians are not only thriving but they are uniting. The fiJLi has a very heavy message, said Eddie Bent~n. It attempted to destroy stereotypes of Indians, and it showed that we have stereotypes of whites too. But some things in it disturbed him. The use of such words as 'savage', 'sqa•', and 'cub' show that the White man still has a distorted view of Native Americans. In answer to a question about whether the child-raising methods ment.ioned in the film were still used, Jack Porter believed that they weren't always. Indians today should have tne ~reedom of choice of what he wants: to f'ollow traditiorn~l ways only, to _ choose education and assimilation, or to choose a combination of both. · Sddie Benton said, Indians can have the T-V, the automobile, and education without forsaking his Indianness. He can -be bi-cultural; he can have the best of both ways. A non-Indian educator commented that he didn't think that "we can have SST's and Lincoln Continentals and clean water, clean earth." HIGHLIGHTS OF FRIDAY EVENING Due to the heavy snowstorm (five hours to travel from G.R. to Traverse 8ity) we arrived after the keynote address but just in time to hear F..ddie Benton discussing age differentiation in · Indian society. At the pow wows, he said, there are the tiny babies and the old people. No one is left home. He encouraged the non-Indian educators to attend one if they have never done so. In the discussion that followed Alvina Anderson expressed her disapproval of non-Indians participating in pow wows, i.e. by dancing a:1d wearing of traditional dress, even though they may be spouses of Indians. She felt they were ma.king a mockery of Indian ways. Paul Johnson asked, what is an Indian? What makes him Indian? Something social? cultura17 economical? psychological? Its more than physical, he said, and "sor::ie may not look like Indians but may know profoundly the 'Indian Way 111 • wer e as hi3hly developed a s in many parts of the world, India. for example, ''but we ' ve never been credited for it." It is all right for Indians to have the advant ages of white civilization, Alvina Anderson said, but if he has an education he should l:elp his fellow Ir:dians. If he has a fine hol'le, a big c ar, a color T-V, etc. and he doesn't help his less fortunate brothers, he should feel pretty uncomfortable! j Lester Gel:'leill returned to the discussion of the Indian's egalitarian society with its non distinction between age and sex. The American guy, he said, has to realize that he is European and ~nite in background. If he would, then the Indians -and Blacks and Chicanos- w:iuldn' t have the proglems they have. l.luch of the contributions of Indians has been consciously played down. Never- , theless, those same contributions have been .subconsciously absorbed by American whites. "And we still have a lot to offer," said Eddie Benton. "You have called our religion silly; made fun of our dances, our music. Take the Corn Dance. Today agriculturalists are 'finding out that corn does grow better if there is music in the field." Lester added, Indian arts, music, graphics The film was cor..iposed of a great many still photographs taken in in the 1800's, and Jack Porter nentioned the fact that the film did not show a single happy Indian face; and this could give eleMentary and secondary students a bad impression of Indians. A v:hite educator noted that there weren't any happy faces among the soldiers either. "I've been waiting for sm:1eone to bring that up," said Paul Johnson. "Everyone in the whole film --the White settlers, the kids-- not one person was smiling!" This was not his first ch:iice of a film, he added. He had chosen one --"a helll.:va good one"-;_ about the decision that an Indian boy had -to make between traditional and white ways, but he had- been unable to get it. �12 native american conf'erences in traverse citv 13 (con~inued) SATl:?.:J;.Y 'S EIGELIGHTS Satcrday's c:mferences wound up in the afternoon ·. ·ith more good discussion and observa~ion. Jack Porter opened it up by commenting on the apathy of the Indian community for schools, and how little the schools had done for them. They a:-e af'raid of the schools in many instances, he said. There is a need of exposure of Indians as teachers and as aides. There is an identity crisis when an Indian child goes to school and hears that Indians were discovered in 1492. He hoped that the educators present at the conf'erence were getting an education here in the need for awareness and knowledge of other cultures. 3e was certain that the non-white American could climb the educational ladder and still retain his cultural values. "But most of our people are pi..:shed into vocational trades, teaching or sociology," he said, "and not into the sciences." It incensed him that a "kid out of Grosse Point (a very wealthy suburb of Detroit) can graduate from college and then go teach Indian kids on a reservation. That's ridiculous!" He explained, their college training lacks educao. tion in minority cultures. Richard Andrews advised the educators not to be afraid to ask Indian parents about their value system, but to do more listening than talking. It will take time for them to overcome their fear, though. 'fifE RED SCHOOL Eddie Benton discussed what the Red School of the .AI!lerican Indian Movement (A.I .1~.) in st. Paul, l!inn. is all about. "It is a survival school - we need the 3 R's to survive," he explained. The all-Indian staff attempts to instill elements of pride and identity, and both students and teachers gain by it! Indians are notoriously slow readers, he said, and the kids t1-:at come to the Red School are the drop-outs, the pushouts, the failures at other schools. They often come in reading 3 levels oelow their grade. A ~ew months on the Red School reading program and they are reading above their grade. Reason? They are allowed, encouraged, to read the things they are interested it; they build on their students' interests. The physical structure is very informal. There are no rows of desks. They sit anywhere. 'i.'here is no recess. "We know that kids need nudges of guida::-ice," he added , "and we see that they get them." The methods are unusual, but every means is used to induce them to read, to thir.k and to write. Al:lazingly, there is no absenteeism. The ratio of teacher to pupil is small. They have preschoolers through hi~hschoolers. The preschool program is a combination of l{ontessori and c·ompanionship with older students who o~en spend tioe with them, helping them. The curriculum is envisioned as a Circle of Learning. (See Fig. 1) In answer to a question as to how it is funded, .ilidie Benton admitted that this continues to be a struggle. When they began CIVICS Gov't. Structures Of Reservations · local State, Federal Relationships and Responses, Treaties, Legislation Pertaining To Natives. ECONOMICS Native Americdn Economy · Urban and Reservation SOCIAL STUDIES Contemporary Issues, Attitude Analysie Attitude Analyses, Modern Adaptations Of Native People HISTORY Local & National from Native Perspectives Analysis & Correction ART I CRAFTS Regional Differences of Style & Decoration. Performance and Student Expression COMMUNICATIONS Speaking, Writing Thought Formations, Self Confidence and Expression NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE Historic, Transitional, Contemporary Religious Ideologies, Life Styles, Value Systems, Music !Dance & Sing), Psychology, Community Structures, Migrations & Changes FIGURE 1. Circle of Learning. (Eddie Benton) ~ed School, St. Paul, Minn. �14 15 native anerican conferences in traverse city (continued) nar,ive american c onf er ences i n traverse city (continuedl there was no :f\:nding. The A.I.M. staff cut their salaries in half to s~p? ort it . Then they received a grant of $20,000 from O.E.O. There had been a collective grant of $66,000 destined for the Red School, but after the Trail of Broken Treaties the O.E.O. cut it off. Private donations have been important in keeping it going. The public school system h as donated its outdated textbooks, old desks and chairs. In fact, he added, the public schools, after seeing how success:f'ul the Red School has been, would like to get involved with it. "But," he said firmly, #we don't went to lose our autonomy." Their school board is composed of four married parents, four unmarried parents, and three students --all are Indian. into five major a reas. CURRI CULUJ.i DEl/ELOP?!ENT Paul Johnson said, I don't like so-called 'Indian weeks' and 'Native American Studies' per se, but I go along. 'libat is really important is that any program have accurate, objective descriptions, without any romanticism. He was very emphatic about that. "It makes us so~ething we're not!" he explained. And be careful of innuendo by implication, of over-simplification, of generalization, of lumping all ethnic groups together. All are equally bad. Historical accounts are full of white/Indian relationships but sometimes Indian/Indian relationships were far more relevant and had nothing to do with Whites at all, he said. 1'atch out also for generalizations about inter-tribal relationships. And · as was mentioned before, we' re not dead, not vanishing. '•le' re still alive. It is amazing what misconcep~ions white high.school students have about us, about what we're 'supposed' to look like, he added. Even medical problems of Hative Americans cannot be generalized. For instance, the full-blooded Chippewa have a high incidence of diabetes but a low cancer rate. aut that is not · true of all tribes. Indian contributions always seem to be seen from a •hite perspective, Paul continued. The involvement of A.I.U. in the L'Anse Baraga Centenial a couple years ago didn't make the non-Indians up there too hap~y, ~ut it h ad a good after-math. :oday Baraga and L'Anse are p~oba~ly two of the most progressive communiti es in llichigan, regarding Indian affairs. Indian people are oriented socially. The Indian is a Chippewa ~irst and an individual named Paul Johnson second,he explained. And if you'~e planning a program please don't ask us to come and dance and sing for you! MOilZL ?Oi l ZDUCATION Paul outlined a :~odel ::"or Education that fell c:iron:>lo~cally I . Pre-Columbian Period: tribalism, clan systems, their implications for marriage . Elementary students can be shown how clans were tools for cohesiv eness. II . Columbian Period : early white contact, how they misled the Indians, how the Indians aided the Whites. III. Developing the Nation: roles the Indians played, the Iroquois Confederation, how it worked for the Six Nations, its influence on the writing of the U.S. Constitution. N. 'iiestern Imperialization Movements: goldrush, homesteading, the Indians' expressions of these events, how their lives were changed. v. Struggle for Identity: the Indian of today. One of the immediate things that educators and parents both can do, Paul said, would be to start a Native American bookshelf in their school libraries. Then begin to develop a curriculum, not just of facts, but having affective things that will change students. And then develop a unit of study, six weeks long, at leqst. Or it could be a semester-long class. The two-day sessions had barely scratched the sur:face. There is much more to be learned, to be done. No Indian parent should miss them. No educator can afford to. --shirley francis-- Before the coming of the whi11man, it was the custom of the Indians to give thanks to their Great Spirit by having a gr feast that lasted for several days . ~ X'X ~ ~ 'foooi /f tr~ ~h;i~ 1 6 2 7 a 9 ro Translated the above reads : (1) At the time of the first frost (2) the Indians wishing to give thanks (3) to the Great Sp (4) for the years of (5) plenty (6) dance and (7) feast for (8) three days and nights (9) and then return (1°0) Home. �16 ba:>k review by .ioy THE 1!AN TO SEIID RAIN CLOUDS Contemporary stories by American Indians. Sdited by Kenneth Rosen. Illustrated by Aaron Yaba. !974: Viking Press. '$6.95. Here between two slim covers is the verdict of today's society, pronounced by a group of young, contemporary, whiteeducated Indians. These are stories and poetry of violence, bitterness, and not least of all, heart-catching beauty. Their very simplicity is clean-edged and intuitive. All were rneoorable, to Sample these three: ~e read over and over again! "COME, MY SONS" The drums of tradition are in evidence in Anna Lee Walters' epic poem about a grandfather's advice to the young of his tribe to listen to the drums in their hearts, advice given to them by Great Buffalo. "Nowhere to Go" R. C. German's story of a Navajo hitchhiker tells of the days when Apaches and Navajos had ~ fighting each other. "Yellow Woman" This most haunting of several works by Leslie Silko combines Indian legend and history. Hopefully more will join the circle of this talented group of people. To combat illness, the Indian has given us arnica, cascara, cocaine, ipecac, oil of wintergreen, petroleum jelly, quinine, and witch hazel. Botanists have yet to discover, in 400 years, any medicinal herb that was not used by the Indian. 17 ::IS:'0RY F?.m' OUR POINT OF VIE:.W In o::-der t., understand our own history, it is necesaary to learn sonething about the gifts that have cone to us from older nott~ (3nd other nations) ~or history is like a aigbty river flowing ~ough many different lands and countries. History, the stream of tine e. 7rl kno;·rledge, takes girts :from all the lands and distributes them to other lands and newer nativ~ people farther on. These people receive the girts that histor:r brings, and make them a part of their own ways. Then they add girts of their own, and the stream takes these girts and carries them on to others. From t.he native people of the past we have gained a background of strength, of ability, and of courage. When we understand their strug::;-les and successes v:e are encouraged to make the most of our lives. The knowledge of where they were strong, or met defeat, should help us to be courageous, and to avoid their mistakes; to be at peace, to find a new road. The belief most generally accepted by anthropo:o3ists now days is that the riative people of the Americas -the Indians- came via the cold land of Siberia in the northeastern part of Asia to the Western Rer:isphere over the short sea passage of the Bering Straits. This ~~s accoc.plished thousands of years before 475 BC. Today we have the American states and their subdivisions and individual communities with individual personalities. The nation is a collec"':-:'..on of geographic areas or subcultures. It is a .land of alr:.ost infinite variety and is in many ways enigriatic. It is a nation of seewi:'.'lgly uniform culture, with all its variety of regions an:l cities. 1'he citizen speaks of an American way of life, but .the sociologist sees a collection of cultural groupings based upon geographic location and ethnic association. Each has its ov.n valt:es and behavior patterns. America is a nation of uninspired place names and o~ romantic, beautiful place names: of Sixteenth Street and of Perdido Pass. It is a two-party nation with a thous'>nd parties masquerading under \'.'ell-known labels, or without any labels at all! Althoug1: the sociologist has tended to ignore the states as units -seeing t~eo as arbitrary political structures- such is not alvm.ys tJ1e case. Time, di:'fering laws, ethnic settlecent, racialu~b~n bala~ces, and economic combinations have all contributed tQ tr.e vast differences between adjoining states, and even greater ones between states of diff~rent regions. Some of the invaders regarded the Indians as troublesome nuisance~ tr.at shoud '::le 'rei;io,red'. This strongly appears to be the general opinion of the'Founding Fathers'. Sometimes they initiated forr'.al r.:ilitar:· caopaig:is advocating a scorched-earth policy: slashing orc2ards, burnir..g crops, wrecki~g hones, raizing and ruining as t~:e:r_ adva=::ced westward. There are documented cases where bi- �19 18 b,EOUT TF.AT U. OF M. NATIVE AMERICAN PRO:iRAM ••••• ~istory fror. our point of view (continued) ologica l warfare was practiced! Clothing and blankets of smallpos victims were ~ iven to hapless people who had no resistence to that and other diseases brought by the advancing horde. Today, there aDe large areas in the Americas vihere the original peoples can no longer be found. ?rem Newf'oundland to Argentina, from the Caribbean to the Californias there are places where I ndians were deliberately exterminated by those who thought the slaughter justifiable, even moral. From the Spanish Conquistadors i n ~eso­ America, f'roI!l Cotton Uather i n the lTew England Colonia l Period , from Andrew Jackson in the 1820's right down to the present day, almost no portion of the West ern Hemisphere and almost no pe,.iod of time has been free of' all taint of this approach t o the Invader/native relationsh i p. In 1970 newspapers were repor ting tle use of dynamite, machine J$tms, and biological warfare in Bra zil and Paraguay against their nat i ve peoples vmo a re few in number and limited in technology. Indeed, many of the Indian peoples which were present at the time of the first invasions have disappeared. Some were exterminat ed. Others died as their ecological base was undermined and they could not cope with the change. Some groups were assimilated via . marriage either vlith other Indian groups, or with non-Indian peoples. This blending is most evident in Lati n America, notably r.:exico and Guatemala, where aboriginal and Spanish cultures have blended into an intermediate group --the Mestizo. In the Unit ed States, their small numbers, relative poverty, and lack of sophistication have made it difficult for the Indi ans to resist pressures to conform to White/Anglo standards. In spite of this, a surprising number of Indian people with r ecognizable Indian traits have remained. Some Indian leaders nave argued for the preservation of cultural pluralism. They have received support from many anthropologists actively concerned. On the other hand, many governmental employees and other persons continue to argue that there is no choice for the Indians except assimilation, even though they may re~ain structurally organ i zed ~s distinct aseociations. W'hat do you think? Vihich is the best way? l'herefore, Brothers and Sisters, this is pri marily why there i s an INDIAN NATIONS U'JffTED in the penal system of the State of ?Ji~h igan, and why there are similar groups across the nation. For ~ovihere is more at stake than in the native hearts locked inside the 'Ironhouses'. --Gelelemand-(J ohnny H. Hill) I editorial Our policy h ere at lrrJIAN TALK is t o do all we can t o bui ld unity in the Indian community. We do not ·1nt"9nd to criticize any Indian indiviauai or organization. Well, last month we fired out some criticism at the U.of M., but it was the Indians down there that got hit. I Aft.er the last issue of INDIAN TALK appeared, we received a call fr om Jim Concannon, president of the NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION of the University of :Michigan. He protested our art icle about the University's Native American Program (Feb. '74) J im polit ely but firmly et us know that the Native American students at U of Mare "100% for the program", that the University ha s gone a ll out to give them a good program. He felt also that we were criticizing Linda Dixon, the Native .American counselor who dire ct s the program. We assured him that our criticism was intended for the institution rather than for the Native .American Program itself. Perhaps we were more biting than we should have been. Afterall, the present administration did.not coµclude the Fort Meigs Treaty, and it remains for the courts to decide if it should be held responsible. Clearly, though·, the article preceeding this one had prejudiced my opinion of U. of M. 's present Native AmeI'ican Program. J im Concannon explained Why the brochure explaining the program went into such great detail on how to enroll at the University. Very often, he said, prospective Indian students arrive on campus just before classes b8gin and they don't have all the papers they need to get financial aid, thus delaying their starting classes. The brochure was written by Linda Dixon. Is our face red! A call was then placed to Linda Dixon. We have never talked to a sweeter, more gracious lady! The first time she read our article, she sai d, she felt hurt. But then she read it again, and she began to wonder if others were getting the impression we did. i~ told her that we didn't think so, since we're notorious for looking at the dark side of t h ings!) She has decided to rewrite the br ochure, but this time she is g oing to emphasize how much the University of Michigan bas to offer the native American student r ather than the procedures for getting into the institution. The editor of any publication often finds himself out on a limb, sawing himself off whenever he editorializes. This is especially easy to do when he is basing his opinions on a small amount of material. 3ut as my branch broke away this time I was fortunate-· --1 fell into the competent hands of Jim Concannon and Linda Dixon. We all learned something. --shirley francis-- �20 BN:KTALK ••• let t_era_ _frQm_ 91.U' readers Coomittee f'or Indian Talk in Southern ltichigan: I aQ enclosing a $2.00 check to pay f'or a years subscription to your publication. While I am not particularly well informed in Indian af'fairs in our community, I remain open to learn. Teach me. If' I can be of assistance to your group in any of its activities, please feel :free to contact me. John R. otterbacher State Representative 93rd District -21- ~K TALK a>ntinued Ho-ko-dah :friends: I was reading your paper about Clarence and Mary Gilhespie's stationary. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to give me (their) address or any information on the stationary. You have a wonderf'ul. paper. Margie B;ker (Tonk-She-Tay) Risco, Mo. (You may obt.ain their stationary by writing Clarence Gillespie We Ya Yah, R #1, Box 75A, Branch, Mi. 49402) Wah Dear Indian Talk Committee: Enclosed is a $2.00 money order for a year's subscription ••• L'Y father, Joe John, sent me the Dec./Jan. issue which I enjoyed reading very much. I'll be looking forward to receiving f'uture issues ••••• Beverly Cabral F.P.O. Seattle, Wash. "THE INDIAN REVOLUTION" Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever, the Yearning for f'reedom eventually manifests itself, And because of the White Oppresser. The Indian (Beverly is with her Navy - husband on the Island of Okinawa.) It can be gained! Editor: I got the address of Indian Talk at a recent pow wow at Eastern Michigan University . Enclosing $2.00 for subscription. We need a publication in llichigan that will carry a list of pow wows and other events so we know ahead of time instead of af'ter they are over with. All Indian publications create more unity and Intelligence among Indians ••• Now is the time to get things done ••••• Here-to-for, not very much was accomplished ••• I will pass (your) name and address around to other Indian people I know. Richard Cr:I ss Capac, Michigan Kola Shirley: Red Fox went home last week on discharge. 4~ months lef't and I will be seeing the parole board ••• Please send Indian Talk to our AID off'ice (and) to my good .Al}.! - Oglala brother, b:ilo Goings. Do you know any place I could write to in Jackson, Lansing, Grand Rapids, f'or a job and home placement? I want to go to one of those towns on parole. In struggle, Stewart "American Horse" Rodda It has reminded of his Birthright of freedom. 'lbe Indian has lost faith in America, The Indian has many pent-up resentments and Latent f rustrati ons. He must release them! For hundreds of years the quiet sobbing of an Oppressed people have been unheard by "White Americans." 'lbe bitterness of the Indian Unfe l t! lives remote and Now is t.he time to lift our national policy Frcm the quicksand of racial injustice to the Solid rock of human dignity. The answer to the Indian need may become the Answer to the most desperate need of all Hm.t\NITY! --Stewart American Horse Rodda-- �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v1n5_1974-03 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk in Southern Michigan, March 1974 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974-03 Description An account of the resource March 1974 (Volume 1, Number 5) issue of Indian Talk in Southern Michigan by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/96dac40541f87f3bbef0f3bc570e4628.pdf bf7e5d24fd232005b758509f20a288f5 PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHE:RN MICHIGAN -........... I # Vol.1 No.5 ' ' April,19Jll �INDIAN TALK Vol. I No. ·6 IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN APRIL 1974 TABLE OF CONTENTS AREA. NEWS A magazine by,for, and about Native Americans COMMITTEE: Dejay Elk Irene Elk Shirley Francie Nancy Grabiak Joe Jobn Teresa Johnson Calvin Noel Gloria Shenosk:y Joy Sorenson Mary Swi:t.zer Flint • .•......•.•...................•..••• 2 Saginaw • .•....•.........................•• 2 Ph: (616) 459-2169 I,e..nsing •• ••..••.•••.•••.....•..........••• 2 SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 a year (or donation) Granct ~pids • •.......••.•..•............•• 2 Sault Ste. Marie •.•..•.• , •...... NEWS DEADLINE: 15th of month ! . •••••••• • 3 IllDIAN COMMISSION FORMS PLAN OF OPERATION •••• • ·A CORRESPONDENTS: Stewart American Horse Rodda •••••••••• Jackson (sMSP) Sandy Muse (313) 931-6438 •••••••••••• Detroit Carol Bennett (517) 482-4645 •••••••••• I:iansing Margaret Solllllick (517) 773-3743 ••••••• ~'t.. Pleasant Viola Peterson (313) 655-8492 ••••••••• Flint Mary Switzer (616) 243-2774 ••••••••••• Grand Rapids Michael Wright (906) 635-0581 ••••••••• Sault Ste. Marie PUBLISHER: aAH'•"ETING OJIBWAY FEST IVAL PLANS COMPLETED ••••• 9 CH.A.LLErfGERS WAl~TED! ••.•..••.....••...•..••...• 11 A P A..~IT ADVISORY COilliCIL AT WORK ••••••••••••• 12 BAY Af'.E:A INDIANS REFUSE RANSOM FOOD ••••••••••• 14 BACK TALK - from our readers •••••••••.•••.•••• 15 • r.o_ . . . ._ . _ 49081 r committee ofTALKconcerned men andMICHIGAN is published by a women from the Indian communINDIAN Detroit • •............•................... • 1 SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO: Shirley Francie, ed. 457 Briarwood, S.E. Grand Rapids, MI.49506 IN SOurHERN ity with the hope that through the printed word all may become aware of the col!IDon interests of Native Americans, and thus aid and support each other in reaching for common goals., INDIAN TALK Ill SCXJTHERN MICHIGAN is not. affiliated with any sect, organiza~ion, institution or interest group. Its only purpose is to provide lines of communication between Indian people, Indian groups, and between Indian and nonIndian. MIKE WRIGHT JOINS TEE INDIAN TALK FAlITLY ••••• We have a great bunch of people working on INDIAN TALK. They are truly dedicated! But we would especially like to welcome MICHAEL WI{IGHT, our new correspondent for the Sault Ste. 'Marie area. l'ike is the former editor of the foremost Great Lakes Ind.ian newspaper, the UISHNAWBE NEWS. We can sure ase his experience and expertise! Uike is presently completing his B.A. in social work. ON TEE PE?.SONAL SIDE ••••••••••••••••••••••••• • 16 ·1'14"' PROBLEM OF 1 PROBLEIJS' - editorial ••••••••• 18 C.:...'U'IFIED ALCOHOL COUNSELOR: COVER DESIGN BUILDER OF HOPE •• 19 by Stewart American F.'orse Rodda. �-1- -ARE~NEWs-Sandy Muse- A DErROIT REPORI': On February 27 a rally was held at Kennedy Square in downtown Detroit to celebrate the first anniversary of t.he occupation of Wounded Knee. A large number of Native Americans attended the rally which included drumming and singing. Special guest speakers were CARLEEN PEDROTTI of A.I.M. and THURMAN BEAR of American Indian Services, Inc. The N'ORI'H AMERICAN LWIAN ASSf.; CLUB · of Detroit is sponsoring its annual Princess Pageant Dance on April 6, 1974, when 'MISS NORI'R AMERICAN INDIAN OF DEI'ROIT 1974 will be chosen. The event will take place at the Croatian Catholic Center, 201 West Seven-Mile Road (just east of Woodard), from 8:00p.m. until 1:00 a.m. Single girls age 16 or over who are members of the North American Indian Association are eligible to enter the contest. For more information contact: Ms. Claudine Elm 20050 Cameron Detroit, Mi. 48203 Ph:(313) 891-3578 ~ .Q.H Ms. Eva Cherry 3606 Campbe 11 Dearborn, Mi. 48124 Ph:(313) 565-2419 A meeting was held Monday evening, March 11, to lay plans for a "Communications Lab" which will set up a series of meetings between the Indian community ard representatives of City Departments. The Communications Lab will be held on April 27 and 28, 1974. The lab will be a :form of "think tank" whereby differences can be resolv~d and red tape cut down, thus bringing ab :'ut a closer working relationship between t.he two groups, From t.his it is hoped that our Native American Programs will receive assistance from the City of Detroit. A budget has been proposed for Title IV, Part A, of the Netionil Indian ~ucatio~ Act by the Parent Advisory Collllllittee ot ·t.Ae Detroit District+ and its Proposal, finalized at a meeting last March 4, seeks to obtain :funds to assist Urban Indians of Detroit in establishing an Indian ~ucation Center. COP.RECI'ION: The newly elected officers mentioned last month were for the North American Indian Associa~ton CLUB, whicb is the fund-raising segment of t.he N.A. I.A. parent~nizat.ion. Also, the I.A.I.A. meets once a month (not twice) on the first Sunda~ of the month. (Our apologies to I.A.I.A. President ;JEAH ..:rEORGE for t.hese errors. Editor) �I- -3- -2- AREA NEWS (continued:) -grand rapids- AREA NEWS (continued:) FLINT -Genesee Vallev. Indian Assn. news- Native Americans planning to obtain funding f.'or higher education must be at least one-quarter degree Indian blood quantum. This must be certified by a designated certification official. To find out how to do this contact the Uichigan Inter-tribal Education Associati on, Inc., Keweenaw Bay Indian Tribal Center, R #1, Baraga, :Michigan. 49908. Phone:· (906) 353-6740. «a) Native Americans who wish to get funds for vocational training should contact Ms. Irma Parrish, R #1, Brimley, Mi. 49715, or Mr. Julius Peters, R #4, Box 10, Mt. Pleasant, Mi. 48858 The Flint School District Parents have organized to take advantage of their share in the National Indian Education Act, Pa rts A, B. and c. Parents who wish to take part in this program should contact Bonnie Alexander, 232-2023 a:f'ter 5 p.m. or Viola Peterson, 655-8492. The Carman District Parents are hoping to hire a Native American with a degree in education to work f'ull-time with their program this c oming year. Shananaquet of OWl Indian Outreach, Inc. Onq a few had spending money, said Ms. Shananaquet, but what ever those few had> they shared with allL A new program has been started at the Indian Center of the GRAND RAPIDS Ilfr1<'~-TRI3AL COUNCIL. Called the Adult Creative Cultural Program, it will meet every Thursday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Center, 756 Bridge St., N.w. It will feature sewing, arts and crafts; and is geared to the mature adult, i.e., the 'senior citizen'. Mrs. Irene Elk is conducting it. OWL INDIAN OillREA.CH, Inc. has initiated a program, Craf't Night twice weekly on Mondays and saturdays, from 7:00 p.m. Kathy Shagonaby and Helson Shinos will conduct them, and will help members get started in leatherwork, beadwark and basket-making. This is for the entire family. At the Indian Center, 756 Bridge, N.W. SAULT STE. 'MARIE SAGINAw' (G.V.I.A. News) The SAGINAW VAU.Ei URBAN AND RURAL IND J.AN ASSOCIAI'Ieh-l was formed at a meeting of interested people from the Burt, Chesanihg, and St. Charles areas last March 3. Although the core of the group is Chippewa, it is open to all of Indian descent. For more information contact Gerald Gould, 1122 Orth Drive, Saginaw, Mi. LANSING The dedication of new books for the library of Lansing Community College was postponed from the March date to April 3, 1974. Ms. Cecilia darren says the afternoon ceremonies will include Native American and Chicano dances and foods. All of the new books purchased by the college and to be dedicated this day are on either Native Americans or Chicanos. Indian corn soup and fry bread, and Chica_~o sweet bread and hot chocolate will be served. GRAND RAPIDS Some 19· Indian children were t~eated to a performance of the Shrine Circus last January, thanks to a girt from Fr. Richard Van Lente, director of the West Side Apostolate of the Human Relations Col!lllissi8n. BangU\g in age from 4 to 13, they were shepherded by Barney Halfaday, Elaine Tufflemire and Carol -Michael Wright- The Original Bands of the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Indians received federal recognition in March, 1974. The U.S. government now recognizes them as the descendents of the original treaty makers and as a federally recogDiz~d Indian organization. The Federal Government will now negociate with them in such matters as obtaining tribal land to be held in trust, in the setting up and certification of me'mbership roles. when these negociations are completed the Original Bands of the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Indians will be recognized as a tribal entity, and a federal reservation will be set up. This will entitle them to all the benefits enjoyed by other tribal communities. Presently the Band membership is 5,000. Each member oust be able to trace his descendency from a member on one of five tribal roles that were assembled beginning in the 1850's. Membership is always open, and persons who have reason to believe that they could belong to the Original Bands of the Sault Ste . Marie Chippewa Indians shoul d contact the Enrollment Committee, Chippewa Indian Development Center, 206 Greenougil St . , Sault Ste . Marie , ia. 49783 advertis ement) SERVI CFS BY MRS. ELK Ph: (616 ) 532- 2826 !rsonabf9 Rates eautH'u l.y Sewing, Hai r Decorated Tailoring, Styling Cakes Alterations And Cutt.i �-4- LANSING IlIDIAN COMMISSION FORMS PLAN OF OPE...'U\.TIOH During the past. six months, the Commission on Indian Af':f'airs has been formulating the selection of priority areas in which they will concentrate their efforts. On December 29, 1973, the Commission formally adopted the following priorities:. Comnmity Relations and Develt•pnent.. Program Procurement. Legal Services Local Administration of Grants. llanpower Development and Emplo1JDent. 6. Health and Housing. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. In January, the staff developed plans of operation for the next six months to meet these priorities. The strategies proposed by the staff were reviewed by the Commission on February 2, 1974. Detailed below are the results of that review and subsequent approval of the staff implementation plan. COllMUNITY RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT There 11re a number of drastic changes which have come abcut in t.he structure of the federal goveI'J117\ent in the past two years. The basic and most important change is that the categorical aid, that is, the lump-sum grants to Et.tack a specific problem or to address a speci£ic need are fast disapearing. The concept of revenue sharing has imbedded itself in the federal, regional, state, state-regional and local areas. This means that for Indian people to receive assistance, they will have to deal increasingly on a local or regional level. Those groups vndch are not prepared to make application for programs, services, grants, etc., at the local level will be left out of this revenue sharing concept in government. The Commission is devoting the :full-time servic~s of two Etaff members, ¥.r. Richard Andrews and Mrs. Annie Green, to the strengthening of local Indian community organizations, providing technical assistance and "how to" information so that each Indian group may determine its own needs and can hope to receive local government and other servic~s to combat them. It is also absolutely essential that the Indian communities be prepared to respond to existing federal programs. For example, the Title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act includes the 1972 Indian .Education Act provisions which say that to qualif'y for these entitlements, certain steps are are required involving both the Indian co111DUI1ity and the local school district. If the Indian ca:mrunity is unaware of -6indian cf!P!ission forms p1an of operation (continued:) t:h• funds available and the method of obtaining them, it is unlikely that the school will initiate these efforts on their own. It is :further difficult for the Coordinator of Indian F.ducation, Lester B. Gemmill, to deal with these school districts when the Indian community is unprepared to respond; therefore, action gets bogged down. Coamrun:ity Development thrust is designed to assist Indian groups so that they can initiate these actions themselves and not have to rely upon the school. We will be providing inf'ormation through our Community Development efforts about this and other federal programs; but they can be of benefit to the Indian camnunity only if those communities are prepared to take action. Our goals are: Our 1. To meet with each organized Michigan Indian community during the first six months of this year. 2. To assist each Indian organization prepare a data base for use in both their dealings with their own local community governments and with the federal and state governments requiring the same information. 3. To explain to the community organizations the roles that the Commission can and cannot play. 4. To utilize the data from each Indian community in formulation of plans at the state and federal levels. This will require a great deal of activity on the part of the Indian C011111ission staff assigned to Community Development as well as activity generated at the local level by the Indian communities. PROGRAll: PROCUREMENT To attack many of the problems faced by the Indian communities, the Comoission will write proposals, seek grants and other sources ofassistance, which will be either directly administered from the Commission Office or will be sub-contracted to other Indian groups. The Commission solicited applications from Indian organizations to sponsor a Legal Services Program, and the Budget Committee will select from among them one through 'ldlich this vitally needed program can be sponsored. There is no financial gain in this Legal Services Program for this organization, but it will provide them with experience and contacts which may be useful to them in the :future. Through its technical assistance role the Coomiission on Indian Affairs will become aware of, and apply for, :funds cal level. To assist in this portion to local communities, also be helping them and programs on the loof program procurement, �-6- ind ian commission forms plan of operation (continued:) the Colllllission is scheduling two three-day seminars this spring to provide local communities and/or their leaders training in proposal writing. April is the tentative date for the reaease of details of these seminars. LEGAL SERVICES Proposed is a four-part plan which wi "!.l address to the needs of Michigan Indians for legal representation. 1. The Jlichigan Commission on .Indian Affairs will pre- pare an application for funds through another Indian organization to obtain a class-action lawyer, whose responsibilities will be: a. To initiate suit against the federal government for recognition of off-reservation Indians. b. To investigate action tolbe taken on affirmative action programs from private and governmental uni ts to assure Indians getting job opportunities. 2. The C ommission will submit a proposal which will or- ganize, during the summer of 1974, a volunteer lawyer referral system to deal with day-to-day civil and criminal problems of Indian people. 3. The Commission will arrange meetings with existing Legal Services Programs and Indian groups in their area to discuss how the existing Legal Services Programs might be used for the benefit of Indians in that area. 4. Local Administration of :f'unds will be possible be• cause the Commission on Indian Affairs will set up a "bidding" system in the state for those Indian groups which would like topdminister programs that the Commission generates on a state-wide basis; that is, the Cotlllllission has decided to make this staff effective, the Commission itself will not administer programs statewide. It will, however, write some applications; a.~d other Indian groups will operate those s:t.a~ewide programs which the Commission will monitor, evaluate and, hopefully, audit that administration to insure that the purposes of the application are being carried out and to help that Indian group gain experience in the administration of programs. MANPOWER A~D EMPLOYlSNT During these first six months the Coimnission is utilizing Mr. -7• indian CO!l!!Dission forms pJ.an of operation {continued:) Willard Lambert Jr.'s full-time services in developing Indian participation in the new Manpower Revenue Sharing Act. This Act is designed to allow indian groups to participate under Titles I, III, and VI. This Act will require, however, that the Indian community submit proposals and applications to obtain the services and job positions under the provisions of the Act. This will require a substantial amount of local ' Indian involvement and a substantial technical assistance role to be played by the Coumission. Jlr. Lambert will be contacting Indian groups and organiza- tions in the state who are interested in making application for any of the above mentioned opportunities. HEALTH AND HOUSING The Commission has adopted a resolution requesting the State Department of Health to establish as a priority in the Fiscal Year 1975, the position of a statewide Indian Health Coordinator. In obtaining this position, the Commission requires the assistance of each Indian member of an Areawide Comprehensive Health Planning Association. Such member should request his Areawide Comprehensive Association to make a request to the State Department of Health for this position. The Commission will then follow up this request and see to it that the State Department of Health includes this position in their budget. Further, the Commission will work with the Legislature in introducing a Bill requesting sixteen (16) Community Health Representatives tobe employed in areas ' throughout the state. Once this Bill is introduced, each individual Indian community will have to support it by writing letters, calling Representatives and Congressmen, making requests at local health departments, etc., to generate support for the passage of this Bill. AND BEYOND T.tlE FOREGOING PRIORITIES ••• In addition, the Commission has assigned a staff member, Mr. Bill LeBlanc, to deal with the Legislature. This will result in better coordination of effort on all of these levels, but will require that Indian Communities throughout the state prepare themselves to support legislation \'lbich the Commission introduces. The Commission is also planning one statewide conference. After several months' operation of the six-month plans, it should become more clear to the Indian organizations the role that the Commission ·hopes to play. A Higgins Lake II is scheduled for Late Spring. This conference will enable the Commission to evaluate its role and to get reaction from the Indian communities, and to show soli- �i -9- -8- indian commission forms plan of operation (continued:) Clarity to t.he non-Indians in the state. The Comnission on Indian Affairs will not be able to adequately write proposals for all groups in the state. This would result in deterioration of local self-determination and would l~d to difficulties between the Commission and local Indian organizations. Howeve~ applications, proposals, requests, et.e., for the services in Wi-' ich we will be dealing must be written. Thus, the Michigan Commission on Indian A:ffai.rs will hold two 3-day proposal-writing seminars: one in the northern part of the state and one in the southern part. It is felt that each Indian community ought to be able to find S01Deone to do the aetualw.riting of a proposal, so long as the Commission provides the basic information of what is required f'rom each local Indian community for each grant application. The COtllllission, then, will inform the Indian community what they have to do to meet the provisions of the Act, or agency to whom the application isbeing made. This information will be made availabe by every means: by telephone, personal contact, sample proposals, etc. A~er each group writes their own proposal, the Commission will comment on that proposal, if" requested, and will suggest changes which will help the proposal get better consideration f'rom the funding source. The Coumission will follow up on proposals submitted by the Indian coumunity to insure their best chances for getting funded. The 3-day seminars will detail the methods and the ''bow to" of submitting those applications and proposals. THE FOCUS IS ON THE ORGANIZATIONS As can be seen from the description or the activities in which the Commission will be dealing, it is centering its attention on the Indian groups and organizations. The Commission on Indian affairs will help an Indian group become organized upon the written request from that group or person. While it will not be able to provide the personal service that it has in the past, the Commission hopes to strengthen Indian organizations and communities by exclusive service to them. - The Michigan Indian- (Feb. 20,1974) -------tesr here---;;.;;.subscripl;ion-bl.ank---~e-arnere--------­ INDIAN TALK, 457 Briarwood S.E., Grand Rapids, Mi. 49506 YES, here's my three dollars for a one-year sub~ scription. (Check or money order preferred) __Keep me on the mailing list, 'ffid bill me later. UA!.:E ADD:'D-;3S______________ SAULT STE. MA...'UE BA!ftt"El'ING OJIBWAY FESTIVAL PLANS COMPLEl'ED A second Bahweting Ojibway Festival has been planned in the 'Soo' by the Original Band of the Sault Ste. Chippewa Indians on July 11, 12, 13 and 14, 1974. And according to :.:ike Wright, one or the planners, it will be bigger and better than last summer's highly successful event. Camping will be again available without charge at Riverside Park, located on the St. Mary's River just a few minutes from the world's largest locks, through which pass more ships than go t.hroug'h the Panama Csnal. Participants in the activities of the Festival will receive delicious meals -all Indian food (and buffalo meat!)- free, but non-participants will be required to pay for them. Worried about Gasoline? Don't be. If there is a shortage still in the United States, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, has plenty available. Mike Wright has given us a complete rundown of the Bahweting O"jibway Festival activities. THURSDAY(JUIJ 'll) at LAKE SUPERIOR STATE COLLEGE: Author and artist William J. Palmer will speak on "The Indians of lake Superior". He will also present an Exh-i bition of works of Michigan Native American Art. Mr. Palmer is a f'ull blooded Oneida-Iroquois and a native of Wisconsin. He has spent most of his life in the Upper Peninsula. Mr. Palmer is also a licensed professional mariner who has spent 17 years sailing both salt water and the Great Lakes, and has written a book, T}}e Sa1mon Hunters, about some of his experiences. He now devotes all or his time to artistic endeavors. FRIDAY (JULY 1.2)at the NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY: The INDIAN PRINCESS PAGEANT and DIIDlER DANCE will begin at 6:00 p.m. The pageant with selection of Indian Princess will take place first, followed by dinner. Dancing will then continue from 9:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. The dance committee is presently negociating with a band to provide the music for the evening's entertainment. Alcoholic beverages will be served. Sponsored by the Nee Guna Gee Zhik Club 1 an Indian cultural organization in Sault Ste. Marie, the tickets for the Indian Princess Pageant and ~inner Dance will be on sale in the near f'uture. PLEASE N01'E: Young ladies desiring to enter the Indian Princess Pageant must be lB years or older a!'ld Chippewa. They will be judged by their know- �,, I -10- -11bahweting ojibway festival plans completed (continued:) bahweting ojibway festival plans completed (continued:) ledge of their culture, by their traditional dress, and by their poise -and NOT by their physical beauty. For more information about entering t.he contest please contact Us. Beverly Bouscher, Chippewa Indian Development Center-, 206 Greenough St., Sault Ste. Marie, 'Mich. 49783. Phone: (906) 635-0581. <sunaav July 14 continued:) 6:00 p.m. at NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY: f l ., NATIVE AMERICAN FEAST free to all Indians and their guests. the Nee Guna Gee Zhik Club will present skits and dances based on Michigan Native American legends. SATURDAY (JULY 13) ***************** 10:00 a.m. at. BRADY PA...'llC: POW WOW DANCE CONTE§T: Ojibway Ceremonies will take place at the site of the Sacred tree planted last summer during the Festival. 10:30 a.m. at BRADY First Prize: Second Prize: Third Prize: PA..~: g: !ill:@! BOYS $200 $175 $150 $100 $ 75 $ 50 $35 $25 $15 ~ $35 $25 $15 INDIAN AWARENESS PA..~E start.a here, with everyone in- vited to take part.. All Indian tribes and organizations are invited to ent.er f'loats in the parade or to march with their organizational banners. ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES: No alcoholic beverages will be allowed at the POW wow, the CAUCUS, or at the NATIVE AMERICAN FEAST, of course. However, they will be served at the INDIAN PRINCESS PAGEANT and DINNER DANCE. And of course at the 49'er. 12:00 noon at NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY: Free meal for all participants in the morning's activities. All others must pay for this meal. 2:00 p.m. at A..~ORY: OPENING POW O:NE WOW. 6:00 p.m. at AIWORY: Free meal to pow wo• participants. 8:00 p.m. at Armorv: EVENING POW WOW. Wind your watches, says Mike Wright, because we won't erating on Indian Time! SUNDAY (JULY 14) 12:00 noon;at :NATIONAL GUA..lID ARMORY: Free meal to the day's participants. (Fee to others) I UPPER PENINSULA - NORI'HERN MICHIGAN NATIVE Al/:;"P_ICAN CAUCUS. Invitations to this caucus are being extended to every Indian reservation and urban Indian group in the state, requesting them to send two delegates f'rom each to give ten- minute talks on the programs and goals and problems of their tribe or group. 2:00 P.m. at Armory: CLOSING POW WOVi. ~ op- CHALLENGERS '.VANTED ! (This will be followed by a forty-niner.) 1:00 p.m. at A..qf,fQRY: MORE THING: l' ,, Spring is just around the corner and the IllDIAN NATIONS UNITED and HAST.A organizations of Souther'b Michigan State Prison are putting together a Native American and Chicano baseball a.~d softball team. They will take on all challengers! Please bear in mind that they will only be able to use the designated fields when they are not in use by other inside teams. Thus the playing schedule must be somewhat flexible, and may mean a last-minute phone call to team managers! Of course they will try to give at least a one-day notice in advance, or more if possible. If your Special Enclose name of team is interested, please write HERF.A}IK)S TEA1! 1 cfo Activities Office, 4000 Cooper St., Jackson, l'.1.49201. name of team, whether it plays baseball or so~ball, manager, address and telephone number. �., ,~· -13- -12GRA@ RAPIDS A PARENT ADVISOnY com;CIL AT WORK The Parent 1 s Advisory Coun~il to the Grand Rapids Public Schools met February 7, 1974 at the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council Center to hear Proposal writer Walter Norgrove outline the Proposal being prepared for Title IV f'unds for the Indian children of this area. Attendi ng were parents, school officials a?D advisors from Lansing: J ack Porter of J.!ichigan State University and Janice Beckhorn, director of Lansing North American Indian Center. Walter Norgrove opened the meeting wit.b a review of the proposal plans. The tentative allocation for 1974-75, he said, would be about $102,867.02. This is based on the 885 Indian students attending G.R. Public Schools. The f'unds will be used to provide programs developed for specific needs of Indian children, as has been spelled out l~gislatively. He had roughed out a budget that allocated f'unds for emergencies parent involvement, equipment, para-professional aides, tutoring expense, travel, a home-school coordinator, and a halftime secretary. His two possible plan~ were: (1) use f'unds for two Native American Specialistsf set a s ide a sum for consult.ants' fees, travel money, and materials and supplies; and hire twelve paraprofessional aides. The necessary evaluation will be done by an outside expert. . Thi s evaluation wculd determine whether the program brought results, such as a reduction in the drop-out rate among Indian s tudents. • :Mr. Norgrove's Plan No. 2 specified hiring of an outside coordinator but only 8 paraprofessional aides. The remainder of this Plan was the same as Plan No. 1. Jeanette St. Clair, teacher at Northeast Junior High School and Indian parent-member of the Parents' Advisory Council, explained to newcomers the f'unctions of this council. To obtain and use the monies available through Title IV of the National Indian :Education Act, she said, each school district having Indian pupils and applying for the f'unds must have a Parents Advisory Council. Its membership is made up of Indian parents with children in the applying school district. One of the aims of the Grand Rapids Parents Advisory Council, Mrs. St. Clair continued, is to combat the high drop-out rate of Indian children in this district. Thus, the Council has decided to concentrate its efforts on those elementary and junior high schools having the greatest percent.Elge of Indian pupils. The Council believes it is imperative that the teaching st.a.ff of these schools be made aware of Native Americans and their culture. Jack Porter expressed a concern for what he felt was a basic pitfall in this program, and that was isolation. The idea, a parent advisory council at work (continued:) he said, is to make public educators aware that the Indians are here and want to be included, to make them aware also that Indian people are intelligent and can f'unction in white society. We are trying to change an attitude and a stereotype, he said, adding that one here can say that Indians have been treated fairly in history. He expressed approval of the number of school principals present at the meeting. The principals attending the Parents Advisory Council meeting were from Northwest School, Stocking, Lexington, and Harrison Park schools. Each expressed their receptivity to any program that would help their Indian pupils. One principal felt that his Indian pupils needed someone Indian to identify with themselves. Another felt that Indian awareness was very essential. One principal expressed a desire for accurate materials revealing true Indian culture. :Edward Pigeon, director of the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council Indian Center, revealed the Center's plans for setting up a resource center to make resource people, tapes, audio-visual aids, information on arts and crafts, etc. available to area schools. Mr. Norgrove commented wryly that when the dollars become available the publishing houses will throw together all kinds of stuff · catering to Native Americans. Janice Beckhorn said that the Lansing Program has been in operation since their Proposal came through for the 1973-74 school year. They were successf'ula:ipecially in one area; for the first time Indian parents were attending parent/teacher conferences and PTA meetings. In fact, she said, there is now 100$ turn-out for the parent/teacher conferences. Jack Porter said that the Lansing Parents Advisory Council was emphatic that the best qualified Indian people be hired for the positions of Home Visitors. These work part-time as Instructional Aides in the classroom. The remainder of their time isipent in home visiting, which is essentiall7social work. Mr. Pigeon added that there is something special about having an Indian paraprofessional aide call on Indian parents. It is more likely to get the parents involved in their children's school life. To~principal 1 s suggestion that perhaps home-school coordinators were more necessary than instructional aides, Lisa Moser didn't agree. She is Native American Specialist in the Grand Rapids Public Schools. She felt that it is more important for children -both Indian and non-Indian- to be exposed to Native American personnel in school. tbat is more, she added, Indian Home Visitors must know what is going on in school in order to answer parents' questions about it. To concern expressed about the low paraprofessional salaries �I , -14- ~KTALI( a parent advisory council at work (continued:) Mr. Norgrove explained why the Indian paraprofessional aides could not be paid more. There are 11 different kinds of aides in the Grand Rapids School System, and they are hired usually under some kind of federal program. But the problem is not there. All paraprofessional aides must abide by the rules of the paraprofessional union, just as teachers, secretaries, and custodians must in their unions. Mr. Pigeon was worried that many qualified applicants would feel the pay was too low to be worth it, e· .p ecially if they must hire babysitters for their own children. And since this is a pilot program, he added, we must hire the best people to insure success. A Plan Ho. 3 was proposed. Four Native American Specialists would be hired at substantially higher salaries. Each would have two schools assigned to him/her. In addition, 12 instructional aides would be hired to work in all schools, a sum of $600.00 would be set aside for a special event, i.e., a program, speaker, cultural event, e:c., a sum for travel expense for the Native American Specialis ts, $8000.00 for materials an:i supplies, $4000.00 for parent involvement and Emergency Fund, and $1000.00 reserved for program evaluation. Plan No. 3 was adopted by the Parent Advisory Council. It was flent in March 15, 1974. It will be mid-summer before they will know if it has been aproved and, if accepted, how much they will receive. Allocations are dependent on how many proposals are received and on how many school districts qualify. r FROM ACROSS THE NATIONJ.i MY . A.REA\ INDIANS REFUSE Rfu"iSOM 1FOOD Six major Indian organizations from the San Francisco Bay area have rejected the free food offer from the Symbionese Army (SLA), captors of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst ••• labeling SLA as a "radical few who chose to make their own laws and dispense their own forms of distorted justice." At a press conference held February 25, representatives from Indian organizations in the Bay area released a collllllUl).ique, saying that they felt as Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce, did: that all men should be treated alike, all are brothers, and all should have eqillll rights upon Mother Earth. Therefore, "we are brothers to Patricia Hearst. We are brothers, too, of all poor and oppressed people of the earth ••• (but) we feel our people are being exploited by a radical few who chose to make their own laws and dispense their own forms of justice. This is not to condenm those who are now accepting food for people in need. It is simply tofsay we cannot accept food while Patricia is held captive. The Indian People know what it is like to be held captive ••• but we will not be co-conspirators in extortion..... . ( 174 ) - L.A., ca lif' , -Talking Leaf3 !I -15- from our readers Dear l!rs. Francis: Thank you for your recent letter and for a copy of Ind.Ta~. Please find enclosed a check for $3.00 fer a subscription •• ~t is fine that the Indian community in S.l.!1chigan is supporting this effort toward improved communication. Everyone interested in Indian affairs will benefit from this. The February issue gives a misleading account of the salvage of Indian burials at Benton Harbor in early January 1974. I will be happy to provide you with a description of what did happen, along with the results of professional study, when this is available. At. present, the skeletal remains are being analyzed by a physical anthropologist at WMU. He may not complete this study until sometime next f'all. The remains will be returned for reburial after the study is completed, in accordance with an agreement with Mr. Paul Hamilton of Niles. I want to assure you that there was !!2 "souvenir hunting" by anyone involved, that the local people who were contacted by the police did an excellent job of careful salvage excavation, and that the police themselves were very concerned to establish the nature of the discovery, ••• that there was no possibility of criminal activity. The piles of bones (described) resulted from the accidental scooping out of an ossuary burial pit with a back-hoe. This is how the burials were first discovered, and disarray is inevitable under these circomstances. Placing the skulls together was an effort to establish how many individuals were present in the ossuary. salvage work continued for s~veral days, with local people and professional anthropologists working together to save every bit of material relevant to the fullest possible reconstruction of who these people were. The burials were discovered on private property. The property owner cooperateafto the fullest extent pos~ible, delaying (at personal expense) completion of the back-hoe trench to allow controlled excavation of the remaining burials which would have been disturbed by further digging with the back-hoe. Nothing was disturbed which was not in line of the back-hoe trench. Everyone concerned worked together to salvage as much information as could be learned about these burials ••• I'll be glad to provide Indian Tal!; with a summary of results of our studies when these are completed. (Also,) I'm asking a fellow anthropologist at W1ID to get in touch with (ltrs. Rosemarie Wood) in connection with her study of medical treatment of Indians ••••• Elizabeth E. Baldwin, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, Western Mich, University (We sincerely appreciate Dr. Baldwin's response. ed.) �' 1L- -16baCk talk (continued:) Dear Indian ~alk Committee: I would like to subsc~ibe to the magazine you send out each month for 1 year. You can bill me later ••• #ill be looking for it in the mail. Mr. & Mrs. Carl Vallance Sumner, Michigan Dear Mrs. Francis: Perhaps you may re~ember meeting Cat.hie and Curt, at Kalamazoo, or Grand Rapids, or at Ann Arbor. In any event, I told you that our organization wo~ld subscribe to Indian Ta1k. Attached you will find our check ••• We are looking forward to your next issue. Harold C. (Curt.) Cook Sponsor, 5Ul! (§tudents gnited wit.h ~n) ON THE PERSONAL .i7... ON TEE PSRSONAL SIDE (continued:) SIDE LISA MOSER, liative American Specialist for t.he Grand Rapids Public Schools, has come up with what we t.bink is a great idea. In her work she comes into contact wit.h many Indian teen.:{gers. And she learned t.bat many cannot get to pow wows for various reasons. Her idea is this: why not. iavit.e a teenager or two to go with you the next time you go! Even many younger children would love to but cannot because of no ttiansportation or their parents are working and can't get t.he time off, or have just lost contact with pow wows. Of oourse there would have to be some guidelines set up, admits Vs. Moser·, and the teenager should show his/her interest by contributing a small amount toward his expenses and willingness to abide by a few rules. If this sounds like an exciting project that you'd like to get into this sUlilller, contact Lisa Moser, 508 Prospect, N.E., Grand Rapids, ~. 49503. Her phone: (616) 456-5875 after 6:00 p.m. CAROL SHAi'l"ANAQUEl' is as busy as her husband Larry. She is treasurer of Owl Indian outreach, Inc., and the mother of five children. Carol is presently taking an evening typing course, plans to follow up on that with a course in bookkeeping, and is readying hersel.f to begin intensive, in-depth training in alcohol therapy and counseling in preparation to work wit.h families where alcohol is a problem. The training course will be held in the Grand Rapids area on alternate weekends begin1Hng April 5 and ending June 1. The all-day Friday and Saturday cl.asses will be conducted by Dr. Wehmer from Ha:-bor Light Halfway House in Detroit. The rt. Ple9sant Pow Viow last March 17 was only one evening long, but it drew quite a crowd. Native Americans arrived from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Allegan, Sault Ste. Marie and even Canada! J.."OOSE PAJ.'.P won First Prize in the Men's Dance contest, with SUGA.-q BEA.~ SHOGANOSH coming for Second. JUDY APPlSI'ON won First Prize in the Ladies Shawl Dance, and young BEN !!INMAN won Second Prize in the Boys Dance. (Sorry we don't have fuller details on this.) The NEE GANA GEE ZHIK CLUB from the 'Soo' were very striking in their purple dress, we heard, l!lld we can hardly wait until the Ojibway Festival next summer to _ "See t.hem perform as a group. Among the many who att.ended were GLORIA SHENOSKY, ELAINE TUF'- FELML>m, GEORGE Y.ARI'IN, GLADYS SANDS, THE JOE RAPHAELS, ELI THOMAS, MATTIE JACKSON, ALICE BENNErT, LOUIS POlNTIAC, MARIE EllBRY, and THE DON STEVENS FAMILY. MARY SIMONAIT got t.he surprise of her life when, at the Open House of the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Center at the beginning of' INDIAN AWARENESS WEEK last February she was awarded a plaque af'ter her selection as OUTSTANDill'G NISHNAW13E of the YEAR! And the G.R.I.T.C.'s choice was not an easy one to make, considering t.."'1.e many hard working Nishnawbes in Grand Rapids. 3ut Ms. Simonait.'s devotion and'her prowess in her dealings on behalf of Native Americans and her willingness to aid all people' as the inscription on the plaque say~, are legendary. She always has time for you, and she knows how to help you! J.~s. Simona.it is a Chippewa, a native of Michigan, a former elementary teacher and a mother of three who is now the Native American Counselor for Davenport College and Granl Valley St.ate Colleges. The Communications Laboratory recentl y held in Grand Rapids between Indians and non-Indians was 'the culmination of year-long efforts of this untiring lady. She also brought the WRITE ROOTS OF PEACE to Grand Rapids last year, and guided the Indian Students of G.V.s.c. through their first pow wow last June. The award may have been a surprise to her but not to anyone else who knows Mary! SANDY J.{USE is one of the seventeen children of JOHN LIDSE, a co-director of Concerned Indians of Michigan. Sandy has taken over as correspondent for the Detroit area. She is al$o the editor of her high school newsletter, and has chosen journalism as her career. Her Detroit Report arrives regularly every month, as our readers can see. We are very proud to have this very able young lady on our staff'. : ~ �\, 18 THE PBOBI.EM OF -19- 'PROBLEJill ' ••••••••••••••••••• Recent.ly certain kinds of' news about the Indian community has cooe under fire. Too much news about our probletnS, it has been argued, will lead others to believe that we ~ have these problems. Therefore, we must not print thrs-kind of newa. But. is the logic behind this reasoning sound? Witness the news printed daily in the newspapers: the robberies, 111\ll'ders, auto accidents, muggings, vandalisms and etc. Does everyone coming to our state f'or the first time and reading our daily newspapers think our area is a hot.bed of crillle and mayhem? Do they realy believe that a major percent.age of our population is responsible for these events? In the 1920's and 30's there were "terrible gang wars in cities 11.ke Chica.go and New York. Gangster ~ st.rugg1ed to cont.ro1 certain aspects of t.hose cities. The newspaperf that waged war against t.hese mobs by exposing their crl.mlnal element.a and connectiom were o:f't.en attacked by the mobs. Their presses were bombed, their reporters were attacked, and t.heir editors were offered bribes. Vthy? Because the gangsters :reared the arousal of public opinion against them. For this led t.o the uniting of' community gro~ •..hat would bring pressure on the power groups to do something t.o rest.ore law and order. The more the general public knew about the cancer in their midst, the better able they would be to SUPport efforts to arrest it. ' For these very same reasons we print the news about the problems at'f'ecting some members of' the Indian community. For as articles on cancer and heart disease do not indicate that everyine is afflicted with them, so news about Indian alcoholism does not by .any means infer that 2!J. Native Americans are alcoholics. What it does mean is that ~..here is a serious problem in our midst, and we want to let people know what is being done about it. As a child I remember being horribly f'ri6htened of' catching 'Inf'ant.ile Paralysis' or 'polio' as it is now called. There was plenty written about it. No one knew What caused it, let alone how to cure it. So the only t.hing people could do was contribute money for the care of' its victims -confined to iron lungs, portable respirators or wheelchairs-, and support. the research going on to find its cause and cure. It took huge sums and intensive training of' many individuals to f'inally accomplish this in the 1950's. 3ut if' people had not been made aware of' the horribleness ~f' this disease and of the vast sums needed for research - if' these things bad not been written about - how much longer it would have t.ckel. problems can be licked too. But not if we hide them under a bushel basket and pretend they are not there! And it matters not at all whether they af':f'ect 9'.£ or 90% of' us. It the nroblem of' 'problems' (continued:) editorial matters even less what others -non Indians- think of' us. What is important is that we are doing something about them. I think the most terrifying thing that could happen to a person would be to f'ind out that he had an incurable disease and that he was t.he only one in the world to have it! Wllat a relief' to f'ind out that others have it too. What a comfort to find out that others are working dili~ently to find its cause and cure! For these offer hope! In 1938, when Alcoholics Anonymous was only one year old and barely getting started, a man hooked up a hose from the exhaust of' his Modal A Ford to the rear window and died, alone and friendless, in Fletcher's Field. He was alcoholic. He was 36 years old. He was my father. This does not have to happen anymore. NOW THERE'S HOPE. THE CERrI.FIED ALCOHOL C.OUNSELOR: BUILDER OF HOPE Larry Shananaqqet, director of' Owl Indian Outreach, In~t Grand Rapids' Indian group working int.he area of alcoholism, recently returned from a month of' study at the Western Region Indian Alcohol Training Center. This is t.he first. step toward certification as a Certified Alcohol Counselor. Some 36 students -Indians from all over the United Sta~es­ were enrolled at the Salt Lake City, Utah, training center for classes in Group Leadership, Community Organizations, Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse Studies, Growth and Behavior, Counselor's Training, Self-Awareness, Introduction to Business Administration, and Recovery Center Operation (Hal:f'-way Houses). Housed in the Carlton Hotel, the students left for class at 7:30 a.m. and returned at 5:30 p.m. They also had an evening class 3 hours long once a week. Weekends were spent in study. Some of the students did manage to get out to visit t.he Morcon Tabernacle and hear their world-famous choir singt Mr. Shananaquet said. Each student now returns home to work in the field for f'ive months. They will all then return to the Training Center for another month of' intensive study. This is followed by five more months in the f'ield in one's home area. Upon completion of this second 5 months, the students return once more to Utah to receive certification as Certified Alcohol Counselors. Our Many of' these students had, like the phoenix, consumed themselves by ~e -the fire of' alcoholism- but out of' th~ ashes of' their burned-out lives has risen, like the phoenix, a new lit'• · of unsurpassing beauty. Now t.hey are Builders of Hope. �MI S C E L L A N E 0 U S T I DB I T S "INDIAN ARr OF THE A1JEP.ICAS" The most comprehensive exhibition of Indian art from North, Centrii, and South America to travel in this country is now open in the Indianapolis L'useum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. Drawn from the k'useum of the American Indian, Eeye Foundation, located in New York City , "Indian Art of the Americas" spans more than 4,000 years of Indian culture. -Talking Leaf(3/74) L.A.Calif. ,. The Rewards of Attending a Parent/reacher Conference! When I asked his First Grade te8cher how my 7year-old son was doing she reported this incident: "The other day we w~re studying compound words, and when I put COW and BOY together, immediately two little boys jumped up and started 'shooting' at each other. Then your t'!aury got up, aimed, and 'shoe' both of them. Sitting down ~~th a smile of satisfaction, he said, • That's two for the Indians!•" That's my son: all boy, and all Chippewa! y y _v v v v v v v 9 v v y :z::v::-v y y y y v v y y y v v v:y:y v WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADVERI'IZE IN INDIA.'V TALK? A..""ll'S AND CRAFTS JOODS AHD SERVICES Ct.JR RATES ARE 'IE"'?..Y RF.4SONABLE ••••••• PHONE (616) OR h JS.. :ZS: .6 11------zl.-- ~~/l. A Z1 £);~ Z1 21 ~RITE h 459-2169 1'P.E EDITOR :::0: ::::O:::_::DL: __ ::DL ::O: __ ::::::o:::=_::o::_ A A eARTh is planning to publish soon a cookbook containing Indian recipes only. We would like anyone who has one or more to share, to send us the item along with their name. We cannot pay for the recipes, but will gladly give each contributor 2 books along with credit in the booklet. 'ase send to eARTh P.O. Box 95. Portage, Michigan, 49081 21: Li- X:: __ ::::o:::=::;a: �INDIAN TALK 457 Briar wood S.E. Grand Rapids, Mi. 49506 ;- r "' ~·,J 1.; \~ "'!,•Ir- _ 1 Edward v. Gillis 2512 Union, NE Grand nap ids, Mi. e9h PUBLICATION � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v1n6_1974-04 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk in Southern Michigan, April 1974 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974-04 Description An account of the resource April 1974 (Volume 1, Number 6) issue of Indian Talk in Southern Michigan by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2dd85d1b3c36465ae0c7a3d22f7cb532.pdf 6c9813dd0e37f6604d145e4e474cd539 PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK ., ------By a Travel ing Artist that stopped at the lntertribal Office Vol.1 No. 9 July, 1974 �POWNOW TRAIL. INDIAN Vol. I TALK •..... the Native American's magazine No. 9 Circulation 600 July 1974 EDITORIAL BOARD1 Managing Editor .............. Shirley Francis Associate Editors ....•....... Joseph John Kathleen Campos Mary Emgen Art Editor ..•................ Gloria Shenosky Corresponding Editors ........ Cecilia Warren - Lansing Mike Wright - U. P. Associate Publishers ......... Calvin Noel Nancy Grabiak Research Assistant ........... Joy Sorenson CORRESPONDENTS1 Detroit .............. Sandy Muse (313) 931-6438 Flint ................ Viola Peterson (313) 655-8492 Jackson - SMSP ....... Secretary, Indian Nations United Lansing .............. Cecilia Warren (517) 351-1429 Mt. Pleasant ......... Margaret Sowmick (517) 773-3743 Sault Ste. Marie ..... Mike Wright (906) 635-0581 Pow-wow News ......... Frank Bush (616) 792-4042 R #1, Shelbyville, Mi. 49344 INDIAN TALK is not affiliated with any sect, organization or institution. Its only purpose is to provide a line of communication for Native Americans - to one another and to non-Indians. OUR ADDRESS1 INDIAN TALK, 457 Briarwood Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506. OUR PHONE1 (616) 459-2169 PERMISSION TO REPRINT IS GRANTED WITH CREDIT TO INDIAN TALK PUBLISHERS1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES1 $3.00 a year. In bundles of 10 or more sent to a single address1 $1.00 a year each. P.0....• - 4"81 - NEWS DEADLINE1 FIFTEENTH -- OF THE MONTH If you don't see news of your area, call your correspondent up. If you don't have a correspondent in your area, call us up. We'll make you one! COME AND SEE an authentic Ojibwe Indian Pow-wow! WHEN1 EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT DURING JULY AND AUGUST! Starts at 8:30 p.m. WHERE: WHO: In the CEREMONIAL DANCE BOWL of PENTOGA PARK on beautiful CHICAUGON LAKE, Iron County (10 miles east of Iron River on County Hwy.424) Ojibwe Indian Heritage Council and the Ojibwe Indians of Iron County, Michigan WHAT: -Original Dances and Ceremonial Dress. -Domonstrations of cultural Tradition. -Survival Skills of the Ojibwe Indians. -Authentic Indian jewelry and beadwork -Lots of good Indian cookin'- fry bread, of course. The scenic outdoor amphitheatre, located on the lake front, is near the original site of a.fi ancient Ojibwe Indian village. Admission: adult, $1.50; children .75. LUDINGTON ALL INDIAN POW-WOW, July 27 & 28. Ludington Fairgrounds, east of US 10 & 31 junction. POW-WOW TIME: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. Saturday 1 p.m. Sunday CONTEST DANCING1 prize money, all divisions. DINNER & BREAKFAST for Participants. TRADERS: $5.00 per table. No imports please. GREAT LAKES INDIAN YOUTH ALLIANCE DRUM (Open Drum) Camping, electricity and water plentiful. FOR MORE INFORMATION call.(616) 757-3132 or 861-2234 SECOND ANNUAL BAHWETING OJIBWA FESTIVAL July 10 - 14 Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan -Native American Film Festival -Native American Arts and Crafts -Traditional Dancing and Singing -Enactment of Ojibwa Legends -Native American Roundtable Discussions -Noted Artist/Sculptor William Palmer -1- �POW./VOW TRAIL LEELANAU ALL-INDIAN Pow.. wow : B~CKffALK August 24 - 25. : : Peshawbesto.wn, Mich. - 4' miles north of Suttons Bay on M-22. NATURAL OUTDOOR SETTING DANCE TIME: 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. Saturday 2 p.m. Sunday Featuring JOHN BUSH (Open Drum) CONTEST DANCING - ALL DIVISIONS Contestants must be registered and participating in all performances to be eligible. PRINCESS CONTEST: Sat. 7100 p.m. CONOE RACES1 Sun. 10:00 a.m. INDIAN TRADERS WELCOME: $10.00 per day fee. NO IMPORTS PLEASE! DONATION: Adults 1. 25 Children 12 yrs and under .75 Age 5 years and under FREE No alcoholic beverages. For more information call (616) 271-3015 or 271-3520 WALPOLE ISLAND ALL INDIAN PERFORMED POW WOW July 20 - 21 Sponsored by St. John's Anglican Church, Walpole Island, Ontario, Canada. From U.S.A. take Algonac Ferry Line, Algonac, Michigan. In Ontario, no toll bridge from No. 40 Highway to Walpole Island. Program begins 2 o'clock p.m. D.S.T. Ceremonial and Ritual Dances. Dance Contest - all divisions. Indian Baby Contest 12 to 24 months. Beauty contest for Miss Pow Wow (single girls 15 to 18 years.) Basket Making, axe handle- and bow-and-arrow whittling, Indian cooking and Indian-made crafts. Indian games. Admission: Adults $1. 00 Children .25 (must be under 12) Dear Shirley1 Our group is very pleased that you are announcing our Summer Pow-wows in INDIAN TALK. We got started in the summer of 1973, forming our Ojibwe Indian Heritage Council. Our members are all from Iron County. We meet on Mondays and Tuesdays for our Indian crafts: sewing beadwork and making our own Indian costumes. Also we have our Grandfather and Grandmother to teach us our Ojibwe Indian Language. We have our council meetings on the second week of every month. Our small group is as follows, thus far: H. Edwards Earl Nyholm Evelyn Benter Colleen McGeshick James Wildcat, Howard Funke, George McGeshick Sr. , and Bernice Lemery We elect new officers every two years. Our Ojibwe Indians would like all to come and see our Indian Pow-Wows this summer. The first one will be held on July 3, and there will be one every Wednesday thereafter until Labor Day. -Bernice Lemery Ojibwe Indian Heritage Council Iron River, Mich . Chairman: John Vice Chairman: Treasurer: Secretary: Members: •••••• EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: MOUNT PLEASANT Mt. Pleasant Public Schools is seeking an individual with a teaching background (preferably Indian) to fill a COUNSELING POSITION. Salary $12,000. Applications must be received by July 15, 1974. Contact Mr. Jack Anson, Mt. Pleasant Public Schools, 621 University St., Central Office, Mt. Pleasant, Mi. 48858. DETROIT: THREE POSITIONS Three positions are available with the North American Indian Association in Detroit. They are: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, and SECRETARY. They will be available around Aug. 1. Application deadline is July 25. For more information write: North American Indian Association, 19317 Fenmore, Detroit, Mi. 48235. (from The Michigan Indian, 6-7,•74) -2- -3- �! B~CK TALK 1 continued Indian Talk Committee: We are on your mailing list. Here enclosed is our $3.00 for a year's subscription. Thank you. Is there any place we can obtain information on all the pow-wows in the states going west7 We are planning a trip to Calif ... Also, do you know anything about this American Indian Tourist that is out of Denver Colorado? It was on T-V as an ad. -Mrs. J, B. Kenny Millington, Mich. (Ed. note: We answered your letter personally, relaying the meager information we were able to obtain about the Crow Fair in Montana and the Rosebud Fair in South Dakota. We also sent you the address of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce, 7431 South Merrill, Chicago, Ill. 60649. We print it here so that others who are interested can write too. Also, does anyone know of the Denver outfit Mrs. Kenny asks about in her letter?) .......................................................... Dear Editor: We are a newly formed organized Ojibwe Indian group in Iron River, Michigan. We are a non-profit organization. We don't live on an Indian reservation. We would like to know if you can put an article in IN DIAN TALK about our summer program ... Enclosed are a few of our program sheets. We all invite you all to our first pow-wow, which starts July 3, and we'd like all of you to come to everyone throughout the season. The last one will be on Labor Day. -Bernice Lemery Ojibwe Indian Heritage Council Iron River (Ed. note: EDITOR: see the POW-WOW TRAIL for further information.) ·•·•••···••···•···•···•··•••···•··•••······••·····•······· Your are probably sending INDIAN TALK to me because of my work with CIA - Agency Advisory Council. THANKS! But here's my contribution toward costs of publishing. Keep it coming. -Aimo O. Kartinen, chairman Employment Committee Agency Advisory Council Detroit (Ed. note: We sure are, and our thanks to you!) -4- 1 more back talk Dear Shirley: I read with much interest each edition of Indian Talk. I feel very secure that information is being received by the constituency to keep them informed on what is going on at all levels. You are to be commended for your efforts. I met one of your correspondents, Sandy Muse, on a recent trip to Washington, D.C. When you or any members of your staff are in Washington, D.C., please feel free to call on our office. Keep up the good work. -W.J. Strickland, Executive Administrative Director. Coalition of Eastern Native Americans, Inc. * * * * * * * * • * * * * * ¥ * * * * * * * Simon and Shirley Francis: Our (Genealogical and Research society) meeting did not draw too big a crowd. A meeting during the week is not good. Our next meeting will be on a Saturday or Sunday. People should get interested in their ancestors. A person will have to be indentified in order to be on the tribal roles (when) a settlement is made on pending claims. We had a workshop to get people started in the right way to start tracing their lineage. There are a lot of problems to tracing our genealogy. Our older people did not write. They handed down their relationships by word of mouth. We often have no concrete evidence as to whom we followed. This is why it is important to have a genealogical society for Indian people here in our state. There are many ways we can help even the most difficult cases. I have been able to trace the Fisher Family back to the 1819 Treaty, to John Riley, a signer of that treaty. I have also found a deed of my grandfather's farm in Gaines Township which he sold in 1893, It is an exciting project. I always write everything down whenever I talk to anyone about the past. There are so many channels that can be used in order to prove the records. But it is alot of fun, and a wonderful way to meet people. Now I must give you a donation and some addresses to add to yonr mailing list to Bay City. -Edmund Fisher North American Indian Genealogical and Research Society, Bay City. -5- ~ 111 �KEY PEOPLE DROP OUT: COMMUNICATIONS LAB CANCELLED OWL INDIAN OUTREACH ON THE MOVE! OWL INDIAN OUTREACH INC. celebrated their move to a new home with an Open House June 29 from 4 to 8 p.m. Their new quarters are located at J47 Mount Vernon NW, Grand Rapids. Director Larry Shananaquet, the Board, and members and friends have been working like beavers to get it ready for occupancy. But everyone took time out to attend a fund-raising dinner and dance Saturday June 15. For'all work and no play' certainly is not the motto of this hard-working AND hard-playing organization! And it was on June 5 that the hard-work part was demonstrated. Owl members traveled to Mt. Pleasant to meet with Robin Johannsen, health department officials and members of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe at the Isabella Reservation. On the agenda was discussion on how to set up a program there similar to Owl Indian Outreach Inc. ·~······································· . HATE TO WRITE LETTERS? Many politicians keep offices in their hometowns so they can hear from their constituents. EMILY DULEY, Grand Rapids, read about the plight of Part A funds in last month's INDIAN TALK, and then called U.S. Representative Richard VanderVeen's local office to express her concern. His secretary promised to send out a telegram to him that very afternoon. For those of you who live in the Grand Rapids area, or who live in the 5th Congressional District, here are two people you can reach easily when you want to pass the word on Indian affairs: U.S. Senator Philip A. Hart Federal Building - Room 122 110 Michigan St. N.W. Grand Rapids, Mi. 49502 Phone1 (616) 456-2218 U.S. Rep. R.F. Vander Veen Federal Building - Room 166 110 Michigan St. N.W. Grand Rapids, Mi. 49502 Phone1 (616) 451-2614 If you live outside these areas, find out who your local representatives are by calling the mayor's office or the County Building. Then look up up their addreses and phone numbers in your phonebook. Honest, they want to hear from you. public servants! They are YOUR HERE'S MY THREE DOLLARS FOR A YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION!! NAME INDIAN TALK 457 Briarwood SE Grand Rapids, Mi. 49506 ADDRE~SS--~----------- Ca~t~-·---------------STATE ZIP_______ -6- by Sandy Muse The •Communications Laboratory', as conceived by Dr. Irving Goldaber, is conducted using a precise formula. According to Dr. Goldaber, in order for it to be successful, this formula must be followed to the letter. He is internationally known for his work as a conflict management specialist, having conducted these labs not only throughout the United States but for the United Nations as well. For a more complete description of the Communications Lab, see "Communications Laboratory: Distiller of Change" in the March '74 issue of INDIAN TALK. ed. *** Because two key people cancelled their involvment at the last mimute without offering replacements, the Detroit Communications Lab had to be cancelled. Instead, a communications meeting took place at the Detroit Round Table April 28. Seven members of Detroit's Indian community met with five representatives of the non-Indian community. Two of the non--Indians phoned Friday, April 26, to say they could not make it. One represented the mass media and communications. The other represented the Detroit City government and the Mayor's office. Tentative plans are for a Lab in the fall. Meanwhile, it was decided to go ahead with a •Communications Meeting' that Sunday, April 28. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss misunderstandings, misconceptions, fears, hassles, and other problems Indian people have with the establishment. The Indian panelists attempted to make the non-Indians understand them better. Discussions ranged from citizenship of Indians to education to judicial and police department problems. Thurman Bear of American Indian Services was the coordinator. The Indian panelists were Dean George, president of the North American Indian Association; Esther Mays of the Native Child Protection Agency; Winona Arriagga, Sylvester Stone, and Jan Arnason. The non-Indian panelists were Jake Oglosby, Wayne State University; Ruth Hughes, chair person of the Coordinating Council on Human Relations; Delbert Wells of the Detroit Police Department; Virginia Brown, former member of the Central Board of Education, and Sister Mary Jo Mahar of Immaculate Heart. Observers were Ernie Schnieder of St. John Seminary, Reg Lewis of the State Civil Rights Commission, and Charlie Benham and Joe Radelet of the Detroit Round Table of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. With the exchange of introductions, the meeting got under way. Oglosby opened the discussion by inquiring how (cont'd) -7- �communications lab (continued) Indians relate to Blacks. Mays explained how Native Ameri• cans have not been able to get enough support from Blacks. She went on to state the importance of opening communication lines, because Indians have much to offer. "To begin with," she said, "we must all sit down and discuss things and bridge the communication gap. Otherwise, problems can never be solved." Dean George then spoke of how the U.S.Government at tempted to force citizenship upon the American Indian. "Even today," he said, "very few Indians are registered to vote. It's against tribal law, and also many Indians are born on Canadian reserves." The Indian panelists told of how most Indians do not care to get involved in politics. The discussion then turned to civil rights and equality. Arriagga took the floor, stating "We don't want equality, just what is there for us." Reservations are getting smaller because of lack of hunting and fishing. "We don't want to burn down cities, just to live in harmony with other people," she concluded. Thurman Bear affirmed this by saying that Indians want to be different, but not necessarily equal. He cited a personal experience with the Civil Rights Commission, whereby because of his choice to wear his hair in braids he never heard from them after completing forms for a position. "It is apparent that Indians in jobs are usually pushed into the background," he said, "and that they are not considered very important. This is evident by the absence of the two non-Indian panelists." Next education was discussed. Mays spoke of the dropout problem and of the discriminatory propaganda in history books. 1George further elaborated on propaganda and false~oods in textbooks. The non-Indians suggested that a revision of textbooks be undertaken. The Indian panelists said that for this to be accomplished, pressure must be applied upon the groups that choose the textbooks used by the schools. Oglosby explained how Blacks had gotten things done, to some extent, with Black-oriented books. All agreed that Indians must work within the system to get others to help them achieve these goals. Arnason brought up the subject of the judicial and police departments. She asked why it was that intoxicated Indians are hassled more by the police than drunken Whites? "Then when Indians are brought into court," she added, "they are slapped with sentences while the Whites are given small fines to pay." Both Arnason and Bear cited examples of police harassment. Wells said he could not deny that this type of thing goes on. He said that the police department is currently undergoing changes. The Indian panelists suggested that in the police training program the officers be taught how to deal with minority people, particularly Native Americans. Stone explained that most Indians do not trust institu(cont'd) -8- communications lab (continued) tional organizations. In planning structures, most of these forget about human values, he said, adding that "you must talk to Indians as individual human beings." Brown asked about Indian participation in Detroit's weekend Ethnic Festivals at Cobo Hall waterfront area. She wanted to know why Native Americans were not represented at them. It was explained about the pow-wow season e.nd how it conflicts with the ethnic festival season. The Indians attempted to explain the great importance that the pow-wow holds for many Indians, because they visit friends, renew old acquaintances, get together with their own people and discuss new happenings, developments, etc. At the end of the three-hour meeting, all present felt that much had been accomplished. Communication had been open and the panelists had discussed ideas and thoughts freely. Most importantly, people - human beings from two worlds - had come together to discuss how to get along. The Communications Lab will be arranged at a later date, possibly in October or November. •••• e •••••••••••••••• eee •• ee ••••••• e e I II I I I I I I l l 1111 I I I l l I I l l 1 1 1 1 1 1 I l l 1 1 1 1 I I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I I I I II AIPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMING TO THE ·soo• Rose Robinson, Executive Director of the American Indian Press Association, will take an informal part in the festivities of the Bahweting Ojibwa Festival at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. July 10 - 14. Ms. Robinson is being brought to the 'Soo' by the Original Bands of Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Indians, Inc. to participate in the Indian Teacher Aide Program at Lake Superior State College. On Monday, July 15, she will give an address on the cultural aspects of Native Americans at the college. The meeting is open to the public. ....................................................................................•.. BAHWETING NATIVE AMERICAN CAUCUS DATE CHANGED The number of expected delegates to the Native American Caucus being held during the Bahweting Ojibwa Festival July 10 - 14, has caused a change in the day. The caucus has been switched from Sunday to Saturday, July 13, at 1100 p.m. In this way the delegates will not have to miss the closing powwow on Sunday afternoon. Delegates from organizations throughout Michigan have responded to the invitation. Organizations from Ontario have also expressed interest in attending. Some of the subjects the delegates have expressed interest in discussing are alcoholism problems, communications and the setting up of Indian centers. -9- �INDIAN LIASONS PROPOSED FOR ARCHEOLOGICAL PROJECTS& BRADLEX CAMP-MEETING PLANS COMPLETED The American Indian Gospel Church of Grand Rapids has completed plans for their camp meeting Sunday July 28 through Sunday August 4 at Bradley, Michigan. Services on weekends are at 10100 a.m., 2100 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Evening services only will be held during the week at 7:30 p.m. Two meals a day will be served on the opening Sunday and the following Saturday and Sunday. However, coffee and sandwiches will be served nightly after the weekday service. All are welcome to camp for the week. Camp can be set up anytime Saturday July 27. Joey Gilbert, popular young Ojibwa Evangelist from Walpole Island who has just returned from preaching engagements out West and in northern Canada, will be the speaker. Those coming on I-96 are directed to get off at the Bradley - Hopkins Exit, go east 4 miles to 4th Avenue, turn right, and go 1/4 mile. The camp-meeting grounds are on the left. For more information call Gloria Shenosky (616) 538-2577 or George Sowmick (616) 243-5516. 11 ') The local liason, Fitting continued, would be an Iind.i an person from the closest Indian community to an archaeological project. The liason would serve to communicate accurate information on the project to members of the Indian community. This would require only a small committment of the field crew supervisor's time, Fitting said adding that it "might save many hours spent in clearing up misunderstandings over the aims of archaeology." Fitting has compiled a list of 21 archaeological projects in the state with which he is familiar. These he has given to William LeBlanc, Administrative Assistant to the Indian Commission. LeBlanc will use it as a working list for liason assignment. In his memorandum Fitting asked the supervisors to let him know if he had missed or misidentified a project. He also urged cooperation from the crews. INDIAN COUNSELORS TAKE REVEALING TEST The National Indian Education Association workshop at Duluth, Minn. last June 7 - 9 opened with Dr. Roger Buffalohead giving a 100-question test to the 60 Indian counselors present from all over the nation. Although nearly all of them had college degrees, the highest score gotten by anyone there was 57. The average score was 30. The test was on Indian history and culture. Dr. Buffalohead told the participants that this sl1J.o.vt$ one can be Indian and educated and still not know Native American history and culture. The test pointed out, he said, the need for more unified Indian Studies programs. The remainder of the workshop was devoted to presenting the first Native American Curriculum Guide designed for nationwide use in college Indian Studies programs. Mary Simona.it, Indian counselor from Grand Valley State Colleges and Davenport College of Business, reports that the participants were informed the curriculum guide can be adapted to use in high schools as well. The guide was designed by Dr. Buffalohead, U. of Minn. - Duluth; Dr. Robert Powless, U. of Minn. - Minneapolis; and Prof. Henrietta Whiteman, U. of Montana. All are directors of Indian Studies programs. -10- James E. Fitting, State Archaeologist, in a May 28 memorandum to all field crew supervisors throughout Michigan, called the proposal to appointment Indian liasons to archaeological projects an "important first step toward better communication" between the Indian community and Michigan's archeologists. Fitting stated that at a recent meeting between members of the staffs of the Commission on Indian Affairs, the Michigan History Division and the Concerned Indians of Michigan it was proposed that the Indian Commission be made aware of all professional archaeological field work in the state, and that the Commission then assign a local liason to each project. INDIAN COMMISSION ALERTS PART A PARENT COMMITTEES l' J According to a June 13 memorandum from the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs, Northern Michigan University and M.I.T.E. (?) are expected to conduct a teacher-aide and paraprofessional program from July 22 through Aug. 16. The Indian Commission expects there will be openings for about 50 people. Probably 25 will be filled with people from Johnson O'Malley School Districts. For further information contact Robert Bailey, Coordinator of American Indian Programs, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Mi. 49855. Phone: (906) 227-2143. FOR BEAUTIFUL MOCCASINS crafted on the Rosebud Reservation1 Edith Gilmore 1100~ East Main Phone: 485-1872 Lansing, Michigan 48912 -11- �CHIPPEWAS BREAK GROUND FOR COMMUNITY CENTER The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe broke ground for a $319,000 Community Center on the Isabella Reservation, Mt. Pleasant last May 28. When completed in early 1975, the center will provide facilities for various services. Chief Little Elk - Eli Thomas - broke the ground with a 1,000-year-old Indian hoe. Representing the future growth of the reservation were Sharon Bennett (age 5) and Aaron Sprague (age 6). Sharon is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Bennett. Aaron is the son of Mrs. Barbara Sprague. Willis Jackson Jr. , Tribal Chairman, said that the ground-breaking ceremony was the culmination of "30 months of planning, writing proposals and filing applications.;, He commended the cooperation between the Indian people, government agencies, and a private foundation that is making the center a reality. This proved, said Jackson, that "working together can result in positive action." To be included in the 8,900 sq.ft. building are a day care center, tribal offices, an all-purpose room and a maintenance garage. The center will be located at the southeast corner of Broadway and Leaton Road. Money for the projected center is being provided through the Housing and Urban Development, Economic Development Administration and the Charles J. Strosacker Foundation of Midland, Michigan. The community center was designed by Daverman and Associates, Grand Rapids. The general contractor is Collinson Construction Co., Midland. The original Indian community building was built in 1940 and served as a recreational center until 1946, when it was leased for use as a church. During the years that followed the reservation was without a building to provide recreational programs and other services. Tribal offices presently occupy one mobile home and a one-bedroom apartment. Some employees work out of their homes. A Youth Center is nearing completion and is already serving as a meeting place for youth and for the Senio~ Citizens' Noontime Meal Program. -a news release of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe , Inc. rqcHIG,A.N oT;AwA ~ssN·~ ANNUAL ME:ff~~ REAFFIRMATION OF QUARTER BLOOD ANCESTRY Michigan Ottawa and Chippewa descendents reaffirmed their demand June 15 that at least quarter blood ancestry be a requirement for receiving part of a $10 million claims award against the federal government for land treaty settlements. Over 300 Indians from around the state attended the annual meeting of the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association in Petoskey to lend support to the quarter blood requirement. The claim stems from 1948 when the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, bolstered by the Indian Claims Act of 1946, launched an effort to secure payments for land ceded under various treaties made in the 19th century. Recent policy of the federal government has been to make settlement payments available to persons demonstrating any amount of Indian blood. Indians say that this federal policy would lead to payments to "a part of white society with very little or next to no Indian blood quantum." The quarter blood requirement appears to have fared well in the $1 million Grand River Band of Ottawas Settlement, a Claim which is currently awaiting federal approval in Washington. Ottawa and Chippewa Indian Tribe members hope that the Grand River agreement will pave the way for the approval of the quarter blood rule in their $10 million claim. The proposed settlement payment formula will be presented to the Bureau of Indian Affairs no later than July of this year. Hearings on the distributions of judgement funds will be held in Petoskey and Grand Rapids as well as in the Upper Peninsula in the near future. poRTliifRN OTHER BUSINESS The association put its bid in for a Non-Reservation Education Office to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The office which would be located in Grand Rapids would serve non- reservation Indians state wide. For the first time, the association will become incorporated as a non-profit organization after approval of its membership during the annual meeting. The non-profit status will allow the association to secure federal funds, and solicit funds from private foundations. The corporation will have offices in Petoskey. Approved unanimously by the members was an Indian hunting and fishing club to keep Indians informed of their rights in game laws and to provide legal assistance if necessary. The club will have three units located in the Upper Peninsula , Northern Lower Michigan and Southern Michigan. - 12- (Thanks to Mim Geraghty , Petoskey Evening News ; and to the Grand Rapids Press . ) - 13- �INDIAN RELIGION AND THE BAHA'I FAITH by Phil Lane, Jr. :-- ~- ---------------~--------c---:--k----- ------:-- -t--h---- -p--1- -- -- -~ -•------ -i : Mr. Lane, Sioux- hie asaw, is e a.nning : 1 Director for the development of the Indian l 1 Cultural and Educational Center at Fort 1 Lawton, Washington. He was formerly Direct0r : of Social Services at the American Indian i Career Center in San Diego. He has also i taught Native American Studies at the univer1 sity and high school levels. He is also a i cousin of Vine Deloria, Jr. This article 1 of his was submitted by one of INDIAN TALK's I!_______________________________________________________________________ subscribers, who is also a Baha'i. ed. _ Everyday more and more people are beginning to realize the great truth and beauty of Native American religion. Since its beginning in 1844, the Baha'i Faith has taught that the religion of the Native American as well as the other great religions around the world have come from the same Great Spirit. When most people in the P.'lll''.l!Y 1900 c~s were saying that Native American culture and religion would soon be dead, the Baha'i Faith said that great importance should be given to Indian people for their religion was a true religion given them by the Great Spirit and that in the future Indian people would become spiritual leaders of mankind. Indian peopls have found the Baha'i teachings fulfilling the prophecies of Indian religion and that the spiritual teachings of the Baha'i Faith are the same as the great spiritual teachings of Indian religion. Baha'u'llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha'i Faith, teaches there is one Great Spirit, the creator of all things and that the Great Spirit has given religion to all the peoples of the world through different spiritual teachers. Baha'u'llah teaches that just as different trees in a forest stand with their mouth pressed against the same mother earth, being refreshed by the same breeze, warmed by the same sun, their arms raised toward the Great Spirit in prayer and thanksgiving, protecting one another, so must mankind if it is to live in true peace and unity. When Native Americans again return to the great spiritual road of their forefathers, the Baha'i teachings say the Indian peoples will become so enlightened that they will illumine the the whole earth. Today we can see this happening everywhere as more Indians and non-Indians begin to feel and appreciate the tremendous truth and wisdom of the spiritual teachings and prophecies of Native American religion. Even though many people may not yet understand the return of the spiritual greatness of Indian people and the great strength and wisdom they will give to all mankind , it will come as surely as the rising of the morning sun. (from l/?l+ Northwest Indian News,Wash) -14- THEY WAIT by Shirley Francis SCENE ONE It is 2,000 years ago. A grand river flows, in the broadly angling way that rivers do, through a wide, low valley. Not far beyond the last rapids, on its way to a great lake, the lush greenery that decks the banks gives way to a clearing. Here, up from the river's edge two hundred yards or so, some seventeen mounds rise gracefully to varying heights from a grassy, blossom-filled meadow. Closest to the river are small ones, elevated a mere two or three feet. Beyond, larger ones rise to fifteen feet. The random patterning of their size and spacing is a pleasant contrast to the carefully laid-out adjacent village to the left of them. The bright morning sun combines with the dew to give a crystalline shimmer over all. 'l'he village is already bustling with activity. But this day is different from yesterday. For countless generations the village has gathered her brood of mounds to her1 guarding, nourishing, mending them. In return, they have provided numerous generations of children a safe place to play, and many generations of courting couples a rendevous in their shadows. Today, this has ended. The village and the mounds must part. The last great chief has died. The last basketful of dirt has been laid carefully onto his - the last - mound. Beneath 20,000 hand-carried basketfuls of earth his body has been laid to rest forever. The Mound People are preparing to leave. Perhaps the chief left no heir, and the People have elected to return to their ancient capital many days to the south. Perhaps the climate has grown colder, causing crops to fail and their numbers to diminish. The sturdier may have become hunters and gatherers, eventually wandering far to the north where all memory of the mounds was lost in the everyday struggle for life. There surely must have been a good reason for their leaving the mounds, for moving away. Everything is packed. First, the People must say goodbye. Strolling through their beloved mounds, cradles for the bones of their ancestors, they whisper a prayer for the happy repose of the spirits that hover near. ******** The Mound Spirits hover about, waiting, waiting. Someday, someday, the People will return. Yes, they will return. ******** -15- �;they wait ' continued SCENE TWO The years have come and gone, 2,000 times. The mounds are caught in a gigantic triangle. The river forms the base, churning sluggishly by except in the spring, when it creeps up like a giant blob spreading mire and ooze up the once pleasant meadow, almost to the mounds themselves. The acute side of the triangle is formed by the expressway, on which speeding vehicles whine, belch fumes, and sometimes rid themselves of torn tire-treads and rotten mufflers. The third side, where once the village stood, has been gouged out, forming a water-filled gravel pit. Some of the mounds are gone. Now large trees top the the biggest, their roots worming their way to the very heart pf each. Motorcycles have lashed deep scratches through the grassy coverings. Trash litters the ancient meadow. Like some grossly oversized maggot, an old refrigerator lays dormant and useless against one of the low mounds. Rats fight over the garbage spilling from numerous plastic bags. A torn mattress has become a breeder for vermin. From time to time visitors arrive to clean up, to discuss remedies, or to replace the sign. Leaving, they shake their heads sadly or clench their fists in frustration. ******** SCENE THREE Not far from the mounds a great metropolis has risen up. There, in a building, gather some seventy people who have responded to a call for an organization to be formed that will do something about the mounds. They will call themselves the Friends of the Mounds, and they will plan a way to make the mounds a safe, sacred place again. The Descendents - now called Native Americans - are there. But most are newcomers to the grand river and its valley. And there are new ways forworking together. They form clusters. One calls itself the Museum Association, another the Museum Officials. One cluster is called The Anthropologists. Another is known as the Local Archeological Society. One cluster is made up of Just Plain Citizens. But all recognize the priceless heritage of the mounds. All realize there is no other place like the mounds in in the entire peninsula now christened 'Michigan.' But interest has been shown before. Will this new group be able to sustain itself against the trials facing it7 Protecting the mounds from further rape and desecration will require time, money, talent, effort and dedication. All about, the Mound Spirits wait. Perhaps, just perhaps, the People are returning. -16- .THEY 'JIB STJLL UA TO :JtHEIR ,OLD WICKS. Vice-President Gerald Ford is undermining Indian leadership and is attempting to dismantle Indian self-determination. Ford, acting on behalf of President Nixon, is proposing, effective the end of June, a new Indian advisory council with the same old bureaucratic leadership and builtin divisiveness. Two advisory councils, one cim.•cdS;ing of Indian representatives from the reservations, and the other consisting of Indian representatives from off-reservation areas would be set up to "advise" the Committee on Indian Affairs. Indian Advisory committees are met with a great deal of skepticism because of their historical ineffectiveness, but even worse is the perpetuation of the artificial split of the Indian community into reservation ranks, and off-reservation ranks. Federal agencies and politicians have created this split through numerous "relocation," "assimilation," and "termination" programs. Federal agencies perpetuated this split by ignoring the fact that problems of urban Indian communities stem from the conditions and pressures existing on the reservations from which an Indian moved. Today, Indian communities are forced to accept this split because we find most federally subsidized programs carefully limiting their funds for either "urban-Indian" or "reservation" programs. The Advisory Council for Federally Recognized Indians ijas some semblance of an elective process in the proposed plan, but it is still under the strong influence of the BIA area structure. The Advisory Council for Urban/Rural Indian Affairs will consist of Indians "APPOINTED by the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) from Indian leaders who have demonstrated experience and knowledge concerning the problems of non-federally recognized Indian peoples." No elective process is proposed. (Thus,)WHAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CREATES IS RESPONSIVE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. THIS TIME WE DEMAND SOUMETHING THAT IS OURS, AND IS RESPONSIVE TO US, THE INDIAN PEOPLE. The demands to Ford are: 1. That the Committee on Indian Affairs be formed, and be constituted of 75% on- and off- reservation Indians elected by the Indian people. 2. That the other 25% be constituted of federal agency representatives appointed by the President. J. THAT THE PRESIDENT NOT APPOINT INDIAN LEADERSHIP. 4. That NO Indian Advisory Committees be established. (from newsletter of Midwest Indian Planning Committee i )O.O:;3 _1£iacker Dr. Chicago, Ill. 6o60D · -17- �PROPOSED BILL CALLS FOR ARCHEOLOGICAL ADVISORY COUNCIL1 In a June 11 memorandum to "all concerned organizations" William LeBlanc, Administrative Assistant to the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs, stated that "with the passage of House Bill 5847 which amends the existing law relating to prehistoric and aboriginal remains, it becomes necessary to entertain thoughts about the next steps." Attached to the memorandum was the draft of a bill call- ing for creation of an advisory council which would review archeological surveys and explorations throughout Michigan. LeBlanc has invited comment on the draft. The bill calls for the creation of an archeological advisory council consisting of seven members and operating out of the History Division in the Department of State. One member would be a representative from the Michigan History Division, one would be a representative from the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs, and one would be a member from the Indian Community. A fourth member would be appointed from the State Archeological Society. The three remaining members would be appointed from the community at large. The work of the advisory council would be four-folds 1. Review all current archeological explorations, including accidental. disinterment, to assure that scientific benefits are maintained as the principle justification for the project or "dig." 2. Investigate all charges of unwarranted possession or relics and skeletal remains. Set specific time limits for study of such relics and remains when accidental or authorized disinterment occurs. 3. Prepare guidelines for, and review , all future requests for authorization to conduct archeological surveys. 4. Determine a state policy and recommend necessary legislation to enforce it. Members of the council would be appointed by the governor with advice and consent of the Senate for terms of four years. They would serve without compensation, being reimbursed only for expenses incurred in the performance of their officical duties. Section 4 of the bill's draft calls for an appropiation of $35,000 to the Michigan History Division in the Department of State . This would be used to implement the provisions of this act and to provide the necessary staff. HAVE YOU PAID YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? IF YOU HAVEN'T ...... . When there is not enough money in our kitty to mail to everyone on our mailing list, we will be forced to cut you off. Our paid subscribers come first, then if there are stamps left over, ..... . -1-Si- \ON THE PERSONAL SIDE DALE PETERS is an Indian G.I. stationed in Germany who is lonesome to hear from Indian folks here in Michigan. He is originally from around Bradl.ey, .but that shouldn't stop you folks from Detroit, Harbor Springs, or Munising from droping him a line or two! Pvt. Dale W. Peters 374 582 891 HHB - 1/40 FA - REGT. APO, New York, N.Y. 09165 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CHARLES and LINDA SEAMAN, Wyoming, Mich., are the proud parents of a new son, WALKER J., born June 8. Named after his great-great-grandfather, Ottawa Chief Jacob Walker (Cobmoosa), little Walker weighed in at 8 lbs. 9 oz. As the great-great-grandson of a man who spent over 50 years of his life working for the welfare of his people, and the greatgreat-great-grandson of the chief of the Ottawa village that stood where the City of Ionia is now, he has indeed a proud heritage! Congratulations to HENRY SHAW. He is the new chairman of Owl Indian Outreach, Inc. Likewise to their new co-chairman GEORGE SOWMICK. May they continue to guide this very successful program that combats alcoholism problems in the Grand Rapids area. OWL INDIAN OUTREACH, Inc., Grand Rapids, had a nice turn-out for their dance and buffet dinner Saturday June 15. Owl women and friends provided a mouth-watering buffet. A new group, THE FLUNKY MOUNTAIN BOYS, provided the music for round and square dancing. This made some of the women "Music Widows'~ - their husbands were playing in the band. Among those having lots of O.I.O. FUN were Dejay and Irene Elk,Wyoming; Henry and Gail George, Holland; Mr. and Mrs. A. Cabinaw and the Joe Saboos of Grand Rapids, and Ed and Gloria Shenosky, Grandville. Kathy Campos recorded some of the music for posterity. Who knows, they may hit the BIG TIME! Now that may pose a problem for their vocalist, who is none other than Sister Marie Diane Schafer. Listen, can she sing Country! Darned if the OWLS aren't a busy bunch! Had their Open House at their new home, 347 Mt. Vernon, NW, Grand Rapids, on July 29. Larry and Carol Shananaquet and Elaine Tuffelmire were very busy hosts giving guided tours through the building. Elaine pointed out the excellent advantages of the new place. It has a lar~e hall where they can hold their dances, ample space for offices and a kitchen , and a second floor where emergency sleeping quarters are available. Indian Commission Director Jim Hillman and his family came to help O.I.O. celebrate , as did Mary Simonait and a host of others from the Grand Rapids Indian Community. Congratulations, OWL INDIAN OUTREACH ! ~ou ' ve come a long way, friends! -19- �by Linda Nordstrom* THE CHURCH ON THE RUN 3 M :'i # un ~unday morning, after attendence was down below half, the congregation of the Friendly Church on the Hill held an emergency meeting. The discussion centered around whether the church should stay in the changing heart of the city, or move out to North Hive with the rest of the WASPs. Pastor Pious opened the meeting, stating, "Things could get more dangerous if we stay. I already noticed a few of those dark people out in the congregation. Most are from the new low-income housing, and what's worse they don't have any money for the offering." "But," began Theodore Tightfist, "it would be so expensive to build a whole new church building. Maybe we could get a few ladies from the Women's Chatter Society to help us out. I'.m sure Harriet Handy would be glad to draw up plans. Where would we find land to build on?" Peter Puitan knew the answer. "Out in North Hive there are a few acres of an old opium field for sale. None of the neighboring houses go for less than $60,000. I doubt we'd be moved in on again." "This is all fine," said Pastor Pious, "but we'll no longer be on a hill, so we can hardly call our church 'The Friendly Church on the Hill'". They all pondered this awhile, then Harry Hypocrisy said, "How about 'The Church on the Run'?" This was unanimously agreed on and the meeting was adjourned. Everyone in the church was very excited by the move about to take place. Harriet Handy and Clara Clever drew up the plans for the church, under one condition. The Women's Chatter Society would get a new lounge to meet in and a bigger kitchen with stainless steel sinks and formica counters. One problem arose in trying to sell the old church. For a long while, no one wanted to buy this big monument to God in the middle of the inner-city. Pastor Pious was approached by a petition to give the church to the inner-city children for a recreation hall. Panicking, Pastor Pious held another emergency meeting. He explained the problem to the others. "We can't give away the church," cried Teddy Tightfist. "The new carpeting and drapes for the women's lounge were so expensive, we're already over our budget." "I guess we'll have to sell to the Stags' Club," sighed Harry Hypocrisy. "They do need a bigger building for their bingo nights. " The Church on the Run is completed. It's filled two hours every week with long, dour faces, wondering who will be first to put fingerprints on the pews. And 2,000 years from now, another people will excavate ruins of our civilization and unearth The Church on the Run. They will discover that magnificent kitchen, with stainless steel sinks and formica counters, and wonder what kind what kind of sacrifices were offered. (from The Gold Star Reporter J/29/74, Zeeland High School, Zeeland, Mich.) * Minor changes have been made. While the story is very exaggerated, it reflects a scary realism to our society! ed. -20- �• ""'~:,.. . .. . INDIAN TALK 457 Briarwood S.E. Grand Rapids, Michigan l.,,..,. ~~ _,--"""'-- ~-.. - ~:=1tti!Fi!W=: ·~ - ~­ ,.;- 49506 .. ,'t ~ 1 I Mrs. Henry Bush 37 Page St. NE Grand Rap ids, .Mi. 49505 eSh PUHL IC!\ 1 ION ....-~~-~~·-~~:"!:': ~ ·'~-"=°'--""•·~ _ ,•....,_"-?o-.._,.,_. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v1n7_1974-06 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk, July 1974 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974-07 Description An account of the resource July 1974 (Volume 1, Number 9) issue of Indian Talk in Southern Michigan by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a04972ec3f1aff10660004ad4bc8666e.pdf 94c4764e58bcc37fe948602b59dc7337 PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN 19th Century Ojibwa Beadwork Desi gn Vol.1 No.7 May,1974 �-, INDIAN Vol. I TALK No. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN Circu1ation 600 MAY 1974 A magazine by, for and about Native Americans COMMITTEE: Dejay Elle Irene Elle Shirley Francie Nancy Grabiak Joe John Teresa Johnson Calvin Noel Gloria Shenosky Joy Sorenson Mary Switzer SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO: Editor, Indian Talle 457 Briarwood S.E. Grand Rapids, Iii. 49506 (616) 459-2169 SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 per year. Bulk rate: $1.00 per year each when 10 or more issues are delivered to the same address. -1- AREA NEWS Detroit Report •••••.•••••••.••.•••• • •• • •• 2 Potawatomi Newe •••••••••••••••.•••••••••• 3 Ka.lama zoo ••• ••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••• • 3 Grand Rapide: N,M.O,A,,,,., •• , •• ,,,.,,,,.4 L.ansing: M.C.I.A ••••••••••••••.••••.•.••• 4 Grand Rapids: Indian Talk •••••••••••••••• 5 Isabella Reservation.,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,6 &y City •••.•••...........••.....••...••• 6 Jackson: l.N.U ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 7 LOOKI!JG .AH'EAD ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 7 ETHNIC COOPERATION: What it can accomplish.,,,8 A FUTURE To GET EXCITED ABOur •••••••••••••• • •• 9 NEWS DEADLINE: 15th or the month · BOOK REV'IEW •••••• t •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 10 CORRESPONDENTS: Stewart American Horse Rodda.,,,,,,Jackson (SMSP) Sandy Muse (313) 931-6438.,,,,,,,,,Detroit Cecilia Warren (517) 351-1429 •••••• Lansing Margaret Sowmick (517) 773-3743 •••• Jft.. Pleasant Viola Peterson (313) 655-8492 •••••• Flint 141chael Wright (906) 635-0581 •••••• Sault Ste. Marie VI.ANTED : A HOME • •• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••• • 10 FOR YOUR INFOBMATION,,,,,,,,, •• ,,,,,.,,,,,,,,10 THE INDIAN PATRIOT •••••••••• ,,,,,,,,, •• ,,,,.,ll EQ'UAI, RIGll'l'S • •••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••• • .13 PUBLISHER: ITS NICE TO KNOW ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 13 P.O. . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 49081 INDIAN TALK IN SOUTHERN JillCHIGAN 1s published monthly by a conmittee trom the Indian community. It hopes to accomplish two ends: provide a meana for exchanging .Native ·American views not only with the non-Indian world but with one another; and thus aid the Indian communities achieve tbe' -unity necessary to attain cotmDon goals while preserving their individual identity. INDIAH TALK is not affiliated with any sect, organization, institution or interest group. Its only purpose is to provide lines of communication for Indian people. HEY! WE NEED YOOR SUBSCRIPT ION I Its the only way we can know you want INDIAN TALK to keep coming. Look at your address label. It it is GREBN, this is your last free issue. POW WOW NEWS•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••l4 Il4DIAN METHODIST CHURCH IN MICHIGAN •••••••••• 16 · ON THE PERSONAL SIDE, •••••••••••••••••••••••• 18 Bl\CK TALK: Letters to the_editor ••••••••••••• 19 1'ENNESSJ:E lrlEMORli:S • •.• • • 0 , .. • • , , , , , . . . , • , • • , • .. , • •••LOOK FOR POW WOW NEWS Di THIS ISSUE*•• 20 �-3-2.J:i!.THOIT fil.:PORT: ARE A detroit report (continu ed): N E 1; S By Sandy Muee Della Redbird, Cherokee of the Western Band, was chosen I:iss North American Indian of Detroit at the annual Princess Pageant Dance of the North American Inditrn Association last April 6. She will be crowned at the 34th Anniversary Dinner-Dance I1:ay 18 at the Club Legionnaire, Highland Pe1rk, !'.ichiff!'ln. Runner-up Sand Lfuse, Cherokee of the E"l.stern Band, will be cro;med Sister-Princess. The Indian rock group RED BONE gave an outstanding performance at Ford Auditorium April 11. Dressed in costumes an~ bustles alive with color and shimmering with every step, they combined tradition with the rock sound. Woven into modern rock music were the steps of the traditional Eagle Dance and the words of the Pniute prophet Wovoka. With some albume out this is a group to watch. It is sure to make the national scene. The mounting concern expressed by I,lichigan Indians over the discrimination of Public Law No. 750.160 is making itself heard in the State Legislature. P.L. No. 750.160 prohibits the disinterment of the dead except for the remains of prehistoric persons. A bill to correct this differential treatment, House Bill No. 5847, was introduced by Representatives Dively, Crim and Vaughn r1Jarch 13. It is presently under study by the Judiciary Committee. Support of H.B. No. 5847 by the entire Indian community of I.!ichigan is absolutely vital to get it out of coonnittee and onto the legislative floor. Only many letters fron concerned Indian people to their legislators w~ll get this bill passed. The reeent actions i:nstitut!"d were the result of a radiotelephone conversation between '} overnor ra.11iken and !.'.r. John !.ruse i 9o-director of Concerned In<l,j.~ne of l'!iichigan. The C'Onversation was attanged by W'i/J Radio's Gueet Call program,. Because of this call Governor J.:flliken asked Representative 1'.ichael Divei:v to review the bill and p~pare it for presentation. Impati~,nt with legislative delays, the Concerned Indians of t!ichigan presented 1;heir . demands to l"epresentatives of l:niversity of J.'.ichigan and the · I.iichigl!I'~ Archeologice.l So-· ciet•r at the ?'.<\rch ~1st meeting at 1J. of r.~. 's Adt:1inistration. Building. T'ne demands are: (1) all excavations in Indian ~urial grounds ce~se, (?) all skeletal displays be removed, (3) Gll renmins be returned to Indian people for ,~~) reburial, and (4) support be given to the Indian people by these organizations in their efforts to chansse the discriminatory Public h~w 750,160 vfhich permits these archeological excavations. The meeting resulted in a stalemate. rhe ercheologists hesitate:l to agree with the demands. They felt their scientific findings were too important to give up, they said. Tne lndians pointed out that the so-called scientific findings were o:r no benefit to Native Americans of to~y. ~bile part of the demands were agreed to on a conditional basis, the remainder will have to be negociated. POTAWATOMI INDIAN NATION NEWS by Frank Bush Tne Po~awatomi Indian N~tion, Inc. will nold a general meeting Vay 28 at 1:00 p.m. in the Lions Community Hall, Sieter Lakes, Michigan. For more b.forrnation clmtact Uichael i'iilson, vice-pres. and executive secretary, 209 Sherwood St., Dowagiac, Ilich. 49047. KALAI~OO The Hozhoni Organization of Kalamazoo College is sponsoring its Second Annual SALUTE TO 1;ATIVE AUERICANS Week. from May 6 through 10. Both state and national Indian leaders have been invited to speak at the nightly events. Mon. 8 p.m. Tues. 8 p.m. lied. 8 p.m, Wi1lfom LeBlanc, Administrative Assistant to the director of Mich. Commission on Indian Affairs will discuss American Indian contributions nnd lack of power in determining social/econo~ic policies of the United States. The film, "North American Indian" will be shown. (Color, 67 min.) Part I - 'Treaties !lade - Treaties Broken' P3rt II - '?.love Westw~rd' Part III - 'Current Affairs' Lester Gemmill, State Coordinator of Indian Education, will speak on the world view of the Hative American and how educational institutions place obstacles to academic success 1ll the pathe of you.~g American Indians. �-Ls- kal"l!'.laZOO report (con-tinued): Thurs. 2 p.m. t, 2 re«~. -5- news) :Lrnsing mcai (continued): American Indian l.\ovement leader Clyde Bellacourt will.ta ;k on Wounded Knee - 1973 and the struggle for Native American rights. l'he following week, Saturday, May 18, the Hozhoni will sponsor a pow wow. (See PO\t' WOV NEWS in this issue.) The Hozhoni began two years ago when Kalamazoo College students -none of them Indian- became concerned with the pollution in. 11 our cultural and social emrironment," .e xplains Ms. Valerie Janowski 1 ch airman of the Indian Awareness week. They found solutions ill their Native American studies. "Hozhoni was formed so that Native American 'remedies' could be applied to these cultural and social ailments, 11 she says. For more information contact: Ms. Valerie Janowski, 107 De Waters Hall, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mi. Ph: (616) 342-9871. GR/JID RAPIDS HORTHERN MICHIGAli OTTAWA ASSN. By Joe Johll WANTEDa TESTIMONY CJNCE.t'1NING USE AND/OR DISTRIBUTION OF MOUIZS. A public hearing will be held at the West Side Complex, 17 Seward s.w., May 18 at 1:00 p.m. Individuals or organizations may express their oral or written views by appearing at this hearing regarding the use .rid/or distribution of monies awarded to the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians. Theee monies wer~ awarded111rough Senator Hart's Docket 40 - K by the Indian Claims Commiesion. At the hearing will he a.federal referee and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials. Writ.t.elt eonmente !!13Y also·be eubmitted. Send to the Area Director• 831 Se~ ond Avenue South, Ltl.nneapolis, Minn. 55402, on or before May 27, 1974. -·WSlmf · CQt.!.7SSION ON . !@'IAlI A.Pf.AIRS A cliaic on proposal writing for all Lower L"J.chigan Indian organizations is being sponsored by the Commission May 8 and 9. The 9 to 5 seseiOns will be held at the CapitQl Park 1.:0tor Hotel, Lansing. Ur. John Tiger, with considerable experience in the art of gra'l.tsmanship, will conduct ( :i,'e:: n .: ) the seminar. A trainee from every organization is expected to attend. A similar clinic was held earlier Indian organizations. for Upper Peninsula COIW.dISSION'S A±INUAL CONFERENCE In a letter to all Indian Groups, organizations and Commissioners, Administtative Assistant l'iilliam LeBlanc urged them to make plans to attend this year's conference at the Kettunen Conference Center, Marion, l'lichigan. The threeday session will t~ke place June 7, 8, and 9. delegates should be selected now, according to ?Ar. LeBlanc, and their names and addresses sent to t,he Corrnnission. They can thus be kept informed on conference plans. Tvro Ilr. LeBlanc further states that delegates should be picked who are interested in Education, Yanpower, Legal Services, and General Information - the subject matter of the conference. There will be conference. ~ commiasion meeting in conjunction with the GRAIID RAPIDS INDIAJT T;J"K II~ SOU':'HER!r VITCHIGAN staff, committee members Gnd invited guests met April 23 in the Student Center of Gr=nd V.1lley Ste\te Colleges to hear reports and di!'!cuss the magazine's future. The editor's report 10howed that subscriptions are not keeping pace with circulation growth. A publisher's report revealed the toll of inflation as the prices of paper products rise. Suggestions such as special bulk rates to one address, will be put to use. The next meeting will be 7:30 ::.m., I.'.ay 14, at the West Side Complex, 17 Seward N.W. 1 Grand R'3.pids. It will hold an election of officers. A speaker ie being sought to discuss incorporation and onon-profit status end how to ~chieve these goals. Persons interested in contributing a serious e:t'fort to the magazine are welcome. �-6ISABELLA RESERVATIOH MPORI': -'l· (o:'!rea news) '!be treaty claims of the Saginaw, Black River, and Swan Creek ba1.ds of the Chippewa tribe have been settled. When plans on how to di$perse it are completed, 8 million c~ llars will be sha red out to band members. It ie absolutely essential that anyone who thinks he is a member of one of these bande be able to prove it. He muet trace hie ancestry to a signer of early tribal rolls. '!be Tribal Affairs Office on the Isabella Reservation can ~do this. to: For i:nformation on how to trace your ancestry write Bureau of Indian Affairs U.S. Dept. of the Interior Great Lakes Agency Ashllmd, Wisc. 54806 Records can be gotten through many sources. You can write to: Mr. George Cook, Chairman & Secretary, Tribal Office of Indian Claims for the Chippewa of Saginaw, Swan Creek, & Black River, Houghton Lake, r.~i. 48629 Other places to find information on ~'our family are: County courthouses Heirship property owners Church records Tribal rolls -Margaret SowmickBAY CITY JAC:KSON I l\'DIAH HATIONS UUITED - S.M.S.P. Indian Nations United is very grateful to Brother Leland Antoine of American Indian Services, I~c. in Detroit, and Mr. G. Lennart Polson of Portage for giving faithfully their time and understanding to them. The two gentlemen attend I.N.U. meetings every second and fourth weanesdays. It thanks also r.!r. Tom W..akety of Battle Creek for his interest in the Native American inmates. 1'he menbers meet twice monthly in the Special Activities Office. Under present discussion is the future of I.N.U. projects. 'Ibey feel that I.N.U. could fulfill a great need by having it act as a liason between the individual members and their respective outside communities. 3ut to survive, I.N.U. must have a sponsor or sponsors, someone who c~n insure its continuence inside the prison. Someone knowledgeable is needed who can help I .H. u. locate resourcee for programs inside that will help prepare men for their return to the outside world. 0"1e of the most difficult probleme facing a Native American inmate is securing employment which will be satief.actory to the Parole Board. It ie hoped that Indian Nations United, by working with !•.!ichigan Native American organizations, will eventually develop :N~tive inmate services in the following areas: INEIAN GENEOLOGICAL SOCIETY FORMED The Horth American Indian Genealogical and Research Society held an open meeting at Hampton Township Hall WednesMy, l~y 1 :'lt 7:30 p.m. Founded by Horth American Natives to perpetuate their history and traditions, the orgamization will also be working on tracing the ancestral lineage of its members. President !!0rvin Fisher and hie brother, Edmund, have been able to tr~ce their paternal line to an individual mentioned in the 1819 Treaty -of Saginaw. For more information about joining the society write: 1Jortn At:1erican Indian Geno logical & Research Soc. P.O. Box 854 Bay City, I!ticnigan 48706 (area news ) ~nd 1. High school 2. Vocational Training. 3. Home 4. Rap sessions and counseling by a N"ative American counselor. LOOK.ING & Job college programs. placement p:·ograral!I. A.'!{ZAD Fr~nk 3ul!lh and Joe Raphael are planning a three-day pow wow in Rochester, Indiana 1 over Labor Day 'r1eekend. ~ There will be contest danci~ and ove:' '$1080 i::: prizer.ioney av.!l.ihble. Keep this in mind. 1lore details later. After the great job they did pu lling off Gr ~ nd ?. ~ ~ ids' :?irst All-Indian Pow wow ldst :.:arch, pow wow devotees c.:-e ':Tise not to miss a:i.ything these r:ien plan! �- 8- -9- :.,"Tmrrc COOPERATION: Y.?.AT IT .CAN Acc;o: :FLISH! A FUTURS TO GET EXCII' ED ABCJUT Thanks to the cooperative efforts of Cecilia Warren, Native Americ~~ Teacher Curriculum epecialiet, and Eduardo Rocha, Mid Mic~ igan College Col\eortium coordiJ111tor, a unique event took place at Lansi:ng Community College in April. The Chica no and Ifotive American Eth:mic Library Collection, ~ new addition to the LCC library, was dedicated with a mini pow wow a;id fieet!I. The 3r:rnd R1pids I nt ~ r - Triba l Counci l '''ill become a trai!li!lg center :t'or institutio::1S invo lved with Indian children if its proposal is approved, according to Director I:d irhite Pige on . The pro pos~~ l is fo r a federti l grc,nt under f' 'l rt B , Title lV o:;: the I nd i an Eduation Act of 1972 . If the funds ~re gr2'.1ted , it s pro jected cer.ter \':ill become self-supportiri.g i n three years. The proposed project is outlined in a n abstrac t. The LCC library in the College of Arte and Sciences buildi ng will feature thie new addition ae a epecial eection. The purpoee of the separate s~ctiom is ~o imcrease vieibility "nd fllcility. All books in the eection will be marked .by a silver etar. The ZthJ":.iC Library Collectiol'l W'1 5 e5tabli1'hed through the cooper,,tive ef fort s of the Le~I'l'l.i:ng ~ esou rc e Division, Libr.:iry Servicee ~ n d the Coneortium. Program participant!'! were Stnte Department Coordinator of Indian Education Lester Gemmill; LCC preeide!'l.t Phillip Jannon~ Cristo Rey Community Center director Antonio Benavides; and !"Ir. Rocha. On dieplay were Indian a nd Mexican artifacts and paintings. Most of the Indian a rtifact! were loaned from the Andrew J. Blackbird !.!useum in Harbor Springs through arrangements by Mrs. Warren. The display, which wa s V3lued at $3000, included a small, wooden, 200-year-old trough carved out of a log. It was used in preparing maple sugar cakee, a favorite delicacy among tile Great Lakes Indians. Art demonetrations reatured black Ash basketmaking by Winnie and Clifford Wabagkeckf Birch Bark and Quill work by Ros.e Marie and Ken Del.and, Terry Shaffer and Mary i3erryman; and beadwork by Alice Brunk and Rosaima Dashner. Indian And Chicano itroups performed ethnic sop.gs and dance. Frank ahd John bush drummed ~or the Indian daneere. Pan dulce and chocolate, corn soup and fry br~ ? d were tasted. It is hoped the Ethnic Library collection, now totalling 350 books, will enhance the knowledge and awareness of LCC studente, faculty, staff and community of the culture of Latin and lfoti ve Americans. The collection reflects a growing inte :;:-est in ethnic literature. Five ye5rs ago the terr:i 'Chicano litereture' was virtually non-exi stent. Ten ye ar s ago Ha tive American literature wn s i:..b out Ar:lericcin Indians, not by them. Today, b oth lit~ratures s re re2ching rena issance proportions. -from TTI~ LOOKOUT, LCC- The Center will offer technical assist~nce rrnd training to represent'.'. tives from institutions of the Horth Centr~ l region, a five-state area. The Center ~~11 operate vrorkshops in Manager:ient, Evaluation, nnd Auditing of Indian ~ducation Programs. Th~t ther~ is a need for such a center c3n be assessed by the f act there are over 300 such institutions involved with Indian children, states the abstract. Out of s everal outstanding features in the prop01!al, one is unique; _ I~ marks the first attempt to introduce accountability in Indian educotion through the use of Indian educntion progr~.m euditors, asserts the abstract. It further says thC1t dur i ng the first year of operation the Center will utilize outside consultants. There will work closely with the Center's Indian sta:ff. Gradually, the outside personnel will be phased out as the Center's staff develops the expertise to ~ct as consultants on it!!! own, I1:r. White PiJeon says that the Center can be self-sup- porting v:ithin three years of oper.:i.tion. It will support itself on funds paid by tribal councils, comnrunity groups, end educetional institutions for the Center's "pac:V.ages" of teacher-training work.shops, and for its consult~nts' services. A self-supporting Indian center. iiow that ie something to Get excited about. - · - - - - - - - - ;;; lCI1p here} - - - - - - - - - - - INDIAN TALK COMIJI'ITEE, 457 Briarwood SE, Grand Bapide Mich. 49506 ~ Enclosed ie my $3.00 for a year'e subecription ____ Send me information about the new bulk rate. ____ Keep me on the mailing liet. NAME CITY Will send money ADDRESS,________________ later. STATE ZIP_ _ __ ~ �-10BOOK REVIK,, by ioy RABBIT BOSS by Thomas Sanchez Ballantine Books. $1.95 The story covers four generations of a Washo family li .~ ng in the Sierra Mountains of California. Sanchez tells a moving epic with clarity and understanding. -11by John ! .. :;e TEE INDIAN PATRIOT )' I t During the 1840's Gayahuc has the honored position of Rabbit Boss. The annual rabbit hunt by the Washo tribe has taken on much meaning and ritual. Four generations later, Rabbit Boss Joe Birdsong works for cattle ranchers. Memori·"ll Day for 7 ,636 American Indian veterans will not be much different than any other day. For them, every day ie Memorial Day. They will carry the a:f:fects of their patriotism to their graves. Each one o:f these 7 ,636 broth ere was die~bled while serving in the Armed Forces of the United Stat~s of Amer ica, according to Veterl'lns Administrl!ltion record5. For many it will be like any other day in 1' Veterans' Hoe pi ta 1 - lonely. Cin:fined t o a room, a bed, a wheelchair, they can only dream wistfully of home. For the re5t,Memorial Day may not be any better. For som~ :family and friends and time have eased the pain. But for others, their minds and hearts seared by combat horrors, life i5 a continual nightmare. The gradual encroachment of white men into Washo territory brings about the degradation of this once-honored position. At first they plunder the Great Mountains for gold and silver. But it their usurping of Washo land for their cattle that brings about their devastation. Yet another tribe and its dreams vanish. Thomas Sanchez has expressed in Rabbit Boss such humanity, insight and strength that it is hard to believe he is only 27 years old. Few groups anywhere are more pl!ltriotic than the American Indian people. As a whole, none '3.re more pea.celoving. "We love quiet; Ne st:.ff!'!r the mouse to play; when the woods ar!'! ruetled by the wind, we fel!lr not," an Indian chie:f told the governor of Per.nsylvania in 1796. But when callee to serve the United States, no group responded more g!'!nerously. WANTED: A HOME During the Revolutionary Viar 400 Native Al!lericans served as guides and scouts :for the Colonial Army under Seneral George Washington. 1 Wanted a home furnished with love and understanding by a 16 year old boy, Who needs someone to let him know W'ho he is. If we lose our young we are also gone. Interested Native Americans only need apply. Call Mr. Derek Funk (616) 745-3751 (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.), or Esther Mays (313) 836-1384 (anytime), or Bernice Appleton (313) 562-2636 (anytime.) -NATIVE AI;'.ERICAN CHILD PROTECTION COUNCIL- FOR YQUR INFORKATION •••• The Bureau of Indian Af'faire operates 200 schools in 17 states. They report to 12 Area Directors. Seventy-seven boarding schools enroll almost 36,000, and 123 daposohools enroll more than 16,000. Fiftywt.hree day-schools are in Alaska. The B.I.A. also runs an Indian junior college, a post-secondary art institute, and a post-secondary polytechnic institute. Total enrollment of all B.I.A.-run schools represents about 1/4 of the 207,000 children on or near reservations. -from "Talking Leaf" Feb., 1974 'I Ii J, The eighty years that followed were full of heartbreak and 5uf:fering for many Indian communite5 surrounded by the young republic. After the Removal Bill of 1830 W'is 5ig'ned into law by President Andrew Jackson, and Indian dieplacement became a blanket policy, Indian patriotism w~s pretty divided. So tney joined both sides of the Civil War. \'lhat WM! important to Indian3 WM! the protection of Mother Earth and the sect.ion they c~lled nome. The next 60 years brought increasing destruction to their way of life. Treatie3 churned out or Washington made good fire-3tarter3. Destruction of the buffalo ended a way o:f lif'e for many. So-calleu "Indian War3" were hardly more tnan commando attacks on Indian villagers bv u. s. Troops. Tne n~moua c.;a.rlyle School in ?enn3ylvani~ wae founded in 1879 by U.S. Army Lt. Richard H. Pratt, who!le motto vra!!, "Kill the Indian and save the man!" But the Indians an!lwered the call when it came. World War 1 records show that more than 17,000 Indians were registered in the Armed Services. Over 10,000 volunteered. The dra~ called a mere 6,509 men. I'he �-is- -12- the indian p~triot EQPAL HIGHTS (continued): by Mary Simona.it r.ecords reveal 321 young Indian men died in action. Another 262 boys came home wounded. But these f'iguree are not correct. U.S. Indian policies had taken its toll, too. This wae a popular era for denying one'e Indian ~ e ~itage. Thus, many servicemen hid their Indiannese. 3~ t they still fought and died in defence of their country. In 1924 the American Indiane.were made citizens of the United States. They could vote now. Gloria S~einem lectured on Equal Rights for Women and Minorities to a full auditorium last April 8 at the University of Michigan. Editor of the feminist magazine "Ms.", she is also a leader of the women's liberation movement in this country. In ~for lcl War II 92, 000 Hat i ve American men and women served in the Armed Forces. Over 62,000 volunteered. The name 'Ira Hayes' immediately calls up the vivid imeige of thie Pima Indian helping to raise the U.S.Flag on a Pacific island.mountain. A few years later he died trapped between two worlds. Inequality exists everywhere. Ms. Steinem cited several examples. In New York three times more women than men become drug addicts and alcoholics. Yet no femaleoriented help is available. Therapy cente~s are run by men for men. When a man recovers from alcohol he is a hero. But when a woman climbs back she is an ex-drunk. Is this fair labeling, W~. Steinem queried. But Indians continue to serve their country whenever she asks. Pentagon statistics of 1971 enumerate 42,500 Indian Americans as having fought in South-East Asia during the previous decade. Nearly half - 19,837 - were volunteers. Sor.ie 24,004 chose the navy while 10,289 served in the Army. Sf the remainder, 5,237 selected the Air Force and 2,540 opted for the !!iarines. lfo one knows exactly how many I::idian .people there are. Somewhere around one million, estimates say, live in the United States. Now look at the figures for ·w orld War II and South-E'\st Asia again. Those are pretty good numbers, considering the treatment of the American Indi~ns. The Veterans Administre.tion says there are 76,359 American Indian veterans of U.S. wars. That's 76,359 Indian patriots. 7,636 of them have More women than men become mental patients because they find it difficult to live with the burdens pl.aced on them by society, according to Ms. Steinem. Women from childhood are taught to be passive household servants who do not need to fulfill themselves, she said, but who are to serve the needs of others. Ms. Steinem considers this pure myth. She says that everyone must develop his or her potentials, must f'ulf'ill his or her individual goals. "We are all born into cast and class," Ms. Steinem said. "Our caste is our race and sex, and is unchangeable." Class can be changed, she eJ(plained, because "we can make it happen by opening doors for ourselves through education and employment." "To change social conditions we have a choice of methods," Ms. Steinem said. "We can either plug into the power structure, or confront it." -from sc~rs. Memorial Day, lets look one And salute him. ~bite males, she pointed out, hold 94% of all policymaking jobs in the nation. The rel'1aining 6% are shared by women and the minorities. up. Turtl~ Ta1.k.8- IT§ NICE TO K:NOW ••• , • During 1973, 488 Native Americans received services at Grand Rapids' West Side Complex. Services were int.he areas of healt.b, job development, educational programs, housing, referrals, youth projects and senior citizen programs including Senior Meals. -eubmitted by Joe John �-14POli wOIV NE'iJS May 18 May 19 June 1,2 May 24-27 >,, Native American Pow Wow. Sponsored by the Hozhoni Organization of Kalamazoo College. Indian traders only, -no fee. Dancing at 2:00 p.rn. and 8:00 p.m. Great Lakes Indian Youth Alliance Drum. Dinner provided to Native American participants. Spectators welcome - $1.00 admission (which goes for dance prizes. For information contact Valerie Janowski, 107 DeWaters Hall, Kalamazoo College. Ph: (616) 342-9871. (See also Kalamazoo News in this issue.) Native American Pow Wow. Sponsored by the Indian Students of Grand Valley State Colleges. Indian traders only, $5.00 fee. Dancing from 2:00 p.m. until dark. John Bush Head Singer. Dancers must register before Pow Wow begins. Free meal to registered participants. Pow wow in field east of Commons, or, in case of rain, in Student Center. Dancers' prizes: men: $100 $75 $50 women: 75 50 25 boys: 25 15 10 girls: 25 15 10 For more information contact Ms. Sydney Martin, R #1, Hopkins, Mi. 49328. Ph: (616) 793-3461. Sugar Bear's Pow Wow, Walpole Island, Ontario. Dancing Saturday from 2:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. (Sunday's dance begins at 2:00 p.m.) Grand Entry on Saturday. Dancers must register before children's dalce contest begins. Open drum. Traders welcome. Bring your own sleeping equipment. Spectators welcome: admission adults $2.00, children under 12 50cents. In case of rain pow wow will be held in Wallaceberg Memorial Arena. Dance contest Prizes are: men: $300 $200 $100 women: 100 75 50 Boys' and girls' prizes also. Kalamazoo Valley Pow Wow. At Camp Rota-kiwan, Texas Drive, 7 miles a.w. of Kalamazoo. Open pow wow. negistration begins Fri. ~t 2:00 p.m. $1.00 per person includes two ~ree meals. Dancing begins at 2:00p.rn. and 8:00 p~m. Saturday and Sunday. Excellent camping available. Good meals availoble. at low cost. Tr'l.ders' fee ~10.00. Please no imports. For imformation cont<Jct J'lmes 1'1cCom1ell, 734 Yi. Kilgore, Kalanazoo, !'.i. 49001. - ' ..... pow wow news(continued;) June 8, 9 All Indi o~ Pow Wow. 4-H Fairgrounds. South Bend, Indiana. For more information contact Bob Pendergrass Clay Pendergrass OR 54035 Burdette 1209 Queen Street South Bend, ;Ind. South Bend, Ind. Ph: 272-0451 Ph: 287-1314 Ju:J_y 5-7 2nd Annual Pow Wow by Ohio Indian Crafts and Culture Association. Camping available. Registration donation $1.00 adults. Children under 12 free. Traders' fee $10.00 in ad~ vance. Pow wow site 20 miles s.w. of Toledo T~ke Exit 4 off Ohio Turnpike - Maumee Exit Is on Jeffers Road, near Whitehouse, Ohio. For f'urther information contact: Gary Buerk Ross Davidson 7200 Jeffers Rd. OR RD #1 Whitehouse, 0.43571 Orrville, 0.44667 Ph: (419) 875-6963 Ph:(216)682-8746 July 27,28 Ludino~on Aug. 31 - Sept. 2 Area All-Indian Pow Wow. At .fairgrounds, LudiDaaton, Mi. Dance contest - all divisions. Cash prizes. Youth Alliance Drum. The Battleground Pow Wow. Sponsored by the Tecumseh Lodge. At. Tippecanoe Battlefield Park, Battleground, Indiana. (This is "the old Muncie Pow-wow and is a change in location. For more information contact: R. L. Sering 10007 Catalina Drive Indianapolis, Ind. 46236 Ph: (317) 898-3970 June 14-16 Winneb~go Indian Pow Wow. At Wisconsin Dells, \lisc. That's all the info. we've got right now. Contact Robert Funmaker, Box 110, Wisconsin Dells, Wis. 46321. July 11-14 Pow Wow at Bahweting Ojibway Festival. Sault Ste. l'.arie, r.a. Dancing begins Sat. at 2 p.m. ~nd 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. At the National Guard Armory. Camping available at Riverside Park, no charge. Dance contest ~sh prizes. For more inforoation contact: Chippewa Indian Development Center 20s 3reenough Street Sault Ste. Marie, I:li. 49783 Ph: (906) 635-0581 �-16I'? :.S INDIAN Y·:ETHODIST CHURCP IN l'ICHIGAN It w~ s in t he 1820's that John Shahwun~is, or 'Sunday' bec ame famous in Llethodist Church circles for his preaching t o fellow Native Americans in the Upper Peninsula. He had been converted from an "immoral and d7'Unken life" by a Methodis G preacher in C3 nada. His work was continued by Indian preachers like John Kahbeeje and Peter Marksman, and by White men like John Clark and William :::::rockway. All sought to improve the Indians' way of life. The Michigan Indians' life-style had been thoroughly ,g utted by the collapse of the fur-trade and the avarice of 'Whites for their land. Adiction to alcohol was an all too easy escape for those Ul'lable to cope with the changes. By 1850 Indian Methodism brought peace and fellowship to many N~tive Michigan people. A c.'l.mp meeting in Saginaw county ~t this time brought 1000 Indians together from Canad.a and the 13 counties of Michigan. Ponies had bells tied to their necks and then were turned loose in the woods. Huge bonfires were lit to drive off the mos~uitoes. Sixteen chiefs and several medicine men met with as many preachers. The fact that traders were not happy with I..'.ethodist influences on Indian people is well-testified to by the events of this camp meeting. Word came to its leaders that certain "traders and rowdies" were unhappy about the losses to their alcohol trade, and they were going to do so~ething about it. Saturday night they would descena on the camp, break up the meeting, and "get the Indians drunk". But the preachers and chiefs formed a plan of their own. They dispersed the camp esrly Sauurday afternoon into 15 groups, sending them 8 to 15 miles away in verious directions. A pre3cher a ccompanied ea ch one. -1"' s i ons: one a t Bradley anu. one at New Sa lem. Becaus e ssions are not self-support ing most pa stors must hold outside jobs. Mr. Church h:.s worked for n orth American Rockwell for 26 years. E>l.ch mission pastor may also be assisted by Ll'iy Leaders, who must have completed a L!ly Speaking course. Schol a rships are provided by the United ~ethodist Church to men chosen vdth care •• · · 0niy at'ter completion of his study way a Lay Leader be certified and authorized to serve a mission. Er. Church has served IHl chairm."!n of the Indfan Workers Council for sever"ll years. Meeting annualy on the first Saturday of May, the council is attended by all members of the United Methodist Church that are concerned with Indian members. The Bishop, district superintendents serving Indian missions, the mission-pastors (five are non-Indian) and delegates meet at one of the missi ons to make imd beer progress reports and to discuss goals. At this time fiJUincial aid is requested for building improvements, educational needs, and salarie~. It is a time too for fellowship and for sharir.g the events of the past year with one another. On the agenda this year is a welcome for Rev. Joe Sprague, newly appointed pastor to the United Methodist Mission on the Isabella Reservation at llount Pleasant. The Indian pastor is not concerned solely with local affairs. The United Methodist Church has organized committees to handle af:t"airs on every level --the local church, the community, the district, the state, the mi.tional, and on the world affairs. All except the Committee on iiorld !1.iseions hwe Indian representation, All the trsders and rowdies found were " fe w smoldering campfires. Today 20 7 000 American Indians are members of the Uni. ted Methodist Church. They worship in 160 l\a tive American churches. An India• executive with an office in New York directs the Indian work of the church. Today, ?ciicht:;""1!1 Indian Methodism is est'.lbli~hed in 10 missions. And ~nother kind of le3der has succeeded John Shl'l.hwund.ais, Peter i.i.:ll:'ksman l\nd John Kahbeeje. He wa s r:iost l:ikely raised in a Christian home. !I(" is certainly welleducated. Ee must know how to handle financial affairs and buil~ing improveru;nts. A eoun.~_elC!t', ~e ea_ n al;lviee members ~f bis mission. ~nd he pre ~ ches his ~ ~ ith. Being an Indian relii!ious le~der is not a job for a 'plaster saint'. He must constantly renew himself. He c~n do this by taking advantnge of the continuing education pro~m of the church. Seminars, convocations, Indian committee meet~s, and conferences are held throughout the United St~tes. It these nation.al meetings he can meet and cot:lp!tre notes with pastors from other tribes, 11 a highly reW"'!'din~ experienee • •• ·sayig Gladys Chtlrch, Lewis' 'fery attractive, very 3Ctive ~fe, -Shirley Fr~ ncis- Church is :i-' ot&wattomi from Br:.dley. After five study he wa s ordnined in 1962. He pastors two l!lis- ::.., r:'t:i s ye~ rs oi' �-180N THE -19- PERSO.NAL SIDE on t,he personal side (continued): Ms. MABEL SHOfJIN, a long-time employee of' the Y.M.C.A., hl\e turned teacher! She's the new ottawa language inetructor at the Grand Rapide Inter-Tribal Council Indian Center, 756 Bridge NW. Preparing for clase, ehe told sister Millie, means scouring libr~riee and booketores for material on the language. Ms. Shomin is originally from Crose Village, and has spoken ottawa fluently since childhood. By the way, that class is held Mondays at 7:30 p.m. SANDY UUSE, our active little Detroit correspondent, ie one of' several students chosen by their Board of Education to make a week-long trip to Waehimgton, D.C. in M!ly. Could it be just an excuse to hunt f'or REDBONEs? Me. BEATRICE KELLEY is recuperating at Butterworth Hospital following major heart surgery April 18. She was mid-way through her practical nurse training when she became ill. "But ehe won't quit, 11 reports her mother Ms. Mary Peters. 11 She says she'll graduate next year." You can bet she will! Ms. VIRGINIA WHITE PIGEON is recovering from serious surgery at Bronson Hospital, Kalamazoo. Husband Ed reports she should be discharged eoon. preparation well i L advance of the eve•t. Thin-pow wow had that plus that somethiwg extra: the combi:n.ed tale:ats of' Frank Bush and Joe Raphael. There were the right number of singers, a good turJl-out of dancers , good coverage by the •ews media, traders to f'ill every nook and cra:nJlY, and enoug'h food. There was only too much of o-ae thi:.g' spectators had to be tUrJ1.ed away SUllday. The Master of' Ceremonies, Dave Fox, l'anitoulill Islalld, did a great job with ao difficulty heari-..g him. But your. Teporter did a lousey oae takiDg notes, so only the -.am.es of' a few dance contest willllers were recorded. Thurmaa Bear, Detroit, captured First Prize in a close contest with top-aotch dancers from several tribes. Milwaukee's Gerald Clevela•d took home 2•d prize, a•d Jimmy Kliae carried 3rd Prize back to Detroit. Our apologies to the ladies am childrell prize will1'ers. BACK TAI.K: letters to tbe editor Editor: This is about the Book on Iadia• Talk, you saat to us last week. There is •o Mn• that lives at this address. If a:ny more should come it will be returw.ed to you at oace. Aad I am aot married to aa I•dian at all. P.S. Se:ad •o more of your Books to us. -{Name withheld}(Oh, well, you can't wia 'em all! ed.} Rumor has it that DICKIE LAUGHING may be spending the summer in Grand Rapids. He's the Circulation Editor for the Nishnavlbe News. Maybe we can pick up a few pointers! Mr. FRANK BUSH, Potawatomi from Bradley, has consented to be Indian Talk's Pow Wow Correspondent. The Bush family not only never mies any pow wow ia a 5-state area, but drum for most, and organize _quite a f'ew! If someone thinks of it, &ek~ MARCELLINE BUSH or SYDNEY 'MARI'IN or BEA BAILEY if' they're going to the Broadbottom Pow Wow again thie year. A very interesting story! Grand R!!pids' First All-l•dian Pow Wow brought Indian participants from Canada, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma for probably the most colorful f'ete that Aquiitas College ~sium hae ever held! Crowds of' spectators crowded in and packed the bleachers clear to the ceiling. What makes anything a success is careful Bezho Neko•s: Ellclosed our check for a subscription to your f'iae paper. Mrs. Ada Vallace sent us our ;first copy (March) and it sure is a fine production. We sure hope thi!I can be a growing success. Our people need such a publication. -H. L. Le.Hurreau, ShupShe Fort Wayne, Ind. INDIAN TALK is really f'ine -- much, much · better t.han the former publication. We read it from cover to coiier! -- Now, how do we rejoin the (lodge)? -Tom & Virginia Chambers Grand Rapids, Mi. Dear Shirley: (G.V.A.I.L. Secretary is Ma. Jeanette St. Clair; write to her at 1700 Benjamin .N .E., Grand Rapids, Mi. 49505.) �_editorial \'/HAT DO _YOU THINK OF THIS ILLUSTRATION? - 20TENNES:::.E.E MEMORIES "Devil'e Looking Glaee" I am 58 years old and half' Cherokee Blood. fat.her, Enoch Foehie, paesed away in 1968. He was 104 years old. My In Ervin, Tennessee, t.here is a rock Called t.he Devil's Looking Glass. There is words on t.he rock ·· _ . Written in Cherokee, with much picture writing. \lhen the eun ehines on thie rock, It shines like glass. The Nola Chuckey River rune right by. There are many caves near that place. And their walls have picture writing What. I aay is true. -------This picture is on a flyer announcing the 2nd Annual Illowa Indian Pow Wow, sponsored by the Wawatasee-!Catsina Indian Dancers, 1136 - 40th St., Rock Island, Ill. 61201. on them. '.Ne are often asked i f we are imuressed when a non-Indian group uses an Indian name, object or symbol. Generally speaking, if respect is shown and there is no offence to our dignity and no promotion of stereotypes, then we can say we do not mind . "Burial SH-es" 1f3' Uncle lives in Midway, Tennessee. There are many signs of' old Indian camps On my Uncle's f'arm. Of all groups who borrow from our culture, the hobbyists appear to do the most. Of all groupsJit would seem that they would respect us the most. Yet, in our associations with them, many make us feel that the "only good Indian is a dead Indian". '!'here i• aauch gold, lead, and coal too. There are at least 100 Indian burial ~ White Men came to the tarm, Wanting to dig up the graves. · si~es. If t.hey knew sb01Jt t.'be · eilvel", t.'he::r • c1 waat. :.J lf;r· Uhole is. of' Claerokee blood. · He would not. l•"- ftee .. .·'l'hel',- ta grea~ raedieia• p~ on hil tam. . ht. I C'1JllOt uli Y'O\l of' tba,t.. -Burt Foshie #U9358 P.O. Box E that,~ The picture on this particular flyer is an example of the publicity we object to. In this day and age it is hard for us to understand and accept this type of recognition and reference. ~·Jhen disapproval is made known to the hobbyist, he fails to understand our indignation. He only accuses us of being too sensitive, of over-reacting. Too long have we been silent and long-suffering. We are realizing that we no longer need to accept this kind of publicity. We want it known that we are proud of our culture and our history. As a race we are in no w~y inferior. Thus, we are certainly going to object to anything derogatory~ be it said, written or illustrated. No, we are not impressed with this caricature. Are you? Jackson, Mi. 49204 ·'',gui.£~ ~9~ f)~ �INDIAN TALK 457 Briar wood S.E. Grand Rapids, Mi. 49506 I Edward V. Gillis . '< 2512 Union, NE Grand Rap ids, Mi. 49505 I eSh PUBLIC!\ TION � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v1n7_1974-07 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk in Southern Michigan, May 1974 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974-05 Description An account of the resource May 1974 (Volume 1, Number 7) issue of Indian Talk in Southern Michigan by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5faae95f9b637fdb3ee73ea7bb073dc7.pdf f50fc1e1724fc8aa6621877da76ed352 PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK Miranda Teresa (Ottawa-Chippewa) Vol.2 No.5 March ,1975 �IND I AN TALK ......... the Native American's Magazin~ circulation 450 March 1975 Vol. 2 No. 5 BOARD OF DIRECTORS1 (meets third TUesday of month) Chairman ...... . ... Cal Noell ( Tuscarora/ Chickasaw)° :1 Vice Chairman ..... Kay Campos (Ottawa) Secretary ......... Joy Sorenson Treasurer ... ... . .. Nancy Grabiak Art Editor .. . ..... Gloria Shenosky (Chippewa) , Associate Edi tor .. Joe John ( Ottawa/Chippewa) Sports Editor ..... Ed White Pigeon (Potawotomi) BUSINESS MANAGER, Rick Andrews (Chippewa) MANAGING EDITOR, Shirley Francis CORRESPONDENTS a Bay City . . . . . ....... Marvin Fisher(517) 684-1585 Detroit .. . ......... . Sandy Muse (313) 931-6438 Flint ..... . , ........ Viola Peterson (313) 655-8492 £ansing ............. Rochelle Shano (517) 373-0654 Ludington., ..... . ... Douglas Pearson (616) 861-2234 Marquette ........... Henry Hawk Foster (Wasso Gee Wad Nee ) Petoskey . .. .. . ...... Carolyn Kenoshmeg (616) 347-5565 Saginaw . ..... . ..... Larry Seger (517) 845-3632 Sault Ste . Marie, . . . Mike Wright (906) 635-0581 Southwest Michigan . . Donna Morsaw (616) 621-3852 Grand Rapids ........ Bea Bailey (616) 534-1542 Traverse City ... . ... { ? ) /wi ·, St. Ignace., ........ (?)!::'ARE LOOKING FOR L'Ance/Baraga ....... ( ? ) ~CORRESPONDENTS Mount Pleasant ...... ( ? ) ,..... AREAS . Hannahville ........ . ( ? ) ~ NEWS DEADLINE, FIFTEENTH OF PUBLISHERS, OFFICES 457 Briarwood Ave . S.E. Grand Rapids, MI 49506 Phi (616) 459-6820 WE SUBSCRIPTION RATES1 $3.00 per year, or $2.00 per year in bundles of 10 or more sent to a single address. (Minimum $20.00) ADVERTISING RATES.a PERMISSION TO REPRINT GRANTED WITH CREDIT TO INDIAN TALK . MEMBER1 American Indian Press Association National Indian Education Aasociation CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDIAN TALK ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE INDIAN TALK is unaffiliated with any sect, organization or institution, Its purpose is to provide a means of communication and expression within the American Indian community and with the non-Indian world. T ABL E OF C ONTE NT S BACK TALK .... Letters from Readers--------------------- 2 ON THE PERSONAL SIDE---------------------------------- 6 THE POW-WOW TRAIL---=-------=------------------------ 7 U OF M INDIAN STAFF TO HOLD CONFAB IN G.R.------------ 8 NATIVE AMERICAN CRAFT & CULTURE WORKSHOP PLANNED------ 9 INDIAN FISHERMAN'S TRIAL SET - - -----------------------10 SPORT*SIDE -------------------------------------------11 Basketball Tournaments Slated Bowling Big Hit in Lansing INDIAN FAMILY C AND C CAMP : Why Not Try It!-- - --------13 THE DETROIT REPORT- - --------------- - -------- - ---------15 TRAVERSE CITY'S ALL INDIAN NURSERY SCHOOL-------------17 INDIAN SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE ------------------------17 ST . IGNACE: PROJECT NADWEGWEYAMSHEING----- - ----------18 LET US MEET YOU ... . ------ - ------------------ - --------19 JOURNALISM WORKSHOP PLANS DRAWN------ - - - --- - ----------19 INDIAN CHILDREN AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES--------------20 Highlights of Dr. Rosemary Christianson's keynote address at Native American Education Conference, Lansing, February 14- 15. A&plmA' S NATIVE AMERICAN PROGRAM----------------------23 AROUND THE HEARTH ------------------------------------24 Meet Beatrice Peters, Nutrition Aide with MSU Cooperative Extension Service, Expanded Nutrition Program. NATIONAL INDIAN ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATION AIMS HIGH------26 "LOST 1,IN THE ROCKIES ... at twilight. :.:_._~ .. - ,.. .:.---------28 A poem by Sharon Hunt Richard Criss (our faithful advertizer) has suggested that INDIAN TALK act as a clearing~house for pow-wow dates to keep from having to choose which to attend when two are discovered to have been scheduled for the same date. If your organization has set a date for its pow-wow, let us know . We will pass the word along. THE POW WOW CLEARING HOUSE PHONE NUMBER IS .... ( 616 )-- 459-6820 �2 BACK BACK TALK ( continHed) TALK .. . ....... . ....... LETTERS FROM READERS (Editor's note, We just received the letter printed below, and we feel it is of such social significance that we decided to print it right away · Feb 24, 1975 The Michigan Parole Board Gentlemen, I' ie been accused of not standing up for my "rights" ... when I appeared before you February 19 (The accuser) was right: I never stood up for my rights. If I have any "rights," then they're everybody"s RIGHTS, which includes the right of the Parole Board to "proceed with 'caution•• in my individual case. It seems to me that everyone, including the prosecutor of Oakland County has a right to speak up. Why not me? I am 38 years old and have been imprisoned since October 1948 with the exception of about 3½ years. You could say that this has been my life. Rather than everyone dealing with a whole lot of WHAT's I think it is time all of us started dealing with CAUSES and asking WHY? In my opinion, from personal research, there are no "born" criminals, no "recidivists." We are dealing with mis• staken identities. Prison is the surface result of something much deeper than Crime and Punishment. So long as our social structure is based on imagery, competition and greed, ' there will always be effects. I believe imagery is the root of all social misfits, that "criminals" are the result of frustrations growing out of human beings who are unable to "measure up" to preconceived images that make us all WHAT we eventually grow to IMAGINE we are as men and women. In my case, I imagined I was many things: inferior, ugly, a failure, a social outcast . . As a result of misunderstanding these innate fears, I even grew to imagine myself less than a man. The fact of the matter was, I was at war with myself, being unable to accept what I imagined I was. I had to "act" like a "man," a "tough guy," and so forth, for no mther reason tha.~ that I confused what I imagined I was with who I really am as a human being, a person. No one ever bothered to tell me I wasn't any of these things, that I was good. No one ever asked me why I did this or that, but only deepened my alienation by continually focusing my attention on what I a.~ and what I did. Prison was created by a social structure based on imagery. It is a futile system, a failing system. If society were not turning out its criminals so swiftly, perhaps the penologists and reformists would have the time to concentrate their efforts on dealing with causes rather than effects and punishments. That I could be confined for about 27 years and remain a misfit proves the veIT thing I'm talking about. There are a multitude of inmate's;~ould choose to be good citizens IF they knew they didn't have to be BAD. .'r r r The moral issues of our humanity are as much a part of imprisonment as punishment. I was my own prison for many years, my own punishment. I didn't have to be a criminal, robber or thief. I accept the full responsibility for whatever I did and the blame is not such a difficult matter to shoulder -- nor the time I have had to serve -- now that I realize the can;:;'9 .. For every boy and girl now being socially conditioned to become stereotypes of "Mom" and "Dad" or any of the other many "images" of socially revered and esteemed "he-man" herotypes and "super-woman" beauty-types, how many of these kids will eventually become social misfits because they somehow cannot measure up to these images? When they begin to lose their reall identity and revolt against the social-image, who is to blame? The big-league football or baseball player? The Hollywood Hero or Heroine? The skinny boy who can not compete in sports, when he starts carrying a knife, who will be to blame? The prosecutor in Oakland County is not just speaking against a very FEW men and women on parole or about to be released; he is ppeaking ag~st me too. I am ready to leave prison. I'm sorry to say that prison hasn't helped me reform. It merely gave me time to search my heart; it gave me time to find myself. But in all my searching there was no one to call upon for help -- except God and my own good common sense. I don't apologize to any of you for the things I did. I apologized to MYSELF. I forgave MYSELF for being my own worst enemy. And I forgive the very structure that helped create all the things I thought I was and had to be in order to be a MAN. I failed myself as a man, because underneath the man there just happened to be a person, a human being who cared, but somehow didn't know how to care right. ¼ND TO ALL SOCIETY:) Don't blame the Parole Board for YOUR MISTAKES. True, I don't agree with how they're handling ME, because I want out of here, but it is just as wrong to shift the burden from YOUR OWN SHOULDERS. Law enforcement and penologists are dealing with social effects. I say YOU should re~evaluate the educational system and burn nine-te~ths of all the parental guidance books. What is good for one is not good for all. And the only real image any of us must measure up to is in our own heart. The real alienation is not social malcontents, misfits, rejects, etc., but, simply put, boys and girls, men and women who cannot relate what they imagine they are with who they are as human beings. Instead of punishing us why not ask WHY and then have the humanity to HELP SOMEBODY yourself. Somebody has to care. I do. Do you? -Henry J. Foster Marquette, MI �4 B A CK f TALK ......... . ............ letters from readers Dear Friends: Please find enclo sed wi th this letter a check for $10.00 in payment for my subscription . Your publication is an excellent one with many informative ideas for and by Na tive people , However, I would l ike to see more information relevant to Indian edu cation and opportunties ... Mrs. Lisa Gregurek is to be commended for her recent letter to INDIAN TALK (De c . / Jan. '75) concerning this matter. I think if more Indian people took heed to her message and stopped worrying abo ut self-pity, they would b e better off in general. Give my warmest regards to the INDIAN TALK staff. May they continue their fine efforts. -Virgil T. John Muskegon, MI Back Talk ( continued) . Dear Editor: Greetings! Received the latest INDIAN TALK. Excellent as usual. I personally get so much f~om it. I wonder if you would send a sample copy to all those who went to our conference (Michigan College Weekend in Dec./Jan. •751) Thanks for the coverage. Please bill us for t he cost ... I will send out a l e t t er at t he same time telling everyone t o subscribe on a r egular ~asis if they c an . -Joe Radelet, Di r ecto r Detroit Round Table of the National Confe,'ence of Christians and Jews , I nc. , Detroit (Ed.Note: NCCJ is "a civic organization engaged i n a na• tionwide program of intergroup education. It enl i sts people o~ all backgrounds, who without compromise of consc i ence or of their di stinctive and important religi ous and r ac ial identities, work togethe r t o build better community r elationships." We are grateful fo r their suppor t. ) Friends: In the Feb, issue of I NDIAN TALK I read with int e re s t the article on the (Marie) Potts Award. I was del ighted to see that• it was won by WASSAJ A whi ch I ha ve been r eading and enjoying since its very fi r s t i ssue. However, I noticed that among the other contenders for the award was INDIAN VOICE about which I have known for some time. I finally got around to sending for a subscription only to have my letter returned . .. If it is still in print, and I assume it is after reading your article, could you possibly give me the current address? Thank you. Our family is Chippewa/ Oneida/Ottawa with some Anglo thrown in. We are delighted to be receiving your good magazine to keep up with what it has to say about activities not only in Mi.chigan but around the country. I was especially saddened by the article about the trailer fire at Caro, Michigan. I am enclosing a check to help to~ard the delivery of the new trailers - a very small drop in the bucket and I so wish it could be more, Cannot the State Indian Commission, the Teamsters Union and the United Board of Missions be contacted for aid in this matter? It would seem to me that it would be of interest to all of them and, not to put too fine a point on it, the promis of favorable publicity might make at least some of them sit up and take interest. I hope these suggestions help. -Carolyn C. Bennett Ann Arbor, MI (Ed. note, The address we have been able to find for INDIAN VOICE is now 33324 Pacific Highway South Federal Way, Washington 98002. The subscription rate is 1 ~6.00. Your check for the Trailer Fund was forwarded to the Saginaw Valley Indian Association, 3033 Wilder Road, Bay City, MI 48706, We are sorry we omitted this address in the article last month. Thank you for your suggestions which we also forwarded.) Dear l!Sdi tors,1,c Hey Gang! After reading your latest issue at Grand Vall ey State Colleges' Zumberge Library, I decided to invest in a year's subscription for two reasons: (1) I can get it at home instead of waiting to read the college's copy , and (2) the monetary sum is little enough to ~elp assure the continuation of and to illustrate my support of INDIAN TALK. -Peter E. Vink Spring Lake , MI 'f" L' · I was introduced to your very fine magazine by a friend, Cal Noell. I teach at LaSalle High School in St. Ignace, and I thought you might be interested in printing an article on a program devoted to Indian education in (our) area ... If I can be of additional help by writing other arti~ 1 cles, I would be most happy to do so. -Chris Wadaga St, Ignace, MI (Ed. note: Your letter gives us the opportunity to say OUT LOUD what we have neglected to print, we WANT, DESIRE, NEED, CRAVE, and BEG to have any articles on, by or about the Indian communities of Michigan. Our correspondents furnish us with news of events but seldom have time to write articles that go into depth on a subject. Ms. Wadaga's article is printed in this issue.) �6 0 N T HE T P E R S ONAL S I D E *Mrs. Mary M. Petoskey passed away at the age of 85 last January 22. The funeral Mass was offered at the Church of the Holy Childhood, Petoskey, Michigan, on January 25, She is survived by three sons, George of Harbor Springs, Roland of Flint and Fred of Grand Rapids; and by three daughters, Mrs. Josephine Naganashe of Burt Lake, Mrs. Betty Stone of Sarnia, Ontario, and Mrs. Kathrine Emmos of Harbor Springs. Mrs. Petoskey is also survived by more than 150 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. Mrs. Petoskey was the first Gold Star Mother in Emmet County during World War II, Her son, Laurence J, Petoskey, was the first Indian soldier from Emmet County to die for his country during that war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent her a letter of condolence. We join the rest of the Indian community in sorrow at the passing of this grand old Ottawa lady. T H E P O W- WO W T R A I L All-Indian Pow-wow, Eastern Michigan University's McKenny Union Ballroom, Ypsilanti, Michigan. For more information contact Don Bice, (JlJ) 487-0267, Mar. 21, 22 Native American Crafts and Culture Conference at Oakwood Junior High School, East Detroit, Michigan. (See article in this issue.) ,. ~ March 22 *Larry Shananaquet (Ottawa) .ha.B been appointed by Governor William G. Milliken to the state's Advisory Commission on Substance Abuse Services. The 37-year-old Shananaquet is the Director of Owl Indian Outreach, Inc., an organization dealing with Indian Alcoholism, located at 347 Mt. Vernon, N.W., Grand Rapids. His term expires October 12, 1977, Our heartiest congratulations to this fine gentleman. *A simple and beautiful marriage ceremony united Yvonne Mae Bush of Shelbyville and Steve Fego of Ann Arbor in the historic Indian Mission Chapel, Bradley, Michigan, February 22. Reverend Louis Church conducted the ceremonies. It was the little church's first wedding since 1947, The hymn, "How Great Thou Art," was sung by the lovely voice of Mrs. Sam (Geneva) Mackety. The bride's attendent was her sister, Angie Old Shield, The groom was attended by Butch Old Shield. A reception and marriage feast followed at the Wayland Methodist Church . for the couple's family and friends. Following a short honeymoon the couple will reside in Ann Arbor where Mr. Fego is a student at the University of Michigan. All of us here at INDIAN TALK join all of Mae's and. Stev~'s friends in wishing them warmly a long and happy life blessed with harmony. Mar. 14, 15 Spring Mini-Pow-Wow at Hazel Park High School, located at 23400 Hughes. DANCE CONTEST: performances at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. Dancers must be at both performances to be in competition. SPECIAL ADMISSION: Adults $1,50 Children (under 12 years) .50 Sponsored by the NAIA Club of Detroit. April 12, lJ ... GRAND RAPIDS' SECOND ALL INDIAN POW-WOW Aquinas College Physical Education Building, located in the 1600 block of East Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, Michigan. DANCE CONTEST: All Divisions Saturday 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. Sunday 2:00 p.m. OPEN DRUM TRADERS WELCOME: Indian-made crafts only Fee $5.00 per day Dancers and Singers must register by l:JO p.m. Saturday for contests and meals SPECTATORS• DONATIONS: Adults $1.00 Children ,50 Call: April 19, 20 Frank Bush (616) 792-4042 or Buddy .Raphael (616)361-1817 Muskegon Pow-Wow, Walker I Arena, Western Avenue, Muske~o:1, Michigan. Contact Soliman Shalifoe, (61b) 894·-8794, �B U OF M'S INDIAN STAFF TO HOLD CONFAB IN GRAND RAPIDS "As a way of sharing our work with other young Indian people we will be showing a slide presentation as a focal point of discussing our work at the University of Michigan," said Steve Crow, Native American Admissions Counselor at U. of M. "That's why we will be spending three days - March 19, 20 and 21 - in Grand Rapids." Joining him will be Kevin Hart (Chippewa), Native American Advocate, and Jim Concannon (Ottawa), Native American Opportunity Counselor. Crow is Cherokee. Wednesday and Thursday, the 19th and 20th, they will be visiting Grand Rapids high schools. Thursday evening they will speak with the Parent Advisory Committee at the Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council Indian Center, 756 Bridge Street, N.W. On Friday, the 21st, they will be at the center all day to answer questions and to discuss the work Native American students are doing at the university, what their own work has accomplished and the work they are planning for the future. "Recognizing the high drop-out rate among Native Ameri• can students," Crow said, "we hope to encourage them through these presentations to remain in school." The slide presentation, accompanied by traditional Indian songs, is of the recent Ann Arbor pow-wow, held February 1 and 2,at the University of Michigan. "By this means," said Crow, " we are showing what various Indian communities are doing to sustain and nourish their culture, traditions and way of life." The University of Michigan has much to offer Native American students. The Opportunity Program's resources provide continuous conseling, tutoring, help with federal and state financial aid, housing information, cultural activities plus courses available in the American Culture Program. A member of the Ann Arbor community teaches a university-accredited course in traditional Ojibway. There is a Native American Cultural School which promotes cultural identity by conducting weekly arts and crafts workshops for Native American children in the Ann Arbor community. One of the faculty members offers independent studies in American Indian culture, art, history, literature andeducation. The Native American Student Association participates annually in the Ann Arbor Ethnic Fair, sponsors pow-wows, feasts and frequently invites Native American guest speakers, dancers, singers, artists, and storytellers to visit the university throughout the year. Crow, Concannon and Hart welcome all inquiries about their work and warmly encourage correspondence from Indian high school and college students as well as their counselors and advisors. Write · them,, c/o 1415 Mason Hall or 1220 Student Activity Bldg., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, -from U of M Resources 9 NATIVE AMERICAN CRAFT AND CULTURE WORKSHOP PLANNED .., A two-day workshop in Native American crafts and culture will be held March 21 and 22 at the Oakwood Junior High School, 14825 Nehls, East Detroit, Michigan, according to Li.sa Gregurek, co-planner of the conference. The workshop, she said, will conduct classes in various Native American crafts, taught be qualified, experienced Indian instructors. Some materials will oe provided. Sweet-grass basket weaving will be taught by Rosalene Fisher. Instruction in black-ash basket weaving will be by Eva Shipman. Barbara Tolley and Millie 3all will teach loom beading. Drumming lessons will be offered by Tuffelo Lucero and Frank Shipman. Dancing demonstrations will be given by young Indian children from Detroit, Mrs. Gregurek said. A class in pow-wow outfit design and making will be given by Nancy Wilson. Paul Crispin will hold cl~.sses in leatherwork. Friday's workshop will begin at 3:30 p.m. and end at 9:30 p.m. Classes will be held Saturday from 9100 a.m. until 3: 00 p. m. "This will allow participants to attend the NAIA Mini Pow-Wow at Hazel Park that evening," Mrs. Gregurek said. The innovative event is being hosted by the East Detroic Parent Advisory Committee and the East Detroit Public School District. Mrs. Gregurek's co-planners are Nancy Wilson, South Lake School District PAC, and Jaye 3artok, East Detroit School Distric PAC. "Everyone is invited," said Mrs. Gregurek, "but we especially hope that Title IV Part A Parent Advisory Committee people will participate." The registration fee of $25,00 will pay for the cost of materials and resource people, Mrs. Gregurek said. The deadline for registering is March 12. The Friday evening meal will be provided. There are good motel accommodations near the school, she said. To register or for more information contact Mrs. Lisa Gregurek, 26771 Tucker Road, Mt. Clemens, MI 48043; or phone her at (313) 463-1633. EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES -Minority Recruiter for Lansing area, $10,100.00 -Equal Employment Officer, Lansing, $10,100.00 These are civil service positions. If interested please contact Rochelle Shana, Michigan Co~1nission on Indian Affairs, 454 Hollister Bldg., Lansing, MI ~8902; or phone (517) 373-0654, ......___ �11 to S P OR T INDIAN Arthur Duhamel' s trial has been scheduled for M 1 ·, a. in the Leelanau County Courthouse, Leland, Michigan, before Judge Benedict, according to Frederick Boyd, SA for Region III, C.I.M. Mr. Duhamel is being tried on two charges1 illegal transporting of fish and fishing with a gill net. Boyd says this is an important trial for all Indian fishermen to watch because it is contesting the 1836 'llreaty between the Chippewa and Ottawa Tribe and the United States Government. According to Boyd, Mr. Duhamel's case is of a classaction type court case. "The whole thing hinges on the interpretation of the 1836 Treaty, and it could settle many difficulties," he said. It is not, therefore, a 'private' case concerning a single individual. Its outcome will affect all Michigan Indian fishermen's rights, according to Boyd. Last year the State Supreme Court made a decision favorable to Indian fishermen in the case of John Jandreau and Albert LeBlanc, says Boyd. "But the Department of Natural Resources indicated in a January meeting between itself and the officers of the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association that it would like a higher court's opinion," he said, adding that this could only mean the United States Supreme Court. To fight these cases is costly, said Boyd. Mr. Duhamel's case is no exception. His attorneys need $2500.00 for deposition fees and for the calling of expert witnesses. Support is vitally necessary, says Boyd, from both individuals and Indian organizations. Contributions can be sent to Jei.mes Olson and rllichael Dettmer, Attorneys-at-Law, Union Street, Traverse City, MI 49684. Or telephone (616) 947-2917, Ii/ 1 A IDES The State Y.M.C.A. 's Native American Outreach Project and the North American Indian Association will co-sponsor an All-Indian Basketball Tournament in Detroit March 8 and 9. ... Eight teams will compete for top honrs on the campus of Wayne State University after converging there from all over Michigan and nearby states. The battleground for the victory,hungry teams will be the Matthaei Building, located on the northwest corner of Warren and John C. Lodge. The public is invited to cheer their favorite teams in the All-Indian Tourny's big weekend. Game time starts Saturday at 12 noon, ending at 5:30 p.m. Sunday's games begin at 9:00 a.m. and end at 6100 p.m. Tournament director is Greg Lambert of NAIA. Trophies will be awarded the winners. A special thanks goes to Wayne State University's President George Cullen Jr. and his staff for the fine coopera~ tion and support given this tournament. **************** NEEDED Homemaker Aides OJ are needed in the following counties: Delta, Gogebic, Mackinaw, Marquette; Charlevoix, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Manistee; Cheboygan, Iosco; Allegan, Kent, Montcalm, Muskegon, Oceana; Bay Tuscola; Barry, Berrien, Calhoun, Van Buren; Ingham; Oakland, Washtenaw; Wayne. These positions must be filled by Native Americans. To apply or for more information contact Rochelle Shano, Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs, 454 Hollister Bldg., Lansing, MI 48902; or phone (517) 373-0654, S I D E NATIVE AMERICAN BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS SLATED 1 HO ME MAKER * ,, Michigan State University's Jenison Fieldhouse will again be the site for the All Indian State Basketball Tournament at East Lansing March 22 and 23. Tournament director George Pamp expects about 16 teams from all over the state to compete for the top spot. Invites are being sent to both men's and women's basketball teams in Michigan and other states. Co-sponsors of the two-day event are the State YMCA of Michigan, Michigan State University, the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs and the Lansing North American Indian Center. Trophies will be provided by the Commission on Indian Affairs. Registration and $20. 00 fee deadline is March 12·. Teams interested in enlisting in this event should contact George Pamp, State YMCA of Michigan, 210½ E. Broadway, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858, or phone (517} 773-9484 or 772-4647, For information on housing and meals contact the Lansing Indian Center, J06 E. Grand River Avenue, Lansing MI ~8906; or call (517) 487-5409, **************** Top Indian basketball phcy1.e rs f:.~om,·alO.. ove:n,iMi¢Ugal") c,~_ by Greg Lambert to make up an All Star Team to compete in the NIAA regionals. ,The witmers will compete on April 9 - 12 .. in the National Indian Activities Association's National Basketball Championship Tournament at Bismarck, North Dakota. were .pieked 0 **************** SUPPORT YOUR TEAM - FOLLOW THEM TO THE TOURNIESt �13 t2 Il\1BIArT FAf.1ILv rr/A},T £:.ND ..::DLTURE CAMP, ~fr'.":: NOT TRY l'I'! SPORT*SIDE (continued) BOWLING BIG HIT IN LANSING Bowling is~oring high with Lansing's Indian people. Five women's teams are rolling in the Recreation Jets League, four men's teams are upsetting pins in the South Lansing Merchants Lea~"Ue, and five mixed couples' teams are keeping the lanes busy in the Pin-Busters League, Most of these bowlers are fairly new at the game, but with the season better than half gone, many of these first year keglers are showing signs of becoming top-notch bowlers. Two of the women's teams are rolling around first place. One of the men's teams is in first place and another is just a couple of notches down. In the mixed couple league two teams are now in second and third place. An all-Indian, self-sponsored team who call themselves the American "One", has been rolling in the Pro-Bowl Sportsman League for the past three years. It has never been lower than fifth place in the sixteen-team league. Members of American "One" are James L. Fox, Jim Brunk, Cliff Gould, Leo Jackson and Tom Peters. At the lanes they can't be missed. They sport bright red shirts with white lettering and a big Indian head in the center back. American ~One" recently rolled in the State tournament in Allen Park, Michigan, in the Gordon's Tournament, and in the Men's City Tournament. Youth bowling is beginning to catch on, at least with the Cliff Gould children. Eight-year-old Buffy Gould won a trophy for fourth place recently in the City Tournament's Peanut Division. Diana Gould and Dad Cliff won a trophy for second place in the Father-Daughter tournament. And Dulo Gould has won numerous patches and certificate-awards for high series and high games. Indian talk at the lanes is full of hope of having an all-Indian tournament with other Indian keglers from around the state. How about it? We are ready for any challenge! IF YOU HAVEN'T BOWLED, TRY IT, .... IT COULD BE RIGHT DOWN YOUR ALLEY! -Cliff Gould Lansing, MI **************** COMING UP IN SPORTS Apr. JO - May 3 Women's National Basketball Championship Los Angeles, Calif. NIAA•sponsored. Apr. 24 - 26 Second Annual National Indian Activities Association's NATIONAL BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP. All Indian boxers are welcome to compete. Winners will represent Indian Country in National AAU Boxing Tournament. CONTACT INDIAN TALK FOR MORE INFORMATION "' ..,, • ~ C;, oc' tn.e ideas that Il'llJIAN TALK' s Board of Directors ha s been t,ssi-:--1g around since last fall is an Indian ?amily C:·'gft a:r,d c1q-·,ire Camp_. Now it lnok s like it is goiLg to get off t'ie /grc,.md. We ha/e ,. __:.:_. sc uss ed thr.: id_. a w1.. th George Painp , Directer of the :a,_Jve Ame:dca·, JutreaG:1 P··oject of the State YIFiC:A Ee not en].,- li}:es the idea bu.t has suggested that we use the Stat~ YMCA Camp at Torch Lake near Charlevoix. Camp Hayo-Wen:t-Ha is on the northeast side of the lake and has 480 acrrs and one and a half miles of shoreline. Camp Hayo-Went-Ha tas 13 cabins, dining hall, recreation lhdge, a health lodge, shower and wash houses, tennis court$, athletic field, boat house, swimming and water-craft areas. Its activities include archery, riflery, basket- and volleyball, baseball, sw-imming and boating of all kinds -- inclu,ding rowboating, canoeing and sailboating., Its staff is made up of well-trained and experienced people in Bamp operation and water safety. Family camping is truly a vacation -- no long trips ?Ni th miles eating up vacation money in gas and oil, nc,··; tents to set up, no meals to prepare and no dishes to dol Most important, there is no worrying about where the kids are. They are too busy enjoying every minute of it, under the watchful eyes of camp people trained· to keep kids happy. For those not familiar with the term 'family camp,• it is the use of a regular camp like Hayo-Went-Ha by a group of families for specific purposes. They stay for a regular camp period, usually five to seven days. (Camp Hayo-Went-Ha has a five-day camping period.) Each family has its own cabin. The group of families decide what kind of activities they would like to pursue during the course of the week. The camp staff prepares the meals, does the dishes and supervises the children's activities. The Indian Family Craft and Culture Camp that INDIAN TALK would like to see happen would have the activities that those who sign up decide they want. Someone has already suggested that mornings be devoted to learning Native American arts and crafts. While the children are enjoying regular camp activities under the guidance of camp staff, the parents would be free to learn the arts and crafts of special interest to them. They will be taught by, we hope, so~e of Michigan's most well-known Indian crafts paople. Here is the opportuntity to learn basket making, quill box work, loom and cloth beading, finger-weaving, drumming and dancing. Afternoons would be left open for leisure and :c J:ecreational activities together as a family -- swimming, hiking, fishing, ballgames , or just dozing on the beach in lawn chairs. Or take off on a side trip or the golf links. In the evenings, after the children are tucked into bed, parents can gather in the lodge for programs or speakers and some nice long discussions over coffee. �1~ T4 Indian Family Craft and Culture Camp (continued) The cost for a family is not unreasonable, we believe, when you consider the cost of trips and groceries these days. Camp Hayo-Went-Ha charges $6.75 per day per auult and $5.50 per day per child . between three and eight years old (under three are free.) Camp Hayo-Went-Ha can hold the Indian Famil~ Craft and Culture Camp August 23 - 27. But we must have 1 families -- at least 75 persons -- to make it possible. The camp ean take 180 people. Single-parent families are welcome. Couples without _ children should "adopt" nieces and nephews, grandchildren or "little friends" to bring along for the week. Interested? Please take a moment to complete the form below and mail it back to us right away. Or simply write us a letter. If we are to go ahead with the plans we must reserve Camp Hayo-Went-Ha by March 30. THE J I J .. ---------------------------r INDIAN TALK's INDIAN FAMILY CRAFT AND CULTURE CAMP 457 Briarwood Ave., S.E. Grand Rapids, MI 49 506 _ _YES, we want to attend. Please send application forms. Number in family1 _ _adults, _ _ children (3 to 8 years) _ _We are interested, Please send more information. _ _ The CRAFT program sounds good. We would like to learn: (Please state.) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Program:(Please s t a t e ) / _ ' - ' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Funds to assist families with little money: _ _ _ __ Funds for materials and resource people: _______ OUR SUGGESTIONS: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Name 1-----------.:Address, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ City & State:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Zip_ PHONE: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __, Detroit's Indian Center is now Established and open for business. Its new location is 415 Brainard, corner of Cass, on the seventh floor. There are a lot of good people working there. Dean George is Executive Director, Vic Nahmabin is Assistant Administrator. Manpower Program Developers are Larry Aikens and John David. Muriel Youngblood is Director of the G.E.D. Completion Program. Manpower Coordinator is Roy Maynard. Reginald A. Mahoney is the Health Program Coordinator. Sandy Muse is the reporter for the North American Indian Association's NAIA Newsletter. Some of the staff will work in conjunction with people from American Indian Services, Inc. and from Cass American Indian Center in a program to make jobs available for Indian people. The Detroit Indian Center provides a place for the Detroit Drummers to practice. It is also open to other Ind• ian meetings. Funded under the Indian Education Act, the Indian School for Detroit opened Saturday, February 15, and will be in session every Saturday until June 30. It will be staffed by teachers, para-professionals and students aides. Thurman Bear is Home-School Coordinator. Brent Fecteau will teach arts and crafts. Teacher of history and culture is Dorla Schulze. Acting in para-professional capacity, George Thomas is teaching drumming and singing, Mary Left Hand is instructor of dancing, Rita Kayosh teaches arts and crafts, and Thomas Graham is an instructor of woodcarving. These people working with the children are assuring that our rich heritage will never be lost and that we will never again be referred to as the "vanishing Americans." Costs _________________________ Locations_______________________ Other: ________________________ ___Our organization would like to participate: REPORT ............ by Sandy Muse ************** _ _ NOT INTERESTED BECAUSE 1 Date, __________________________ Other Programs we would like to haves ---Speakers: (who) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -· Films, (what) Side trips: (where)°' __ Other: _________________________ DETROIT ************** l J. Th€ North American Indian Association's basketball team, "The Warriors," will take part in the All Indian Tournament on the Wayne State University campus March 8 and 9. To be held in the Metthaei Building, corner of Warren and Lodge, the tournament's times are froml2100 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. Saturday, and from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Sunday. Becoming well-known around the country, the Warriors have been invited to the National Indian Basketball Tourny in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Indian teams will converge to decide national Native championship. Greg Lambert is the Warriors' coach, and Detroit rooters wish them luck. �I 17 16 The Detroit Report (continued) TRAVERSE CITY'S ALL-INDIAN NURSERY SCHOOL The North America.1 Indian Association of Detroit helJ election of office;:·s of the NAIA Club, which is 'che .f•md rasing segment of the association . Last January 5, Jo~~ Muse took office as president, Jim Revels as vice ?resid ent, and Kathy Pegabmagobow as secretary. Trustees electec'.. were Aaron Baker, chairman; Doris Aikens, Agnes Maine, '.:;harlotte Green and Keith Camero n. The Grand Traverse Bay Area Indian Center, Inc. started its own all-Indian Nursery School program last September. Sixteen Indian boys and girls, between the ages of one and six are enrolled. The program has a two-hour day, five days a week. The center has high hopes of extending the daily hours to eight a day in the near future and of increasing the enrollment. The teachers and teachers' aides are all Indian people. At the present time the Indian children are being taught by a Montessori Teacher. The children are taught to work together and to make decisions on their own. They are learning to be independent. The work they do ranges from coloring to geometric puzzles, which a child will use in later years. Every Tuesday the children make a weekly trip to the YMCA swimming pool. Each child has his own instructor assigned to him. Some of the children were afraid of water at first but now they are diving off the side of the pool by themselves, under the watchful eyes of their instructors. It is really great to see this kind of progress. What is more rewarding to the center's staff is that they have all their Indian children in one group. They are the next generation of Indian adults. Who can tell, maybe one will be a gold-medal winner in a future Olympics! I la.Ill extremely proud of our area and the cooperation we have received from the parents, and I would like to take this chance to thank every. x one of them. -Freda Bird Schwander Therapist Aide, GTBAIC, Inc. Traverse City, MI ------'-'- ------ an **************** '' ) , 11 1975 CALENDAR OF EVENTS ..... NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF DETROIT INC. Mar. 22 Spring Mini-Pow-Wow (Hazel Park) Apr. 6 Business Meeting Princess Dance " 19 May 4 Business Meeting 35th Anniversary Banquet and Dance " 17 June . 1 Business Meeting "14 ,15 Pow-Wow at Highland Lake Campus " 28,29 Pow-Wow at Paradise Island (Adrian) July 4 Parade and Picnic, Patton Park, Southwest Det. Sept. 7 Annual Picnic 14 " Business Meeting 26 Michigan Indian Day: Chief Pontiac Oct. 5 Business Meeting, Elections: Bd. of Trustees Bingo 19 Nov. 1 Halloween Dance and Children's Party Business Meeting 9 22 Thanksgiving Dinner Business Meeting Dec. 7 21 Children's Christmas Party New Year's Eve Dance 31 For more information contact: Dean George 415 Brainard Detroit, MI Ph: (313) 83J-48JO Maynard Kennedy 26585 Bryan Detroit, 1MI Ph: (313) 274-6467 HELP THE INDIAN PEOPLE AT CARO AND SANGANING.,,,, Get those housetrailers moved in! Everyone deserves ' a decent place to live in. Send your contributions to: President Homer Chatfield, Sagtnaw Valley Indian Associ ation, P. 0 . Box 615, Pinconning, MI 48650. INDIAN SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE 1 Indian Student scholarships are available through the General Federation of Women's Clubs, Awards of $50,00 will be granted to high school students and $100.00 to students seeking advanced education in a college dr vocational school. The principal of the school administers the funds. The closing date is April 1, 1975, Interested students should send a resume written by themselves, a transcript from their school and two letters of recommendation to: Mrs. Lindsay Letcher Michigan Federation of Women's Clubs 7925 Algonquin Portage, MI 49081 Telephone: (616) 327-8242 �-· ·k 20 INDIAN CHILDREN AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES "One of the most heartening things happening in this century is to see Indian parents getting involved in the education of their children," said Dr. Rosemary Christianson to an attentive audience during her keynote address to the Native American Education Conference last month. She was one of the four resource people who took part in the conference sponsored by the Minority Division of the Michigan Education Association and held at the Lansing Hilton Inn. "The status of Indian education has :1ever been better," Dr. Christianson, a professor at the University of Minnesota, said. "Parents are going to the schoolroom and are finding out what is happening to their children." She discussed cultural differences. "They do exist. Indians are different, they differ tribally. Blacks, Indians and Chicanos are different," Dr. Christianson said. "The role of sexes is different .in each group." "Indian women have a totally different historical perspective of their roles than non-Indian women," she said, adding that socialization practices are different for Indian children as well. A Nishnawbe (Chippewa), Dr. Christia.~son grew up on the Bad River Reservation in Minnesota. " I = an Indian educator and an Indian women," she said. In her discussion of cultural differences she recalled meeting a sociologist (non-Indian) who thought Indians behaved the way they did because they were poor. "That is not true," she said. "I have spent much time studying values patterns," she said, citing as an example the lavish use of 'small talk' by non-Indians. "It is 'hi,' 'how are yo u ,' 'that's nice,' ' um-hum,' uh-uh,' and so on all day long," Dr. Christianson said. "Small talk is not deemed necessary in the Indian community," she said. "Indian people can ride together for hundreds of miles in a car without indulging in small talk." She cited the following example. "A friend of mine was asked by my cousin one day if he would like to go for a ride with him. It wasn't until they reached North Dakota that my friend thought to ask where my cousin was going, and found out that he was on his way to attend an NIEA convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My friend was in Albuquerque a week without a change of clothes or money before he got a ride back to Minnesota!" Dr. Christianson said that Indian children do not relate well in the schoolroom where there is emphasis on small talk. Time and Space are also looked at differently by Indian people, said Dr. Christianson. "These are cultural phenomena. Indians do not order Time into blocks, but live seasonally." . ) 2f Indian Children and Cultural Differences ( continued Dr. Christianson commented on the jokes regarding 'Indian time.• "A friend of' mine carried it too far," she said, "When he got to a meeting it had just adjourned," She heard Vine Deloria make the comment once that if Indians were running the country things would not be better, only slower. According to Dr. Christianson, the culturally different child "is up against it in the classroom." When Pine Point All-Indian School eliminated the bells, she said, "the school still functioned." White middle-class children are weaned on time blocks, said Dr. Christianson, but if a child has not been raised this way, "a 45-minute test can really box him in." "This can be changed,'' she affirmed, "I'm sure of it. " In the matter of' space, she noted that the concept of the straight line is not universal; that Einstein discovered that space is curved. "But the school, homes, land -all are ordered according to the non-Indian concept of the straight line," she said. "Indian people like to sit in a circle where they are all the same and no one is higher." Non-interference is another value stressed by Indian people, according to Dr. Christianson. She noted the importance of competition in Western Civilization. She cited its wars, the stock market and sports. "When schools give grades they are pitting one child against another," she said. "Indians like to compete, but as a group," she said. "When I was in graduate school, the Indian guys, fellows in their 30's and 4o•s, used to play basketball every noon without fail. They never kept score." Indian children are taught to compete as a group. According to Dr. Christianson, individual competition leads to agressive behavior, to showing off. She recalled hearing Clyde Belancourt once saying that white people lead agressive, competitive lives in order to end their lives living like Indians. Dr. Christianson suggested that Indian children be taught to compete in groups in school. Older children should help younger children. "The school must allow for cultural differences," she maintained. "Psychologists use the term'chunking' for the way we remember digit spans," Dr. Christianson said. "Minority children do not automatically 'chunk' the way white children do," Because Indian children do not 'chunk' in the same way as non-Indian children does not mean they are dumb, she said, but because they are culturally different. "It is presumptious of schools to think that Indian children learn the same way as non-Indian children do," she added. Dr. Christianson said that she recognized there are some things "we all have to learn to get along, but that does not mean we have to learn in the same way," �23 22 Indian Children and Cultural Differences (continued) ALPENA'S NATIVE AMERICAN PROGRAM Indian children are trained to be independent early in life, according to Dr. Christianson. I do not make decisions for my children on their hair, clothes, when to take showers," she said. "Sometimes I wish I could," she added, smiling. Her children learned to cook and to pack their lunches very early in life. She admitted she does get them up for school, "but I wish I didn't have to. I wish that the school had staggered starting times so that they could decide when they want to go." She maintains that some school requirements are 'busy work.' "A child is expected to complete an entire page of sums even though he has demonstrated he knows how by doing two," she explained. "Some non,.Indians think the Indian child does not have a good self-concept," Dr. Christianson said. "That is not true. It is just that Indian parents do not interfere with them." She defined the tekm •consensus'. "This is the art of decision-making that Indian tribes used," she explained. "Indian meetings are long because there are no Roberts Rules of Order. In this kind of meeting people give, take, walk out, ,but eventually a consensus is arrived at, a decision is made that all agree on," she said. Dr. Christianson said that she attempts to bring out the difficulties of arriving at a consensus in her classes. "I write a simple question on the board, then tell my students they have two hours to decide on the answer by consensus," she said. One question she uses asks for the name of the tribe involved in the 1854 Treaty. "The answer is the Chippewa, which they should readily know," she said. The students debated for two hours, then finally asked if they could decide by vote, according to Dr. Christianson. "Then I said to them, 'The Chippewa had two days to arrive at a consensus after the Treaty of 1854 was presented to them to make a decision involving their giving up enormous amounts of land. The treaty negociations were with white people, culturally different people who spoke a foreign tongue. You had two hours to decide the answer to a simple question. You are all from similar backgrounds and you understand the language in which the question was written, yet you could not arrive at a decision by consensus. The Treaty makers expected the Chippewa people to make a crucial decision that would affect their entire way of life in only two days I ' " Dr. Christianson noted that Dr. Roger Buffalohead's recent survey of Minnesota Indian children in school shows they are still dropping out. "Changes must be incorporated into the school system," she implored, adding, "All children will benefit." Other resource people at the MEA conference were Dr. Frances Svenson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan; Lester Gemmill, Indian Coordinator, State Department of Education; and Paul Johnson, Consultant Minority Affairs Division, Michigan Education Association, . who was also the conference planner. - Sh'ir1 ey F rancis Alpena Community College's Native American Program is designed to aid Indians toward reaching their educational goals. It has a full time Indian staff which works directly with the students. A Director and two Assistants handle the administrative and instructional aspects of the program. Two student counselors reside in the dorm to assist the student with whatever problems he may also encounter out~ side the administrative area. The goal of this Indian staff is to do everything that is possible and necessary to keep Native American students in school, Each individual student has the privilege of coming and talking with any member of the staff about whatever problems he might have. It endeavors to help the Native American student attain his educational goal. Within the program is "The Native American Council," an Indian club made up of the Indian students enrolled at the college. Its purpose is to involve the student in Indian activities of social and political nature as they relate to today's society. Funded by the Michigan State Department of Vocational Education and Title IV of the Indian Education Act, the Native American Program at Alpena Community College is the only program of its kind in the state providing special services to the Indian, through its Native American Block. During the first semester of study, each Native Ameri• can student is encouraged to be involved in a series of classes especially designed by the Native American Program staff. Called the Native American Block, it includes courses in math, science, social science, and English. The Block is designed especially to meet the needs of students who may not have graduated from high school, or who may have graduated but are unsure of their college career endeavors, It is felt that each student will benefit greatly from the individualized curriculum and the individualized career counseling it offers in his first semester on the campus. Native American instructors team-teach the all-Indian classes in1 the Block with other members of the college faculty, giving the new students someone whom they can more easily identify with in the classroom. For the student wishing to complete high school requirements through the G.E.D. program, classes and testing are available on campus and can be arranged to fit easily into each student's curriculum. The reasons for the concept of the Native American Block are two-fold. First, by meeting the academic needs of the students on an individual basis, the "real" opportunity to achieve in the classroom is offered. Second, by working with Indian instructors in their first semester on campus, the students may more easily begin to associate with the new environment they are entering. For more information contacts Director, Native American Program, Alpena Community College, Alpena, MI 49707. -Louis Baca, Alpena, MI �I 24 AROUND HELLO! T HE HEAR TH l(lit w__.•~)· . My name is Beatrice Pe te rs. I am from Yakima, Wa shington and am of Apa che/ Tsimphean/Cree descent. I am married to Thomas Peters, Ottawa fro m Charlevoix. We live in Lansing with our two daughters, Leslie and Diana. Tom wo rks for Oldsmobile and I am a Nutrition Aide in Mi chigan State University's Cooperative Extension Service, Expanded Nutrition Pro gram. I met Shirley Francis at the home of Ralph and Blanche West on New Year's Eve. She asked me to write about the Nutrition Program and nutrition for INDIAN TALK. Perhaps you have already heard of the Expanded Nutri -tion Program. It now includes some 28 areas in Michigan. Our main ob jective is to help improve the diets of families through education and to provide education for both youth and adults in the principles of nutrition, diets and the use of foods. With the economy the way it is and with so many people being laid off their jobs, the Nutrition Program is of utmost importance now. Too many of us try to stretch our food budgets to only include food to just fill our stomachs. This is a good goal but an even better one would be to fill our stomachs with nutritious food which not only satisfy our hunger but will provide the necessary fuel I.and body-building nutrients we need each day. What our program does is to educate in ways to stretch our food budgets and to provide shopping hints and recipe ideas for well balanced meals. We also teach families how to garden as well as food preparation and storage. We compare prices of different stores to find out where the bargains are. We teach how to read food labels so we know exactly what we are getting for our money. We compile different household hints, low-cost recipes and food games into a monthly newsletter. Nutrition Aides go through a vigorous training period, plus regular updated training. We have material available to help with many nutritional problems, including weight control. We teach through regular home visits or group meetings. At the Lansing Indian Center we have such a group started. Our program is a free service which is sponsored through the Federal Government. To locate your local Extension office, look in your telephone directory under County Govern°ment, Cooperative Extension Service, Expanded Nutrition ProGram. I hope you )dll make use of this program. Learning can be fun too. Included in this issue's AROUND THE HEARTH column are some useful household hints, a low-cost, high protein main dish and a special nutrition game using the basic four foods. 25 Around the Hearth (Con tinued ) TUNA BARBEQUE 2 cans chunk t una (6½ to 7 oz.) 2 Tablespo ons vi negar 1 large onion 1 teaspoon mustard 1 cup catsup 1/ 2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup water Pepper to taste 2 Tablespoons sugar 6 hamburger buns Drain oil from tuna into a large pan or skillet. Chop onion and cook in tuna oil until tender or transp arent. Add rest of ingredients except tuna. Cook slowly about 20 minutes, stirring to keep from sticki ng. Break tuna in large pieces into the sauce. Cook ten minutes longer, stirring as needed to keep from sticking. Serve on hamburger rolls. Makes six servings of about 1/3 cup each. This recipe is very rich in protein, which builds and maintains all tissues. It helps antibodies to fight infection and it supplies energy. **************** SCRAMBLE FOOD Here are some ordinary foods, but their names are scrambled. Unscramble the words and write them in the spaces. Using food from each group plan a day~ menu. Milk Group: Meat Group: hti we kli m mi ks kl im - - - - - - gettcoa hecees_ _ __ __ cei merac_ __ _ __ __ meracpous _ _ _ _ _ _ __ astor febe _ _ _ _ _ __ us asgea _________ REVIL THO oG=o"""s, _ . . - - - - - -BLAM HCOP _ __ __ __ Frui ts and Vegtables Group: APER ISTAffiRlJBESR ABNNAA -----EAPLPACEUS SLUMP - - - - - -- ERGNE SEAP - - -- - -- NIOOSN PICHASN FLACULI'""WE"""O=R- -- - - - Breads and Cereals Group: CKRCARES_ _ _ _ _ __ LPFWASE SBIUICT~S-------NIRASI BEDAR LOR LS ------ DMTRUSA_ _ _ _ _ _ __ CYNAD PPLEA-.E"""P,...I_ _ _ _ _ __ NAMRAIRGE EPISC KAC~E------ **************** HOUSEHOLD HINTS: 1. In freezing weather put 2T. of salt in your rinse water and clothes won't freeze when hung outside . 2. Potatoes can be bilked in a jiffy instead of t he usual long period if you soak them in hot water for ten or fifteen mi nutes before baking. �27 26 NATIONAL INDIAN ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATION AIMS HIGH In September 1973 the National Indian Activities Association was formed under the corporate non-profit laws of the state of Washington. It is not, however, "just another" Indian organization, but was designed to combat the severe and devastating plagues within the Indian population through yet a different tactic. One that strangely enough has not been utilized before. The association sees the athlete's discipline over his physical and mental state as an impregnable fortress against the ruin of alcohol, drugs and delinquency. It sees this self-disipline as crucial to the development of leadership, good health and personal growth. NIAA believes that sports activities are a means of eliminating social problems before they arise as well as assisting youth and adults with physical and educational problems. NIAA is committed to bringing national recognition and stature to Indian people throughout the country through a medium they had one been respected for: physical prowess. The immediate goal of NIAA is to organize and coordinate athletic events and championships on the local, state, regional, national and international level for Indian people. Through its efforts the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has been persuaded for the first time in 45 years to open its doors to an All-Indian Basketball team. NIAA gathered the best Indian basketball players in the country and sent them to the AAU National Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana March 19741 "The first real All-American Team!" It was an historic moment. Success like this can not be reached without tremendous cooperation from Indian country itself. For instance, the Ute Nation at Fort Duschene, Utah, hosted the All-Star try-out camp that prepared for the AAU tournament. Converse Rubber Company donated basketball shoes to the All-American team. As a result of the public relations work by NIAA staff, the Converse Company is now donating shoes to other reservations and Indian communities. The first organizational meeting was held at Reno, Nevada May 1973, Tribes and Indian organizations sponsor a few NIAA board members, but most travel at their own expense. The Board of Directors set as its first goal the formation of a national office and eight regional offices to ensure the perpetual sucess of its programs. To insure stability, the board also set hard and fast regulations regarding membership: 1. Anyone may join NIAA; but a participant in NIAA events must be an enrolled member of NIAA and at least 1/4 degree of Indian blood. 2. In registering, each applicant must provide positive proof of Indian bloodline ancestry and submit their documentation of proof with the membership form. J. Individual membership fees are $5.00. Team mem- NIAA Aims High (continued) 3. Individual membership fees are $5.00. Team Memberships are $25.00. Tribes/Organizations can apply for membership for a minimum fee of $50,00 4. Applications can be obtained from NIAA staff and board members. Members are eligible to compete in national activities sanctioned by NIAA and they will receive a monthly newsletter. An insurance policy that covers accidental injuries during sanctioned competition is included in the membership fee. It is the intent of the National Indian Activities Asso• ciation to insure that its sports activities be under the control of Indian people themselves. With this responsibility in mind NIAA Regional Coordinators are charged with overseeing the organization of NIAA events in their regions. It should also be noted that while sports are now emphasized, Indian people themselves have expressed the wish that this organization be supportive of all Indian activities. But for the nresent assisting the Indian Athlete is NIAA's prime concern. Through its activities the organization hopes to build exemplary models of the pride and self confidence which needs to be re-awakened in some of our people. NIAA believes that its championship events will provide educational experiences and cultural exchanges among Indian people that can never be bought or duplicated by any university. NIAA needs your memberships and support to insure the continued success of its programs. For more information contact Mark Sison (Nisqually), Communications, National Headquarters, NIAA, 619 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, -Mark Sison Seattle, Wash. BARGAINS GALORE! --ALL KINDS OF BOVER~1'IBNT SURPLUS CLOTHING Jackets, Combat Boots, Pants, Shirts, Overcoats, Blankets, Tents, and MUCH MORE! - _-COMPLETE LINE OF NATIVE Al'liERICAN GOODS Oglala Moccasins, Jewelry, Indian T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers, Patches, Buttons. --AND TO KEEP ABREAST OF INDIAN NEWS AKWESASNE NOTES INDIAN TALK NISHNAWBE NEWS WASSAJA .[t• s all at ....... . THE RE-SALE SHOP OF RICHARD CRISS (SHAWNEE) 7567 M-21 Highway, Imlay City, MI 48444 Phones (313) 724-1082 �28 POETRY Lost in the Rockies ... at Twilight ~ ~ The moon sits on a blackened peak, I A blue milk mist descending. Like Toniatuh ..... Coolness stalking ~ Sunbaked cliffs. I~ Footprints ....... on ......... air. Quiet . . . ... hissing . . .... dusty spirits Rising ........ swirling ...... to meet the shadowy dusk. In the bottoms, and beside me, I can feel The Spirits of the past and present Passing silently around me. i I I ...... am . ...... alone, and one with them . My horse and I, the bear and her cubs at the river fishing. I ~ The night is filled with tranquil power. She ...... and I ...... are one. Sisters ...... hunters ..... . Alone, 1 And together with the night. We stare at one another. Beginning May 1, 1975 - Which way to the road, My Sister? - Cross that meadow and the mountain beyond. (The moon sits on a blackened peak, a blue milk mist descending, , , .And in the valley walk the powers of the night . ) -Sharon Hunt NEW SUBSCRIPTION RATES The Single Subscription rate wlll be $5.00 The Bulk Subscription rate: If you order 10 or more subscriptions to the same mailing address, the subscription rate will be $3.00 each. �INDIAN TALK 457 Briarwood S.E. Grand Rapids, Michigan Bulk Rate U.S. Postage PAID 49506 Grand Rapids, Mich . Permit No. 490 ~/~.W/WJ .L/f 9 $"" 4 ~ - y £),Z, tJ11 t/93Lif }WE:-KCt/£. /(octf-Fole'J:Ji i/7::,- eOh PUBLICATION � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v2n5_1975-03 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk, March 1975 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975-03 Description An account of the resource March 1975 (Volume 2, Number 5) issue of Indian Talk by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/037854ecfa335306022ef50fc6826deb.pdf 0001f4db426f526a923da50f32328a74 PDF Text Text INDIAN TALK Vol.2 No.6 April ,1975 �TN DI AN TALK ....... ,,the Native American's Magazine Vol. 2 No. 6 Circulation 550 April 1972 BOARD OF DIRECTORS (meets third Tuesday of month) r.hairman, ••.•.•.•.. Cal Noell (Tuscarora/r.hickasaw) Vice Chairman ..••.. Kay r.ampos (Ottawa) Secretary •••••••.•. ,Toy Sorenson Treasurer ....•..... Nancy Grabiak Art Editor ••.•... ,.Gloria Shenosky (Chippewa) Associate Editor .•. Joe John (Ottawa/Chippewa) Sports Editor •.... Ed White Pigeon (Potowatomi) BUSINESS MANAGER, Rick Andrews (Chippewa) Shirley Francis Manae:ing Editor, CORRESPONDENTS a Bay City .............. Marvin Fisher (517) 684-1585 Detroit ............... Sandy Muse (313) 931-6438 Flint ................. Viola Peterson (313) 655-8492 Grand Rapids ......... Bea Bailey (616) 534-1542 Lansing .............. . Rochelle Shano (517) 373-0654 Ludington ............. Douglas Pearson (616) 861-2234 Marquette ............. Henry Hawk Foster (Wasso Gee Wad Nee) Petoskey .............. Carolyn Kenoshmeg (616) 347-5565 Saginaw ............... Larry Seger (517) 845-3632 Sault Ste. Marie ...... Mike Wright (906) 635-0581 SQuthwest Michigan .... Donna Morsaw (616) 621-3852 Traverse City ......... Rachel King (616) 946-6448 St. Ignace.··········.(?) CORRESPONDENTS L'Ance/Baraga. ·, · · · · · ,(?) STILL NEEDED Mt. Ple~sant. ••• •• · · ,.(~) FROM THESE AREAS Hannahville ........... (.) NEWS DEADLINE: FIFTEENTH OF THE MONTH OFFICES: PUBLISHERS, ~ 457 Briarwood Ave., S.E. Grand Rapids, MI 49506 P.O. Box! I Port•F, Michipn Phone1 (616) 459-6820 49081 ADVERTISING RATES: SUBSCRIPTION RATES1 1/4 page $10.00 $J.OO per year, or 1/2 page 18.00 $2.00 per year, if Full page 35.00 ordered in bundles of 10 or more and sent to a single address. (Minimum $20.00) PERMISSION TO REPRINT GRANTED WITH CREDIT TO INDIAN TALK MEMBER1 American Indian Press Association National Indian Education Association CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDIAN TALK ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE INDIAN TALK is not affiliated with any sect, organization or institution. Its purpose is to provide a means of communication and expression within the American Indian community and with the non-Indian world. TABLE OF CONTENTS BACK TALK .. . ...... . ................... . ..... 1 ON THE POW-WOW TRAIL, ........ .. .... . ... , ... ,3 DETROIT REPORT . . . . . . . .. . .............. , .... 4 GRAND TRAVERSE HAPPENINGS ................ .. 5 NOTES 'N' NEWS - SOUTHWESTERN MICH., ......... 7 CAREER AWARENESS CONFERENCE .................. 8 HEARINGS FOR TREATY DESCENDENTS . . . . . . ... . , .9 COMMUNICATIONS LAB IN THE SOO ........ . .... 10 WILDLIFE FEDERATION vs. TREATY RIGHTS ....... 11 EDITORIAL: Bias and Treaty Rights Can We Get A Fair Deal? ........ 13 BEHIND THE ESCOBEDO.-MIR:ANDA RULING . . . . . .. , 15 MUSKEGON GROUP FORMED . . .. . . . . . . ...... 16 "STICKING MY NECK OUT" . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 17 AROUND THE HEARTH ...... .. . . . . . . . . . . . ,19 SPORT*SIDE ... . ... . .. , . . . . . . . ........ . ...... 21 ON THE PERSONAL SIDE . . . . . . .. , . . . . . ...... 22 ELSEWHERE IN THIS ISSUE .... Look for announcements of coming events Patronize our advertisers NEXT MONTH ..... . The Saginaw Situation Indians' Counter-suit against the DNR THE JOURNALISM WORKSHOP ..... The plans for the workshop are quietly taking shape. We have received a grant from the Campaign for Human Development, Human Relations Commission, Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids, and this will allow us to put on an excellent workshop. While there is no charge to our correspondents for this, others who want to attend will be asked to pay for their own lunch and travel expenses. For more information call Shirley Francis ~t INDIAN TALK, (616) 459-6820 . �Back Talk INDIAN TALK: Could this letter please be included in the next issue. Thanks. -Elaine Tuffelrnire (Editor's note, Ms. Tuffelmire's letter is printed below. As a non-profit organization INDIAN TALK cannot endorse any political party nor any individual seeking a governmental position. But in our efforts to enlighten and educate Michigan Indian people we will print letters and information about individuals who are seeking political office. YOU, the reader -- AND THE VOTER -- must be the judge of their qualifications.) March 20, 1975 "To Indian Friends of Western Michigan, "There is a current opening on the Commission of Indian Affairs Board in this area. Your interests and concerns could be voiced through me at any time as your representative. "There is a general concensus that there has been inaction too long in the past of the Commission to the local constituents. "In a recent evaluation from Grand Valley State College, the following statement was made regarding my work: "'Elaine has been a community liason person between the Indian community and the college, therefore, she has a knowledge, wisdom and familiarity of all the Indians in the area. In addition, she has visited the ill, the incarcerated, the alcoholics and their families and any Indian requesting personal attention. This work is accomplished in a friendly and understanding manner with a good share of empathy. Elaine has been a very excellent and dependable worker and I think that her work is highly commendable. ' "I would consider this an honor to work in your behalf with the Commission ,1 to bring about the much needed social change and action that would better the lives of all Indians, RE:z~ctful~ , • &~ v(::'.;:,__/~~ Elaine Tuffe;JfJ,-- Jndian Program Development Liason 0-11-85 12th Ave. N.W. Grand Rapids, MI 49504 Ph: (616) 45J-686J" cc, ,Tim Hillman, Director Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs. Governor William G. Milliken. =1- �Back Talk, ..... letters from readers (continued) Dear Editor: The Saginaw Inter-Tribal Association, Inc, has been organized to promote better living standards and the recognition of the American Indian heritage of Saginaw. Therefore, we have taken advantage of the many projects provided in the Model Cities building which has many human development programs such as help for the aged, job placement training, and so forth. We are now putting together classes for the teaching of dancing, bead work and leather goods, Many problems are continuing to persist. Two of the more outstanding are lack of funds for hiring of personnel and the lack of office furniture. Anyone knowing ways of helping us to obtain solutions to either of these problems are invited to write or call us, the Saginaw Inter-Tribal Association, Inc., 1407 Janes St., P.O. Box 1008, Saginaw, MI 48606. Phone, (517) 754-1463, Extension 56. -Robert F. Smith Indian Affairs Specialist S.I.T.A., Inc. Saginaw, Mich. TO ALL INDIAN GROUPS, ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS: rhe meeting of the Native American Child Protection Council scheduled for March 8 was cancelled until further notice. The lacB!: of interest shown concerning Indian children's welfare by our Indian people throughout the State is very disturbing. This group is very effective in the Detroit area, and could be utilized throught the state by your interest and input. If you are interested in knowing more about what you can do to help our Indian children please write or call: George and Bernice Appleton, Native American Child Protection Council, 3164 Linden Street, Dearborn, MI 48126. Ph: (313) 562-2636, -Annie L. Green Indian Affairs Representative MCIA, Lansing (Editor's Note: we agree that too little is known about the accomplishments of the Native American Child Protection Council. We have been trying to arrange an interview with Mrs, Appletion for some time. She has promised our Detroit correspondent an interview as soon as her time permits.) -2- On The Pow-Wow Trail April 19, 20 with Frank Bush NATIVE AMERICAN POW-WOW at L. C. Walker Arena, 4th and Western Ave., Muskegon, Mich. Pow-wow time: Sat. 2:00 and 8:00 p.m., Sun. 2100 p.m. OPEN DRUM. Traders welcome, NATIVE AMERICAN GOODS ONLY. Dance Contestall divisions. For more information call Jim Gibson (616) 773-8521 or Marie Shalifoe (616) 894-9147, May 31 - June 1 First Annual Gaylord All-State Indian Powwow, at the American Indian Museum, Gaylord, Michigan. Sat. at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m., Sun. at 2:00 p.m. CREE UNITY INDIAN DRUM, Saskatchewan, Canada. Open Drum. Contest Dancinf - all divisions: men $100, 75 & 50, women 75, 50 and 25, boys 12-16 $10, 5 & 3, Girls 10, 5, and 3, boys to 11 $5, 3, & 2, girls to 11 $5, 3 and 2. Contestants must be registered and participating in all events to be eligible. One meal served each day (please bring own silverware.) INDIAN TRADERS welcome - $5.00 per day, No imports please! Bring own camping gear and tables. Master of ceremonies, Jim Eagle. PUBLIC INVITED: admission $2.00 adults,_ $1.25 children 6 to 12 (under 5 are free.) For information call (517) 732-4942. July 4 - 6 Third Annual Ohio Indian Crafts and Culture Pow-wow, 20 miles s.w. of Toledo, just outside of Whitehouse, Ohio. NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN DRUM. Everybody welcome. Camping area, 15 acres, electric hook-ups, flush_ jons, special area for tipis. Raffles. For more information call or write Pow-wow Chairman Gary Buerk, 7200 Jeffers Rd., Whitehouse, Ohio 43571; phone (419) 875-6963. July 12 Wide Track Festival Indian Pow-wow, in downtown Pontiac at the corner of Woodward Ave. and Orchard Lake. Sponsored by Oakland County American Indians, Inc. (OCAII)- OPEN DRUM. DANCE CONTESTS - same prizes for men and women. Traders welcome - $5,00 fee. No imports please! THREE HONORARIUMS ARE BEING OFFERED TO KNOWLEDGEABLE PEOPLE WHO CAN TEACH A WORKSHOP ON THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS: Indian religion, philosophy and language. For more information contactr. OCAII Business Manager Sharon Hunt, 70 Whittimore, Pontiac, MI 48508, phone (313) 334-0928. -3- �Grand Traverse Happenings by Sandy Muse The Detroit Report "TROUT AND TREATIES" A committee has been formed to send Indian children to summer camp this year. They are trying to arrange it so there would be no charge to parents. The committee has chosen a location known as Paradise Island, near Marquette, Michigan. There are 22,000 acres to it. Names of children interested in going should be sent to Larry Aikens, Detroit Indian Center, 415 Brainard, Detroit, MI 48201; or call (313) 833-4830. Just a reminder about Thurman Bear's radio program, "Indian to Indian." It can be heard every Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. on Station WDET, 101.9 FM on your dial. Thurman hosts the show with Indian music and news. Listen in! Detroit's Channel 56, WTUS, has made a very kind offer to Detroit Indians that they can't refuse. The station has offered them a half-hour time slot for a program of the Indian people's own choosing.and making. It will be taped in April and show on the air April 15 on Channel 56 at 11:00 p.m. Hope you caught it. The North American Indian Association of Detroit is looking for girls to run for Miss North American Indian of Detroit. Contestants must be 16 years or older and a member of NAIA. All contestans will receive prizes. For more information phone Eva Kennedy at 274-6467, Majel De Marsh at 538-7730, or Detroit Indian Center at 833-4830, The dance for the Miss North American Indian of Detroit contest will be held April 19 at the Croatian Catholic Center, 201 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit. Dancing from 8:00 p.m .. until 1100 a.m. Music will be provided by a country and western band. Admission is $3.00 a person or $5.00 a couple. 58th Holy Cross Picnic Planned The 58th Annual Holy Cross Picnic and Indian Dancing will be held at Cross Village, Michigan, on the 2nd Sunday in August. -4- . -- That's the name of the game going on between Art Duhamel (Buddy Chippeway) of Sutton's Bay and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The story began on December 20 in Traverse City where Duhamel received the first of several citations from the DNR. To date he has been charged with (1) illegal trans~ortation of fish, (2) illegal fishing, and (3) fishing with illegal devices. In his turn, Duhamel has served the DNR with a copy of the 1836 Ottawa/Chippewa 'Treaty . DNR Offi9er Ellis Barber agreed to read it "when he has a few leisure moments." January 6 was a day for marching -- without drums -when Duhamel was arraigned in Traverse City's Districe Court. Outside, Indian people carried picket signs reminding nonIndians that"'the Great White Father' promised us in the 1836 Treaty not only the right to fish but 100 barrels of salt and 500 fish barrels annually." "I didn't get a single fish barrel nor even one pound of salt from the DNR at Christmas," joked Duhamel outside the courtroom. In spite of his ever-increasingly heavy expenses resulting from his pursuit of his Indian fishing rights -which he hopes will eventually result in the restoration of their fishing rights to all Michigan Indians -- Duhamel has maintained his sense of humor. His trial date, originally set for March 20, has been nostponed to Auril 24 - 25, It will be held at the Leeweenau County Courthouse, Leland, Michigan, before Judge Benedict. NET RESULT: "MORE MUD IN THE WATER." Another day in court for the nine Bay Mills residents being tried for fishing in the Petoskey area last fall and no decision made . The April 1 hearing saw a large turn-out of Indian people, who sat listening in orderly attentiveness. The prosecution at the February hearing had entered arguments in both the civil and criminal discussions which caused the case to be rescheduled for April 1. This case has all the smack of a classic treaty test case of fishing:rights. Test cases to date have been confined to those involving fishing in waters adjacent to reservations. This one involves reservation residents fishing well off reservations but still in waters not ceded by treaty. Another case with a similar situation is the one against Art Duhamel. Of the nine defendents originally cited in the Petoskey case by the DNR, charges against two were dropped (for un known reasons). The original warrants have been rescinded -5- �Notes 'n' News From Southwestern Michigan GRAND TRAVERSE HAPPENINGS (continued) and new ones issued for the remaining seven defendents. No formal arraignment was made on those second warrants until February 10, Two actions were being pursued by the DNR at that Febnuary 10 hearing. A condemnation proceeding was conducted concurrently with the criminal case. The judge ruled that the condemnation proceeding be held in obeyance until such time as the criminal question was answered. Apparently, the condemnation proceedings listed more names and equipment than was originally involved in this case. Some observers feel this is a move by the DNR in the hopes of obtaining a cou~t order from a favorable di s trict court that can be used all over Michigan to condemn and destroy Indian-owned fishing equipment. At the April 1 hearing the Judge ruled to accept arguments on the briefs of both plaintiffs and defendents. Wr/L James, the defendents' attorney, pointed out that it is the non-Indian commercial fishermen who are the depleters of fish from Michigan waters. . . YOU CAN BE A FOSTER PARENT? Couples interested in becoming foster parents to Indian children from the Traverse - Petoskey area should contact Joann Koon (616) 947-0900, or Rachel King (616) 946-6448. HELP! -- ·WE'RE SNOWED * * * ORGANIZATION li!AS NEW ADDRESS: The American Indian Internationale, formerly of RR #6, Box 617, Dowagiac, MI 49047, has a new address. It is American Indian Internationale, 115 Washington, St., Hartford, MI 49057, UNDER! The Greater Grand Traverse Area Indian Center, Eighth and Rose Streets, Traverse City, Michigan, has too much of whatever! Anyone in the area who is in need of clothing and such should give us a call or come on down. The telephone number is 947-0900. More news from ~ur area next month! -Donna Morsaw 115 Washington St. Hartford, MI 49057 -Rachel King '!'raverse City, Michigan (advertisement)(advertisement)(advertis0me~ t) INDIAN SELLERS J\ND 'rRADERS ARE INVITED ..... to participate in HOLIDAY '75, a co;11muni ty-wide festival on JUNE 7 and 8 at Northwood Institute, Midland, Michigan. Call (517) 772-5700 for more information. -6- All of a sudden things have started to happen to the Native Americans in Southwestern Michigan. Through a Title III State grant they have obtain a six months' lease, with option to buy, on the old Catholic Church at Watervliet. The Southwestern Michigan Indian Center opened its doors last November 15 with Joseph Winchester as Executive Director. The twelve-member board of Directors elected Clarence White of South Bend, Indiana, as their president. The church's rectory yrovides office space for Director Winchester, Secretary/receptionist Yvonne Bohem, Program Director Joseph Morsaw, Bookkeeper Tina McIntosh, Elderly Outreach Worker Joseph Quigno and Community Health Representative Bonnie Edelberg. The church building itself is being used for different activities. Every Saturday afternoon children's classes are offered in dancing, drumming, chal1ting and beadwork. Other classes are being plai"lned. The January 5 Christmas Party for children had a good turnout of happy little guests. Over two hundred people attended the Open House and Potluck held January 18 and 19, at the center, 204 Crescent St., Watervliet. " Reservation Building To Be Dedicated The new Indian Center building at the Isabella Reservation, Mt. Pleasant, will be dedicated May 10. The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Offices have already moved in with many of the programs transferred to the new facilities. -7- �Career Awareness Plans Set Saginaw Valley State College will be the site of a Native American Career Awara-nerss -conference , on Apri:t z-8 - and' 29; "The purpose of this conference is to stress the importance of a college preparatory program in high school for job training programs after graduation," said Ms. Dolores Ramir,. ez, Community Coordinator and Counselor. "We want to expose Native American students in the seventh through twelfth grades to the opportunities available primarily in the fields of business and industry," she explained. Ms. Ramirez and Marvin Fisher, Native American Consultant, expect 200 students from Saginaw, Bay City, Midland, Mount Pleasant, Flint, Detroit, Suttons Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Manistique and Marquette to attend the conference. - "In the past, we have noticed that minority students generally choose to study the social sciences, medical fields, and law professions," Ms. Ramirez said, "We would like to 8Xpose these students to careers they may not be aware of, to demonstrate the direct relationship between a bachelor's degree and a profr~ssional career." "Also, SVSC is invloved in an exciting program in cooperative education," she continued, "and we want the students to know about these opportunities and start preparing now." The first day of the conference will center around Native American professionals in education, scholarship and other careers. On the second day the students will be involved in the Mid-Michigan Minority Professional Careers Conference, sponsored by SVSC, area businesses and industries, and the National Alliance of Businessmen. Representatives of approximately 40 area businesses and industries will answer student questions concerning various careers. -News Release Saginaw Valley State College Saginaw, Michigan Hearings For Chippewa Descendents ... f' May 8 The Second will be held at Marvin Fisher. because lots of Michigan Indian Annual Mid-Michigan Historical Conference the Bay City City Hall on April 19, reports This is a good conference to attend, he says local history reports are given, some of it history. -8- Grand Rapids at 9:00 a.m. Sheldon Complex, 121 Franklin St. S.E . For information: Call Joe John, 458-)569 'Three Kings Return" Date Set • Historical Conference Planned Officials from the Washington, D.C .. offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be in Michigan in May to hold hearings regarding Indian Treaty land claims, according to Waunetta Dominic of the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association. "This is very important," said Ms. Dominic in a telephone interview, "It is a last chance for Indian people to express their opinions regarding the 18J6 Treaty land claim payments." She emphasized that these hearings are just that -- an opportunity to speak one's views. The BIA officials record these views on tape. They have nothing to say themselves. "We will have NMOA's position papers available at the hearing," said Ms. Dominic, "for people to review and to comment on for the record.'.' Support by non-Indian groups can also be expressed at the hearings, she said. "Non-Indians can also testify," Ms. Dominic said. The meetings are scheduled as follows: Contact Indian Development May 6 Sault Ste. Marie Center, 206 Greenough, phone 6)5-0581, for place and time. May 7 Petoskey at 9:00 a.m. City Council Chambers, The City/County Bldg. , Lake and Division Streets For information: Call R. Dominic, J47-J415 The Annual Traditional THREE KINGS' RETURN SUPPER will be held Saturday, April 26 at J:00 p.m. at the Peshawbetown Community Center, Peshawbetown, Michigan. To secure more operating funds for the community laundry a raffle is being held with the drawing for the five prizes at the Three Kings' Return Supper. The prizes being raffled off are: (1) Large, locally~ made black ash basket, (2) Quill box, (J) Beaded necklace and earrings set, (4) Handmade quilt, and (5) A Surprise Article. The tickets are fifty cents each, or three for one dollar ($1. 00). To get tickets, write Esther Koon, Rte. #1, Sutton's Bay, MI 49682 She would be very happy to have assistance in selling these , -9- �Wildlife Federation Seeks To Terminate Indians Treaty Rights Communications Lab Bonds Soo Groups On March first a communications lab was held in Sault Ste Marie's Bayliss Library for the benefit of disadvantaged children. Agencies serving their needs, low income Parents, and Native Americans participated in the all-day session, conducted by Dr. Irving Goldaber with the assistance of Mary Simonait Dr. Goldaber is the New York sociologist who has specialized in group communication as a means of removing conflicts between social grouPs (see INDIAN TALK, March 1974, "Communications Lab: Distillers of Change.") Members of many social groups -- school superintendents, a news manager, law enforcement people, clergymen, lawyers, bankers, a college president, hospital administrators, social service workers, employment directors, educators and CAP Personnel -- were involved in the Bayliss Library lab. Native Americans provided information on the need for greater interdependence among agencies in order to serve people better. Problems with alcoholism were reviewed. Inequities of school funding were uncovered. The "pros and cons" of Man-power and C.E.T.A. funds were discussed. All of these agencies' services affect the children through their parents. The lab brought out the ignorance of each groun about the others. Much information was shared which will be conducive to better working relationships. A follow-up meeting will be held at the 'Soo' to check on progress. Intensive planning for the lab began in November 1974, Goldaber and Simonait met with Headstart parents from the tri-county area. Dr. Goldaber delivered lectures on the various levels of communication and conflict in such cities as Cederberg, Hessell, St. I,e;nace, Newberry, Brimley, and on the Bay Mills Indian Reservation. I found the -people of the · upper Peninsula -- and the little towns -- fascinating and enjoyable, It was very satisfying to witness people learning something new about themselves. Even more satisfying to me personally was the witnessing of more people becoming educated about Native Americans . . -Mary Pine Simonait Indian Programs Coordinator G.V.S.C. - Davenport College Grand Rapids, Michigan -10- ..., . • PITTSBURGH, Pa, --(AIPA)--"The federal government should undertake with all possible haste a study of existing treaties with all tribes of American Indians with the intent of determining and making changes which are necessary to achieve the goal of equal rights for all its citizens and to insure conservation of fish and wildlife services," So declared Resolution #32 passed during the 39th annual convention of the National Wildlife Federation here March 15, It had been introduced earlier by NWF delegates from the states of Nevada and Washington. The NWF action was reported nationwide in the press and triggered a storm of reaction from Indian tribes and orga,1izations. Said the NWF resolution in part: "The National Wildlife Federation is dedicated to the principles of sound, scientific wildlife management. .. This organization upholds the Constitution of the United States of America, including those provisions which state that all citizens must receive equal treatment under the law, regardless of race, creed or color. "Special privileges have been granted to minority groups who are citizens of the United States ... Recent federal court decisions relating to Indian treaties and fishing and hunting rights have provided superior rights to treaty Indian peoples; · .. these superior rights are creating serious adverse problems for the scientific management of fish and wildlife resources." Within a week of the passage of the NWF resolution, representatives from the Native American Rights Fund, Institute for the Development of Indian . Law, Americans for Indian OpPortunitv, National Congress of American Indians, the Sierra Club and the American Friends Service Committee met with NWF officers in the nation's capital to determine what NWF was going to do about its treaty resolution. It anueared fron that mgeting that NWF would soon request the Interior Department and perhaps its sub-agencies the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Interior Solicitor's Office and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- to undertake the treaty rights study. "There are problems where the rights of people other than Indians are being downgraded," said the NWF conservation director to the group, "and that isn't right either. It's gone far beyond what originally was intended in the treaties. Are Indians citizens of the country or not?" AIO President LaDonna Harris (Comanche) warned NWF officials that "we're on the edge of a racial thing" in seeking to dismantle the treaty rights of Indians to hunt and fish. Another NWF official expressed his concern that "a lot of shades of Tndian blood," including individuals with only thirty-second degree of Indian blood, were exercising treaty rights to fish in the state of Washington, where a 1974 fed-11- �Editorial: Bias and Treaty Rights - Can We Get A Fair Deal? (continued from preceeding page) Wildife Federation Seeks to Terminate Indians Treaty Rights eral court decision reaffirmed the right of some Washington state tribes to fish outside their reservation boundaries in "usual and accustomed places" specified by the treaties. Attorney Lee Price of the Institute for the Development of Indian Law warned that it was "property rights, not civil rights" of Indians that the NWF was assailing. Another NWF official said that the federation urged "using only the harvestable surplus" of fish for all purposes, and that the matter of the depletion of fish stocks in many waterways was largely a matter of management of the fish resources. He said NWF was concerned not by Indians fishing on their own reservations, but by fishing off the reservations. The National Wildlife Federation is located at 1412 16th St., Washington, DC 20036. The non-profit conservation organization, formed in 1936, has strong~ties with sports and game fishermen's lobbies in various states. The organization has affiliate chapters in all 50 states plus Quam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It publishes the magazines "National Wildlife," "International Wildlife-," and "Ranger Rick" for children as part of its environmental education programs. NWF President and Board Chairman is Walter L. Mims. Thomas L. Kimball is Executive Vice President. The wording of the NWF resolution here in Pittsburgh echoed the wording of an earlier resolution adopted by the International Association of Game, Fish and Conservation Commissioners during its annual convention last Sept. 13 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The IAGFCC is thus also on record urging a special study of the Indian treaty rights question, but it asked Congress rather than the executive branch to conduct t~e study. NWF officials in the meeting with Indian representatives said they would be willing to work with Indian tribes and organizations and would welcome those groups as participants in the study. BARGAINS GALORE! --ALL KINDS OF BOVERNMENT SURPLUS CLOTHING Jackets, Combat Boots, Pants, Shirts, Overcoats, Blankets, Tents, and MUCH MORE! --COMPLETE LINE OF NATIVE AMERICAN GOODS Oglala Moccasins, Jewelry, Indian T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers, Patches, Buttons. --AND TO KEEP ABREAST OF INDIAN NEWS AKWESASNE NOTES INDIAN TALK NISHNAWBE NEWS WASSAJA !t's all at ....... . THE RE-.SALE SHOP OF RICHARD CRISS ( SHAWNEE) 7567 M-21 Highway, Imlay City, MI 48444 Phones (313) 724-1082 ' )I l J, The Department of Natural Resources is a relatively new department within the government of the State of Michigan. It was formerly called the Denartment of Conservation and was responsible to the Governor's Office for State Conservation. The DNR has recently incurred the wrath of citizens, sportsmen and Michigan's Indian people by their new image of an additional law enforcement agency. In the last few years the DNR has arrested, charged, or ticketed numerous Indian induviduals for violation of alleged state game laws vrhich are clearly contrary to their treaty rights, specifically the 1836 Treaty with the Ottawa and Chippewa clations. · This treaty was clearly between the Indian people and the Government of the United States, not the State of Michigan. The federal government has acknowledged its responsibility. It is in the process of paying ·off a land claim to the descendents of the Ottawa and Chippewa Nations involved in the 1836 Treaty. The arrest of William Jondreay and A. B. LeBlanc by the DNR, however, led to the upholding of the 1854 Treaty by the Michigan State Supreme Court. DNR officers arrested nine Indian people from the Bay Mills Reservation last November 10 at Petoskey for alleged fishing with gill nets. The(*s:t;ory' s headline in the Petoskey News Review announced "SEIZE GILL NETS AND 'HUNDREDS' OF TROUT" and the story itself played on the sympathy of readers for the fish who "are easy prey to lethal gill nets" which "drown the fish or strangle them when they struggle to free themselves." Has anyone seen the array of assorted barbed and disguised hooks 'guarranteed' to get those elusive fish that sportsmen eagerly pursue? Has anyone had to retrieve hooks from fish who are then tossed bleeding and torn back into the water? Multiply them by the 20,000 sportsmen yearly. There is no , sympathy for the Indian 1people whose health has suffered .because of deprivation of nutritious foods that were staples in their diet for thousands of years, No concern for a people now trapped in the enviro~.ment of the Upper Peninsula by standards imposed by an alien way of life. A Traverse City Indian man and his wife were arrested by the DNR last November 15 for hunting deer illegally. A jury of non-Indians found them guilty last February 18. The case is being appealed. Arthur Duhamel oas taken it upon himself to test his rights as an Indian in the hopes that all Michigan Indian people will be able to regain them. He was arrested by the DNR on December 20, 21, and 22, 1974 for transporting fish illegaly and for the use of gill nets, =13- �(continued froD preceeding page) EDITOR1CAL1 Bias and Treaty Rights - Can We Get A Fair Deal? In spite of a biased press and equally biased sportsmen's organizations, fair-minded men are to be found. Such a man is Jud,c.:e Benedict who is hearing Art Duhamel' s case. ,Tudge Benedict is young and appears to have no bias against Indian people, He has laid out the ground rules for the trial for both the prosecution and the defense. He has further laid the burden of proof on the prosecution to show Indian commercial fishing is depleting the game stock of Michigan's lakes, rivers and streams. Other fair and impartial men are Mr. Duhamel's attor• neys: Jim Olsen, Mike Dettmer and Kent Walton from Traverse City. They are requesting the full support of all Indian peopl~, both individually and organizationally. In order to defend Mr. Duhamel they need an emergency fund of at least $2500.00 to be used for the calling of expert witnesses and for depositions. For further information contact the at-torneys at their offices, (616) 947-2912, All of these cases involving Indian people are important. But Mr. Duhamel's case is indeed important for our people of Michigan. It could perhaps settle the treaty is• sue in our state and initiate the precedence for other Michigan Indian treaty problems. What is an 'expert witness'? It could be someone like anthropologist Barbara Lang who has done extensive research that is used in legal proceedings .to determine Indian rights . (**$he has noted that the minutes of the treaty negociations eight out of ten times support the Indian people's oral tradition of the treaty terms, rather than the actual treaty document itself. -Frederick Boyd, S/A, CIM -Shirley Francis, Researcher Grand Rapids, Michigan (*) See Petoskey News Review, front page, 11/11/74, ( **) Kirke Kick~ ngbird, "The American Indian and the Land 1974" in the Education Journal of the Institute for the Development of Indian Law, Vol. 2 No. 7, ·9. 5, 0 NMOA Council Called The 27th Annual Northern Michigan Ottawa Association's General Member§hip Council will be held at the Emmet County Fairgrounds, Petoskey, the third Saturday in June. -14- Behind The Escobedo Miranda Ruling A year or so a.go an attorney spelled out, in layman's terms, the basic concept of the Escobedo and Miranda Ruling. This ruling defines the rights of anyone who is arrested. Whether one anticipates problems with the authorities or not, it is wise to know these basic rights. 0 YOUR RIGHTS AFTER ARREST The law of arrest has been one of the most dynamic areas of the law in recent yea.rs. It can generally said that a police officer can make an arrest for a misdemeanor (minor crime) committed in his presence, or for a felony where he has reasonable grounds to believe that a felony has been committed and reasonable grounds to believe that the person he seeks to arrest has committed the felony. If you are arrested without compliance with those standards you may have a right to sue for false arrest. If you are falsely arrested you most surely will become in2ignant and angry. However, you should not resist arrest but rather suffer the indignities of the arrest and hope to sue the police officer and police department at a later date. If you are certain that you were not involved in any crime or connected with the individual committing the crime, you should give your name, address, and protest your innocence of any crime. In addition, you should demand to know on what charges you are arrested and demand to see a copy of any warrant. Other than that, you should say very little except to ask that you be permitted to call your attorney or family. If you are not certain that were not involved in a crime or not connected with individuals committing a crime, then you should say absolutely nothing. An exception to this is if you are arrested while driving an automobile, hunting, or engaged in some other activity which requires a license. In that case you should show a copy of your license. registration, etc. to the officers. You should also demand to see an attorney. Remember that you do not have to say anything and that you should definitely not say anything, either before you are arrested or after you are arrested. You have the right to see an attorney before saying anything and you should exercise this right. You have the right to remain silent and not incriminate yourself. But, if you choose to speak, whatever you say can be used against you. Any promises that the police or other officials make to you are unenforceable and should be ignored until you have consulted an attorney. In addition to remaining silent, you should not permit any search of your car, home, yourself, or anything. However, if you are arrested, the police have a right to search you for weapons, and if they have a search warrant they may proceed under the terms of the search warrant whether you object or not. -15- �THE ESCOBEDO-MIRANDA RULING (continued) There are some exceptions to your right to do nothing. For example, you must show your license and registration, you must submit to a breathalizer test, you must submit to a search at international borders, or boarding an aircraft, etc. You should object to the fact that you must submit to these procedures and should not actively consent to them although you cannot physically oppose them. You have a right to be brought before a judge for an arraignment as soon as possible after your arrest. However, if you are arrested on a weekend, it is doubtful that you will be arraigned prior to Monday. Remember that if you forget your rights you should ask the arresting police officer to read them to you. Normally they will do this as a matter of course. However, you should be sure that you listen to all of your rights very carefully including the right to have a court-appointed attorney at no cost to you. In conclusion, if you are arrested, identify yourself, request an attorney, do not interfere with the arresting officers, do not physically interfere with any search by the officers but do not consent to it, and keep silent. -F. H. Boyd, S/A Region 3 - Petoskey C.I.M. Muskegon Group Formed "Our charter calls for the promotion of the culture and heritage of Indian people," says Jim Gibson, acting president of the newly orga.l'l.ized Woodland Indians of Muskegon County, Inc., " and the promoting of Indian awareness and selftermination, and greater understanding between Indians and other races." The new organization meets twice a month at the Reece Puffer High School, 1500 N. Getty, Muskegon. A short business meeting is followed by Indian social dancing. "We eventually hope to have an Indian center," says Gibson, "Right now we are working on putting on our first pow-wow." It will be held in the L. C. Walker Arena April 19 and 20. (See THE POW-WOW TRAIL in this issue.) Gibson says the 1973 Muskegon County census records 627 Indian people in the county, "but there are probably more." The Woodland Indians of Muskegon County, Inc. would appreciate any donations to help out with the pow-wow. For information inquire of Mrs. Rose Shalifoe, 207 S. Elizabeth, Whitehall, MI 49461 . . , -16- "Sticking My Neck Out" by Shirley Francis As a matter of principle the policy of INDIAN TALK has been to refrain from criticism of any kind of Indian groups, The welfare and rights of Indian people has long been impeded by malicious gossip, destructive criticism and factionalism, These destroyers, of course, are at work in all groups of whatever race, creed or color. But Native Americans have been the hardest hit by these blights. However, two incidents happened recently that require a departing from that policy. One stems from a letter printed in the Nishnawbe News. The other arises from a statement sent out by an Indian 'vigilante• group. The only thing the two incidents have in common is neither the letter nor the statement was signed by the person or persons involved. Anonynimi ty shouldn't be dignified by an ans·;:er, usually, But the ovious injustices being perpetrated by these written statements demand exposure of their intent. Certainly the most potgntially ~angerous. is the statement sent out by the self-proclaimed "Native Americans for Radical Change". The single sheet they sent out not only does not have the name of a single individual connected with it but does not even have an address. Nor does it say how many members it has. It only declares that a certain Indian organization "has been dominated by one 'special interest group.'" and that "we, the Native Americans for Radical Change, feel that (the remedy for) this ... is for the community to ... vote in the up coming election." NARC admonishes the community to "elect Native Americans that will serve the whole Native American community and not just for their own gain (underlining is mine.) "Sweep out the special interest group who serve their own interests," the NARC statement implores. Well now, let's look at this so-called "special interest group" who serve "for their own gain." First of all, just what does a member of a board of directors get for his endless hours at countless meetings? Fame? Fortune? When this organization began a great number of people rushed to the first meetings. But when the 'honeymoon' of excitement wore off and the meetings of planning became hard, ploddin,5 work, people fell away ( this writer included) in droves. But a number of far-seeing and very determined people stuck it out. It was they that formed the solid basis that has given that organization the credibility it has today. And it does have it, or it would not have the funding nor the building nor the employees this credibility has earned for it. To say that one serves on a board of directors, especially of an Indian organization, for gain is sheer nonsense. One thing is for sure: you have to have "skin seven thumbs thick" to withstand the pressure of responsibility. -17- �"STICKING MY NECK OUT" ( continued) The fact that elections should have been set up some time ago gives some truth to the NARC statement. But why · send it out now? Meetings have already been held and this was thoroughly discussed. Registration plans have been drawn up. A nominating committee was selected by vote and is at work drawing up a slate of candidates. What is more, it was voted to elect an entire new board of directors at the last meeting. So why the NARC call to battle after the war is over? It seems apparent that the NARC statement was sent out for questionable reasons. It is fairly obvious that NARC is an attempt to divide -- to split -- the community once more into warring factions, to intimidate good people from running for election and to cast suspicion everywhere as people try to figure out who are members of this subversive group, which ones are linked to it. It is possible that NARC is not an Indian group at all; that it is the devise of anti-Indian factions. It could be a plot instigated by a'conservationist' or sportsmen's group. Maybe the BIA are behind it, or the CIA, the Communists, the Fascists or the nazisl Yes, that sounds ridiculous, but how do you know who NARC represents unless you are a member. And if you are, why are you hiding? * * * * * * * The second incident involves the anonymous busybody whose letter in the last issue of the Nishnawbe News maintains that Indian people who meet in the club-like "Indian bars" are not interested in their culture. What nonsense! The writer claims to be a member of the Indian community and a founding member of the Grand Valley American Indian _Lodge. GVAIL can hardly be called an Indian organization. It has always had a predominently white membership. Since its founding 15 years ago it has more or less been controlled by the same 12 original members who are mostly white. And by mostly I mean around three-fourths. And this proportion remains the same today. (;VAIL equates 'culture' with baskets and beads, .with Indian 'costumes' and dancing. As such, it is hardly more than an Indian hobbyist association. Indeed, there is no• thing wrong with that. I have met some very fine Indian hobbyists, who are arrlent supporters of ~Indian concerns. But they do not claim to be Indians nor do they appear before the general public as representatives of the Indian community. · The anonymous writer does not reveal his identity because he knows he is on rather shaky ground with the Indian community. lf he has a relationship with them at all. * * ** ** *** Replies are welcome but they must be signed if you wish them to be printed. We will withhold your name if you wish. -18- Around The .Hearth WHY NOT MAKE OUR BAG YOUR BAG? We would like to share with you our knowledge of how to best plan, purchase, and prepare the contents of your bag, .. your grocery bag, that is. Our services are free. The goal of our program is to offer knowledge of nutrition and related homemaking skills to the homemaker in these days of limited resources. During home visits we Nutrition Aides help the family gain the know-how for nutritious meal planning, shopping within a budget, and preparing new and tasty dishes. The EXPANDED NUTRITION PROGRAM is an educational prom gram available to both rural and urban families. Workshops are offered frequently throughout the county where homemakers may come to share their special talents or to work on a group project. At these gatherings new foods are sampled and current news about nutrition and smart shopping keeps them up to date. If you are interested in our program, or know of another Indian family that may be, contact me at the following address: Jennie Wicker (Potawatomi), M.S.U. Cooperative Ex~ension Service, Expanded Nutrition Program, 750 Fuller, NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, phone 456-4475 or 456-4494. I SHOP SMART - Sharpen Your Food-Buying Habits (No. 1) THINK VARIETY Eat a variety of foods -- it's your best health insurance! Everyday, eat foods from these six groups, and you will get what you rneed for heal thy living. 1. BREADS AND CEREALS: 4 or more servings every day of enriched or whole grain breads, cereals, and other cereal and grain products. 2, VEGETABLES & FRUITS: Those rich in Vitamin A (green and yellow vegetables & fruits) •-four servings a week. J, MEATS,BEANS or NUTS: 2 or more servings every day: Meat - canned, fresh or frozen Fish - canned, fresh or frozen Poul try, eggs . Dried bean~, peas, peanut butter, Cheese 4. MILK, CHEESE and The best source of calcium. ICE CREAM: MILK NEEDED EVERY DAY: . Children - J to 4 cups Teenagers - 4 cups Adults - 2 cups fresh, canned or nonfat dry'milk. Cheese and ice cream may take the place of milk: ==19- �AROUND THE HEARTH (continued) 5, FATS and OILS: 1 inch cube cheese=½ cup milk ½ cup cottage cheese=l/3 cup milk ½ cup ice cream=¼ cup milk Butter, margarine, cooking fats and oils supply energy (calories) and contribute flavor and crispness and give you that feeling of satisfaction and fullness. Include some vegetable oil among the fats used. If you need to lose weight, cut down on the amount of fats you use. 6. STARCHES, SUGARS and SWEETS: Sugars; sweets; unenriched, refined breads and crackers; unenriched refined cereals and flours - doughnuts, cake and sweet rolls, for example - are included in this group. They SUPPLY MAINLY ENERGY (CALORIES. ) Watch these if you are overweight! RECIPE OF THE MONTH: CHICKEN AND RICE SKILLET SUPPER (6 servings) 3½ pounds chicken pieces ½ to 1 cup sliced onions 2 teaspoons salt 3 cups chicken broth or water ~ teaspoon pe~per 1 cup sliced carrots ¼ cup cooking oil l½ cups raw rice (not instant) Sprinke chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Flour lightly if desired. Heat oil in large heavy skillet and brown chicken quickly in oil. Lower heat and push chicken to one side of skillet. Fry onion slices lightly in oil until clear and tender. Stir in chicken broth or water, carrots, and raw rice. Cover and cook over medium heat 25 minutes. Then simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Do not stir. This dish is rich in protein(chicken), Vitamin A (carrots), and Vitamin B (enriched rice). Serve it with a glass of milk (calcium) and your favorite dessert. You can use l½ pounds of pork instead of chicken. OUTBREAKS IN CHILDREN•s DI~E~ES EXPEC_'!'~ Despite the fact that medical science has developed a simple means of protection against POLIO, MEASLES, DIPTHER~. IA, AND TETANUS, they stil claim children's lives each year. Why? because many parents still do not have their children vaccinated against them. They adopt the "it can't happen to me" attitude. But the germs of these diseases are still around to attack the unprotected. ONLY YOU CAN PROTECT YOUR CHILD - HAVE HIM VACCINATED! And it costs nothing but a little time and effort on your part. -20- SPORT - SIDE wit~ Ed White Pigeon The droves of basketball players arriving into the state capital for the Second Annual All-Indian Basketball Tournament last March 22 and 23 were only a small portion of the Indians that came to witness the event at Jemison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University. Coordinated by State YMCA Native American Outreach director George Pamp, the tournament was sponsored by the Lansing Indian Center, the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs, Michigan State University, and Pamp. This all-Indian basketball tournament saw the Bay Mills Team come out as the champions. Al~ena was awarded the Second Place Trophy and Lansing Team #2 took the consolation bracket. Members of the winning Bay Mills Team were awarded individual trophies. Receiving them were Jerry Parish, Mickey Parish, A. Parish, D. Parish, G. Parish, C. Parish, Pat Groleau, Tony Neetoli, Ken Payment, Tom Brown, John Lufkins, and Arnold Cameron. Teams participating were from Detroit, Salem, Keweenaw, Alpena, Lansing #1, Lansing #2, Marquette, Petoskey, Grand Rapids, Flint, Bay Mills, and Traverse City. ~ In the Women's Division Haslett again took home first place honors. Cleveland took second place and Petoskey came off with third. Much of the success of this tournament was due to the fine efforts of both participating teams and officials to keep to the very heavy time-table. * * * Other events in the discussion phase for state-wide competition are: soft ball games, bowling, volleyball. Summer camping was also discussed. If you are interested in any of these activities, write to INDIAN TALK and offer some suggestions and ideas. Indian Family Camp Nearly Filled We are all very happy with the response INDIAN TALK received about its Indian Family Craft and Culture Camp at Camp Heyo-Went-Ha Aug. 23 - 27, Eleven families have indicated strong interest in attending. With only four more openings we will have to take the names of other interested families on a first-come first-serve basis. Applications and more information will be mailed out soon to those who have contacted us. Our family is looking forward to four full days with your family -on beautiful Torch Lake in the heart of Michigan Indian Country! !.!INDIAN TALK FAMILY" -21- �! On The Personal Side ON THE PERSONAL SIDE (continued) *Director Dean George of Detroit's Indian Center wishes to report he has finally achieved his G.E.D. certificate. Congratulations, Dean. This is certain to inspire others to continue with their education. *Born to Tom and Marian Jarmon, Bradley Indian Settlement, was an eight-pound, nine-ounce boy. He has been given the name, Quah-anese, by his Great Uncle Chester Peters, according to Potawatomi tradition. His English name is Dwayne William. Our best wishes to both proud parents and baby! *Julie Overton, daughter of Spencer and Isabelle Overton, and a descendant of a Potawatomi chief, has been named the first "Miss Woodland Indian Princess" in a contest at the Southest Michigan Indian Center at Watervliet. Julie graduates from Lawrence High School this June and plans to attend Grand Valley State College, Allendale, where she plans to major in sociology. All this couldn't happen to a nicer gall *Katherine L. Bennett Assinewai passed away at Lansing's Sparrow Hospital after a lingering illness, at the age of 23, last March 16. She is survived by her hysband Donald, a precious daughter age three, her parents Mr . and Mrs. Russell Bennett, Mt. Pleasant, and her grandmother Mrs .. Alice Bennett of Isabella Reservation; and five brothers and two sisters. Burial was at Rosebush Cemetary. We mourn with you. ~The funeral of 25 year old Robert Miller who died under mysterious circumstances while in New Mexico, was held at Peshawbetown in March. He is survived by his au,.tt and uncle, Esther and Louis Koon, and by his grandmother, Mrs. Susan Miller. Officiating at the traditional Indian funeral was Reverend Gardiner. *The home of Garland And Alfreda Moses, Mt. Pleasant, burned to the ground last March 14, leaving them and their children with nothing but what was on their backs. Those wishing to assist should inquire on how they can help at the Tribal Affairs Office, R #4, Box 10, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858; or call (517) 772-2054 or 772-7500. *Rosanne Simonait, daughter of Mary Pine Simonait, won first place in the 1975 Aquinas College chess tournament. She is an economics major and a senior. Congratulations, Rosanne. Today its Grand Rapids. Tomorrow the world! *Willis Jackson, chief of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe, Isabella Reservation, has been very ill. Best wishes for a quick recovery I *The Owl Indian Outreach, Grand Rapids, had some JOO guests attend their gala Easter Party last March 29. The children played games, watched a fascinating magician and took home Easter baskets full of goodies. It was lots of fun! *Margaret Sowmick, wife of Indian Commissioner Arnold Sowmick, (and a very busy mother and teacher aide) was very seriously ill with pneumonia and was hospitalized for some time. But she is now back home on the Isabella Reservation. Get well, really well, soon, Margaret! *Nancy Francis Peters passed away March 2 and her funeral was held at the Indian Methodist Church, Isabella Reservation. She is survived by her husband, Richard Petersj two daughters, Mrs. Luella Martinez of Warsaw, Indiana and Mrs. Delilah Randall of South Carolina; two sons, John Hart of Grand Rapids and Moses Hart of Mt. Pleasant; brothers Simon Francis Sr. and William Francis, 19 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Mrs. Peters was a soloist at many church services and will be long remembered for her hymns sung in the Chippewa tongue. *John Shano, editor of the North American Indian Associations newsletter, has been hospitalized for injuries resulting from a car accident. Hurry and get well, John. *Denise Gibson, 14 year old daughter of Jim and Stella Gibson, Muskegon, has persuaded her class at Orchard View Middle School to play the Indian Flag Song instead of the National Anthem on the anniversary of Frank Clearwater's death at Wounded Knee in 1973. She hopes that this will be continued on a regular basis, perhaps once a week, Good work, Denise! -22- 1 Indian Talk s Pot Luck A Success INDIAN TALK's "Indian Community Get-together and Potluck" April 4 was attended by 75 Native Americans from the Grand Rapids area. After the leisurely meal all relaxed and heard a talk and slide presentation on the Indian Mounds by Bea Bailey, Chairman of Publicity, Friends of the Indian Mounds. INDIAN TALK's Board Chairman Cal Noell spoke briefly on the future aims and goals of the magazine. Joe John, Unit Chairman for the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association, announced the hearings on claims coming up May 8 and to be held at the Sheldon Complex, 121 Franklin St. S.E., Grand Rapids, Other brief announcements were made, followed by small group discussions. We would like to continue this on a regular basis , as it gave our staff a chance to visit with people on a personal basis and to hear of their concerns. "Thanks, all of you, from all of us." -23- �Position Open In Grand Rapids POSITIONCOORDINATOR/ADMINISTRATOR of Native American Title IV, Part A program, beginning June 1, 1975, QUALIFICATIONS1. Preference ~ill be given to persons of Native American heritage. 2, Previous experience in administration and supervision is desirable. J. Must possess the personality and temperament to work cooperatively with Native American parents and children. SALARYSalary range will commensurate with educational background and experience. This is a full time position. METHOD OF APPLICATIONSubmit resume with references to: Grand Rapids Native American Parent Committee c/o Grand Rapids Inter-Tribal Council 756 Bridge Street, N.W. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504 Applications will be accepted until May JO, 1975, NOTEFunding for this position is not yet specific enough to determine the position as certain. When this determination is made, both the Parent Committee and the Grand Rapids Public Schools will advertise accordingly. �INDIAN TALK 457 Briarwood S.E. Grand Rapids, Michigan Bulk Rate U.S. Postage 49506 PAID Grand Rapids, Mich. Permit No. 490 1 - - 1//111.s, l</m . IH,9-,c.,4£,<__ 'l~R . r #!c1::.cv~y .Oe. Jf6CNF0Je1:J,, /J1; ~9'3r/ ~/70 e8h PUHL ICAl ION � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Native American Publication Collection Subject The topic of the resource Native Americans Indians of North America Anthropology Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Michigan Description An account of the resource Selected digital surrogates of published and unpublished materials from the Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection dealing with different aspects of human culture and anthropology, with an emphasis on Native American people, events, organizations, and activities in Michigan. Includes newsletters, event programs, flyers, posters and other printed materials. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gillis, Edward V. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American Publication Collection (RHC-14)</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-02-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Gi-gikinomaage-min Project (Kutsche Office of Local History) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1958-2000 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/446">Edward V. Gillis Native American publication collection, RHC-14</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-14_indian-talk_v2n6_1975-04 Title A name given to the resource Indian Talk, April 1975 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975-04 Description An account of the resource April 1975 (Volume 2, Number 6) issue of Indian Talk by eARTh collected by Edward Gillis included as part of his Native American publication collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource eARTh Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Francis, Shirley (Editor) Subject The topic of the resource Indians of North America -- Michigan -- Periodicals Indians of North America Michigan Michigan -- Grand Rapids Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2213db81397ee2eb4cf7e0e23c3168f0.pdf 8dc7095808548125a92dbb644e0233cd PDF Text Text • §~@@~l?3 §[b[g) tf@W ~@[}:{] 0~ 'OB RY OF1 RO VI "\"Ht. \.I ' \ 1 i' 1 \fH3t I \:;r: �- • j - - - · - ~ ~@@ ~ [?2 •I~ lb [Q) lJ@W ~@C=O •~ �) B R O O MF I E L D T O WN S H I P MA S T E R P L AN Isabella County, Michigan Public Review Draft September 1986 Official Adoption January 1987 Prepared by EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGION and the BROOMFIELD TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION l Cf90 �B R O O MF I E L D T O WN S H I P B O A R D Donald Wagester, Supervisor Doris Ratcliffe, Clerk Margie McArthur, Treasurer Charles Anderson, Trustee Harris Diehl, Trustee B R u O MF I E L D T O WN S H I P P L AN N I NG Pete Ratcliffe, Chairman Steven Woodruff, Secretary Ray Ferrigan Maynard Strong Donald Wages ter C O MMI S S I O N �B R O O MF 1 E L D T O WN S H 1 P T A B L E 1. 11. 111. IV. V. VI. VII. Vlll. 0 F MA S T E R P L AN CONTENTS INTRODUCTION A. Purpose and Enabling Legislation B. Administrative Structure C. Townsnip History PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS A. Regional Setting B. Existing Land Use C. Population Characteristics D. Housing E. Local Economy F. Transportation l 2 4 7 9 9 14 16 16 19 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS A. Topography and Surface Features B. Soils C. Climate U. Surface Water Resources E. Groundwater Resources 22 COMMUNITY FACILITIES 35 TOWNSHIP DEVELOPMENT GOALS A. Community Attitudes B. Goals and Objectives 38 40 TOWNSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN A. General Concepts tl. Land Use Plan C. Community Facilities D. Transportation Plan 45 46 47 50 52 IMPLEMENTATION A. General Considerations B. Farmland and Open Space Preservation C. Light Industrial Development D. Wastewater Treatment Facilities E. Legal Implementation Tools f. Shor t•Terri1 Action Recommendations G. Continued Planning 55 56 57 58 APPENDIX A. Plan ~eview and Adoption B. Community Survey 62 23 23 29 29 30 39 59 59 60 61 �I. A. Purpose ~ INTRODUCTION Enabling Legislation The purpose of this planning study for Broomfield Township is to prepare a master plan that is consistent with the following goals: 1. Meet the requirements for a Township master plan pursuant to the Township Planning Act, Act 168 of 1959 as amended. The Act requires that a plan ' ' . include: a. A land use plan classifying and allocating land for agricultural, residential, commercial, industrial, and other uses; b. General location of roads, waterways, flood prevention structures, public works and public utilities; c. Recommendations for rehabilitation of blighted districts and changes in ways, grounds, open space, and other facilities; and d. Recommendations for implementation. 2. Provide a means for Broomfield Township residents to participate in the planning process. 3. Provide the Township's decision-makers with a broad framework that will assist them in making routine decisions and that will identify both the limitations and opportunities facing the Township. 4. Develop an understanding of citizen desires and community conditions to be reflected in the Township's long-term development goals. 5. Identify potentially innovative and sound ways for improving the environment of Broomfield Township in a manner cons is tent with community goals. 6. Prepare a plan that, in the future, could serve as a legal basis for a Township zoning ordinance pursuant to Act 184 of 1945, as amended, the Township Rural Zoning Act. That act provides for a plan that aims to: - Promote the public health, safety and general welfare; - Encourage use of lands in accordance with their character; - Limit improper use of land; - Conserve na tura 1 resource; - Meet needs for food, fiber, natural resources, residences, recreation, industry, trade, service, and other uses of land; 1 .__ .-~ -~ . ; �- Insure land uses in appropriate locations and relationships; - Avoid overcrowding of population; - Provide adequate light and air; - Lessen congestion on public roads and streets; - Reduce hazards to life and property; - Facilitate provisions for transportation sewage disposal, safe and adequate water supply, education, recreation and other public requirements; and to Conserve the expenditure of funds for public improvements and services to conform with the most advantageous uses of land, resources, and properties. B. Administrative Structure The basic administrative structure for Broomfield Township planning functions is depicted in Figure 1-1. As specified by the Township Planning Act (Act 168 of 1959), an appointed five-member Planning Commission acts as an advisory body to the elected Township Board. Broomfield Township does not currently have its own zoning, but is instead under the jurisdiction of the Isabella County Zcming Ordinance with administration by Isabella County personnel. 2 �Figure I-1 ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE FOR BROOMFIELD TOWNSHIP PLANNING AND ZONING Board of Trustees Supervisor+ 4 members elected Township Planning Commission Isabella County 5 members appointed _ _ _ __ Planning Commission I I I I Township C o u n t y - - - - - - - - County Master Plan Zoning Ordinance 3 Zoning Administrator �C. Township History The first white settlers to arrive in what is now Broom.field Township were John Hutchinson and William Broom.field. Apparently, these two men met in Detroit shortly after coming to the United States. They then moved on to establish homesteads in the western part of the township. As an interesting note, historical accounts indicate that William Broom.field's family name was originally spelled "Bruim.feln," but apparently this was changed to the current spelling very shortly after he arrived in the U.S. Broomfield Township was originally organized by the Michigan Legislature in 1866. At this time, Broom.field and Hutchinson drew straws to decide on a supervisor and a name for the new township. The results of this early "election" are obvious. Economic development of the township probably started in the early 1860's after these first settlers arrived. Like many other Michigan communities, lumbering and farming were the major industries of the period. During this time, a large sawmill was built at Bundy on the Chippewa River, and timber was floated downstream. However, the mill lasted but a few years. When the mill was abandoned, the early village of Bundy disappeared from the map. The mill produced about 75 million feet of logs during its brief existence. In the other aspects of early community life, the first schoolhouse was built in Section 31, and Betsy Ruxton became the first teacher. The first quarterly meeting was held at this schoolhouse by Rev. F. B. Bangs in 1866. The first sermon was preached by a Rev. Aldrich at William Broom.field's house. The first marriage that took place in the township was between Ithel Eldred and Mary Parrot. During the early development of the township, the Houghton Lake and Ionia State Road ran north and south through the western part of the township. 4 This �was the main (and only) road that the settlers relied on to travel to Ionia, about SO miles south, to get their mail and supplies. Portions of the old road grade can still be seen in some farmers' fields. The Big Rapids and Mt. Pleasant road extended east and west across the northern portion of the township. This route is now known as River Road. Broomfield Township was also served by a railroad at one time, extending from Remus in Mecosta County, across Bundy, and over to Weidman. That track was abandened in the early 1940's. Some of the earliest public improvements that took place in the township were directed toward construction of a cemetery. Land in Section 15 was cleared for this purpose by C. G. Quinn in 1884. The first township hall, measuring 24 by 40 feet, was built on the southwest corner of the cemetery in 1898. The cemetery vault was added much later, in 1936. During 1916-17, a bridge was built on the road connecting Section 2 of Broomfield Township and Section 35 of Sherman Township for $2,720. Today, Lake Isabella covers the old roadway. In 1948, the township purchased land on the west side of Hall's Lake for $2,000 to develop a public park. Other improvements, such as restrooms, fencing, and a well, were added in 1955 and 1957. Following a special election in 1949, it was decided to build a basement and move the old township hall onto it. Highway Department widened M-20. In the early 1970's, the State This made it necessary to tear down the old township hall and . build the present structure. Another community building in the township that has remained stable over the years is the Lutheran Church. The old church building that stood in Section 11 was torn down in 1971 when the present structure was built in Section 13. However, the cemetery in Section 11 is still maintained, as is another small cemetery in Section 26. 5 �It is also of historical interest to note the elected supervisors who have served Broomfield Township over the years. These officials and their terms of offices are listed below: William Broomfield L. C. Griffith William Broomfield L. C. Griffith John Hutchinson William Broomfield Henry D. Wright Harry P. Wilcox William Hummel George W. Ruthruff F. S. Maxon William Hummel H. D. Wright E. E. Wolfe H. D. Wright Theodore Hummel William Sellers Fred Woodruff John Hutchinson Russell Galer Harold Lapham Don Woodruff Roger Galer Ralph Strong Wayne Cole Elmer Frazier Don Wagester 1868-76 1877-78 1879 1880 1881 1882-84 1893-95 1895-97 1897-1900 1900-01 1901-03 1903-07 1907-12 1912-15 1915-21 1921-24 1924-33 1933-42 1942-47 1947-57 1957 1957-61 1961-68 1968-72 1972 1973-1976 1977-present Broomfield Township has continued to grow and change over the years. The township now includes a large mobile home park, the Lake Isabella development, Randell Manufacturing Company, and several large farms. These more recent developments along with other aspects of current conditions in the township are detailed in the following chapter. Note: The Broomfield Township Planning Commission wishes to thank Mr. Dan Mitchell for his assistance in preparing the preceding historical information. 6 �l- et: ....J 0... V) 0... ct: -....J :CIV) :z: ct: 3>- 011-Z ::::, O'I 0 r--.u CX) r-1 ct: ....J W....J :c LiJ t- ca ct: LL.. V) oz LiJ 0:C -1- t- u~ ::::,o Cl CX: 0 LL.. 0::: 0... 0... LiJ ct: 0::: ::E �B R O O MF I E L D II. T O WN S H I P MA S T E R PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS 7 P LAN �. : : • 0 H I ••,. •• •;•,. •••,. • 0 ,..J ~c., ~w ...... I •• • •! • •. ~ •. t5 H Pr. .•• '! ~ u H H 1• .. •• • ..... . ••. .• •I • a •• •• • ,• •••• ~I .. .••• • .,...... • .•i . i I ~ •. 6 •. ••I ..,,-t ! !: • • .... • .. . • .•• I I j I ·:i~ .- .... ••• I I • !O •.• : • • -; •. lo .• .•.•.. ••! \ • . •. •••· I ! C • C Q Q . •• •• .~_;:.._µ~4-~-t,1-•?r·: . . . . I ! •• ! • I I ••I • • .•. . . .•. .. ~ I ~-lJ • I I I ~ • ~-u • · I ,I .. ~ ~ ; . •.. I . • i •:! u •Q I le 18 h• •• I ~;-i ... •• 0 . .:; I •• l 0 12-· • ,; •.• ~~.•• :I ,. •! . •.' • •. ! • . 0 ,. • • NIDOIM ;: I . i I I I !l ..... .. .• ••• •. • .. • .i • : l • ; I 0 I I I - ._._,_.. • • I a I : I ; ! •• �A. Regional Setting Broomfield Township (Figure II-1) is a rural community located in westernmost Isabella County. It is bounded by Sherman Township to the north, Rolland Township to the sou th, Deerfield Township to the east, and Mecosta County to the west. A major east-west highway, M-20, bisects the township. The nearest major trade centers are Mt. Pleasant (12 miles east) and Big Rapids (25 miles west). This location places the township 160 miles from Detroit, 70 miles from Grand Rapids, and 80 miles from Lansing. The township possesses a scenic rural environment that ranges from gently rolling farmlands to steep, wooded hills. Agricultural and forested areas dominate the landscape, but several major lakes and streams are present as well. The largest water body is Lake Isabella, which is surrounded by a planned residential and resort development. Existing development in the township cons is ts uiainly of cultivated agricultural lands, and dispersed residential housing. However, more intensive residential development has occurred in the Lake Isabella area and in a mobile home park. In addition, a light industrial firm, Randell Manufacturing, is located within the township. These features, along with other aspects of current land use and development, are discussed in the following section. B. Existing !:!!!!. ~ The general composition and pat tern of land uses as they exist in Broomfield Township today is shown in Figure II-2. land use categories are provided in Table II-1. Tabulations of the various From the existing land use map, it may be readily seen that agricultural and wooded lands dominate the township. The land use map and tabulations in this section will provide a source of useful information for residents, govermnent officials, private 9 �business, and others interested in the development of Broomfield Township. Land uses have been divided into the following major categories for discussion purposes: l. Forested Lands make up nearly 40 percent of the township's total acreage. This category includes both managed and unmanaged wooded areas that are used for recreation, wildlife habitat, and timber production. The township's forested lands also provide attractive sites for residences on large lo ts. 2. Agricultural Lands are those areas with existing farming operations for food and fiber production. Farmlands account for over 9,000 acres, just slightly more than 39 percent, of the township's land area. 3. Intensive Residential uses are areas where housing is clustered in some manner with homes placed on lots generally less than one acre in size. In Broomfield Township, intensive residential uses are presently limited to the Lake Isabella development and the mobile home park in Section 24. These uses occupy just slightly more than one percent of the township. 4. Rural Residential development cons is ts of single-family ho,nes that occur in a dispersed fashion throughout the township, generally on large lots along section-line roads. These uses claim about one percent of the township. 5. Industrial land use in the township is presently limited to the Randell Manufacturing facility in Section 1. 6. Water bodies include the lakes and streams within the township, and occupy about 800 acres. These include Lake Isabella, Hall's Lake, Woodruff Lake, Big and Little Eldred Lakes, and Long Pond. township are Squaw Creek and Pony Creek. The major streams in the Small portions of Indian Creek and the South Branch of the Chippewa River also flow through the township. 10 �7. • -i Roads~ Rights-of-Way consist of M-20 and the county roads sening the township. These land uses devoted to transportation make up 575 acres, or 2.5 percent, of the total acreage. 8. Public~ Quasi-Public. Public lands and facilities include the Township Hall, parks, and cemetery. Land areas and buildings which are used by a limited number of persons but are not specifically commercial are termed "quasi-public" uses. These include churches, cemeteries, civic and fraternal organizations, and similar activities. Public and quasi-public uses now occupy about 20 acres in the township. 9. Vacant Lands include non-cultivated fields and abandoned farms. Areas in this category comprise about 11.6 percent, or 2,657 acres of the township. 10. Other minor uses include all land uses not otherwise classified in one of the previous categories. These include oil and brine wells, similar extractive operations, and barren land. located in the township. Gas storage fields are also These offer the potential for future development in meeting the state's demand for energy resources. Oil and gas fields in Broomfield Township and the surrounding area are shown in Figure II-2B. Areas classified as "minor uses" make up only about one percent of the township. 11 �FIGURE r II-2 • THIS MAP SHOWS THE MAJOR LAND USES IN GENERAL FORM ONLY. IT DOES NOT ATTE~T TO SHOW THE LOCATION OF EVERY PARCEL 0~ LAND USE IN THE TOWNSHIP. AGRICULTURAL LAND---------1111 NON-AGRICULTURAL FIEWS and ABANDONED FARM LAND m FORESTED L A N D - - - - - - - - ~ ~ WETLANDS------------JU LAKES RIVERS and STREAMS~ BARREN or EXTRACTIVE (includes J5cioa oil and brine wells) -----t2£.21 SUBDIVIDED L A N D - - - - - - - - ~ ... TOWNSHIP PROPERTY--------JE] CEMETARY---------.....;rn TRAILER PARK----------~ •~ INDUSTRIAL-----------+- BRCXMFIELD TOWNSHIP ISABELLA COUNIY �..,._ I 0 +,, \ - ~ o;._, \ ?; ~,4 r a \ -H-:---h-~~~,.,.,~-t--H,i"l\'!~rl---=:;-t-..--,--, iV j ! Ii •f I ; I -I ., t 'I I. t;) i~ J-· ~---~-~--.l~o--+-•--.--1~}-~ ~- U) \-0- h - - - + - ~ " ' - T - - t - - -~t - z -~------'-.~-= _,,__._-t i co N - ~ -. - + - • ,•• ~ h -..--~-~ I"' !• 1 i l-· • 1 0 0 I ..... ..... l. '2 - ~ 1 ~ 4- i -~ -..:. J. '< '9 4'"< ~.,,;, '3 ~ -:t.J ..:.:. ~ 9 ""t' ~ ~ ~ '2 ~:S - ~ V\ ..J \) (i_ 1 I .. . .\ ,. G. �TABLE II-1 Broomfield Township Existing Land _!!!! Land Use Acres Percent of Total Forested 9,158 39.7% Agricultural 9,047 39 .3% Vacant 2,667 11. 6% Water 800 3.5¾ Roads 57 5 2.5% Intensive Residential 300 1.3% Rural Residential 240 1.0% Public/Quasi-Public 20 0.09% Indus trial 12 0.05% 221 1.0% 0 ther Minor Uses 23,040 TOTAL 13 100% �C. Population Characteristics Historical population data for Broomfield Township is shown in Table 11-2. The trends show that the townships experienced very little significant change in population size during 1940-70, and even showed a moderate decline during 1940-50 when the overall Isabella County population was growing steadily. This trend is commonly seen in rural areas with agriculture as their principal economic activity. Considered in terms of the trends for larger farms and the general urbanization of the United States through the 1960's, there was no real opportunity for major population growth in the township. It was 1970 before the township could roughly match its 1940 population of slightly over 700. This changed dramatically from 1970-80 when the township population gre\,1 by over 70 percent, Isabella County growth~• ~ ~ three times the overall The main reason for this is the movement of former urban dwellers to rural areas like Broomfield Township. The population projections shown in Table 11-2 indicate that the township can expect fairly strong population growth over the next 20 to 25 years. These figures show the population expanding by almost 32 percent during 1985-2010. In contrast, Isabella County as a whole is expected to grow by only about 10 percent during the same period, and growth in the City of Mt. Pleasant is expected to negligible. As part of a national trend, more growth will continue to shift to rural areas like Broomfield Township where people will commute into urban areas such as Mt. Pleasant and Big Rapids for employment. The detailed population characteristics (Table II-3) indicate that Broomfield Township has a larger proportion of school-age and younger children than the county and state averages. As a whole, the township residents are a 14 �Table II-2 His tori cal Population Data Broomfield Township City of l'1 t. Pleasant Isabella County 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 738 8,413 25,982 616 11,393 28,964 672 14,875 35,348 727 20,524 44,594 1,246 23,746 54,110 -Population Projections Broomfield Township City of Mt. Pleasant Isabella County Sources: 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 · 2010 1,292 23,047 59,702 1,384 23,204 57,300 1,551 21,677 59,899 1,625 22,333 62,399 1,669 22,801 64,200 1,703 23,111 65,599 Historical data from U.S. Census Bureau Projections developed by ECMPOR staff and Michigan Department of Management and Budget 15 �bit younger in comparison to the rest of the state and neighboring townships such as Sherman. The lower median age for Isabella County is mainly a re f lection of the large student population in Mt. Pleasant. The median income data show that township resident~ are a bit less af f luent when compared to the rest of the county and state. However, these income levels are very strong in comparison to neighboring townships such as Sherman or Rolland. These latter comparisons probably give a better indication of local conditions in western Isabella County. D. Housing An adequate and structurally sound housing stock is essential to a growing community. Table 11-4. Housing data for Broomfield Township is summarized in This information shows the dramatic increase in housing stock that took place during 1970-80 concurrently with the township's population grow th. The median housing value of $37,700 is strong both by Isabella County and statewide standards. In addition, housing values in the township follow a fa i rly narrow range. Only about 5 percent of the units are valued below $20 ,000 and only 7 percent exceed $50,000. Thus, the median value provides a good representation of typical housing value. The data also show that most homes (85 percent) in the township are owner-occupied. The housing stock is generally in good condition with only about 19 percent of the existing units built before 1939. Units lacking complete plumbing or experiencing overcrowding are quite scarce. ~. Local Economy Employment within the township is mainly associated with agriculture, small private businesses, and Randell Manufacturing, the single light 16 �Table II-3 Population Characteristics~~ Age!_ Under 5 18 yrs. & older 65 yrs. & older Median age Females Michigan 7.4 70.3 9.8 28.8 yrs. 51.2 Isabella Co. 6.6 75.2 7.1 22.7 yrs. 51.8 Race Isabella Co. White Non-white Spanish origin* 52,326 1,332 662 Broomfield ~ Sherman~ 9.6 65.9 7.1 26. 3 yrs. 50.7 6.8 68.0 12.0 30.9 yrs. 49.6 Broomfield ~ l, 225 21 6 *recorded as white Income Median (household) Median ( faini ly) Source: Michigan Isabel la Co. Broomfield Twp. Sherman ~ $ 19,224 $ 15,002 $ 14,492 $ l3 ,068 22,108 18,318 16,217 14,128 Bureau of the Census, 1980 Census 17 �Table 11-4 Housing Characteristics Housing Uni ts 1970 1980 Increase Median Value 21.4% $ 39,500 Michigan Isabella Co. 12,447 16,167 46.0% 37,500 252 489 73.4% 37,700 Broomfield Twp. Occupied Uni ts Owner Renter Median Rent Michigan Isabel la Co. Persons/Household $197 2.8 10,752 5,292 179 2.9 349 64 147 3.0 Broomfield Twp. Other Occupied Unit Characteristics Broomfield Township Number of Uni ts % of Uni ts 5 1. 27. Overcrowding (more than a person per room) 19 4.6% Houses less than $20,000 value 21 5.1% Houses ~50,00U or more value 29 7.0¼ Built 1939 or earlier 80 19 .4:7. 232 56. 2% Lacking Complete Plumbing Built 1970-1980 18 �') industry. In a survey of township residents conducted by the Planning Commission, 47 percent of the respondents worked in Mt. Pleasant and 11 percent worked in the township. The remainder of the residents who were surveyed commuted to Midland, Alma, Big Rapids, Lansing, Shepherd, or elsewhere for employment. F. Transportation Broomfield Township's existing road systems and classifications are shown in Figures II-3 and II-4. The township is served by 19 miles of paved roads, 14 miles of primary gravel roads, and 34 miles of secondary gravel roads. The major access route is State Highway M-20, which runs east and west through the center of the township. The major north-south route is Coldwater Road, which provides access to the rural community of Weidman and other major paved local roads. Local public bus service is provided by the Isabella County Transportation Commission. No railroads presently serve the township. The closest general aviation airport is located in Mt. Pleasant. The Tri-City Airport, in Saginaw County, is the nearest passenger airport. There is also one private airstrip in Section 36, located off Millbrook Road in the southeast corner of the township. Another private airport serving the Lake Isabella development is located just north of the township in neighboring Sherman Township. A proposed expansion of this airport would extend the facility into the northeast part of Broomfield Township. 19 �ll4 Cl) ~ ~ l""I C E-4 I H H ..:l ~ CJ) ),I 1-1 Cl) ; I I + i a I ~~ ! H ~ ••••••••••••• • •• • •• •• • I I I.I.I ..J l ,.. ~ ~ I ,c •,.. ,.. ~"' "li1 N 0 ~... ~ ~~ •"' •"' g t; C..'l 0 .. !. .• I •• ............... •• ••: ••• •• • ....... .. ...• • • •• ci .... w 0 •• • •• •• •• I I I -············: L .• I : I ··i···~·~l : I i• l �B R O O M F I E L D T O WN S H I P MA S T E R III. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS 22 P L AN �flllIHAlllr PAVED JIOADS- - - - SIPJCONDAJllr PAVED JIOADS _ __ HIJWllr GllAVEL JIOADS; _ __ S!CONDAJllr c.RAVEL JIOADS=m=;:q PIUVATE a0ADS ..... ,_.,--.._.. a TOWNSHIP BOOIIOARlr-----. I I &UIIDIVIDED wrs 3'F~\•;,_{,,,;,,·.,.,t,J IM>OSTRJ ~ GOLF COIIRSII K>LH ~ I s'I 11 FIGURE II-4 I lAKE ISABELIA BROO\fFIELD TOWNSHIP ISABELLA COUNIY �A. Topography~ Surface Features The surface features of Broomfield Township are of glacial origin and the entire township is deeply covered with glacial drift materials. There is considerable variation in relief with elevations rangin~ from 890 feet to over 1200 feet. Bundy Hill, located in Section 8, is the highest point in the Township (and in Isabella County) at 1270 feet above sea level. variable topography includes many hills, valleys, and plains. The highly Most of the land is fairly level but, in contrast, several very high, isolated hills such as Bundy Hill are found. rolling. The slope of the land varies from gently to strongly Internal drainage is predominantly good because water moves freely through the light textured soils and sub-surface materials. In the context of planning, slope must be considered as a potentially serious constraint to land development. Even though Broomfield Township has a highly variable topography, the vast majority of the township is free from developmental constraints due to steep slopes. Major ridge lines are shown on the general Environmental Features map, Figure III-5. B. Soils The Isabella County Soil Conservation Service has developed detailed soils data for all of Isabella County. This information was published as a County Soil Survey in November, 1985. It should be noted that for detailed site planning of any kind, on-site investigation and testing of soil conditions is necessary prior to any development or construction. l. Major~ Associations There are three major soil associations in Broomfield Township (Figure III-1). A description of these three soil associations follows: Remus-Spinks Association: Nearly level to gently rolling, well drained loamy . 23 �and sandy soils; on moraines and outwash plains. association are used mainly as cropland. pasture and woodland. The soils in this They are also well suited for use as The soils in this association have high potential for use as septic tank absorption fields and building sites. Coloma-Pinnebog Association: Nearly level to hilly, somewhat excessively drained and very poorly drained sandy and mucky soils; on outwash plains and in upland drains and depressions. In most areas, the soils in this association have a cover of natural vegetation, commonly trees. used mainly as recreation areas and as wildlife habitat. used as cropland and pastureland. residences and hunting camps. The soils are In places, they are Additional uses in the Township include The Coloma soils have limited potential for septic tank absorption fields due to their poor filtering capacity. soils do, however, have good potential for use as building sites. Coloma The Pinnebog soils have low potential for both these uses due to ponding, wetness and low strength. Coloma-Remus Association: Nearly level to steep, somewhat excessively drained and well drained sandy and loamy soils; on moraines, till plains and kames. In most areas the soils in this association have a cover of natural vegetation, commonly trees. These soils are used mainly as recreation areas and wildlife habitat, and for residences. In places they are used as cropland with corn being the most commonly grown crop. as pasture. These soils are suited for use Poor filtering capacity of the Coloma soils may limit the use of these soils for septic tank absorption fields in some areas. Areas of this association where slope is less than 18 percent are well suited for building sites. 24 �2. Prime Farmland Soils Prime farmland is one of several kinds of important farmland defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is of major importance in meeting the nation's short and long-range needs for food and fiber. The availability of high-quality farmland is limited, and the wise use of prime farmland must be encouraged. Prime farmland soils are defined by the USDA as those best suited to producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops. Such soils have properties that are favorable for the economic production of sustained high yields of crops. These soils need only to be trea t 'e d and managed using acceptable farming methods. The moisture supply must be adequate, and the growing season must be sufficiently long. Prime farmland soils produce the highest yields with minimal inputs of energy and economic resources, and farming these soils results in the least damage to the environment. Prime farmland soils may presen_tly be in use as cropland, pasture, or woodland, or they may be in other uses. They are either used for producing food or fiber, or they are available for these uses. Urban or built-up land and water areas cannot be considered prime farmland. The Soil Conservation Service has identified the soils that make up potentially prime farmland in Broomfield Township (Figure 111-2). More precise locations of these are shown on the detailed soil maps in the County Soil Survey previously mentioned. The detailed Soil Survey data supplements the more generalized soils information contained in this document. Therefore, the Isabella County Soil Survey (USDA, 1985) is incorporated as part of the Broomfield Township Master Plan by this reference. The suitability of the soil for various land uses and development activities will be a key issue in the formulation of a long-range land use 25 �plan for the township. In this context, the soil survey data will again be addressed in subsequent sections of this plan. 26 �FIGURE Source: III~l B~OOMFIELD GENERAL SOILS )iAP USDA Soil Conservation Service. TOWNSHIP Isabella County, Michigan Jo 1 l Remus-Spinks Association: Nearly level to gently rolling, well drained loamy and sandy soils; on moraines and outwash plaina. 10 Coloma-Pinnebog Association: Nearly level to hilly, somewhat excessively drained and very poorly drained sandy and mucky soils; on outwash plains and in upland drains and depressions. 11 Coloma-Remus Association: Nearly level to steep, somewhat excessively drained and well drained sandy and loamy soils; on moraines, till plains, and kames. �-i E'l!I ~ 0 ,-J ~ N I H H H i H ~ 0 ~ 8 H it 0 ex: ~ • I'.&, 'f f - .............. . • • •• • • •• • • • •• • I .•• • • �0 C. Climate The inland location of Broomfield Township, away from the Great Lakes, substantially reduces the lake influence on this area's climate. The most notable lake influence occurs when the prevailing southwesterly winds bring increassed cloudiness during the fall and winter, moderating temperatures during cold outbreaks. The prevailing wind is southwesterly at 11 miles per hour. The following climatic data have been collected from Mt. Pleasant, 11 miles .to the east. Temperature data show that January is the coldest month with an average daily maximum of 29.S'F, while July is the warmest with an average daily maximum of 83.6'F. Precipitation is generally well distributed throughout the year with the crop season, May-October, receiving an average of 18.3 inches or 61 percent of the average annual total. September, with 3.34 inches is the wettest month while February, with a 1.2 inch average is the driest. The average snowfal 1 at Mt. Pleasant is 33 .1 inches. Mt. Pleasant averages 81 days per season with one inch or more of snow on the ground, but this varies greatly from year to year. Local observations indicate that Broomfield Township, because of its higher elevation, experiences slightly different climatic conditions than does Mt. Pleasant. Tempera tu res tend to be cooler, snow stays later in the spring, and accumulations are greater during the winter. D. Surface Water Resources Major water bodies are shown in Figure III-5. con ta ins portions of two major drainage basins. Broomfield Township Roughly the northeast quarter of the township, including the Lake Isabella area, drains to the South Branch of the Chippewa River. within this basin. Two tributaries, Indian Creek and Squaw Creek are The remainder of the township drains to the Pine River via its tributary of Pony Creek. 29 �As previously mentioned, Broomfield Township also contains several lakes. The largest of these is Lake Isabella, occupying about 750 surface acres in parts of both Broomfield and neighboring Sherman Township. The lake occupies a natural basin surrounded by a wide area of sandy soils. The impoundment was developed by construction of a 3,000 foot wide dam on the South Branch of the Chippewa River. The other major lake from a recreational standpoint is Hall's Lake, consisting of 56 acres in the southwest part of the township. Other small water bodies include Big and Little Eldred Lakes, Woodruff Lake, and Long Pond. Overall, the quality of Broomfield Township's surface water resources is quite good. However, it must be noted that any land-disturbing activities and intensive land uses have the potential for water quality degradation through erosion, sedimentation, and nutrient enrichment. Therefore, attention must be given to siting future development so that the high quality of the township's lakes and streams is maintained. These concerns will be addressed in the overall context of preparing a long-range land use plan for the township. E. Groundwater Resources Groundwater is a significant and sensitive natural resource. About half the population of the United States depends on groundwater for part or all of its drinking water supply. In Broomfield Township, the population is served by individual residential wells. Identification of the general availability and quality of groundwater may be broken down into two areas: in glacial deposits. 1) groundwater in bedrock, and 2) groundwater To address the first area, the general availability and quality of groundwater in the bedrock strata for Isabella County and the East Central Region is illustrated in Figure 111-3. 30 �Well yields from bedrock units can vary greatly within the county due to changes in permeability, thickness, lateral extent, and recharge potential. General availability is highest in sandstone bedrock units and lowest in shale uni ts. Groundwater in glacial deposits also varies greatly with depth and areal distribution. The general availability is illustrated in Figure III-4. It may be seen that the largest groundwater supplies are found in the glacial outwash and moraine areas in the western portions of the county including Broomfield Township, where wells are capable of producing more than 500 gallons perminute (gpm). The quality of groundwater in surface deposits is variable and subject to con taraina tion from surface and bedrock sources. Mining activities in the Township, such as oil and gas well drilling, can allow vertical migration of brine water from bedrock into surface deposits. Surface activities can also cause local occurrences of groundwater contamination. For example, the disposal or storage of solid and hazardous waste, filling stations, and various industries all have the potential for degrading groundwater supplies in glacial deposits. Due to the widespread nature of groundwater contamination problems, some couimunities have recently started developing local regulations for groundwater protection. Some of these regulations have been put into effect through zoning; others have taken the form of more specialized ordinances. In general, all the existing approaches use fairly straight forward land use, health, and police power regulations. The effectiveness of the controls is largely untested as yet, but it is likely that the next few years will see the development of more sophisticated and comprehensive programs as more communities recognize the need for action at the local level. 31 �GENERAL AVAILABILITY AND QUALITY OF GROUNO'NATER IN THE BEDROCK @ L.EGEND • rn lmJ WELL WELL YIELD L.ESS THAN IC GPM l"iT1 WELL YIELD FROM 10 TO IC OGPM ~ I WITH WELL DIAMETER GR~ATER ~ WATER IN THE BEDROCK USUALLY THAN 6 INCHES • NOT[ THAT 1.OCAI. l[DIIOC• A''[CTING IOTM wAT[II ,oo YIELD FROM' 100 TO GPM WITH WELL DIAMETER ~REATtA THAN &INCHES ~":i HAS A DISSOLVED SOLIDS CONTENT GREATER THAN 1000 PPM CONDI IONS CAN VAIIT Tl(l.0 ANO OUAI.ITT . o, SOUIICI: G[NIIIAI. AVAIi.Aili.i TY AN') OUAI.ITT GIIOUNOWAT[Jt IN THI HDIIOC• O[POSITS AICHIGAN l'T , . 11 . TW(NTE:11, WATlll IIUOUIICU DIVISION, U $ . Gf:O1.OGICAI.- SUIIV['T. o, FIGURE III-3 �GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF GROUNDWATER IN THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS --,----~ r----r-- ! m 1 •osco••o• i l_l__ -----1 N I I I AIIENAC l_ _f \ r---- I I _..s I L-- I _ __l LEGEND • WELL YIELD FROM 100 TO 500 GPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GREATER THAN 8 INCHES WELL YIELD LESS THAN IOGPM WELL YIELD FROM 10 TO IOOGPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GREATER THAN 6 INCHES • WELL YIELD GREATER THAN 500 GPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GREATER THAN IQ INCHES NOTt TH&~ LOC&l.1.Y HIGHf;lt Yltl.DS M&T H OIT&INED AND TM&T THIS 1.EGENO IIEPRCSENTS ONI.T THE GENElt&I. TIICNO W&TElt Tl[LD IN THE GL&C:IAI. Dt,OSITS. o, o, SOU"CE: OENtll&I. AV&IU.IIUTY GIIOUNDW&T[II IN THE GL&C:IAL 0[,0SITS IN UIC:HIGAN IY , . 11. TWtNfflt, WATtlt RtSOUltCU DIVISION, U.I. ltOLOGICAL SUIIVtY. FIGURE 111-4 �C/l .; ~i II . A ~ H E-4 ~z ~ ~ ~ •UI w ei ... i ... .. 2! -i ~~ !!Q ~ 13 H • 0 u, I H H H ~c.., H ~ > ~ :• I • ••; ••• .s.:.· ~J : I : I : ••• •• .. • +·· l I I I L_ ..i .. •• ..:••··~··· ..• ...... , • • ~• I I I -~,A I l I I �B R O O M F I E L D T O WN S H I P M A S T E R IV. COMMUNITY FACILITIES 35 P L AN �Co,amuni ty facilities in Broomfield Township are presently minima 1 due to the rural, low-density nature of the population and the proximity of larger cities such as Mt. Pleasant and Big Rapids, and smaller rural towns such as Weidman and Remus. IV-1. Existing facilities and service areas are shown in Figure The dominant facility is the Broomfield Township Hall at the corner of M-20 and Rolland Road. The building is used for township government functions as well as for 4-H meetings and as a pre-school facility. Largely as a result of the major school district consolidations that took place during the l960's, there are no public school facilities operating in the township. Most of the township is served by the Chippewa Hills Districts, while a small portion of the southernmost part of the township is included in the Montabella District. Police protection is provided to township residents through the Isabella County Sheriff Department and a Township Constable. three fire departments. The township is served by The Sherman-Nottawa Fire Department serves roughly the northeast quarter of the township, the Wheatland-Remus F.D. serves the northwest quarter, and the Blanchard -Millbrook F.D. covers the southern half. Two township parks comprise the other physical facilities that are available to residents. public lake access. A park at Hall's Lake provides a picnic area and The other park, adjacent to the Township Hall, offers a picnic area, ball field, and playground equipment. There are no public water or sewer systems in the township. Residents and existing industry are now served by individual wells and septic systems, and these arrangements currently appear to be adequate. However, if expansion of residential development, commerce, and industry is desired by the township, some public utilities may be necessary in the future. These needs will be addressed in formulating the township's long-range development plan. 36 �. BROO MF\EL D \. l4 N.-R 6 ·u··· JJ.a W. ,~,,~ FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT BOUNDAIUES: BROOMFIELD TWP. COMMUNITY FACILITIES •••••••••••• l WHEATLAND-REMUS FD 2 SHEBMAN-NOTTAWA FD 3 BLANCHAllD-ROLLAND FD FIGURE IV-1 SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARY 111111111111111111111111u11• �B R O O M F I E L D T O WN S H I P MA S T E R V. P LAN TOWNSHIP DEVELOPMENT GOALS Prepared by the East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region and the Broomfield Township Planning Commission 38 �V. A. TOWNSHIP DEVELOPMENT GOALS Community Attitudes Determining the desires and concerns of Broomfield Township's residents is perhaps the most important part of the planning process. If a plan is to be successful, then it must reflect the current desires of the citizens so that they can help realize its implementation. required for obtaining input from the community. Therefore, some mechanism is This can be accomplished through public meetings, scientific surveys, newspaper response forms, or q ues tionna. ires. In September 1985, the Planning Commission distributed questionnaires to 300 households in the Township, or about 73 percent of all the households according to the 1980 Census. There were 276 responses, representing about 67 percent of the Township and providing a 92 percent response rate for the survey. The questionnaire form and the distribution of responses are shown in the Appendix. The intent of this section of the plan is to . highlight the more significant aspects of the survey. The very high response rate should provide a good indication of community attitutes regarding future development and related planning issues. A brief profile of the responses reveals the fol lowing at ti tu des and cha rac te ris tics: 1. Nearly 89 percent of the respondents were homeowners, and a majority of these viewed their neighborhoods as predominantly farming areas. 2. The respondents felt very positively about the quality of life in Broomfield Town~hip. Nearly all felt tnat the Township is a desirable place to live, that it is safe, and that it is a good place to raise children. In addition, the gr-eat majority of respondents (90 to 94 percent) felt that the Township is a good place to retire, that their neighborhoods are attractive and peaceful, and that there is a spirit of neighborliness in the community. 3. Nearly all of the respondents thought that it is desirable to maintain the rural atmosphere of the Township and that agricultural lands should be preserved. 39 �4. Almost 78 percent of those surveyed thought that light industry in the Township should be expanded. 5. In general, development development respondents 6. In regard to various public services, most residents felt that the present levels of general road maintenance, snow removal, stormwater drainage, police, and fire protection are good to adequate. 7. Of the various additional comments provided, needs for road improvements and more recreation facilities were mentioned most frequently. 8. Some citizens also expressed their concerns regarding the storage of junk cars, general property maintenance arid esthetics, and commercial signs. most residents are in favor of of the Township in the future, must be carefully controlled. indicated support for Township some additional growth and but also feel that any new Specifically, 84 percent of the zoning. In summary, Broomfield Township's residents have indicated that they are generally quite satisfied with the quality of life in their community, and they want to preserve the qualities that make the Township an attractive place to live. The residents are willing to accomodate additional growth, but they want future development to occur in a logical and orderly manner. This Master Plan is in te oded to ac comp lis h just that. B. Goa ls ~ Objectives This section presents the goals and objectives that have been prepared to serve as a guide for the future development of Broomfield Township within a long-range (10 to 15 year) planning context. about future conditions in the Township. The goals are broad state1nents In a sense, their genera 1 nature represents little more than an overall attitude toward growth and development. The objectives suggest more specific courses of action that should be taken to accomplish the goals. The Township Planning Commission, as appointed representatives of the community, has the responsibility to prepare and adopt a set of goals that reflect the values and desires of the residents. The following goals and objectives have been prepared by the Planning Commission as a statement of the direction the Township should take as the 40 �Master Plan is implemented. These goals will also serve as a guide for the Township Board and Planning Co1umission as they evaluate development proposals, land use issues, and public improvement projects. In the absence of specific statements in the plan regarding a particular situation, the Township Board and Planning Commission should always ask: "Is the proposed action consistent with the adopted goals and objectives of the Township?" I. General Development Goal: To maintain the present rural atmosphere of the Township to the maximum extent possible. Objectives: 11. A. Preserve the "neighborly" feeling and "quiet living" qualities desired by Township residents. B. Preserve the qualities that make Broomfield Township an attractive place to live while also adequately providing for the future expansion of residential, commercial, and industrial development. Natural Resources and the Environment Goal: To provide for the wise use of the Township's land and water resources to maintain a high quality environment for all residents. Objectives: A. Provide for sound management and adequate protection of the Township's lakes, streams, and wetlands to maintain and improve the quality of the Township's water resources. B. Manage the Township's wooded areas for timber production, recreation, wildlife habitat, erosion control, and noise and dust mitigation. C. Provide visual relief in the form of natural settings and landscapes. D. Prevent the indiscriminate development of fragile environmental areas. E. Prevent groundwater contamination and overuse by giving careful at tent ion to the siting of ind us trial, commercial, and residential development. 41 �III. Agricultural Lands Goal: To preserve the Township's important farmlands for food and fiber production Objectives: IV. A. Maintain the agricultural sector of the local economy in a healthy and productive condition. B. Protect important farmlands from residential encroachment and conversion to non-farm uses. Residential Development Goal: To provide for residential development in such a manner that both the housing and the neighborhoods are safe, healthy, and attractive, while also providing a wide choice and adequate supply of dwelling units. 0 bj e c V. ti ve s : A. Reserve sufficient land for dispersed and more intensive residential uses in convenient, economical, and environmentally sound locations. B. Direct residential growth in a manner that will conserve land, prevent p~tterns of incompatible land uses, and develop a harmonious bl~nd of housing types. C. Uirect future intensive residential growth into logical neighborhood units that will permit the timely and economical development of utilities, road improvements, and other public services in a manner consistent with the Township's financial resources. Commercial Development Goal: To encourage sound commercial development in convenient and logical locations. Objectives: A. Encourage the development of a functional commercial use cluster, as opposed to strip development. B. Provide convenient and attractive shopping opportunities with adequate access and off-street parking. C. Maintain opportunities for commercial ventures with a reasonable assurance of economic stability. 42 �VI. Industrial Development Goal: To promote orderly light industrial development and expansion. Objectives: VI I. A. Increase local industrial employment opportunities. B. Develop a more stable and diversified economic base. C. Increase the industrial tax base of the Township. D. Encourage the development of an industrial park in a convenient, efficient, and fully improved location that provides good access and prevents conflicts with incompatible uses. E. Cooperate with existing industries in expansion plans to the maximum extent possible. F. Cooperate with county and regional industrial development agencies in promoting industrial development in the area. Transportation Goal: To develop a safe and efficient transportation system for all users. Objectives: VI II. A. Uevelop a coordinated and economical plan for improving local roads. B. Reduce conflicts among motor vehicles, non-motorized vehicles, and pedestrians. C. Utilize local roads and road improvements to direct future development into designated growth areas. Government~ Planning Goal: The Township should strive to improve the quality and efficiency of its services, and to promote cooperation and coordination with other uni ts of government. Objectives: A. Provide services at the lowest possible cost to the maximum number of residents. B. Continually monitor development trends and conditions to maintain a healthy and pleasant community. 43 �C. Periodically update and amend the Township Master Plan as conditions warrant. D. Develop and adopt additional land use controls, as necessary, which serve to improve the quality of life in Broomfield Township. 44 �... B R O O M F I E L D T O WN S H I P VI. MA S T E R P L AN TOWNSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN Prepared by the East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region and the Broomfield Township Planning Commission 45 �VI. A. TOWNSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN General Concepts The Broomfield Township Master Plan is a general plan for future development. It is intended to guide future growth into a development pattern that is logical, economical, esthetically pleasing, and environmentally sound. The basic concept that has directed the Plan's development is the desire to retain the rural atmosphere and natural resources that make Broomfield Township an attractive place to live while, at the same time, adequately providing for future growth. The Plan is designed to encourage a reasonable amount of new residential, commercial, and industrial development in a flexible, but controlled manner. Before the Township's long-range plan is presented in detail, the major concepts involved are outlined as follows: 1. A projected population of 1,700 is used for long-range planning purposes. This figure is a reasonable estimate of what the Township population will be within a reasonable time period. 2. The Plan advocates the preservation of the Township's farmlands for food and fiber production, and discourages the conversion of these lands to non-farm uses. 3. The Plan also seeks to retain much of the Township's wooded areas and natural features for recreation, forestry, wildlife, and esthetics. 4. Intensive residential development will be directed into designated growth areas so that public utilities and other services can be provided in a cost-effective manner. 5. Additional dispersed rural residential development will also be accommodated in a manner that is attractive, environmentally sound, and compatible with other land uses. 6. The Plan encourages the orderly growth of light industry in Section l near the existing Randell Manufacturing facility. 7. The Plan envisions the development of wastewater treatment facilities that will serve the intensive residential and light industrial growth areas. 8. So~e additional small-scale retail and service trade businesses might be desirable if they are developed in a manner consistent with the Township Development Goals (Section V). Also, there is the potential for development of recreationally oriented commercial enterprises that would 46 �capitalize on the Township's land and water resources. 9. Transportation will rely on M-20 for east-west traffic, while Coldwater Road will be the major north-south route. With these general planning concepts providing the framework, the Broomfield Township Master Plan is now presented in detail as it addresses the following elements: B. Land Use, Community Facilities, and Transportation. Land Use Plan The future directions for Broomfield Township's land use and environment are mainly shaped by the need to preserve existing farmlands and significant natural features, and by the Township's desire to retain a rural character. Beyond this, it is necessary to define the major land use categories and identify potential locations for residential, commercial, and industrial uses. The major land uses anticipated by this plan are described in the following discussion. Appropriate locations for these uses are shown on the Future Land Use Map (Figure V1- l) • l. Agricultural Areas These are areas of the Township which will be reserved primarily for farms and farming operations. As shown in the Future Land Use Map, these areas essentially include all the existing farmlands. In addition, these areas will accommodate limited single-family home development on relatively large lots (one acre or more) with frontage on section-line roads. It is the intention of the Plan that this type of rural residential development will occur in a dispersed fashion on soils that are not being farmed, or that are not well-suited to farming. The Agricultural Areas will provide for a controlled mixture of farms and country home sites where supporting services and facilities will not be required. The development policy implication of this land use category 47 �is that families desiring rural living can have that option, but not at ) the eocpense of farmland or farming operations. ~he Township expects the agricultural industry to dominate the character of these areae for the forseeable future. 2. Conservation Areas include much of the Township's forested lands, wetlands, and scenic natural features. The major uses envisioned for these areas are forestry and wood lot management, farming, recreation, and wildlife habitat. Hunting clubs and other recreation/conservation uses requiring large acreages will be included i~ this categor,-. areas will al30 accommodate rt The Consenaticn limited amount of dispersed, rural residential development on l~rge lots and with frontage on public roads. This type of development will ~ot require utilities or othar urban. services. Ey the action of the Connty Zoning Commission, they have zoned an area in cur towr.ship presviously designated as ~G-1 in the Master Plan to AG-2. F~ture zoning should consider this to remain AG-1 or~ aes1gnation that wil l refl~ct the forest co~servation area that it is, wit11 revisions to reflect current changes i n that ar~a eince 1986. 3. i ntensive Residential Areas will provide locations where compact residential forme such as plar.ned uni t developments, clustered housing, subdivisions, and mobile home J arks can be built. ~he main areas intended for this designation are the platted lots within the Lake Isabella project. Public util ities, especially wasterwater treatment, will be required for this type of development because of smaller lot sizes and higher densities. ~dditional uses will include parks, playgrounds, and related lake resort• oriented recreation f acilities. Tourist accomodations represent another potential use. By the action of the County Zoning Commission, they have zoned it to a Lake Residential (LR) wit h recent variance requirements in Broomfield Township only before building permits will be issued. 4. RESIDENTIAL CORRIDOR AREAS provide for dispersed residential development �on large lots with frontage on the Township's main paved roads. The areas specifically designated for this type of ·development are the Coldwater Road corridor and M-20 east of Coldwater Road. The Residential Corridor category acknowledges development patterns that are currently established in the Township end provides for their controlled expansion within a limited growth area. Futthermore, this category provides a transition zone between the I ntensive Residential areas and the areas designated for Agriculture end Conservation. 5. Light Industrial Area Il: keeping with the Township's D~velopmed Goals, ~n area has been designated f or future expan6io~ of light industry. The logical l ocation for additional industry is in Section 1, adjacent to the Rand•ll Manufacturir.g facility. acce s s to the site. Coldwater Road, a : ounty primary road, provides paved In addition, this area is in th~ vici:1ity of the pro- posed int~r.sive residential areas. This will permit an economical tie-in with anticipated wastewater treatment facilities. The Township's overall direction is toward the development of a full improved industrial park with convenient access and adequate utilities. By the action of the County Zoning Commission, they have classified a 15 acr~ parcel in Section 36 from AG-3 to I-1. They also changed the East 1/2 of Section 36 to an R-1 zoning and le f t the balance of the Section as AG-3. 6. Col!IITlercial Areas. Commercial development in Broomfield Township is presently very limited, consisiting of som~ small parcels near the Intersection of H-20 and Coldwater Road in Section 24. The exisiting businesses include an eating 'llld drinking t>6tablishment, and a convenience store. I n the future, some additional small, neighborhood-scale retail and service business could be accommodated in this general area since it provides a central location and good road access. Major shopping, however, .,_,ill continue to be done outside the township due to its proximity to a major trade center i n Mt. Pleasant. An alternative location for new commercial development is proposed in the vicinity of the intensiYe resider.tial area at Lake Isabella. :49= �Co1111ereial establishments in this area should provide convenience shopping and services to the neighborhood. Additional commercial opportunities might exist in this ar@a for businesses int ended to serve wat~r-baaed recreation activities, such as boating and fishing. Tourist aceo1111odations represent yet another busir.ess opportunity. C. Community Facilitieso The dellB.Ild for libraries, churches, medical clinics, and other community facilities cannot be precisely estimated. However, they are the types of facilities and services a community needs in order to offer a ufe and well-balanced place to live. As such, new facilities should be accommodated in a permissive, but controlled manner. Specifically, they should be conveniently located close to the intensive residential neighborhood areas. Gommunity facilities are not extensively developed in Broomfield Township. In the future, many facilities are services are expected to continue to be based outside the ·l 'ownehip. A major exception to this approach is the need for wastewater•·treatment facilities that has been previously meutioned. Thia issue will be discussed in morta detail in subseqeent sectione of this report. In general, this Master Plan er.visions the availability of community facilities as described in the following discussiono Existing and planned facilities are shown in Figure VI-2. 1. Health Services will continue to be located outside the township. Central Michigan Community Hospital will be the major inpatient and acute care facility. 2. POLICE and FIRE protection will continue to be provided by departments based outside the Township. As noted in the discussionof community attitudes (Section V), residents are generally satisfied with the present levels of services, and there is no strong support for creating police or fire departments within the Township. 3. Public School facilities will likewise be found outside the Township in the Chippewa Hills and Montabella districtso It is unlikely that Broomfield Township will acquire a subbicient number of school-age children within the -50- �planning period to justify an elementary school, especially considering the current trends toward smaller families and declining- school enrollllents. 4. Public Facilities include the Township Hall, parks, !lild cemetery. changes are expected in these !or the planning period. No major The closest public library is located in Weidman, and this arrangement is expected to ccntinue. Quasi-public facilitits in the Township include the Zion Lutheran Church ai:.d cemetery, and these are expected to remain stable for the long range period. By the action of the County Zoning Commission, they classifieti property surrounding Hall's Lake to LR (Lake Residential), it was pr~viously zoLed nG-3. This zoning extends !or 660 1 outward from the ordinary high water marks around the lake. ihere is a further cha~ge to R-1 zoning of land that joins the LR l a 1d en all four sides. This zoning of land that j0ins tr.e LR land on all four sides, this designation seems to ignore the existing AG-3 and \Jetlands. 5. r ublic Water and Sewer facilities are currently unavailable in the Township,. however, the lack of a co11111ur.ity wasterwater treatment system limits the high density resicential develof ment planned for the Lake Isabella area. Clear)y,, creative \,atewater treatment and disposal sy15te11s muet be studied to accomodate the desires of the cc~ity. Erooafield Town~hip i~ in a faTorable position t o proTide waetewater t~~atment in the near fUture. As preTiously ~entioned, a wasterwater system should logically be designed to service both the designated int dnsive residential and llght i~dustrial growth areas. Along these lines, construction of two stabilization lagoon cells intended to serve the Lake Isabella area began in Section I in the mid-19?0's. The facility was issued a discharge permit by the Michigan Department oi Natural Resources, but the syst~m never becuie operationalo However, there is now the opportunity to complete this system with the cooperation of Broomfield :ownship, Sherman Township, Isabella County, ana 'lhe priTate aector. This will be discussed in the "implemantation'' section of this plan. Since the completion o! the Macter plan in 1986, both Broomfield Township and the Connty Pla.,ning Commission have approved the zoning of the Lake Isabella industrial district as a Planned Unit District (PUD). -51- �D. Transportation Plan Broomfield To~nehip's Transportation system will continue to rely upon the etate and county roadsl. Major corridors will be M-20 for east-wwet access, a.l'ld Cold\Jater Road for the North-South traffic. Data obtained by the Michigan Department of Transportation in 1985 show average daily traffic volumee of 4,4oo 9 for M-20 near Wyman Road. Traffic counts for local roads are not currently available, but are expected to be obtained in the near tuture by the Isabella. Count:, Road Colllllli&Bion. Improvement of the Township road syetem is a goal stated earlier (section V). certain roads. As development occurs, it well be -necessary to upgrade These improvements will allow development to occur in a coordinated, controlled and less congested • annero Several recommended road improTements are listed below and shown in Figure VI-2. 1. Coldwater Road: Widening in the wicinity of Lake Isabella and t~e light industrial area to provide acceleration ar.d deceleration lanes. 2. Rolland Road: Extend pavement north to River Road. 3. River Road: Extend pavement ....-est to Roalland Road. In other as,ects ,)f transportation systems, public bus service is expe cted to continue to be provided to the Township through the Isabella County Transpcrtation Commission. Two priv~te air strips are presently located i"l. +:he Township, one in s~ctior. 1 and the othel" i i . .Saction :-;6. tfo chsnges arf: currently planned in either of these facilities. 52 �•• • •• •• •• • • •••••• •• I •• • • • • • •• I BROOMFIELD TOWNSHIP FUTURE LAND USE MAP D AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL RESIDENTIAL ~ CDNSERVATION -..... .-~,.• INTENSIVE RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL W;@'A LIGHT INDUSTRIAL B RESIDENTIAL CORRIDOR •• •• • • • • • • • • • ••• •• : • • fl • • • • • • • • •• •• •• • •• •• •• •• .....••·····••1. ····· .' ·:• ........ ~~ • • .• .• :• •• •••• •• • • • • • • ••• •• • • •• • • • • • • 1:• j J I _____ .......i____ _ I~ U ~-F: J M~-~-.:-------- E FIGURE VI-1 �BROOMFlfLD ·u· .. ~ BROOMFIELD TOWNSHIP COMM!JNITY FACILITIES AND TRANSPORTATION MAP FIGUP..E VI-2 W. \. 14 -N.-R E, /5'4,tH\t C ~ • PROPOSED WA8TEWA'fER FACILITY F1ll PROTECTION DISTRICT BOUNDARIES: ••••••••••••FD l WEATLANI>-REMUS 2 SHEBMAN-NOTTAYA FD 3 ~~~\tOLLAND FD •--_,. •- MA.JOB. ACCESS CORRIDORS --- PROPOSED ROAD IMPROVEMENTS �B R O O M F I E L D T O WN S H I P M A S T E R VII. IMPLEMENTATION 55 P L AN �VII. A. IMPLEMENTATION General Considerations To successfully implement any plan, it is essential that the plan itself be a realistic reflection of te character and aspirations of the community. If a plan has these characteristics, then it has already become part of the implementation process because it describes a future environment that is realistically available. Broomfield Township's plan does not envision dramatic change. In fact, the plan seeks to protect the resources and character that are associated with the Township's quality of life, while also adequately providing for future growth and development. The preparation and adoption of this Master Plan places Broomfield Township in a good position to direct future development. The plan is intended to be a viable working document that provides Township decision makers with a clearly stated set of goals and objectives for the Township's future. Therefore, the text and accompanying maps in this document should be consulted whenever a land use issue needs to be resolved. however, the plan retains a high degree of flexibility. At the same time, Furthermore, the plan avoids any attempt to portray the future in narrow terms. As such, the Broomfield Township Plan is written to anticipate change. However, simply having a plan is not enough - it must be put into effect. In this regard, the key consideration is public education. It is essential that the Township Board, Planning Commission, and the public understand the objectives of this plan. Plan implementation requires the continuous efforts of the Township's decision makers and the support of the public. Toward this end, the Planning Commission should take the initiative for promoting its activities to government bodies and the public. 56 �Beyond these broad considerations, there are a number of specific steps that need to be taken to successfully implement this plan. These are discussed in the following sections. B. Farmland~ Open Space Preservation It is a goal of the Township to preserve its important farmlands for food and fiber production, and to discourage the conversion of prime agricultural lands to non-farm uses. To complement this policy, agricultural property owners should be encouraged to enroll their land in the state's Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program, commonly referred to as Act 116. This program provides property owners with tax advantages for agreeing to continue to use their property for agriculture for a given period of time. To be eligible for the program, a farm must be a minimum size of 40 acres. Farms between 5 and 40 acres may also qualify, provided that they have a gross annual income of $200 per tillable acres. Specialty farms which meet the requirements of the Michigan Department of Agriculture may also qualify if their gross income is $2,000 or more. Agreements under the program run for a minimum of ten years and entitle the landowner to several benefits. Parcels enrolled in the Act 116 progralll are exempted from special assessments for sewers, water, or street lights. Property owners may also claim the amount by which property taxes on the enrolled acreage exceed seven percent of their household income on their state income tax. Statewide, the Act 116 program has been a fairly successful tool for minimizing farmland conversion. Since the program's inception in 1974, 17,500 property owners have enrolled approximately 3,550,000 acres. In Broomfield Township, only a very small portion - about 8 percent - of the total farmland acreage is currently enrolled under Act 116. 57 Farmland �preservation goals would be greatly enhanced if a substantially greater proportion of the Township's agricultural lands were enrolled in the program. It is not necessary for all farmlands to be enrolled to achieve the agricultural preservation goal. For example, other planning studies have found that enrollment of roughly 50 percent of the total farmland in a township effectively prevents most non-farm development pressure on adjacent lands. In a similar manner, lands may be enrolled under the "Open Space" portion of the Act 116 program to preserve natural and scenic resources. Designation under this status would be appropriate for some of the Township's prime forest lands and other significant natural features. c. Light Industrial Development Industries have rather unique location and design requirements in the sense that capital outlays for plants and equipment easily run into the millions of dollars. For this reason alone, industrial firms want reasonable guarantees that their investments will be justified. The community that can offer these assurances will have a head start in attracting new firms and expanding existing ones. Broomfield Township has already taken positive steps in this direction by clearly stating its industrial development policies and by designating a logical service area for future industrial growth. Additional efforts to enhance industrial development opportunities will involve community infrastructure improvements, such as roads and sewers. Also, the Township should work closely with agencies such as Middle Michigan Development Corporation to actively ·promote the Township's assets and attract new industry to the area. 58 �D. Wastewater Treatment Facilities As previously stated, Broolllfield Township has designated the Lake Isabella area for future intensive residential development. However, on-site wastewater treatment techniques (septic systems) will not alone support the total growth desired for this area. Other means of wastewater treatment must be introduced to the community if development is to take place as envisioned by the Township. Broomfield Township now has the opportunity to move forward to the construction of a wastewater stabilization lagoon facility to serve the Lake Isabella residential area and the proposed light industrial site. The proposed service area would also include the rest of the Lake Isabella project that is located in Sherman Township. Engineering studies were being conducted for the facility as this Master Plan was being prepared. The successful completion of this project will require the cooperative efforts of Broomfield Township, Sherman Township, Isabella county, and private development interests. E. Legal Implementation Tools Zoning is the primary legal tool for plan implementation. While a master plan provides the guiding policies and concepts, a zoning ordinance spec i fically regulates the use of land and buildings. In short, zoning translates the plan into legally enforceable regulations. Broomfield Township does not presently have its own zoning ordinance, but is instead under the jurisdiction of the Isabella County Zoning Ordinance. County zoning has a number of advantages in its favor. For example, county zoning tends to consolidate ordinance administration and enforcement along with the closely related functions of building inspection and building code enforcement. County zoning has the added benefit of providing the services of 59 �the County Prosecutor's office in matters of zoning violations or litigation. On the other hand, a township zoning ordinance could be more specifically tailored to plan implementation and local needs. In the survey of community attitudes conducted by the Broomfield Township Planning Commission, 84 percent of the respondents indicated support for township zoning. Local zoning would, however, shift the responsibility for administration and enforcement to the Township. These factors will need to be weighed by the Township officials before any decision is made. The preparation and adoption of a local zoning ordinance will, however, remain an option that is open to Broomfield Township, depending on local needs and preferences. F. Short-Term Action Recommendations There are a number of actions that the Planning Commission, Township Board, and interested citizens can initiate immediately. and can be accomplished rather quickly. Some are short-range Others, may take much longer to complete or should be done on a continual basis. However, all these steps should be started now in order to accomplish the long-range objectives of the Master Plan. 1. The Planning Commission should begin a comprehensive review and analysis of the Isabella County Zoning Ordinance as it pertains to Broomfield Township. Special attention should be given to identifying ways the ordinance may help implement this Plan and areas where there may be conflicts. 2. The Planning Commission should carefully review all proposed Township zoning changes that are presented to the Isabella County Planning Commission. 3. The Township should pursue sewer system grants and other appropriate funding sources for the construction of needed facilities. 4. The Township should initiate a detailed study of commercial needs, including seasonal tourist-oriented and year-round investment potentials. S. The Township should prepare and implement a Capital Improvement Program, including a schedule for mprovements to the road system and other community infrastructure. 60 �F. Continued Planning The completion of this Master Plan does not signal the end of the planning process; in fact, it is the beginning. This plan is a set of guidelines for Township officials and the public to use in directing and regulating future growth. Due to the changing nature of the marketplace and society in general, future growth may take many forms that no one can accurately predict. To keep pace with changing development trends, the Planning Commission should thoroughly review the Master Plan every ~ree to five years and make changes a$ necessary to keep the Plan current and viable. Planning provides a rational problem-solving approach to the complex issues that face communities. In this respect, it must be emphasized that it is the regular activity of planning, not the resulting documents, that is most important. As a continuation of this Master Plan, t~ere will be a need for other functional plans and studies. The Township should draft and adopt plans and policies for parks and recreation, public facilities, and other areas of capital improvements. These plans will, in turn, expand the scope of this Master Plan and help keep Broomfield Township a healthy and attractive place to live. 61 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Broomfield-Twp_Master-Plan_1987 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-01 Title A name given to the resource Broomfield Township Master Plan Description An account of the resource The Broomfield Township Master Plan was prepared by the East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region and the Broomfield Township Planning Commission and was adopted in January 1987. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Broomfield Township Planning Commission (consultant) Subject The topic of the resource Master plan reports Broomfield Township (Mich.) Isabella County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f7e3e5a3072f85c5a4ad0434c0c116b7.pdf af1fc90d68f8e5a3ee08265605ac6911 PDF Text Text [ I I ISABELLA COUNTY @@~~~[g[M][g~@□\Y/[g ~lb&~ ~--1986----- �FR~M THE LIBRARY OF Planning & Zoning Center, I nc. ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN I • INTRODUCTION II. PHYSICAL FEATURES Prepared by: EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT �• • II II I S ABE L LA C O U NT Y BOARD OF C O MMI S S I O N E R S October 1986 Steve Rudoni, Chairperson Thomas Gross Max Berry James McBryde Richard Curtiss Gladys Mitchel 1 Robert Decker I S ABE L L A C O U NT Y P L A N N I NG C O MMI S S I O N October 1986 George Bowlby (past member) Delbert Ringquist (past member) Bernard Flint Norman Rowan Wayne Husted, Chairperson William Ruddell (past member) Evelyn Kent (Chairperson, 1985) Richard Sherbarth Marnie Leitch Pamela Webb-Driscoll (past member) Katharine Lindfors Larry Wentworth (past me~ber) Bruce Pape Howard Quackenbush, Secretary �I S ABE L LA C O U NT Y D E P A R T M E N T O F R E S O U R C E MA N A G E M E N T Bruce Rohrer, Director Caroline Ramsey, Recording Secretary Dan Jones, Planning Assistant (Former) E AS T C E N T R A L MI C H I G A N P L A N N I N G D E V E L O P M E NT R E G I O N Douglas Bell, Chief Planner Shelly Rajewski, Program Planner Karen Johnson, Secretary Donald Platt, Executive Director ■ ■ ■ I AND �TABLE OF CONTENTS C Page Section I. INTRODUCTION A. B. c. • • I I. PHYSICAL FEATURES A. B. C. D. E. F. I I I. E. F. G. H. I. J. • • • Airports Libraries Health Services County Facilities Parks and Recreation Public Water Supplies Public Sewer Facilities Fire Protection Police Agencies Public Education Facilities 2 3 5 8 8 12 17 20 20 25 28 29 34 39 39 43 47 49 50 50 53 54 55 58 60 60 62 62 PLAN DEVELOPMENT 65 A. 66 66 67 B. C. VI. Topography and Surface Features Soils Climate Surface Water Resources Groundwater Resources Agricultural Lands COMMUNITY FACILITIES A. B. C. D. V. Land Use Population Housing Characteristics Transportation Cultural Constraints Local Economy ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES A. B. C. D. E. F. IV. Purpose and Enabling Legislation Administrative Structure History of Isabella County 1 Introduction Methodology Community Input COUNTY DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 72 �TABLE OF CONTENTS ■ Section VII. • I VIII. ~ • • • • • • ~ ~ • • • • Page AGRICULTURAL COMPONENT 79 A. B. C. D. 80 80 91 92 THE LAND USE PLAN A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. J. IX. X. Introduction Agriculture in Isabella County Methodology Important Farmlands I dent i fi cation General Concepts Agricultural Lands Inland Lake Districts Primary Trade Center Secondary Trade Centers Rural Trade Centers Community Facilities Parks and Recreation Areas Other Considerations 97 98 100 101 101 102 102 103 104 106 IMPLEMENTATION 108 A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. 109 110 111 116 116 119 120 122 General Considerations The Need for Cooperative Planning Farmland Issues The Chipµewa River Corridor Inland Lake Issues Local Planning and Zoning Revision of the County Zoning Ordinance Short-Term Implementation and Continued Planning APPEND ICES A. B. C. D. Bibliography Plan Review and Adoption Documentation Community Participation Supplementary Social and Economic Data �LIST OF TABLES Page Table • I •• ~ I I I I I-1 General Land Cover/Use 10 I I-2 Historical Population Data 14 I 1-3 Population Projections 15 II-4 Social Characteristics 16 Il-5 Increase in Housing Units 19 11-6 Local Historic and Cultural Sites 24 11-7 Isabella County Employment Categories 26 11-8 Major Isabella County Employers 27 IV-1 Public and Quasi-Public Water Supplies 59 I V-2 Public School Enrollments 64 VI I-1 County Agricultural Statistics 89 VII-2 County Crops Harvested 90 �I I I I ~ I I I I I I LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure I-1 Administrative Structure 4 I I-1 General Land Use 11 II-2 Historic and Cultu ra 1 Sites · 24 I I I-1 Topography and Surface Features 33 I I I-2 General Soil Map 37 I I I-3 Soil Erodibility 38 III-4 Drainage Basins 42 I II-5 Groundwater in Bed rock 45 I I 1-6 Groundwater in Gl ac i a1 Deposits 46 IV-1 Regional Airports 52 IV-2 County Parks 57 I V-3 Fire Protection Districts 61 IV-4 School Districts VII-1 Number of Farms 65 83 VI I-2 Average Farm Size 84 VII-3 Average Farm Value 85 VI I-4 Average Value Per Acre 86 VI I-5 Total Farmland Acreage 87 VII-6 Total Cropland Acreage 88 VII-7 Prime Farmland Soils 94 vu.:.8 Act 116 Farmlands 95 VI 1-9 Isabella County Farmlands 96 VII I-1 Future Land Use Map 107 �I. INTRODUCTION I • A. Purpose and Enabling legislation The purpose of this planning study of Isabella County is to prepare a Master Plan that will meet the following objectives: I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 1. Prepare a plan that is consistent with the County Planning Act, Act 282 of 1945, as amended. Among other duties, the Act states that a County Planning Commission s ha 11 : a. Make studies, investigations, and surveys relative to the economic, social and physical developments of the county; b. Formulate plans and make recommendations for the most effective economic, social, and physical development of the county; c. Cooperate with all departments of the state and federal governments and other public agencies concerned with programs directed toward the economic, social, and physical development of the county, and seek the maximum coordination of the county programs of these agencies; d. Consult with representatives of adjacent counties in respect to their planning so that conflicts in over-all county plans may be avoided. 2. Prepare a plan that is technically sound and that focuses on current issues. 3. Provide a means for the municipalities within the county to participate in the planning process. 4. Provide a means for county residents to participate in the plan development process. 5. Provide information and a broad framework for the county's decision-makers to assist them in routine matters. This will identify both the limitations and the opportunities facing the county. 6. Search for innovative, creative, and sound ways to improve the environment of Isabella County in a manner that is consistent with community goals. 2 �B. Administrative Structure The basic administrative structure for Isabella County planning and zoning functions is depicted in Figure I-1. As shown, the appointed nine-member Planning Commission acts as an advisory body to the Board of Commissioners. There is also an appointed five-member Zoning Board of Appeals as specified in the County Rural Zoning Enahling Act (Act 183 of 1943). Professional staff is maintained in the Department of Resource Management, which includes the County Engineer and engineering technicians, and a Planning Assistant. Personnel responsible for zoning administration and code enforcement are located in a separate department. Staff includes the Building and Zoning Official, and Plumbing, Electrical, and Mechanical Inspectors. 3 �------------- •• BASIC ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE COUNTY PLANNING & ZONING FUNCTIONS FIGURE I-1 VOTING PUBLIC . . . BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 7 Elected Members COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Appointed ' .... I DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT OCle Enforcement ....... STAFF Engineering Staff PLANNING COMMISSION 9 Members Appointed Planning Assistant ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS 5 Membeis Appointed ....... ..... .. . . . ..... .. . . . ..... ....... . . . . . . .. Administrative Interaction . . . . . . . . Advisory Interaction --- �I C. History of Isabella County Isabella County is located in the center of the lower peninsula of Michiyan. This area contained, at one time, one of the most magnificent pine and hardwood forests in all of the Great Lakes region. It served as part of the winter hunting grounds for the Chippewa Indians who lived in and around what is now the State of Michigan. The Chippewa Indians may have lived and travelled in this region for as many as 10,000 years before the appearance of white explorers and settlers. Father Henry Novel, successor to Father Marquette, spent a winter in this area in 1675 with the Beaver Clan of the Chippewa Indians. It was almost 200 years before the white man returned to the Central Michigan area. Isabella County was desiynated as a separate county in 1831. It was not until 1850 that lumbermen, migrating westward from Maine, took an active interest in the lumber potential of this region. settlers of this area arrived in 1854. The first permanent These early settlers were for the most part, lumbermen and Chippewa Indians. The Chippewa Indians from throughout the state came to settle in Isabella County in accordance with an 1855 treaty that designated nearly six townships in the county as the Chippewa Indian Reservation. To support these early settlers, both Indian and white, the Indian Mills were established in 1857. saw mill, grist mill and blacksmith shop. These consisted of a A stone marker now stands at this historical site where the Indian Mills operated from 1857 until 1870. This marker is located north of Mt. Pleasant on Old US-27 on the north side of the Chippewa River and on the west side of the road. The land now occupied by the City of Mt. Pleasant was at one time a 200 acre parcel of white pine. This land was purchased, platted, and named Mt. 5 I I I I I I I I I I �-I I I I I Pleasant by a lumberman, David Ward, in 1863. The white pine trees were lumbered off to clear the site for the city. The last treaty with the Chippewa Indians of the Saginaw Swan Creek and Black River Bands was signed on October 18, 1865 at the Isabella Indian Reservation. This treaty designated all unsold land in six townships, nearly 100,000 acres, as belonging to the Chippewa Indians. The next 20 years were marked by continuing legal difficulties as farmers and Indians arrived in an area where lumbering interest held vast I I I I I I I I I I I I I ill-defined tracts of land. With legal technicalities and difficulties in interpreting the law, the ensuing claims and counter claims as to boundary lines and property ownership reduced the reservation to just two sections which now remain in Chippewa Township. In 1893 an Indian industrial school was established on the reservation by the federal government. Grades K-9 were taught there and the curriculum included home economics, construction, carpentry, brick laying, arts and crafts, and other trades. The school was highly regarded and was thought by some to be superior to the public school system at that - time~ This school proved to be a valuable asset to the Indians of the reservation throughout its 40 year existence. The early 1900 1 s brought a steady decline in farm employment due largely to modern technology and labor saving equipment. This loss of employment in the county was offset by the upstart of the petroleum industry in Isabella County. The first commercial oil production was established in 1928 ten miles east of Mt. Pleasant. The need for petroleum products, which was created by America's involvement in World War II, led to further oil 6 �I field discoveries throughout the county. Today Mt. Pleasant is considered to be the "Oil Capital of Michigan." Further influencing the growth of Isabella County was the state's need for hiyher education. This need led to the establishment of the Central Michigan Normal School in 1892. 1954. The school was granted University status in Central Michigan University has since grown to an annual enrollment I I I ~ of approximately 16,000 students. •I NOTE: I I I The preceding section on the history ·of Isabella County was prepared by the Isabella County Department of Resource Management. •I 7 i �----------------- I I I I I I I I I I 1· I I II. A. PHYSICAL FEATURES Land Use With the exception of the Mt. Pleasant urbanized area and the Villages of Shepherd and Rosebush, Isabella County is largely rural with agriculture as its primary land use. Residential development is concentrated in the City of Mt. Pleasant, in adjacent Union and Chippewa Townships, and in the smaller incorporated communities of Shepherd and Rosebush. Existing land use is categorized in Table II-1 and illustrated in Figure II-1. Commercial development exists mainly in the Mt. Pleasant area, and along the US-27 business route and the M-20 corridor. Industry is concentrated in industrial park areas in Mt. Pleasant and adjacent Union and Chippewa Townships. Some additional scattered industrial development exists near the unicorporated places of Blanchard and Winn, in Broomfield Township, and in Shepherd. Central Michigan University and the Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities, both in the Mt. Pleasant area, are the two major state-owned public institutions in the county. Significant residential development has taken place in Sherman and Broomfield Townships in the vicinity of Lake Isabella. This represents a trend of attracting both year-round and seasonal residents to these areas. Additional concentrations of residential development are found in the unincorporated communities of Millbrook, Blanchard, Winn, Loomis, Beal City, and Weidman. The unincorporated Vernon City area, at the north county line, is strongly associated with the City of Clare in Clare County. Residential expansion has also occurred in Deerfield and Coldwater Townships, and in the Coldwater and Littlefield Lake areas. 8 �i In addition to its developed and cultivated areas, Isabella County possesses abundant lakes, streams, and wooded lands. These areas provide both residents and tourists with numerous recreational opportunities. These features have also provided attractive sites for year-round and seasonal residential development. It should be noted that Isabella County has completed a Current Use Inventory as part of the Michigan Resource Inventory Program. been submitted to the DNR Land Resource Programs Division. The data have The final maps and related information should be available in late 1986 or early 1987. The land use data and accompanying maps produced through this program provide an extremely valuable tool for future planning efforts. The land use inventory is highly detailed, as all parcels five acres or larger are categorized. The land use data currently provided in Table II-1 and Figure II-1 should be considered preliminary estimates based on a number of sources. They should be replaced by the much more accurate Current Use Inventory when it becomes available. 9 �"I I I I I I I I I I I I I TABLE II-1 ISABELLA COUNTY GENERAL LAND COVER/USE·, 1985 ACRES PERCENT OF TOTAL Agriculture 238,200 64.4 Forest Land 85,400 23.1 Water Areas 3,300 1.0 Urban and Built-Up 7,600 2.1 Transportation 11,900 3.2 Minor Cover/Uses 23,400 6.2 369,800 100.0 LAND COVER/USE TOTAL Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1982 Resource Inventory, Isabella County, Michigan. 10 �• • • • • • • • • •■ C5C.EOL>. co . • V E. R..tJ ON II ~ . , I· ~r: • _L • NOTE: THIS MAP SHOWS THE MA.JOR LAND USES IN GENERAL FORM ONLY• IT DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO SHOW THE PRECISE LOCATION OF EVERY PARCEL OR CATEGORY OF LAND USE IM THE COUNTY • ■ • • • • • • • •r. €3 • • I .. FIGURE II - 1 I LAND USE (J URBAN ~ RESIDENTIAL CONCENTRATIONS D AGRICULTURAL ■ WOODS, BRUSH & SWAMP I] PARKS, RECREATION & OTHER PUBLIC SOURCE: ISABELLA COmTY CURRENT USE INVENTORY (PRELIKINAllY), MICHIGAN RESOURCES INVENTORY PROGRAM, MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, 1985 • • co. •• ISABELLA COUNTY. MICHIGAN �I I I I I I I I I I I I B. Population To provide a framework for a discussion of social characteristics, it should first be noted that Isabella County is influenced by a number of emerging national trends that will have short and long-term impacts. Among the major influencing trends are: Continuing decline in family size over the next decades. Average family size dropped by 1/2 a person over the past ten years and will approach the same figure over the next decade. This reduced size is due to fewer children in traditional families, more married couples deciding against having children, a greater number of single person households, and an increased proportion of elderly households. - Median age will continue to rise substantially as the post World War II baby boom ages and as children decline as a proportion of the population while senior citizens increase. Along with this, the median years of schooling will most likely continue to increase. - Economic growth will focus principally on the service and high-technology areas rather than on traditional heavy industry. - Most growth will probably continue to shift to rural areas where people will either commute into urban areas (like Mt. Pleasant) or into smaller rural towns (like Shepherd). . - The Great Lakes States like Michigan will probably continue to lose economic and population growth over the next decade, but they may become more attractive over several decades because of their major resource of fresh water supply. - Family size, economics, and compactness in life style, will result in somewhat smaller housing units and more development of townhouses, apartments and other intensive, more efficient housing. With these perspectives and purposes in mind, this plan can focus on the specific conditions of Isabella County. 12 �Historical population data for Isabella County and its political subdivisions are shown in Table II-2. On a county-wide basis, the population more than doubled during 1940-80. population increased about 21 percent • In 1970-80, the county However, many of the outlying townships experienced a much higher growth rate. Most notably, Broomfield and Sherman Townships each increased by over 70 percent , and Deerfield Township grew by more than 50 percent. Population projections are shown in Table II-3. population growth is expected to be more moderate. In the future, The projections show a net population increase of about 6 percent for the county during 1980-1990. Beyond this, the population will continue to grow at a rate of about 14.5 percent during 1990-2010. It must be stressed that these project,ons are based on historical trends and information on existing conditions. In the future, other factors that cannot be predicted may significantly affect the rate of population change. Age distributions, racial characteristics, and income levels for the county have been summarized in Table II-4. In comparison to the state, the Isabella County population is younger and composed of fewer small children and persons over 65. This trend is reflected most strongly in the figures for Mt. Pleasant. In very general terms, it may be said that Isabella County residents are younger and a bit less affluent when compared to the state averages. Additional selected social and economic data are shown in the appendix. 13 �•I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I TABLE II-2 ISABELLA COUNTY Population per U.S. Census Local Unit 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 738 1, 191 2,128 628 882 916 901 610 1,456 1,097 1,358 1,032 887 1,767 1,071 907 616 1 , 151 2,046 619 842 799 885 566 1,381 1,021 1,263 942 682 2,596 1,092 1,070 672 1,648 2,458 494 1,063 856 896 536 1,543 1,109 1,358 1,003 634 3,932 1,214 1,057 727 2,552 2,803 531 1,419 921 1,010 606 1,757 1,254 1,758 927 819 4,611 1,310 1,065 1,246 3,784 3,141 2,160 1,059 1,215 966 1,916 1,698 2,042 1,105 1,405 5,306 1,389 1,218 Townships Broomfield Chippewa Coe Coldwater Deerfield Denver Fremont Gilmore Isabella Lincoln Nottawa Rolland Sherman Union Vernon Wise 714 Villages Shepherd Rosebush 852 899 1,293 1,416 439 1,534 336 8,413 11,393 14,875 20,52~ 23,746 25,982 28,964 35,348 44,594 54,110 ~ Mt. Pleasant TOTAL �\. L TABLE II-3 ISABELLA COUNTY Population Project;ons for Local Units County totals supplied by Michigan Department of Management and Budget. C.M.U. figures supplied by Mt. Pleasant D~pt. of Community Affairs. Local Unit 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 1,292 3,967 3,276 730 2,261 1,095 1,263 990 1,989 1,770 2,125 1,122 1,432 5,650 1,427 1,266 1,384 4,296 3,529 772 2,446 1,169 1,356 1,048 2,134 1,906 2,285 1,177 1,507 6,213 1,514 1,360 1,551 4,870 3,964 853 2,768 1,285 1,513 1,160 2,329 2,147 2,571 1,292 1,660 7,124 1,638 1,497 1,625 5,160 4,162 882 2,930 1,321 1,579 1,202 2,375 2,262 2,706 1,326 1,709 . 7 ,633 1,654 1,540 1,669 5,359 4,300 894 3,038 1,349 1,623 1,220 2,440 2,336 2,789 1,334 1,725 8,046 1,697 1,580 1,703 5,528 4,412 899 3,129 1,368 1,658 1,229 2,491 2,395 2,856 1,332 1,729 8,420 1,729 1,610 1,621 1,769 2,021 2,158 insufficient data for projections · 2,259 2,348 Town~h_i.e_s Broomfield Chippewa Coe Coldwater Deerfield Denver Fremont Gilmore Isabella 'Lincoln Nottawa Rolland Sherman Union Vernon Wise Vil_l ag~s Shepherd Rosebush City C.M.U. 15,978 Ba 1 • of City -~0§! Mt. Pleasant 23,047 15,650 _]_,.§.5± 23,204 13,230 8,447 2f~677 13,500 8,833 22,333 13,750 9,051 22,aoY 13,900 9,211 23,111 TOTAL 59,702 57 ,300 59,899 62,399 64,200 65,599 NOTE: For calculating Mt. Pleasant projections, CMU enrollments were b~eken - -. down as follows: 20% out-of-city commuters; 45% living on campus; 35% _ living off-campus with 90% of these living in the city. • �I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I TABLE II-4 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS AGE DISTRIBUTION(%) UNDER 5 POLITI CAL UN IT MICHIGAN ISABELLA COUNTY Mt. Pleasant City Shepherd Village Rosebush Village & 18 OVER --- 7.4 6.6 3.7 8.0 7.4 70.3 75.2 86.8 66.8 64.3 & 65 OVER --9.8 7.1 6.2 9.6 13 .4 MEDIAN AGE 28.8 22.7 21.5 26.7 27 .1 RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS RACE White Black American Indian Other Spanish Origin* NUMBER % OF TOTAL 52,326 488 681 615 (662) 96.7 0.9 1.3 1.1 ( 1.2) *Also recorded as White I NCO ME POLIT I CAL UN IT MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD MEDIAN FAMILY FAMILIES _!Ii POVERTY (%) MICHIGAN ISABELLA COUNTY Mt. Pleasant Shepherd Rosebush $19,224 15,002 13,576 17,995 12,266 $ 22,108 18,318 19,293 20,450 16,429 10 .4 18 .9 16 29.8 7.5 15.6 �C. Housing Characteristics During 1970-80, Isabella County experienced a significant increase in the number of housing units that was substantially larger than the statewide increase in housing (Table II-5). Much of this can be attributed to the general trend of rural areas growing faster than the cities and to the rapid growth of Central Michigan University. As in many other communities, the increase in housing greatly exceeded the population growth. The portions of the county showing the largest increases in housing are generally either in locations adjacent to the urbanized areas or in places that provide attractive environmental features such as wooded lots or water frontage. More detailed housing data for the county and its political subdivisions are provided in the appendix. Median housing values in the county are high in relation to the state average. The range of values indicates that the highest values are generally associated with Mt. Pleasant and the adjacent town~hips, and with fairly new housing development in Deerfield Township. Lower housing values are concentrated in the outlying townships that are intensely agricultural and less densely populated. This refle~ts a commonly seen relationship between cities and their outlying rural areas. The Appendix data also show that the majority of homes are owner-occupied, rather than occupied by renters. The only exception to this is in Mt. Pleasant with its large student population. The 1980 Census also provides information on the age of existing housing units. Of the county's housing units, about 28 percent of the present structures were built in 1939 or before. These surveys also indicated a total housing requirement for low to moderate income persons of 2,528 units although 17 �' 'I only 553 units available. The adjusted need is for 1,861 new units and 569 rehabilitated units. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 18 �TABLE II-5 INCREASE IN HOUSING UNITS .. HOUSING UNITS 1980 % I NCR EASE 21.4 42.8 POLITICAL UNIT 1970 MICHIGAN ISABELLA COUNTY 12,149 17,344 4,820 6,439 559 136 33.6 264 708 849 182 433 251 338 302 523 226 615 356 316 1,380 449 291 479 1,319 1,093 264 742 397 400 351 703 566 805 408 517 1,954 487 420 81.4 86.3 28.7 45.0 71.4 58.2 18.3 16.2 34.4 150.4 30.9 14.6 63.6 41.6 8.5 44.3 MT. PLEASANT Shepherd Rosebush Townships Broomfield Chippewa Coe Coldwater Deerfield Denver Fremont Gilmore Isabella Lincoln Nottawa Rolland Sherman Union Vernon Wise " '• ~ I Ill I I I I I I 19 I I I �f f Ii I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I D. Transportation The main north-south route is US-27. State Highway M-20 is the main east-west route and cuts across the approximate center of the county. The two major routes intersect in Mt. Pleasant, the residential, commercial, and inqustrial center of the County. Isabella County is served by 1,315 miles of roads. miles and 1,237 rural miles. These include 78 urban Urban mileage includes state trunklines, roads, and local streets within incorporated cities and villages. Rural mileage includes primary and local county roads and rural trunklines. Rail service is currently provided to Isabella County by the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railroad. The portions of this line that extend through Gratiot, Isabella, and Clare Counties were purchased by the State of Michigan and a subsidy was provided to the ConRail system to operate this section. Transportation in Isabella County is also served by the Mt. Pleasant Municipal Airport and by private inter-city bus lines. Public transportation is available through a countywide bus service, provided by the Isabella Co. Transportation Commission, that has grown steadily since its organization in 1974. E. Both fixed-route and demand service are available. Cultural Constraints Cultural constraints are defined as manrnade features that limit development. Such constraints can take the form of physical barriers, or they can be features protected by legislative action. fall into the following categories: Cultural constraints generally 1) historical and archaeological sites, 2) highways and railroads, and 3) state and federal lands. 20 �Barriers imposed by highways and railroads in Isabella County have been identified in II-D, 11 Transportation. 11 In another category of constraints, there are 1,880 acres of state-owned land in Isabella County. The bulk of this is located in Denver Township and forms part of the Chippewa River State Forest. Another parcel of committed land is the 510-acre Saginaw-Chippewa Indian Reservation in Chippewa Township. An additional 800 acres of Reservation lands are distributed in 21 allotments in six townships. Local sites of historic and cultural value are listed in Table II-6 and their locations shown in Figure II-2. Only four of these are actually listed on the State Register of Historic Places: Doughty House, Central Michigan University, St. John's Episcopal Church, and Mission Creek Cemetery. However, the other sites are of major importance because of their local significance. Additional sites have been recommended by the Planning Commission. Very little information is available concerning archeological resources in Isabella County. Studies conducted in neighboring Midland and Gratiot Counties have identified archeological sites ranging in age from the Paleo-Indian period (roughly 12,000 years ago) to recent times. Most sites were small camps of the Late Woodland period ( roughly AD 600 - 1600). would expect the sites in Isabella County to be quite similar. One The few known archeological sites that have been identified in Isabella County are located in Union, Chippewa, and Deerfield Townships, and have also been listed in Table II-6. 21 • �TABLE II-6 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I LOCAL HISTORIC AND CULTURAL SITES SITE MAP NUMBrn 1. Bader Bldg. (now the 2. Ferro Manufacturing Bldg. (now Pickard Industrial Park - site of WWII manufacturing) 3. Mt. Pleasant Regional Center (site of former Indian School) 4. Doughty House 5. Simmons Jewelers (original site of CMU) 6. Isabella Co. Fairgrounds (not shown) 7. CMU Cultural and Natural History Museum 8. Indian Mills Site (not shown) 9. Harris Mill 11 CreaJT1ery 11 ) 10. Sacred Heart Academy 11. St. John's Episcopal Church 12. Riverside Cem~tery 13. Clark Historical Library 14. Gerald Poor Museum 15. Mt. Pleasant Railroad Line 16. Ori gi na 1 Post Office 17·. Saginaw - Chippewa Indian Reservation 18. Art Reach Center 19. Calgary Cemetery 20. Mission Creek Cemetery 22 �TABLE II-6 (continued) LOCAL HISTORIC AND CULTURAL SITES Additional areas sugyested by the Isabella County Planning Commission (not Mapped): GENERAL LOCATION SITE Blanchard, Rolland Township Blanchard Millpond Sherman/Coldwater Townships Sherman City area Rolland Township, Section II Indian burial mounds Isabella County Archeo1ogical Sites*: Union Township, Sections 1 and 2 Chippewa Township, Section 9 Deerfield Township, Sections 20, 22, and 33 *Information provided by Archeology Section, Bureau of History, Michigan Department of State, January 1986. • • • I 23 �J Ir 11 Ii f 'I I I I I I I I I I I I I ISABELLA JIISTORIC AND COUNTY CITY OF Mr AND VICINiiYPLEASANT FIGURE II-2 �~ F. Local Economy Isabella County data for general employment categories, numbers of employees, and payroll amounts are displayed in Table II-7. This information shows that the categories with the largest numbers of employees are in the professional services (health, education, etc.), retail trade, and manufacturing areas. In terms of payroll, the largest industries are services ($34 million), retail trade ($26 million), manufacturing ($23 million), and oil and gas extraction ($17 million). Major Isabella County employers are listed in Table II-8 along with their products and numbers of employees. Central Michigan University is by far the largest single employer with over 2,000 employees. The Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities and Central Michigan Community Hospital employ over 1,000 persons in the health care and human services areas. Several firms engaged in oil and gas exploration and production employ over 500 persons. About 900 persons are employed at several manufacturing firms. In addition to specific data on Isabella County employers, the 1980 Census (Summary Tape File 3A) also provides information on where people work. These figures show that roughly 80 percent of the Isabella County labor force works within the county, and about 20 percent commute outside the county for employment. The majority of the commuters travel to the Tri-City (Midland-Bay City-Saginaw) or the Lansing metropolitan areas to work. These commuting patterns are made possible by the highway system, fuel efficient automobiles and, to some extent, the current lower fuel prices. 25 • • • • • • • • • • • _I �• • • •~ • • • Table 11-7 ISABELLA COUNTY EMPLOYMENT CATEGORIES Industry # Agric., Forestry, Fis he ri es of Firms Emp 1oyees Payroll J.1 7 24 203 Mining (incl. Oil & Gas) 34 674 17,148 Construction 74 317 5,464 Manufacturing 41 1,203 22,969 Transport. & Utilities 23 218 4,252 Wholesale Trade 72 726 15,311 296 3,260 26,413 Finance, Insurance, Real Estate 81 577 8,393 Health Services 56 1,081 15,695 Other Services 225 2,212 18,255 Non-Classified 69 79 1,407 121 620 Retai 1 Trade Federal Civilian Source: ECMPDR, 1986 26 000 1 s) �Table II-8 MAJOR ISABELLA COUNTY EMPLOYERS EMPLOYER PRODUCT/SERVICE EMPLOYEES Central Michigan Univ. State university 2,110 Reyional Center for Dev. Disabilities Mental health facility 610 Central Mich. Comm. Hospital Medical services 425 Delfield Co. Food prep. equip. & freezers 400 Morbark Industries Wood harvesting equip. 293 Randell Manufacturing Comm. kitchen equip. 160 Formsprag Co./Dana Corp. Indus. clutches Giant way Retail & food distrib. Coca-Cola Bottling Soft drinks Central Mich. Newspapers Newspaper publishing 200 LaBelle Management Restaurants 230 James Bigard Drilling Oil & Gas Industry 250 Ind ri l Oil & Gas Industry 200 Lease Management Oil & Gas Industry 88 City and County Govt. Government SOURCES: 50 180 30 234 Michigan Dept. of Commerce, Office of Community Development; updated by ECMPDR and Mt. Pleasant Office of Community Affairs, July 1986. 27 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ' ~ �ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN • "I III. ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES I •I I Prepared by EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 28 �I I I. A. ENVIRON MENTAL FEATIJRE S Topography and Surface Features The surface features of Isabella County are of glacial origin, and the , , ~ , ~ , •~ entire county is deeply covered with glacial drift materials, particularly on the west side. There is considerable variation in relief with elevations ranging from 700 feet above sea level in the southeast corner to over 1,200 feet in the northwest corner, Bundy Hill at 1,270 feet, is the highest point in the County. The eastern area averages 780 feet and is 200 feet above the level of Lake Huron to which practically all county lands ultimately drain. Topographically, the eastern and southern portions of the county are flat or gently rolling while the western and northern areas are moderately rolling to hilly. The land has a diverse vegetative pattern owing to the effects of the glaciers which deposited sediments and carved the lakes and streams. Three distinctive topographic divisions occur in a general north-south direction. The eastern part of the county is in the wide Lake Plain which joins Saginaw Bay to the east. The southeastern corner and much of Coe Township is part of the old Saginaw Lake bed, and the land there is nearly level with an increase in elevation occurring in benches rather than slopes. The numerous depressions in this general land formation have become ponds which are mostly intermittent, receiving and holding water during periods of heavy rainfall and runoff. Most of the Lake Plain area is broadly undulating and, at its western edge, it rises very gently toward the uplands with no definitive transition from one area to another. area do not vary more thaIT twenty to forty feet. Elevations throughout this The western edge of the Lake Plain runs through the county beginning in northwest Wise Township and continuing irregularly through Isabella and Union Townships until it reaches the southern county line in western Coe Township. 29 Streams in the Lake Plain �are small and flow through narrow valleys which are cut several feet below the adjoining land. Natural drainage in much of this area is deficient. The water table is high and in some flat, sandy areas the surface soils are saturated even in summer. Throughout the mid-area uplands the terrain is gently rolling with elevations gradually increasing towards the west. good with most land draining to the streams. however do not have well defined channels. Drainage is generally very Small intermittent streams The North Branch of the Chippewa River, with headwaters just north of the county, is a relatively small stream, flowing through a shallow valley, with short slopes on its eastern bank and rising land on its western bank. The loam soils, which occur extensively, are underlain with clay and thus have poor sub-surface drainage. The western belt has a greatly varied topography with valleys and plains which are quite striking. Much of the land is fairly smooth but, in contrast, several very high isolated hills such as Bundy Hill, mentioned above, are found. In some parts the slopes vary from gentle to strongly rolling. Most of the area is well drained to the streams, but frequent depressions in the northwest also collect and store excess waters. Internal drainage is predominately good because water can move freely through the light textured soils and sub-surface materials. Two principal valleys extend north and south through the county, and then join south of Weidman to form a broad plain. Some poorly drained, swampy areas are found throughout this plain area. The valley of the Chippewa River, flowing eastward from the west county line, is deeply defined and steep almost to Mt. Pleasant. In the context of long-range planning, slope must be considered as a serious topographical constraint tti land development. Slope is the measurement of the vertical change per one hundred feet of horizontal 30 �' '• • '' '' ' 'I I distance. For example, a 25 percent slope indicates a vertical change of 25 feet in 100 feet of horizontal distance. Figure III-1 shows the topographic and slope characteristics of Isabella County. The slope characteristics are shown as ~roup 1 (suitable to all land uses (<8%)), or group 2 (conditionally suitable to some types of land use (>8%)). The group 2 slopes require on-site investigation to determine the specific slope before the actual evaluation and rating of a site's suitability for development. Steeply sloped areas are a major land use constraint. These areas are limited in their development potential because of the associated difficulties and costs of construction. High costs are associated with the development of steep slopes because: 1. Heavy surface and groundwater runoff require extensive drainage facilities. 2. Erosion is severe and natural control measures are difficult to maintain. 3. Soils are usually shallow resulting in bedrock close to the surface. 4. Road construction is difficult and, in severe conditions, retaining walls are required. 5. Extensive excavation is usually required. 6. Excavation of bedrock for public sewers may be required due to the presence of shallow soils. 7. Soil and rock creep may occur since the land tends to reestablish the equilibrium that existed prior to excavation. 8. Septic tank and tile field installation become difficult or impossible. Also, the generally shallow soils result in inefficient waste treatment in the tile field system. Generally, slope can be classified as follows: 31 �I Slope Description Development Characteristics 0-8% Level to gently sloping Suitable for al 1 kinds of development Low sediment runoff 8%-16% Moderately sloping Limited residential development Disturbed areas result in moderate erosion and sediment loads 16%-24% Excessive slope Very limited development potential Moderate erosion from all land; heavy sediment loads from disturbed areas Greater than 24% Very steep slope Development is generally unfeasible and uneconomical Water Quality Impact Heavy sediment load from most land Slope, as a factor in land use decision-making, is most critical in the western portions of Isabella County. These are the areas marked by moraines, and have the most potential for conflict between the soil suitability and the slope constraint. The topographic slope map of the Isabella County indicates those areas of greatest relief throughout the county and, therefore, most likely to be subject to developmental restrictions because of slope considerations. 32 �•I I I I I I I I P~IYSICAL FEATURES MAJOR ORAi NAGE BASINS -t, COLDWATE.R. R.IVER. ·2· S. Bit CHIPPEWA R.IVER. ·3-PINE. R.IVEA. 4· LITTLE SALT R.IVER. · 6 · N. BR. CHIPPEWA RIVER -1, S. BR. . BIC SALT RI VER. ·8 · N. BR. . BIG SALT R.IVER. ·~· TOBACCO RIVER. -5· CH I PPEWA RIVER. .,,C RIDGE LIN ES /011111Ulf DRAINAGE BASINS .-•- SECONDARY RIDGE LINES MINOR RIDGE LINES ~J,~ 100 FOOT CONTOUR. LIN ES ~ LOW AREAS I I I I I I ISABELLA COUNTY, MICHIGAN FIGURE III-1 �B. Soils The major determinants of soil suitability for land use include the composition of the soil, permeability, drainage characteristics, susceptibility to erosion, and depth to bedrock. To avoid problems such as groundwater contamination, buckling and shifting of foundations and roads, severe erosion, and the loss of important agricultural land, the suitability of the soil for all land uses must be assessed. This planning report will not attempt to reproduce the detailed information contained in the soil survey. Instead, the Isabella County Soil Survey (USDA, 1985) is incorporated as part of the Comprehensive Plan by this reference. For a brief overview of the County 1 s soil resources, Figure III-2 illustrates the 12 soil associations present and describes their characteristics. • • • • • • • • •~ The Soil Conservation Service (SCS) has developed detailed soils data for Isabella County. This information has been presented as a County Soil Survey (USDA, 1985), and became available in late 1985 as this plan was being prepared. The importance of the soil survey information to land use decision-making cannot be overemphasized. The best overall description of the Isabella County Soil Survey and its applications is found in the survey itself. The foreword to the survey is directly quoted below: This soil survey contains information that can be used in land-planning programs in Isabella County, Michigan. behavior for selected land uses. It contains predictions of soil The survey also highlights limitations and hazards inherent in the soil, improvements needed to overcome the limitations, and the impact of selected land uses on the environment. This soil survey is designed for many different users. Farmers, foresters, and agronomists can use it to evaluate the potential of the soil 34 �~ and the management needed for maximum food and fiber production. Planners, community officials, engineers, developers, builders, and home buyers can use the survey to plan land use, select sites for construction, and identify special practices needed to insure proper performance. Conservationists, teachers, students, and specialists in recreation, wildlife ~anagement, waste disposal, and pollution control can use the survey to help them understand, protect, and enhance the environment. Great differences in soil properties can occur within short distances. Some soils are seasonally wet or subject to flooding. to be used as a foundation for buildings or roads. High clay or wet soils are A high water table makes a soil poorly suited to basements or under~round installations. These and many other soil properties that affect land use are described Broad areas of soils are shown on the general soil map. The location of eacn soil is shown on the detailed soil maps. the survey area is described. soil. Each soil in Information on specific uses is given for each Help in using this publication and additional information are available at the local office of the Soil Conservation Service or the Cooperative Extension Service. Areas having highly erodible soils require special consideration in planning. Soil erodibility is a function of texture, slope, vegetative cover, precipitation, permeability, organic content, and other factors. shows a general Isabella County map of soil erodibility. Figure III-3 The erodibility ratings are based on the designations made by the Department of Natural Resources under Michigan's Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Act of 1972. soils with the highest susceptibility to erosion are mainly found in the central and southeast portions of the County. 35 l l 1 ] Some are too unstable poorly suited to use as septic tank absorption fields. in this soil survey. ~ The I I 1 I I I I ~ ~ �The Soil Conservation Service, through its Resources Inventory, has estimated average annual erosion rates for Isabella County. For all cropland (184,200 acres), the annual erosion rate is 815,600 tons, or 4.4 tons per acre. The Soil Conservation Service can provide specific management recommendations to land owners for ways to reduce soil erosion. 36 �J LEGEND* NEARLY LEVEL TO ROLLING, WELL DRAINED TO POORLY DRAINED SOILS f I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 84 ·so' OSCEOLA! COUNTJV_ Remus-Spinks Association: Nearly level to gently rolling, well drained loamy and sandy soils; on moraines and outwash plains !GLADWIN -ii~OUNTY I Perrinton-Ithaca Association : Nearly level to gently rolling, well drained and somewhat poorly drained loamy soils; on moraines and till plains Guelph -Londo-Parkhill Association: Nearly level to gently rolling, well drained , somewhat poorly drained , and poorly drained loamy soils; on moraines and till plains N Marlette-Spinks Association : Nearly level to rolling, well drained loamy and sandy soils; on moraines and till plains T. 16 N. NEARLY LEVEL , SOMEWHAT POORLY DRAINED AND POORLY DRAINED SOILS 1 Pipestone-Kingsville Association : Nearly level, somewhat poorly drained and poorly drained sandy soils; on glacial deltas , till plains, outwash plains, and beach ridges NEARLY LEVEL AND UNDULATING,SOMEWHAT POORLY DRAINED AND POORLY DRAINED SOILS Londo-Parkhill-Wixom Association: Nearly level and undulating, somewhat poorly drained and poorly drained loamy and sandy soils; on till plains, outwash plains, and beach ridges T. Ithaca-Ziegenfuss Association: Nearly level and undulating, somewhat poorly drained and poorly drained loamy soils; on till plains 15 N. Londo-Parkhill Association: Nearly level, somewhat poorly drained and poorly drained loamy soils; on till plains ,-43°40' NEARLY LEVEL TO HILLY , SOMEWHAT EXCESSIVELY DRAINED, POORLY DRAINED, AND VERY POORLY DRAINED SOILS [TI Mecosta-Cohoctah Association: Nearly level, somewhat excessively drained and poorly drained sandy and loamy soils; on stream terraces, outwash plains, and flood plains Coloma-Pinnebog Association: Nearly level to hilly, somewhat excessively drained and very poorly drained sandy and mucky soils; on outwash plains and in upland drains and depressions NEARLY LEVEL TO STEEP, SOMEWHAT EXCESSIVELY DRAINED AND WELL DRAINED SOILS T. 14 N. I Coloma-Remus Association: Nearly level to steep, somewhat excessively drained and well drained sandy and loamy soils; on moraines, till plains, and kames r-l---lll----1----+----l----+.-\A----l----+---l-----1.!I NEARLY LEVEL TO GENTLY ROLLING, VERY POORLY DRAINED, SOMEWHAT POORLY DRAINED AND WELL DRAINED SOILS Adrian-Thetford-Spinks Association: Nearly level to gently rolling, '!ery poorly drained, somewhat poorly drained, and well drained mucky and sandy soils; in upland drains and depressions and on outwash plains * The texture given in the descriptive heading of each association refers to the surface layer of the major soils in that association . compiled 1984 T. 13 N. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY I _ _ J3_1_ GRATIOT R. 6W. R. 5W. R. 4W. R. 3W. GENERAL SOIL MAP SECTIONALIZED TOWNSHIP I COUNTY 2 1 6 5 4 7 8 9 10 11 12 3 ISABELLA COUNTY, MICHIGAN scale 1: 190,080 18 17 16 15 14 13 Each oreo outlined on this mop consists of more than one kind of soil. The mop is thus meant for general planning rather than o basis 19 20 21 22 23 24 30 29 28 27 26 25 for decisions on the use of specific tracts. 31 32 33 34 35 36 1 0 U..' I I l I 0 I I 1 2 I I 3 I Miles 3 I 6 I Km �, If • • • • '• LEGEND K=SOIL ERODIBILITY FACTOR f.:0J LOW SUSCEPTIBILITY ~ MODERATE SUSCEPT I 8 I LIT ERODIBILITY K=.24- .36 ~ ERODIBILITY K < .23 FIGURE III-3 J SOIL • • ERODIBILITY K FACTORS WERE DESIGNATED BY THE MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL 1RESOURCES UNDER MICHIGAN S SOIL EROSION a SEDIMENTATION ACT OF 1972. ~ ERODIBILITY HIGH SUSCEPTIBILITY TO K> . 37 �C. Climate The inland location of Isabella County, away from the Great Lakes, substantially reduces the lake influence on the area's climate. The most noticeable lake influence occurs when the prevailing southwesterly winds bring increased cloudiness during the fall and winter, moderating temperatures during cold outbreaks. The prevailing wind is southwesterly at about 11 mph. Temµerature data show that January is the coldest month with an average daily maximum of 29.5° F, while July is the warmest with a daily average maximum of 83.6° F. Precipitation is well-distributed throughout the year with the crop season (May - October) receiving an average of 18.13 inches or 61 percent of the average annual total. September, with 3.34 inches, is the wettest month and February, with a 1.20 inch average, is the driest. The average snowfall at Mt. Pleasant is 33.1 inches. Mt. Pleasant averages 81 days per season with 1 inch or more of snow on the ground, but this varies greatly from year to year. The average date of the last freezing temperature in the spring is May 17, and the average date of the first freezing te~perature in the fall is October 2. The freeze-free period, or growing season, averages 138 days annually. D. Surface Water Resources Isabella County contains portions of four minor river basins (Figure III-4), all of which contribute to the Tittabawassee River Basin. These are the Chippewa, the Salt, the Pine, and the Tobacco. The Chippewa River is the major tributary to the Tittabawassee Basin in the county, with its headwaters in Mecosta and Osceola Counties. Agriculture is the principal land cover throughout the basin, but the northern portions of 39 �the watershed contain substantial acreages of forest land. Soils within the Chippewa watershed are predominantly well-drained and sandy. · Poorly drained clay loam soils that are fairly high in fertility occur in the central portion of the watershed. The average flow measured in the Chippewa is 307 cubic feet per second (cfs), (maximum flow= 4960 cfs; minimum flow= 12 cfs). Water quality of the Chippewa is generally good, but some degradation occurs below Mt. Pleasant. The North Branch of the Chippewa, which flows through the north-central portion of the county, contributes significant quantities of nutrients and suspended sediments. With respect to recreation, the entire Chippewa River is used as a canoe trail. Trout streams in the watershed are Schofield Creek, Cedar Creek, Indian Creek, Squaw Creek, and Walker Creek. Like the Chippewa, the Pine River originates outside Isabella County in Mecosta County. Land cover is predominantly agricultural with very little of the watershed covered by forest. Soils in the Pine River watershed range from well-drained sandy soils to poorly drained clay loams. Pine is 214 cfs. Average flow in the Water quality in the portion of the Pine flowing through Isabella County has generally been good. Pony Creek and Skunk Creek are tributaries that are designated trout streams. The Salt River is a relatively small stream draining the northeastern part of the county. Its average flow is 76 cfs. watershed are generally poorly drained types. Soils within the Salt River Only a very small protion of the Tobacco River Basin is found in Isabella County, consisting of small streams that drain northward to the South Branch of the Tobacco in Clare County. Isabella County also contains 45 named lakes, both natural and man-made. 40 �The largest natural lakes are Coldwater with 294 acres, Littlefield with 183 acres, and Stevenson with 113 surface acres. Another lake of significant size is Halls Lake with 56 acres in the southwest part of Broomfield Township. Other small water bodies are found throughout the north-central , and western parts of the County which are surrounded by muck or poorly drained soils. No lakes are present in Coe, Denver, Isabella, or Wise Townships on the east side of the County. However, there are several bodies of water in this area which were created by past gravel mining operations. Several recent artificial lake projects have been developed. These include Lake Isabella, Lake-of-the-Hills, and Lake Windoga and Manitonka, all in the northwest part of the County. There is also Camelot Lake, located in Chippewa Township in the eastern part of the county. The major project has been Lake Isabella with approximately 750 acres of water. The lake occupies a natural basin and is surrounded by a wide area of sandy soils. The impoundment was accomplished by construction of a 3,000 foot dam on the South Branch of the Chippewa River, west of Coldwater Road. The other new lakes utilize waters of Walker Creek with the Windoga and Manitonka dams in the vicinity of Vernon and Brinton Roads, and a second one, east of Woodruff Road, impounding water for the Lake-of-the-Hills project. There are sufficient water resources and adequate drainage to maintain these lakes at desired levels. • • • • • • • •■ ■ • • • • • • • • ' I 41 �J r f DRAINA~E BASINS r r r f f r f r r: r r •-J _.., . - -. . ~ y' ' \ - • ~" ~ . ' '\., • • ~,l. <; . '. ' " - - : - - J, ~ ·., ' ""'·• ~ -f RlV ~ ~ \~~ ' "7 , - - . . -~ / w . )t..,,,_j, - . 'f " i,,; ------, / )__) .,\_ .~ . )., ~ ,. r ,..... - ·,_. - Cffl~~-~-,: - - --- . RIVEll....._j l _B_A ,• >--\ i· ~~Nf I ~~ ~p 11 l\\\{. --:::'/ I( l\ ;:::::..,,-· V" ----- ~Hf ( I ;..J.. ~ -~ _,;I , r r ...,_:;-' - - FIGURE III-4 . ., ./ ; ~:;; - �E. Groundwater Resources Groundwater is a significant and sensitive natural resource. About half the population of the United States depends on groundwater for part or all of its drinking water supply. In Isabella County, community water supply systems using wells serve a population of about 25,000, or 46 percent of the county. (Michigan Department of Public Health, 1984). This does not include individual residential wells which are widespread in the rural areas. Identification of the general availability and quality of groundwater may be broken down into two areas: in glacial deposits. 1) groundwater in bedrock, and 2) groundwater To address the first area, the general availability and quality of groundwater in the bedrock strata for Isabella County and the East Central Region is illustrated in Figure III-5. Well yields from bedrock units can vary greatly within the county due to changes in permeability, thickness, lateral extent, and recharge potential. General availability is highest in sandstone bedrock units and lowest in shale units. Groundwater in glacial deposits also varies greatly in depth and area of distribution. The general availability is illustrated in Figure III-6. It may be seen that the largest groundwater supplies are found in the glacial outwash and moraine areas in the western portions of the County where wells are capable of producing more than 500 gallons per minute (gpm). The quality of groundwater in surface deposits is variable and subject to contamination from surface and bedrock sources. Mining activities, such as oil and gas well drilling, have allowed vertical migration of brine water from bedrock into surface deposits. Surface activities have also caused local occurrences of groundwater contamination. For example, the disposal or storaye of solid and hazardous waste, filling stations, and various industries 43 �r f f r r: ~ r r r r r r r r r r r r r all have the potential for degrading groundwater supplies in glacial deposits. Due to the widespread nature of groundwater contamination problems, some communities have recently started developing local regulations for groundwater protection (DiNovo and Jaffe, 1984). Some of these regulations have been put into effect through zoning; others have taken the form of more specialized ordinances. In general, all the existing approaches use fairly stra i ght forwar d land use, health, and police power regulations. The effectiveness of the controls is largely untested as yet, but it is likely that the next few years will see the development of more sophisticated and comprehensive programs as more communities recognize the need for action at the local level. 44 �GENERAL AVAILABILITY AND · QUALITY OF ·GROUND'NATER IN THE BEDROCK I ■ 1-- ml * NOTE • • • " ' LEGEND• rn • • • • • • •■ WELL YIELD LESS THAN IC GPM WELL YIELD FROM· 100 TO 500 GPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GREAT~R THAN 81NCHES WELL YIELD FROM 10 TO I( OGPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GR .C:ATER THAN 6 INCHES iHAT LOCAL BEDROCK AFFECTING 80TH WATER CONQI I ONS YIELD ANO CAN WATER IN THE BEDROCK USUALLY HAS A DISSOLVED SOLIDS CONTENT GREATER THAN 1000 PPM VARY QUALITY . SOURCE : GENERAL AVAILABILITY AN) QUALITY OF GROUNOWATER . N THE BEDROCK DEPOSITS OF AICHIGAN BY FR TWENTER, WATER RESOURCES DIVISION , U S, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY . FIGURE III-5 �r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF GROUNDWATER IN THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS ---i-- - - ~ ill I I L_ _ LEGEND rn rnJ • * WELL YIELD LESS THAN IOGPM WELL YIELD FROM 100 TO 500 GPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GREATER THAN 8 INCHES WELL YIELD FROM 10 TO IOOGPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GREATER THAN 6 INCHES WELL YIELD GREATER THAN 500 GPM WITH WELL DIAMETER GREATER THAN IOINCHES NOTE THAT LOCALLY HI GHER YIELDS MAY BE OBTAINEO ANO THAT THIS LEGEND REPRESENTS ONLY THE GENERAL TREND OF WATER Y IELO IN THE GLACIAL DEPOS ITS . SOURCE : GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF GROUNDWATER I N THE GLAC IAL DEPOSITS IN MICHIGAN BY F. R TWENTER, WATER RESOURCES DIVISION, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. FIGURE III-6 �F. Agricultural Lands 1. General Overview Ayriculture is an important industry in Isabella County. In 1983, sales from the total marketing of agricultural products in the County represented 52 million dollars. Farmland accounts for nearly 55 percent, or about 201,000 acres, of the county's total land area. According to the latest Census of Agriculture (1982), roughly 160,000 acres of the county farmlands are devoted to crops. wheat, oats, soybeans, and dry beans. Major crops include corn, A number of specialty crops are also produced, the most common ones being mint, asparagus, snap beans, and celery. Small acreages of strawberries, blueberries, and apples are also harvested. 2. Prime Farmlands Prime farmland is one of several kinds of important farmland defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is of major importance in meeting the nation's short and long-range needs for food and fiber. The availability of high-quality farmland is limited, and the wise use of prime farmland must be encouraged. Prime farmland soils are defined by the USDA as those best suited to producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops. Such soils have properties that are favorable for the economic production of sustained high yields of crops. These soils need only to be treated and managed using acceptable farming methods. The moisture supply must be adequate, and the growiny season must be sufficiently long. Prime farmland soils produce the hiyhest yields with minimal inputs of energy and economic resources, and farming these soils results in the least damage to the environment. Prime farmland soils may presently be in use as cropland, pasture, or 47 ; -- -11 -II -II -, -, • �'I f r r woodland, or they may be in other uses. They are either used for producing food or fiber, or they are available fo~ these uses. Urban or built-up land and water areas cannot be considered prime farmland. The Soil Conservation Service has identified the soils that make up potentially prime farmland in Isabella County. complexes in the µrime farmland category. There are 21 soil types or The precise locations of these are shown on the detailed soil maps in the County Soil Survey previously mentioned. In a much more general sense, the prime farmland soils are found within the following soil associations shown in Figure III-2: r r r r r r r r r r r r Map Reference 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 11 Association Remus - Spinks Perrinton - Ithaca Guelph - Londo - Parkhill Londo - Parkhill - Wixom Ithaca - Ziegenfuss Londo - Parkhill Mecosta - Cohoctah Coloma - Remus The preceding information is intended to provide a brief overview of 1 Isabella County s agricultural lands. At this point, it is sufficient to note that a recent land use trend in parts of the county has been the conversion of some potential prime farmland to urban and industrial uses. Such loss of prime farmland puts pressure on marginal farmlands, which are generally wet, more erodible, draughty, or difficult to cultivate and less productive than prime farmland. This subject, along with ways of providing for the wise use of important farmlands within the long-range planning context, will be addressed in greater detail in subsequent sections of this report. 48 �f r r f r ISABELLA COUNTY f r r COMPREHENSIVE PLAN IV. COMMUNITY FACILITIES f r r r r ,- Prepared by EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT f r r r r 49 �-, IV. COMMUNITY FACILITIES Consideration of community facilities is an essential element of the planning process because of the considerable public investment these facilities represent, and because of their overall impact on all of Isabella County's residents. Some types of facilities, such as public water and sewer systems, represent major considerations in determining the pattern of future development. Others, such as libraries and parks, are an important dimension in the overall quality of life in the county. This report, the fourth in a series of preliminary planning studies, deals specifically with the inventory and analysis of major community facilities in Isabella County. It is not intended to be a detailed feasibility study for the development of new facilities. This report is, however, intended to provide useful information concerning existing facilities and to identify problem areas. A. Airports The only municipal airport facility in Isabella County is the Mt. Pleasant Municipal Airport, located about one mile northeast of the city (Figure IV-1). This facility offers charter air service and has recently extended its runway to 5000 feet. jet traffic. The longer runway will accommodate business Elsewhere in the county, the Lake Isabella resort development (Broomfield and Sherman Townships) has charter and private plane facilities. B. Libraries Library services for Isabella County are provided by the Mt. Pleasant Public (Veteran's Memorial) Library with a collection of over 64,000 volumes. Services are provided throughout the County by the operation of five branch libraries: Rosebush (Isabella Twp.), Shepherd (Coe Twp.), and Blanchard 50 l l 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I �r r r r r r r (Rolland Twp.), Weidman (Sherman Twp.), and Winn (Fremont Twp.). facility in Mt. Pleasant has undergone a $1.2 million expansion and remodeling project which was completed in July 1985. In addition, Central Michigan University maintains the 674,000-volume Park Library, including the Clarke Historical Library with its collection of early Michigan and old Northwest Territory documents. investigators. r f r r r r f r r Park Library represents a major regional library resource, serving students, scholars, and research f f f The main 51 �oTUia•c• G ..... !• , l l • I ] [ • r• f -----.,.,....:::,,,, - i-·-·-·-·-·-·-·-···-·· ·• I • 0 ·- ·- ·- ·- , , p i ~ 1 ~ IOIIIUtN • 'I C MT. PLEASANT AIRPORT Ii, i.. -------------q4~,-◄ <i' l • f. L... - · - · - ,···. -.-·-.... ·-.:§> ···-'-·-·· ·. ····· ·· ..... ... ... ... ._: I IT. LOUIi • I• I 1• I • I ■-■-•- · -■-■-■ ■-■-■-- t N [l FIGURE IV-1 -ECM.PDR AIRPORTS 0 a1n1-. uuon �r r r r I r r r ,r r r r r f f r r r C. Health Services Isabella County's dominant medical facility is the 145-bed Central Michigan Community Hospital (CMCH). CMCH offers an extensive range of services to inpatients and outpatients: a 24-hour emergency room, surgery, laboratory, recovery, intensive care, coronary care, radiology, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, maternity, nursery, respiratory therapy, stress testing, pharmacy, and clinical dietetic counseling. doctors of medicine and osteopathy. The medical staff of 45 includes More than 400 professional, paramedical, and service employees support the patient care. In 1982, CMCH opened a modern progressive psychiatric unit for short-term inpatient treatment of emotional problems, mainly serving Isabella, Clare, Osceola, and Mecosta Counties. Also, a health education coordinator provides a wide variety of programs for patients, hospital employees, and the community in genera 1 • Also located on the CMCH premises are the Office of Substance Abuse and the Central Michigan District Health Department, in addition to speech therapy, rehabilitation, and physical therapy services. Outside of Mt. Pleasant, CMCH also operates the Medical Building in Weidman. Adjacent to CMCH is the 80-bed Isabella County Medical Care Facility which procides extended care, including physical therapy facilities. There are also two private nursing homes in the Mt. Pleasant area. The Central Michigan District Health Department performs its role of preventive medicine by providing environmental, personal health, substance abuse, and health education services. These include immunization clinics, vision and hearing screening, venereal disease control, hlood pressure monitoring, counseling, and general health promotion. Environment al health responsibilities include septic tank permits and food service sanitation 53 �inspections. Extensive mental health facilities are located in Mt. Pleasant, including Community Mental Health Services, Listening Ear, Central Michigan University I counseling services, and the Gratiot-Isabella County Mission Creek School. Hospice of Central Michigan, formed in 1982, is a non-profit volunteer organization attempting to bring the hospice concept to the residents of Isabella County. This is a process which attempts to meet the physical, social, and spiritual needs of terminally ill persons and their families. The Mt. Pleasant Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities is a state residential facility that serves developmentally disabled persons and their families from 33 counties in central and northern Michigan. With a staff of about 600, the Regional Center is the area 1 s second largest employer. Staff provide an array of services to about 400 persons with various developmental disabilities. An additional 1,000 developmentally disabled persons receive services in about 200 group homes in the 33-county service area. D. County Facilities The dominant publicly owned facility is the Isabella County Building, which houses most of the departments and functions. This modern structure, which was built in 1972, is located in the county seat of Mt. Pleasant just north of the Central Business District. Other major facilities located in or near Mt. Pleasant include the Isabella County Transportation Commission (ICTC) garage and offices on M-20 near the east city limits, and the Road Commission garage on west M-20. Department of Social Services is housed at the State Regional Center. The The Multi-Purpose Building, located on Isabella Road just east of the city, houses the Commission On Aging and the Senior Center. 54 I I I I I I I I I �r r r r r r r r r r r r r J r r I f I The County Fairgrounds are located on a 150-acre parcel about two miles north of Mt. Pleasant. The facility is owned by the Youth and Farm Fair Society, and operated by the Isabella Co-Expo Board. Various exhibitions and entertainment events are offered throughout most of the year. A recent addition to the fairgrounds is a saddle horse racetrack and new grandstand. These facilities are leased by a private entity, Oil Capitol Race Ventures, and now offer parimutuel wagering. The county also owns and operates a landfill which is located on an 120-acre site in Deerfield Township. The county is currently examining various alternatives to landfilling for solid waste disposal. In addition to the major facilities identified here, County Road Commission and Public Works Board own additional parcels in Broomfield and Isabella Townships, respectively. County parks and recreation areas are described in a separate section of this report. E. Parks and Recreation Planning for recreation facilities and programs is the responsibility of the Isabella County Parks and Recreation Commission, created under the provisions of Act 261 (P.A. 1965). Accordingly, this body has recently prepared and adopted the Comprehensive County Recreation Plan. This report will not attempt to duplicate the planning efforts of the Parks and Recreation Commission. Instead, the Recreation Plan is incorporated as part of this comprehensive plan by reference. A few of the major elements of the Recreation Plan are outlined very briefly here. Recreation opportunities in 1sabella County are provided by many local governments, school districts, and the private sector. The Parks and Recreation Commission views the role of local governments as one of provi ding basic community parks and recreation facilities. 55 The Commission has �-, identified the county's role as one of developing major county parks that provide extended day use and overnight facilities, special purpose facilities (such as cross-country skiing and nature study areas), and similar projects that are strongly oriented toward unique resources, such as lakes, rivers, and woodlands. Following this philosophy, four county parks have been developed. These are briefly described below and their locations shown in Figure IV-2. Facility Name Acres Major Facilities Coldwater Lake Park 28 Deerfield Co. Park 591 Chippewa River access, hiking and ski trails, primitive camping. Herrick Co. Park 100 Swimming beach, camping. Meridian Co. Park 152 Chippewa River access, picnicking and other day use. Camping, boat launch, lake access, playfield. As previously mentioned, many of the cities, villages, and townships also have a major role as recreation providers. For example, Mt. Pleasant has developed an extensive park system that certainly attracts out-county residents. In future recreation planning efforts, it will be desirable for the county and the local units to further coordinate their activities to complement each other's strengths in developing an outstanding recreation system. This will be discussed further in the plan development and implementation sections of this report. 56 l -, l -1 l l l -, -1 l l l l l l l l l �. J J J J. , J J J J , , r , , r r J r -,-----=;..=:~~f'->-='°~·= :::----1-"t?."'" *&OU. '°"~1-------_;CU~~;;:,__ _ _ _ _ 8 ; . Q V X co. FIGURE IV-2 -COUNTY PARKS !SABELLA COUNTY. MJCH(GAN �F. Public Wate~ Supplies Roughly 46 percent of Isabella County 1 s residents rely on public wells for drinking water, based on the population served by community water supply systems. This does not include the population served by individual residential wells that are in widespread use. There are three publicly-owned and two quasi-public water systems in the county. The public systems are those serving Mt. Pleasant, Shepherd, and Forest No. 2 Subdivision at Lake Isabella. Combined, these systems provide drinking water to about 27,600 residents. Two quasi-public systems serve a population of 560 at the Regional Center, and 200 persons at the Isabella Indian Reservation. Privately-owned systems provide water to an additional 2,300 residents, mainly in mobile home parks and multi-family housing. The public and quasi-public supplies in the county are summarized in Table IV-1. I l I i I I I i 58 I I I I �r r r r r r Table IV-1 Public and Quasi.:.Pt:,b1ic i;Jater Supplies Name Area Served Population Served Mt. Pleasant City I' 25,739 Isabella Co. Water District #1 Forest No. 2 Subdiv. - Sherman Twp. I- Shepherd Village Mt. Pleasant Regional Center Center residents 560 Isabella Indian Reservation Reservation 200 I r r Source: 225 1,669 Michigan Department of Public Health. 1984. Community Public Water Supplies: Summary Report. Population figures are 1985 estimates. ... 59 �G. Public Sewer Facilities Three public waste water treatment facilities service portions of Isabella County. The major facility is the Mt. Pleasant Wastewater Treatment Plant which provides secondary treatment and chemical phosphorus removal. Discharge is to the Chippewa River. The design capacity is 4.0 million gallons per day (MGD), with present usage of about 3.3 MGD. In addition to serving the cCity and Central Michigan University, recent efforts have resulted in extending service into portions of Union Township. The parts of the tTownship with public sewer now include the M-20 corridor east of the city limits to Summerton Road, south of the city in the vicinity of Old Mission and Deerfield Roads, and northwest of the city along Lincoln Road between Pickard and River Roads. Additional public sewer facilities in the county consist of waste water l l ·1 stabilization lagoons that service the villages of Shepherd and Rosebush. There are also a few private lagoon systems that service mobile home parks and multi-family housing developments. H. Fire Protection In addition to the various municipal fire departments, fire protection services are provided to out-county areas through several fire districts that consist of cooperative arrangements between two or more municipalities. Some areas are served by fire departments located outside the county, such as Coleman (Midland Co.) or Clare (Clare Co.). shown on the accompanying map, Figure IV-3. 60 The existing fire districts are I 1 I l ·1 I I I �r r r r r r r r r r r O&(I-OL4 co. "tl·'" CLA~ 2 \f~IUION I I 7--- e ~ ~lliit,,IAN 5 hOT'f'AW"' 1•AL'•LI.A e @I 6: I I ' J:J,. ~ 0 !( ::i ll I LllltOLM F'lt~1'4011T ~ l'\OlfTCALlil r :u :10 RoLL.lNO "'-'T•OT' i eoc co. FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTS IN ISABELLA CO. 1 BARRYTON F.D. 2 SURREY TWP. F.D. 3 CLARE F.D. 4 COLEMAN F.D. 5 SHERMAN-NOTTAWA F.D. 6 ISABELLA N.E. F.D. FIGURE IV-3 7 REMUS F.D. 8 FREMONT-DEERFIELD F.D. 9 Mr. PLEASANT F.D. 10 _SHEP_ij_ERD F_J)_..__ 11 BLANCHARD-MILLBROOK F. D. �I. Police Agencies The county is serviced by several full-time law enforcement agencies. The State Police maintain a post in Mt. Pleasant with 16 officers and 9 vehicles. The County Sheriff Department has 9 road patrol officers, 7 vehicles, and 1 boat for marine patrols on the lakes during weekends and holidays. There are also two municipal police departments in the county. Mt. Pleasant has 19 officers, and the Village of Shepherd maintains 2 full-time officers and one part-time officer. In both agencies, the officers are deputized for county-wide jurisdiction. In addition, Central Michigan University operates a Department of Public Safety with 16 officers. They are also deputized for county-wide jurisdiction. The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Reservation is serviced by three tribal police officers. Their jurisdiction is limited to the Chippewa Reservation unless additional assistance is requested by the County Sheriff. Sherman, Nottawa, and Coldwater Townships have arranged for additional police services by paying insurance and upkeep on a patrol car that remains in the area with a Sheriff Deputy. This deputy is on-call 24 hours a day and responds to calls in these three townships. J. Public Education Facilities Isabella County is in a unique situation as the home of Central Michigan University. This institution continues to be one of the state's most popular universities as indicated by stable enrollments at a time when many other universities face declining student populations. The 856-acre campus, with a total plant valuation of over $235 million, provides facilities for 16,000 on-campus students. As a major educational institution, the university 62 I I I I I I I I I I �r f r r r r r r r r r r r conducts extensive planning for its physical development. another major level of planning in the community. This represents As such, it is necessary to coordinate CMU 1 s planning efforts with those at the county and municipal level. The other major public education facilities in the county consist of elementary and secondary schools. The county is part of the Gratiot-Isabella Intermediate School District with public schools in Isabella County located at Beal City, Mt. Pleasant, and Shepherd. Total public school enrollments by grades for the School District are shown in Table IV-2. In addition, the county is served by several other school districts. These districts include Chippewa Hills, Farwell, Clare, Coleman, St. Louis, Vestaburg, and Montabella. The school facilities and school districts are shown in Figure IV-4. i r 63 �TABLE IV-2 GRATIOT-ISABELLA INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL DISTRICT PUBLIC SCHOOL MEMBERSHIP BY GRADES DS 4061 1984-1985 I I I -~ s I' 7: -6- -7- K l 2 265 ?'JP I fl I ASHLEY 17 40 114 . - JI 27 37 31 )9 BEAL CITY 48 ?Q ?'l t.() n ?? I 7 '} fl 121 76 69 84 - . RB 88 84 97 RR f.O 7A ITHACA 117 I 1Q I I f. MT. PLEASANT 32) 275 I 263 233 SHEPHERD 162 154 123 _.! ill_ _LJL _..2.fl.. Lu.6. ST. LOUIS 11' DISTRICT ALMA BRECKENRIDGE FULTON ·- l JO 3 -189 . _5.9_ - 4 194- 5 I _UJLtlfil._ _L..Q/L. _1...24 _ 245 -L-~~--·--r I. S. D. TOTAL l n'i 1313 ~lQ6 ISABELLA CO. 107 .. -9.!L __9.L j 1m 979 1987 11 o L1l.1... 34 41 41 <;.'l c;.n C. &. I. "1 ')() 115 _ _6a. I')', 769_ 222... ?77 _l "71 146 4] . 3l.. 11..A 0.1 . _us.. ..1..2.L . 111 _'l~ _ c.c. . -- lib- .... . 12 ..... .5:!-. 780 648 533 458 -- 575 416 396 412 607 583 401 593 652 654 __ 8.2_ ~ 489 2,900 489 507 11 518 .' I) __!.1 2J 1 59 1.290 ~-•~ 936 17 953 1. 671 l 736 4,129 -- .t - - - 194 2 706 ~ I ? fl 11A 11A _lRfi 111\ 11n 3,901 , 65 228 I I..? I I A I Cl7 Q«_ ') c; 1,692 : 41 1,733 A'l 9'> C."l 102 1.526 202 · I fl/'.. _ I /, ..l.2.L 719 718 --- · - - - - - 337 444 499 530 492 . _ __lU. . PART TIME f\ I/, c;. -4'-;2IO 973_ 930: 1096t;l5tl-2 572 C,"l ---4i- - _L1 1073 I I . I. 1058 -~--1-· .. -· .. -·-·-- . __ ·_ .. .. --- .-·'- ----- - - ~ ·- . GRATIOT CO. QQ 9 - .. ---lO l 1-- I 7 2.. .-11.L .1 l.6.._ ..2...'.iL _..2 'H, . .lL _...IL - .24.. 270 8 El) TOTAL FULL TIME . .h.~ ., 202 1.424 202 609 14,759 · - 717 · 15,476 531 580 441 8,653 . . 4 37 9,090 542 478 168 6,106 280 6,386 - ~ - -·- - �t o FARWELL f •If • •If •If - . :> I" EXISTING SCHOOLS & SCHOOL DISTRICTS I \'-,7-----:7':iCJn-;cr--u \ \~ ~ 1;v--..... -.,,..,--.. ~f~t')<\, @) ::LEMENTARY K· 8 SCHOOL @ ELEMENTARY K-6 SCHOOL @) UPPER GRADE 7- 9 SCHOOL @ 9-12 OR 10-12 HIGH SCHOOL @) K-I2 ELEMENTARY and HIGH SCHOOL NOTE: THE KINNEY SCHOOL IN t1T . PLi:ASA:'-lT IS i~O LO;iGER A K-6 FACILITY . lT IS NOIJ USED AS A COMMU:-IITY EDUCAT IO~I crnrrn. Ill II • __ .I-\ - - ' - - ~ Qi., ISABELLA COUNTY, MICHIGAN FIGURE IV-4 �ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN -- -,,,,,- V. PLAN DEVELOPMENT Prepared EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with the ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ~~ r ~ -- by 65 �r V. A. PLAN DEVELOPMENT Introduction The preceding planning reports collectively form the data base for the development of a long-range plan. This data base provides an overview of existing conditions in Isabella County. In addition, some issues have been identified in a preliminary fashion as an intrinsic part of the data base development process. However, before the preparation of the comprehensive plan can occur, it is necessary to identify current issues and concerns in Isabella County in a more detailed manner. process. This is perhaps the most important part of the planning If a plan is to be successful, then it must reflect the desires of the agencies and citizens who will be the major participants in the plan 1 s implementation. Thus, some type of mechanism is required for obtaining input from the community. This report describes the methodology used to obtain community input and the issues that were identified as a result of this process. These issues will, in turn, form the basis for the I~abella Couhty Comprehensive Plan. B. Methodology In July and August 1985, the Planning Commission held special work sessions to discuss countywide issues and to establish a mechanism for obtaining input from county departments and agencies, local governments, and the public. The result of these sessions was the preparation of a set of broad goal statements pertaining to various aspects of the county 1 s development. Very briefly, the preliminary goal statements addressed the following general concepts: 1. Natural Resources: Provide for the wise use of outstanding resources to maintain a high quality environment. 66 �2. Parks and Recreation: Maintain and improve the county's recreation areas and programs to meet the needs of all residents. 3. Public Safety: 4. Transportation: Maintain and improve the county's roads, bridges, and public transportation services. 5. Health Services: Ensure the availability of adequate health services for all residents. 6. Agriculture: production. 7. Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Land Use: Development must be planned and orderly, a~must not create anexcessive demand for public services. 8. County Government: Improve the quality of services and facilitate cooperation with local government units. Maintain a high level of police and fire protection. Preserve the county's prime farmlands for agricultural These broad statements were incorporated into a questionnaire format. Respondents were asked to indicate their overall reaction to each goal statement and what steps should be taken to accomplish each goal. versions of the questionnaire were prepared: Two one directed to county departments and other countywide agencies, and another aimed at local government units. Copies of the complete questionnaires are included in the Appendix. Written comments were received through October 10, 1985. Following this comment period, the Planning Commission held a public advisory meeting to review the comments and to receive additional input from government representatives and the public. Copies of the meeting notice and minutes are included in the appendix. C. Community Ihput Written or verbal comments were received from representatives of the following county departments, key agencies, and municipalities: 67 I I I I �r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r Isabella County Departments Parks and Recreation Commission Road Commission Transportation Commission Sheriff Department Cooperative Extension Service Soil Conservation Service Agencies and Institutions Central Michigan University Middle Michigan Development Corporation Local Governments City of Mt. Pleasant Union Township Gilmore Township The responses that were received may be grouped into the following broad categories: N~tural Resources ~~d En~i~onment 1. The county's rivers should be recognized as major natural resources. 2. Attention should be given to protecting the quality of the county's lakes. 3. Drinking water supplies must be protected from contamination. 4. Attention should be given to solid waste management practices in order to minimize adverse environmental impacts. Parks and Recreation ----1. County recreation planning should be continued through the efforts of the Parks and Recreation Commission and should be coordinated with the overall county planning program. 2. There should be continued cooperation between the county and Mt. Pleasant city parks and recreation programs. 3. Additional access sites on the Chippewa River should be developed. 4. Tourism should be developed through the promotion of the county's various attractions, and the addition of· tourist - oriented facilities. 68 �Public Safety 1. There should be continued cooperation of all law enforcement agencies in the county. 2. Attention should be given to potential remodeling and/or expansion of the County Jail to meet Depart. of Corrections standards and minimize overcrowding. 3. The county should consider taking the initiative for providing central police and fire dispatch services. 4. As in No. 3, the county should consider developing a "911" emergency number. Transportation 1. The county should prepare an overall transportation plan. 2. There should be joint transportation planning between the county and the City of Mt. Pleasant. This is especially appropriate in such areas of mutual concern as the US-27 and M-20 corridors. 3. There is an ongoing need for maintenance and improvement of the county's roads and bridges. Priorities for such improvements could be set through the preparation of transportation plan, as in No. 1 above. 4. The county's public transportation system, operated by the Transportation Commission, should be considered as a major element in the development of an overall transportation plan. Attention should be given to the evaluation of alternative service designs in order to provide the most beneficial and cost-effective system. Health Services 1. The assurance of adequate health care depends on the continued vitality of Central Michigan Community Hospital. Agriculture 1. The fundamental importance of agriculture to the economy and lifestyle of Isabella County should be recognized. 2. The county's best farmlands should be preserved for agricultural product ion. 3. Conflicts between urban expansion and farmland preservation must be resolved. 69 If �r r r r r Residential Development 1. Additional multi-family housing developments should be confined to the urbanized portions of the county. 2. There is an apparent need for additional family rental units in the City of Mt. Pleasant. Commercial Development 1. New development should be confined to established commercial areas. 2. The intrusion of commercial development into neighborhood areas should be prevented. i 3. Consideration should be given to providing more flexible regulations for home occupation uses. r Industrial Development 1. There is a great need for expanded industrial facilities and employment to create new base jobs and an increased tax base. There is presently too much dependence on public sector employment. 2. The Middle Michigan Development Corporation should be supported as the lead agency in attempting to diversify the local economy. r • Community Facilities 1. The development of a county airport should be considered. 2. The development of a county library system should be considered • County Government and Planning 1. 2. The county should take the lead in facilitating cooperation with the local government units. When feasible, some public services should be consolidated at the county 1eve l • 3. There should be joint planning efforts with Mt. Pleasant, CMU, and the other municipalities in the county. The county should assume the lead role as the coordinating agency for such efforts. The preceding material is intended to provide an overview of the comments that were received and the issues that were identified. Any process for obtaining community input is never perfect in terms of the participation level that is established. However, these efforts should be considered quite successful in that a substantial number of useful comments were received, and 70 �many local decision-makers responded to the survey. At this point, the comments have merely been grouped by appropriate categories. They ar~ hot ranked in any cirder cif ~riority, ~nd they do not represent~ specific policy recommendations 2,!)_ this format. These comments will, however, be used by the Planning Commission to formulte a complete set of goals and objectives pertaining to the various aspects of county development. This set of goals is detailed in the following section. 71 • •.• • • • • • • �r r r r r ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN I r r- VI. COUNTY DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES r Prepared by: EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with the ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMEN~ OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 72 �VI. COUNTY DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Introduction In the comprehensive planning process, the formulation of goals and objectives begins by defining various functional categories of county development and then making very broad goal statements regarding these categories. As local issues are subsequently identified, the concerns are grouped according to the appropriate categories. Gradually, this process results in a set of statements that are much more definitive with respect to accomplishing specific goals. r In Isabella County, the Planning Commission has performed the goal formulation process through planning meetings and questionnaires aimed at obtaining input from local decision-makers and the public. This process, described in the preceding section, has assisted the Planning Commission in identifying the issues and opportunities facing the county today. This section presents the goals and objectives that have been formulated by the Planning Commission to serve as a guide for the future development of Isabella County within a long-range (ten to fifteen year) planning context. The ~oals are broad statements about future conditions in the county. In a sense, their general nature represents little more than an overall attitude regarding future growth and development. The objectives suggest more specific courses of action that should be taken to accomplish the goals. With these concepts in mind, the following goals and objectives have been formulated: 73 �I I. Natural Resources and Environment Goal: To provide for the wise use of the county's outstanding land and water resources to maintain a high quality environment for all residents. Objectives: A. The Chippewa River, along with the county's other major rivers, should be recognized as important scenic and recreational resources in the county and managed as such. B. The county's inland lakes should be managed to maintain and improve water quality within the overall context of surrounding land use and development impacts. C. Groundwater supplies must be protected from contamination. D. Attention should be given to solid waste management practices in order to develop alternative methods, to minimize adverse environmental impacts, and to develop the most efficient and cost-effective waste management system to meet long-term disposal needs. E. Esthetic considerations should be addressed for any land uses that might create adverse visual impacts. F. The need for proper stormwater management should be addressed in conjunction with all development projects. II. Parks and Recreation Goal: The county should strive to maintain and improve its recreation areas and programs to provide the greatest benefits to all residents. Objectives: A. County recreation planning should be continued through the efforts of the Parks and Recreation Commission and should be coordinated with the overall county planning program. B. There should be continued cooperation between the county and local governments for parks and recreation programs. C. Consideration should be given to the development of tourism through the promotion of the county's various attractions and the addition of tourist-oriented facilities. D. The Mt. Pleasant Meadows horse racing track should be developed and promoted as a major · county attraction. 74 I 1 �III. Agriculture Goal: Agriculture is of fundamental importance to the economy and lifestyle of Isabella County. As such, the county's most important farmlands should be preserved and maintained for agricultural production. Objectives: r A. The county's most important farmlands should be identified. B. Consideration should be given to developing more stringent land use controls for protecting farmland. C. In evaluating land use proposals with the potential for conflict between agriculture and other uses, the county's decision-makers should use the information and resources of the Soil Conservation Service and related agencies to assist them. D. Efforts should be made to resolve conflicts between urban expansion and farmland preservation through cooperative planning with the municipalities. IV. Residential Development Goal: r r To provide for residential development in such a manner that both the housing and the neighborhoods are safe, healthy, and attractive, and to provide a wide choice and adequate supply of housing types to meet the diverse needs of all residents, including populations with special needs. Objectives: A. Provide for residential development in locations that will reduce potential conflicts with incompatible land uses. B. Permit new growth to occur only at a rate which is consistent with the capacities of the community to provide public facilities and services. C. Encourage the functional design of proposed residential developments to ensure efficient land use, harmonious relationships with adjacent uses, and safe and convenient traffic patterns. D. Encouraye new residential development in the existing trade centers and in other appropriate locations that have available public services and facilities. r V. Commercial Development Goal: To provide an adequate supply of goods and services at accessible and convenient locations that are in harmony with the surrounding land uses and the transportation system. 75 �Objectives: A. The development of a functional system of commercial use clusters, as opposed to strip development, should be a key consideration. B. Additional small-scale neighborhood commercial development should be considered on the basis of market area demand and available . transportation access. C. Encourage the orderly development of rural trade centers. VI. Industrial Development Goal: To develop a diversified industrial base in order to achieve an expanded and stable county economy. Objectives: A. Encourage the location of industry in areas which have sufficient facilities and services to adequately support industrial activity. B. Locate new industry in a manner that is harmonious with adjacent land uses and the transportation system. C. The Middle Michigan Development Corporation should be supported as the lead agency in attempting to diversify the local economy. VII. Goal : Transportation To maintain and improve the county 1 s roads, bridges, and public transportation services to provide a safe and efficient transportation system for all users, including non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians. Objectives: A. The county should prepare an overall transportation plan to identify long-range goals and short-term priorities for improvements in the existing system, and to provide for future needs. B. There should be joint transportation planning efforts between the county and the municipalities. This is especially appropriate in areas of mutual concern such as the US-27 and M-2O corridors. C. The county 1 s public transportation system should be considered as a major element in the development of a transportation plan. Attention should be given to the evaluation of alternative service designs in order to provide the most beneficial and cost-effective system. D. Consideration should be given to potential public transportation linkages with systems operating in adjacent counties. 76 �r r r r r VIII. Public Safety Goal: Police, fire protection, and other emergency services should be maintained at a high level, while striving to improve these services where possible. Objectives: A. There should be continued cooperation of all law enforcement agencies in the county. B. Attention should be given to potential remodeling and/or expansion of the county jail to meet Depart. of Corrections standards and minimize overcrowding. C. The county should consider taking the initiative for providing central emergency dispatch services, including the possibility of providing a "911 emergency number. D. There should be coordination among all appropriate agencies for the delivery of emergency services. f r r ri IX. Health Care and Human Services Goal: . To ensure the availability of adequate health care and related human services for all residents of Isabella County. Objectives: A. There should be population with developmentally Isabella County greater public awareness that those segments of the special health care needs, especially the elderly and disabled, comprise a significant portion of the total population. B. A goal-setting process should be established to determine the components necessary to achieve a desired level of health care and human services for all residents, including those with special needs. C. The delivery of health care and human services should be examined cooperatively by all appropriate agencies within a broad context to define the roles of the various providers, to identify gaps and overlaps in services, and to identify courses of action for achieving priority health goals. D. Planning for health care and human services should be carefully coordinated with the closely related areas of housing (Goal IV) and transportation (Goal VII). E. There should be coordination of emergency health services with public safety agencies. 77 �X. County Government and Planning Goal: Isabella County should strive to improve the quality and efficiency of its services, and to facilitate cooperation and coordination with all units of government. Objectives: A. The county should take the lead in facilitating cooperation with the local government units. B. Consideration should be given to consolidation of some public services at the county level. C. The county should engage in cooperative planning efforts with all the municipalities, the tribal government, and Central Michigan University. The county should assume the lead role for the initiation of such efforts. 78 �r ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN VII. AGRICULTURAL COMPONENT Prepared by: EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with the ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 79 �A. Intrriduction This plan makes a major effort to give serious consideration to the importance of farmland to the local economy and, in a broader sense, to the overall character of the co~munity. This is accomplished by considering the factors that make a parcel suitable for farming and then identifying those areas of the county that should be maintained for continued agricultural production. The result of this process is a land use plan that clearly reflects the relative importance of each land use category. This component of the comprehensive plan describes the characteristics of agriculture in Isabella County and discusses the trends that have affected it. Second, the methodology used to identify the county 1 s most important agricultural lands is described and, finally, these important farmlands are displayed on a map. B. Agriculture~ Isabella County Agriculture is a major industry in Isabella County, with over half of the county 1 s total acreage being used for agricultural purposes. In 1982, the market value of agricultural products was an estimated $41,234,000. Isabella County is a significant producer of dry beans, soybeans, corn, wheat, oats, and barley in Michigan. Historically, Isabella County has followed trends similar to southern lower Michigan regarding its ayricultural land. In 1982, the number of farms in the county had decreased by nearly one-third since 1964. (Figure VII-1). During the same period, the average size of a farm increased from 161 to 198 acres (Fiyure VII-2). Both the average farm value and the average value per acre has increased considerably since 1964 (Figure VII-3 and VII-4). farmland averaged $193 per acre. to $982 per acre. In 1964, By 1982, the value had increased 409 percent Over an 18 year period, the value of the average farm 80 �I climbed from $31,397 to $192,317. These drastic increases are due largely to increases in farm size, crop yields, and overall economic conditions. Along with the rest of the United States, farmland in Isabella County has decreased considerably in the last few decades. From 1964 to 1982, the county lost over 52,000 acres of farmland, an average loss of nearly 2,900 acres per i i I i year (Figure VII-5 and Table VII-1). The total cropland acreage in the county followed a similar trend, although the change was not as dramatic as the one previously described for total farmland. 1964 and 1982. The total cropland decreased by over 22,000 acres between The lowest point occurred in 1974, when slighty less than 156,000 acres were used as cropland. Since then, however, cropland has actually increased by roughly 3,800 acres (Figure VII-6 and Table VII-1). Table VII-2 shows the acreage and quantities of major products harvested in Isabella County. The largest acreage was planted in corn for grain or seed, yielding nearly 3.4 million bushels. with over 17,000 acres planted. This was followed by dry beans, Other significant acreages were devoted to the production of soybeans, corn for silage, wheat, oats, and barley. While the historical data that have been presented here generally reflect a decline in total farmland, two exceptions to this trend are worth noting. As previously mentioned, the total cultivated acreage in Isabella County increased slightly between 1974 and 1982. The number of farms in the county showed a similar increase between 1978 and 1982. Several factors may help explain this apparent reversal of earlier trends. Recessions in 1974-75 and the early 1980 1 s produced high levels of unemployment. Tied with high inflation rates, new residential and commercial development became less affordable. Also, federal funding for water and sewer line extensions became less available during this period. 81 The cumulative I I I I I �r ( effect of these changes is that the demand for agricultural land for urban development has decreased. In addition, the increasing costs of farming without a corresponding increase in the prices received has cut into the farmers' profit margin, forcing them to increase the acreage in production to increase profits. Improved management practices have also allowed farmers to cultivate land previously considered marginal, further improving crop yields. These factors may partially explain the increase in cropland between 1974 and 1982. It is too early to tell whether the 1982 increases in farms and cropland are merely exceptions to an overall decline in agriculture, or whether they represent the start of a new trend. r However, these statistics are encouraging as they give a positive indication of the stability of agriculture in Isabella County. It is clear that agriculture is an extremely important part of the local economy and is likely to remain so for the forseeable future. 82 �I NUMBER a= FAR.MS I ISABELLA COUN,:Y 1964-1982. i I I 2,000 1,570 l.'2.70 11074 qqq 64 69 74 ~EAR. FIGURE VII-1 78 1,010 82. �AVERAGE FARM Slz.E" ISABELLA COUN1Y 1g64-1982. !if 202 1.00 190 '"' l'l B lb4- w ~ ~ 100 u <( _1 64 69 74 ~EAR FIGURE VII-2 78 82. �I AVERAGE FARM v'ALUE"" ISABELLA COUN"'I:Y l l I l l l l 1g64-1985 200 192,317 ~... 1'50 071 ISO 0 ~ UI i ~8 \00 ;q,o~, 50 40, 102.. .31) 3q7 64 FIGURE VII-3 69 78 82 85 NOTE: 1985 FIGURES ARE ESTIMATES BASED ON STATEWIDE AVERAGES. SOURCE: MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS 1985, MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. �r AVERAGr;;VALUE PER ACRE OF=" FAR\v1LAND f ISABELLA COUNT.Y 1964-1985 r r $932.. ~ r r r $~o~ $745 F $415 $244- • $1q3 • • 64 69 74 78 82. 85 ~EAR • FIGURE VII-4 NOTE: 1985 FIGURES ARE ESTIMATES BASED ON STATEWIDE AVERAGES. SOURCE: MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS 1985, MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. �i TOTAL FARMLAND ~AGE I ISABELLA cou~ 1g64-J982. 0 i I i I ~ 260 §~ 250 2.S3,05S X '-' 240 230 2:lD 2o4407 64 69 74 ~EAR FIGURE VII-5 78 82 �- r TOTAL CRDPLAND ACJ2.rc.Ae£ r ISABELLA COUITTY 1964-1982 r ft ~ r r r r r r r \90 § 180- c:-- I S3,.0l7 ,.. ~ 170- Q ~ 160 ~ 150 g 140 <! ..J 155'\SO 157,150 ~ 130 120 64 69 78 FIGURE VII-6 = 82. �Table VII-1 Isabella County Agricultural Statistics 1964 - 1982 1964 1969 1974 1978 1982 253,055 208,663 204,407 201,906 200,872 1,570 1,270 1,074 999 1,016 161 164 190 202 198 Average Farm Value $31,397 $40,102 $79,031 $150,071 $192,317 Average Value/Acre $ $ $ $ $ Total Cropland (acres) 183,017 157,624 155,980 157 , 150 159,774 Market Value of All Farm Products (X $1,000) $14,753 $14,209 $26,868 $ 32,321 $ 41,234 Total Farmland (acres) Number of Farms Average Farm Size (acres) Source: 193 U.S. Census of Agriculture 89 244 415 745 982 I I I I �f J r Table VII-2 J , J , , , , , , , , , , Isabella County Crops Harvested 1982 Crop Acres 'Quantity Corn for grain or seed 41,941 3,381,402 bushels Corn for silage 14,455 159,195 tons Dry beans 17,094 188,559 cwt Soybeans 13,255 320,092 bushels Wheat 10,568 459,299 bushels Oats 8,786 506,329 bushels Barley 1,088 59,409 bushels Source: U.S. Census of Agriculture 90 �C. Methodology The purpose of this methodology is to identify Isabella County's best farmland that should be maintained for continued agricultural production. Isabella County is by no means the first community to attempt such a project. Similar studies have been undertaken by communities throughout the nation at various levels of sophistication. A common denominator of all these studies is, however, the identification of the major factors that influence the suitability of land is for farming. The methods used here are borrowed from the Monroe County Planning Department and the Washtenaw County Metropolitan Planning Commission. 1981, respectively. These counties prepared similar studies in 1985 and The methods also rely heavily on the guidelines provided in Saving Farms and Farmlands (Toner, 1978) and the National Agricultural Land~ Study (Toner, 1981). The basis of this methodology is an analysis of three fundamental factors that have a direct influence on the ability of a parcel to support farming. These characteristics represent a combination of physical, social, and economic conditions. They are not meant to be exhaustive, but they do represent important factors that have a direct influence on the suitability of land for farming. and easy to use. 1. Furthermore, the data employed here are readily available The methodology is described in more detail as follows. Prime Farmland Soils The Soil Survey of Isabella County was completed in 1985 by the U.S. Department of Agnculture. The soil survey identifies 21 individual soil types in the county that are considered very well suited for farming. Prime farmland soils are defined as those best suited to producing crops. Such soils have properties that are favorable for the economic production of sustained high yields of crops. These soils need only to be treated and managed using acceptable farming methods. In essence, prime farmland soils are those that are the best to cultivate, from both an economic and environmental standpoint. It should be noted that soils classified as prime are not necessarily in agricultural usage. Prime soils cannot include urban and built-up land, or water areas. 11 91 11 I I I I I I �r r r' r In Isabella County, the 21 prime farmland soil types compose 166,435 acres, or about 45 percent of the county's total land area. exception of one soil type, all of the prime soils are capable of producing 90 bushels or more of corn per acre. Prime farmland soils are shown in Figure VI I- 7. 2. Parcels Enrolled in Public Act 116 Public Act 116, the Farmland and Open Space Preservation Act, was signed into law in 1974. Act 116 signed into law in 1974. Act 116 enables a landowner to enter into a development rights agreement with the state. The landowner receives specific tax benefits in return for agreeing to maintain his land for either agricultural or open space purposes for a specified period of time (minimum of ten years). To qualify, the farm must be 40 acres or more in size, have a gross annual income of $200 or more per tillable acre, or be a designated specialty farm. Enrollment in Act 116 is considered an important factor because it indicates a commitment by the land owner to maintain his property for farming for at least ten years. Act 116 lands in Isabella County are shown in Figure VII-8. J ',J , r , , , , , , , , With the 3. Existing Farmlands Land that is currently being used for farming was the final factor that was considered as part of this study. This criterion was selected because it also demonstrated an obvious commitment to farming. This information was obtained by reviewing the Current Use Inventory maps prepared for the county as part of the Michigan Resources Inventory Program. D. Important Farmlands Idehtific~tion Composite maps for each of the factors just described were prepared using county base maps. This method was used to identify the agricultural lands with the strongest physical and socio-economic characteristics. Based on this process, farmlands were divided into the two categories described below. To be placed in either category, an area had to be in existing agricultural usage. 1. Primary Farmland: This category includes land with the strongest physical and socio-economic characteristics. Farmlands within this class are located on prime agricultural soils, or they are enrolled under Act 116, or they meet both these criteria. 92 �l 2. Secondary Farmland: This category essentially includes all other existing agricultural land. Farmlands in this class are not located on the most productive soils, and they are not committed to agricultural use under Act 116. The primary and secondary farmlands identified in this manner are shown in Figure VII-9. Land use policy recommendations and other farmland management considerations are discussed in subsequent sections of this plan. l l l 1 I I I I I I I 93 �' 'f •f ,- ' ' ' ' 'J D5C~OLA f,1..A DWIN co. co 0 V B,l2o D t-,1 FI f L t> J J ~ , MONTCAL~ c.o. co SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICT PRIME FARMLAND SOILS FIGURE VI 1-7 ISABELLA COUNTY. Ml CH fGAN �, r GU. t)WI N - + - - - - - - - - - 1 ~ - - - - - - ~ - - - - - = - - - + - ~ ~ ~ - - - - - - - - + - CO. ()5C~OLA co. .. ,~ J ~ J , , ~ , , , IJ 1 CLAP-£ I I C...~ LDW ,AT~P- ... ,. v~ ~/lltfwiJ I ►- I GILl"'\ORf; J Q u I ACT 116 LANDS MONTCALM C,O. ISABELLA COUNTY, MICHIGAN �KEY }f!ffj)!!f ::::::.:.·•,•.· POTENTIAL PRIMARY FARMLANDS ]~~ POTENTIAL SECONDARY FARMLANDS . MONTCALt.1 ,. CO. Gr;2:.AT10'f C.O. ISABELLA COUNTY FARMLANDS FIGURE VI I-9 ISABELLA COUNT'{, MICHfGAN �r r r ' 'i ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN VIII. THE LAND USE PLAN Prepared by: EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with the ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 97 �r r r r r r r r r r r I VIII. A. THE LAND USE PLAN General Concepts Before the future land use plan and map is presented in detail, it is useful to identify the underlying concepts that have directed the plan's development. Overall, the major consideration is the desire to adequately provide for additional residential, commercial, and industrial development while also providing for conservation and, where necessary, preservation of the resources and rural character that make Isabella County an attractive place to live. In keeping with this broad goal, the plan attempts to provide a flexible approach to future development. Instead of delineating rigid boundaries for every type of land use, this plan focuses on a much more policy-oriented approach. In this way, the plan is a statement of the general intentions of the community regarding development issues and is intended to serve as a useful guide in day-to-day decisions. Through this policy orientation, the plan is specifically designed to avoid the naive practice of limiting future options by trying to prescribe the future in too much detail. Also, the plan incorporates the concept that concentrated housing, commercial activities, and industries should be located in established trade centers. Trade centers in Isabella County are mainly Mt. Pleasant, Shepherd, Rosebush, and the unincorporated communities of Beal City, Blanchard, Loomis, Weidman, and Winn. By attempting to direct growth to certain trade centers, higher costs of government can be avoided. Services such as police, fire, water, sewer, and road improvements can be delivered more efficiently and economically to concentrated areas, rather than attempting to spread them over the entire county. The trade center concept does not mean that a rural lifestyle should be discouraged. It merely makes a distinction between the 98 �levels of public services that can be provided. With this broad framework in mind, the general concepts of the Isabella County Plan are outlined as follows: 1. It is desirable to preserve the county ' s best farmlands for agricultural production. This requires identification of the best farmlands based on a set of reasonable criteria. 2. The Chippewa River is a dominant natural feature and recreational resource. However, there is no coherent plan to provide for the management of this resource. Therefore, it is desirable to identify the Chippewa River system as a potential river management corridor that will enhance the county's recreation planning efforts. 3. The primary residential area will continue to be the City of Mt. Pleasant, with additional development occurring in adjacent Union, Chippewa, and Deerfield Townships. 4. Secondary residential concentrations will be found in the Villages of Shepherd and Rosebush, and the unincorporated communities of Beal City, Weidman, Winn, Blanchard, and Loomis. 5. The county's major inland lakes will continue to be attractive for the development of both seasonal and year-round residences. Because of their unique character and the problems associated with intensive development, special management techniques and land use controls are desirable for these lake resort areas. 6. Locations for additional residential development in the out-county areas should be considered in terms of existing land use, major road access, and demands for public services. 7. The primary commercial trade center will continue to be Mt. Pleasant. Secondary commercial centers will be located in Shepherd and Rosebush. Additional small-scale commercial centers to serve the out-county areas would be appropriate in Beal City, Weidman, Winn, Blanchard, and Loomis. 8. The primary center of industrial activity will continue to be Mt. Pleasant and the immediate vicinity. In this activity center, the sites available for industrial use are concentrated in the organized industrial parks found in Mt. Pleasant, Union Township, and Chippewa Township. 9. Additional industrial development might be appropriate near existing industry in Shepherd, the Lake Isabella area (Broomfield Twp.), and the Blanchard area (Rolland Twp.) 99 I I I I ' �r r r r r ' r 10. In all cases, potential locations for industry should be considered in terms of the capacities of transportation systems, availability of adequate public services, and overall compatibility with existing land uses. Based on these general concepts, the following sections discuss the categories that are expected to comprise the major future land uses in Isabella County. The areas proposed for the locations of these uses are shown in Figure VIII-1. B. Agricultural Lands Agriculture is expected to remain the dominant land use in Isabella County for the forseeable future. In the most general sense, agricultural lands are those where there are existing farming operations on productive soils. In the preceding Section VII, Isabella County farmlands were divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary farmlands are those that possess the strongest physical and socio-economic characteristics for ayriculture. Lands within this class are located on prime agricultural soils, and/or they are enrolled under Act 116 Farmland Agreements. Secondary farmland essentially includes all other land presently used for agriculture. Farmlands in this class are not located on the most productive soils, and they are not committed to agricultural use under Act 116. The agricultural lands identified in this fashion showed the greatest concentrations of primary farmlands in Wise, Vernon, Denver, Isabella, Nottawa, Union, Chippewa, Deerfield, Lincoln, and Coe Townships. While this information is useful, it must be stressed that this represents only a preliminary analysis of the county's farmlands based on fairly simple criteria. However, this does sugyest the desirability of taking certain steps to ensure the continued viability of Isabella County agriculture. Identifying the county's most important farmlands represents only the 100 �first steps toward retaining these essential resources. The next step involves the development of specific programs to effectively preserve these areas. To be successful, any agricultural preservation program must consider the social, political, and economic context within the area involved. Such programs must clearly have the support of the farming community and the local governments in the effected areas. The Implementation Section of this plan will provide some recommendations on how a successful agricultural preservation program could be developed in Isabella County. C. Inland Lake Districts Isabella County contains a significant number of inland lakes that are heavily used for recreation and that are the focus of both year-round, and seasonal home development. The major natural lakes include Coldwater, Littlefield, Stevenson, and Halls. I I • Artificial impoundments include Lake Isabella, Lake-of-the-Halls, Windoga Lake, and Manitonka Lake, all located within the northwest part of the county. These lakes will continue to provide attractive sites for recreation opportunities and residential development. Such deve~opment pressures create problems for lake water quality management. Therefore, it will be desirable to develop special management techniques and land use controls for the lake areas. Recent studies have strongly indicated that local controls should be based on lake management studies and plans. Some approaches to developing this type of planning process will be noted in the Implementation Section. D. Primary Trade Center This area includes the City of Mt. Pleasant, Central Michigan University, and portions of surrounding Union Township. The area will continue to function as the county's center of residential, commercial, and industrial 101 ■ ■ • • • • �I I r i i development. As an urban center, the area will continue to be dominant in terms of population as well. Based on current projections, the city, University, and township will contain just less than half (48 percent) of the total county population during 1986 - 2005. This is a slight decline from previous years (54 percent in 1980) because of the expected decrease in CMU enrollments from their current peak. However, the city and Union Township are expected to continue growing at a slow, steady rate. r In order for the anticipated growth of the primary trade center to occur in a rational manner, it is apparent that cooperative decision making will be r required by the county, city, University, and Union Township. E. Secondary Trade Centers Secondary trade center areas are represented by the incorporated Villages of Shepherd and Rosebush. The major uses expected in these areas are a mixture of residential housiny types and densities, local retail stores, and related commercial activities. also be expected. Some modest expansion of light industry may Rosebush is served by a wastewater stabilization lagoon, and water is supplied by individual residential wells. Shepherd is served by both public water and sewer systems. F. Rural Trade Centers These areas include the unincorporated communities of Beal City, Blanchard, Weidman, Winn, and Loomis. Future land uses expected in these areas are mainly low density residential, small-scale local retail establishments, and some commercial service-oriented businesses. Morbark Industries, a manufacturer of forest industry equipment, is located in the Winn area and is expected to continue its operations there. 102 Other agriculture �,and forest related industries could potentially develop in the rural trade centers provided that the firms are fairly small and do not introduce the need for costly public improvements. None of the rural trade center areas are served by public water or sewer systems. G. Community Facilities The Isabella County Building will continue to be the major county-owned public building. officers. This structure will house most county departments and During the planning process, the Sheriff Department has provided comments indicating its desire to remodel and expand its present facilities. The County Multi-Purpose Building, housing the Commission on Aging and the Senior Center, will continue to be available. In another area of public services, the county plans to construct a new r r I I I ,r ,- Type II landfill on a portion of the 120-acre site in Deerfield Township where the present landfill is located. This will enable the county to meet its short-term solid waste disposal needs. In regard to long-range waste management strategies, the county is contemplating potential waste-to-energy facilities in conjunction with source separation and \ecycling programs as future alternatives. These resource recovery planning efforts are being conducted on a multi-county (regional) basis in cooperation with Bay, Gladwin, and Midland Counties. In addition, Isabella county is a participant in the Central Michigan Solid Waste Committee that has been established through the Central Michigan District Health Department. The overall goal of these planning efforts is to develop an effective solid waste management system that is capable of meeting the long term disposal needs of a diverse multi-county area. The only county-owned utility is the water supply system that serves 103 f 'J f , �Forest Subdivision No. 2 in the Lake Isabella area. This system currently services 75 dwelling units with a total population of about 225. There are no current plans to expand the service area, but the system has the potential for expansion if the need arises. At the local government level, there is presently a major interest in developing a water system in Union Township. Alternatives under consideration are construction of the Township's own system or construction of a system in cooperation with the City of Mt. Pleasant. In the past, sewer lines have been extended from the city into portions of the township. There is also the potential for the development of a wastewater treatment system to serve the Lake Isabella area in Sherman and Broomfield Townships. The future status of this project is largely dependent on financial considerations. In addition, the township halls will continue to be important local community facilities. These are expected to remain stable within the long-range planning context. At the time this plan was prepared, a project being undertaken is the construction of a new Mental Health Building in Mt. Pleasant. This facility will be operated by the Central Michigan Community Mental Health Services. Construction is being funded under the County Building Authority. In Mt. Pleasant, the Kinney School Building has come to function as a multi-purpose community building for programs such as adult education and day care. However, there is also local interest in reopening the facility as an elementary school. H. Parks and Recreation Areas State recreation land holdings in Isabella County are represented by the 1,787 acre Gladwin Area State Forest in Denver Township and 160 acres of the 104 �I Edmore State Game Area that are located in parts of Rolland and Fremont Townships. Two small public access sites are also in state ownership at Stevenson and Littlefield Lakes. These state recreation lands are expected to remain stable for long-range planning purposes. The Isabella County Parks and Recreation Commission will continue to operate the four major county parks. Two of these, Deerfield and Meridian, provide major access to the Chippewa River for recreation users. Additional river access sites have been identified as a need by the Parks and Recreation Commission in the 1986 Comprehensive Park and Recreation Master Plan. Accordingly, the county has identified the development of the Ranney Well Site for river access as a priority item in its 1986 action program. This site is owned by the City of Mt. Pleasant and will be developed in cooperation with the city. The site is strategically located about midway on the river between the county-owned Meridian Park and the city-owned Mill Pond Park. Future plans call for the acquisition and development of four additional Chippewa Rivre access sites during 1987 - 90 at locations not yet determined. A major problem confronting future recreational use of the Chippewa River is the continuing development of the watershed for residential uses, especially along the M-20 corridor in Deerfield and Chippewa Townships. On one level, this type of development can result in the loss of open space that is well suited to public recreation. On a different level, intensive development can cause the river to lose its rural, scenic qualities, even if adequate access is provided. For these reasons, it is desirable for the county to consider implementing river corridor management techniques and land use controls to achieve the objective of preserving portions of the Chippewa River as a scenic and recreational resource. A potential location for a river management corridor had been shown on the Future Land Use Map. 105 This issue I I I I I I I I I I 'I '- �will be discussed further in the following section of this plan. I. Other Cbnsider~tions The land use plan and accompanying map have identified only the major land uses expected by the county and proposed locations for these uses. Portions of the county not otherwise classified include additional farmlands, wooded areas, wetlands, and areas of dispersed residential development. Future uses of these areas may be expected to include continued farming operations, limited rural residential development neighborhood-scale retail businesses, and small-scale manufacturing activities. Because of the flexible, policy-oriented approach taken by this plan, it is not necessary to assign fixed locations for every potential use. Instead, future development issues will be considered in relation to the Goals and Objectives that have been formulated in Section VI. The following section discusses the various approaches and programs available for implementing this plan. 106 �r r r r r r r c..o LDW ATE:. 12. XEY r [SJ [j] [.] r ~ INLAND LAKE AREAS ID POTENTIAL PRIMARY FARMLANDS [i MAJOR PARK and RECREATION LANDS: COUNTY &STATE ~ POTENTIAL CHIPPEWA RIVER MANAGEMENT CORRIDOR Ci V r r J J J J I I -----~ I I I ~~ Roll.AND MONTCALM □ I co. G~Tt6'f co. PRIMARY TRADE CENTER SECONDARY TRADE CENTER RURAL TRADE CENTER ALL OTHER RURAL LANDS FUTURE LAND USE ISABELLA COUNTY, MICHIGAN FIGURE VIII-1 �' i i i ' 'r r r r r r r r r r ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN IX. IMPLEMENTATION Prepared by: EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REGION in conjunction with the ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION and the ISABELLA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 108 �IX. A. IMPLEMENTATION General Considerations To successfully implement any plan, the plan itself must be a realistic reflection of the character and aspirations of the community. If a plan has these characteristics, then it has already become part of the implementation process because it describes a future environment that is realistically available. Isabella County's plan does not envision dramatic change. In fact, the plan seeks to protect the resources and character that are associated with the county's quality of life, and to also adequately provide for future growth and development. The preparation and adoption of this Comprehensive Plan places Isabella County in a good position to direct future development~ The plan is intended to be a viable working document that provides county decision makers with a clearly stated set of goals and objectives for the future. Therefore, the text and accompanying maps in this document should be consulted whenever a land use issue needs to be resolved. At the same time, however, the plan retains a high degree of flexibility. Furthermore, the plan avoids any attempt to portray the future in narrow terms. As such, the Isabella County Plan is written to anticipate change. However, simply having a plan is not enough - it must be put into effect. In this regard, the key consideration is public education. It is essential that the County Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Zoning Administrator, all ~ounty personnel, all government units, and the public understand the objectives of this plan. Plan implementation requires the continuous efforts of the county's decision makers and the support of the public. Toward this end, the Planning Commission should take the initiative for promoting its 109 �activities to government bodies and the public. Beyond these broad considerations, there are a number of specific steps that need to be taken to successfully implement this plan. These are discussed in the following sections. B. The Need for Cooperative Planning Isabella County is composed of one city, two villages, sixteen townships, and one tribal government. In addiditon, Central Michigan University should be recognized as a special entity because of its size and status as a major state institution. Decisions made by any one of these local units can have major county wide impacts. For this reason, there clearly needs to be a basis for cooperative planning efforts. On the simplest level, such cooperation can be established by the various bodies informally reviewing each other's plans and proposals. For example, the County Planning Commission should review Mt. Pleasant's updated Master Plan, which is now in preparation. In other areas, advisory committees should be established to address various special issues of countywide significance. Good examples of this include planning for transportation, health services, and farmland preservation. Ideally, such committees should be composed of representatives from the County Planning Commission, appropriate county departments and related agencies, the local units, and the community. The county should take the lead role for establishing these types of working arrangements. To extend the concept of cooperative planning a bit further, it is highly desirable to consider many current issues on a multi-county basis. Examples of areas that have regional significance include major transportation corridors, large health care facilities, extensive recreation areas, solid waste disposal facilities, and water quality management concerns. 110 I I I I I I '' I I I I �In this regard, the Midland County Planning Commission has suggested several areas of concern that may be appropriate for intercounty planni ng cooperation between Isabella County and Midland County. These areas are as follows: 1. The Chippewa River Corridor System. 2. M-2O Highway and Saginaw Road (Old US-1O) Corridors. 3. Farmland Preservation and Forested Land Protection. 4. Solid Waste Management As a starting point, the two planning commissions should hold some discussions to identify mutual goals and to examine ways of pursuing these goals cooperatively. C. Farmland Issues Several programs have been developed within the State of Michigan at both the state and the local level for the purpose of preserving prime agricultural land. On a state-wide basis, the most significant program is the Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program, commonly refered to as Public Act 116. This program provides agricultural property owners with ta~ advantages for agreeing to continue to use their property for specified agricultural purposes for a given period of time. Michigan also recently enacted right-to-farm legislation that gives farmers protection from litigation by adjacent non-farm land owners who find particular aspects of farming either annoying or a nuisance. At the local level, farmland preservation efforts consist largely of the development of agricultural zoning districts. are discussed in more detail below. 111 Each of these programs �-, 1. Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program (P.A. 116) Concerned about the alarming rate of farmland conversion, the State of Michigan enacted this program in 1974. In order to be eligible for inclusion in this program, the property under consideration must meet certain requirement. The farm must have a minimum total size of 40 acres. Farms between 5 and 40 acres may also qualify, provided that they have a gross annual income of $200 per tillable acre. Specialty farms which meet the requirements of the Michigan Department of Agriculture may also qualify for the program if their gross income is $2,000 or more. These agreements run for a minimum of ten years and entitle the landowner to several benefits. Parcels enrolled in the P.A. 116 program may be exempted from special assessments for sanitary sewers, water or street lights. The property owner may also claim the amount by which the property taxes on the enrolled acreage exceed seven percent of his household income on his Michigan income tax. For those parcels enrolled in the open space program, the property is reappraised and the difference between the current market value of the unrestricted property and the value of the property is used to calculate the direct tax saving. The Farmland and Open Space Preservation program has proven to be fairly successful among property owners and a direct result of that popularity has been a reasonable successful tool for minimizing the extent of farmland conversion throughout the State of Michigan. Since its inception in 1974, a total of 17,500 property owners have entered into contracts with the State of Michigan effectively enrolling approximately 3,550,000 acres in the program. 2. Right-to-Farm Act In 1981, the Michigan legislature passed "right-to-farm'' legislation, the intent of which is to give farmers some protection against nuisance suits filed by adjoining non-farm property owners. The legislation itself is meant to be non-regulatory in nature and is intended to establish a general policy regarding the relationship of agricultural land to non-agricultural land. The intent of this bill is clearly expressed in the following passages taken directly from the legislation. Sec.3(1) A farm or farm operation shall not be found to be a public or private nuisance if the farm or farm operation alleged to to be a nuisance conforms to generally accepted agricultural and management practices according to policy as determined by the director of the Department of Agriculture. (2) A farm or farm operation shall not be found to be a public or private nuisance if the farm or farm operation existed before a change in land use or occupancy of land within one mile of the boundaries of the farmland and before such change in land use or occupancy of land the farm operation would not have been a nuisance. 112 , l J ' 'J J J J r r r r f �The ultimate impact and overall effectiveness of this legislation will depend on court interpretation of the act, especially the concept of "generally accepted agricultural practices''. This legislation does, however, reµresent another positive step towards the development of a comprehensive agricultural preservation program for the State of Michigan. 3. Agricultural Zoning State actions not withstanding, the real battle for the preservation of farmland is being determined at the local level. Any attempt to preserve farmland requires the ability to control the use of land, especially the encroachment of urban uses into existing agricultural areas. Within the State of Michigan, the authority to control land use has been allocated to local units of government in the form of zoning. The ability of a local unit of government to preserve farmland, therefore, rests heavily on the requirements of their local zoning ordinances. For all its potential as a useful agricultural preservation technique, zoning more often than not falls far short of its expectations. Many agricultural zoning districts are agricultural in name only and represent little more than holding zones for future urban development. Also, somewhat ironically, farmers themselves often represent obstacles to the establishment of effective agricultural zoning districts. A farmer may not wish to preclude an opportunity to sell his property for non-farm development a a future date through the imposition of strict land use controls. Finally, zoning changes at the local level are often relatively easy to obtain, thereby diluting the intended effectiveness of an agricultural zoning district. The ability of a local community to restrict development through the establishment of agricultural zoning districts rest largely on two major factors: 1) the exclusion or near exclusion of non-farm land uses within agricultural districts; and 2) the establishment of sufficiently large minimum lot sizes to discourage the development of single family homes in agricultural areas. Large lots, however, also take away more land per house which can contribute to the loss of farmland unless lot sizes are set sufficiently high enough to effectively discourage non-farm residential development. Minimum acreage requirements of five or ten acres are not effective in limiting the amount of non-farm development that may occur in an agricultural area. These minimum requirements may, in fact, be more wasteful of land than one or two acre minimums. Many non-farmers who develop single family homes in agricultural districts, actually prefer five or ten acre estates to smaller lots. The placement of a single family home on these parcels, however, only occupies a small portion of the lot with most of the remaining acreage not being used for any productive purpose. 113 �-, This particular problem is compounded by the State of Michigan's current subdivision regulations which do not regulate the division of land into parcels exceeding ten acres in size. This results in a proliferation of parcels which barely exceed the ten acre limit and are often long and narrow. Such parcels frequently have unsuitable access, may have limited useage, or result in misuse of prime agricultural land. Any attempt to develop an effective agricultural zoning district needs to recognize the dynamics and realities of the private land development market and the interest of many farmers to split off several acres of his property for the eventual development of non-farm related single family homes. The integrity of the agricultural zoning district and the needs of the property owner can be balanced by allowing for a limited single family residential development. This can be effectively accomplished by developing a sliding scale whereby the number of permitted single family units is based on the size of the existing agricultural parcels. Larger parcels are allowed more lot splits than smaller parcels. The sliding scale technique is made more effective when it is accompanied by a requirement that these non-farm residential units be clustered together in a specific portion of the original parcel. This helps maintain the integrity of tne agricultural district. 4. Conclusions The importance of Michigan's prime agricultural acreage to the economic well being of the entire state in general and to Isabella County in particular is a well established fact. Given this importance, the development of programs to preserve this agricultural land should be apparent. The State of Michigan recognizes the importance of agriculture to the state and has developed a number of programs which are intended to help maintain the viability of agriculture. The Farmland and Open Space Program, the Right-to-Farm Act and the identification of food processing as a target industry by the Michigan Department of Commerce each represent positive steps forward in the maintenance and preservation of Michigan's most productive agricultural land. These existing state policies could be enhanced by the revision of the state's subdivision regulations to modify existing land subdivision proactices which help promote the conversion of prime agricultural land to non-farm uses. The Isabella County Planning Commission can help facilitate the preservation of farming through the following actions: 1. Encourage the adoption of more effective agricultural zoning districts that discourage the development of non-farm single family · residential units. 2. Encourage local communities to develop land use plans that give a more prominent place to agricultural land. 114 , J 'J f J J J J r r 'r r r r �3. Discourage the premature extension of public water and sanitary sewer lines into those areas of the county that are characterized by the most important agricultural lands. 4. Discourage the rezoning of agricultural land to non-farm uses. 5. Encourage property owners to enroll prime agricultural land into the P.A. 116 Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program, and continue monitoring the amount of farmland in Isabella County that is enrolled in the program. 6. Work with Middle Michigan Development Corporation and the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce on the expansion of existing agricultural-related businesses and the development of new agribusinesses. 7. Work with the Isabella County Cooperative Extension Service and the Isabella County Soil and Water Conservation District on farmland preservation issues. These actions collectively form a general policy framework for the Planning Commission's continuing involvement with farmland issues. A more specific short-term action that the Planning Commission should consider is the preparation of a farmland protection plan. One of the fundamental considerations in developing such a plan is the determination of which farmlands to protect. It must be stressed that this plan only discusses potential farmland classifications in a preliminary fashion. A more careful evaluation of Isabella County's agricultural lands must be made so that all the most important farmlands can be identified. Clearly, a farmland protection project as suggested here must have the direction and support of the agricultural community. As a first step, the Planning Commission should request the assistance of the Soil Conservation Service and Cooperative Extension Service in developing a farmland protection program. These agencies can help in the formation of a local agricultural advisory committee or similar group. In addition, the Soil Conservation Service can provide technical assistance in the identification of the County's important farmlands. 115 �r D. The Chippewa River Corridor r The Chippewa River presents a unique opportunity to create a river recreation system with statewide significance. Midland County recently prepared a River Corridor Study (1984) that contemplates the development of such a recreation system in cooperation with Isabella County. That study notes the following potential elements of an inter-county system: 1. Over 50 miles of uninterrupted flow through Isabella and Midland Counties. 2. A relatively clean river, fishable and canoeable throughout the ice-free period. 3. A system of parks and access points along the river 1 s length. 4. Coordinated land use protection along the entire river. 5. Highway access from anywhere in the state 6. A pleasant scenic environment with large acreas of forest, farmland, and wooded river edges and varying topographic relief. Also, a coordinated recreation system would provide a tourism-oriented link between the Mt. Pleasant and Midland downtown areas. I I I I I I I I The framework for developing such a River Recreation System has already been established in Isabella County with the existing Deerfield and Meridian County Parks. The acquisition and development of several more access sites has been proposed. Further efforts to develop a Chippewa River Recreation System should be initiated by the Parks and Recreation Commission and coordinated with the Planning Commission. In addition, portions of the county 1 s other major rivers and scenic areas may be considered for management in this way. E. ' ' 'I I Inland Lake Issues As is many parts of Michigan, Isabella County's inland lakes will continue to provide attractive sites for seasonal and year-round homes, water-based recreation, and related water front uses. 116 For any lake, however, I �these developmental pressures also create the potential for water quality degradation and impairment of recreational experiences by overuse of both the lake surface and the shoreline areas. To many lakefront property owners, the major problem regarding increased waterfront use concerns "keyhole" ( "funnel 11 ) development. Keyhole de 11el opment is the use of a waterfront lot as common open space for lake access for a larger development located away from the waterfront. This results in potentially greater lake use than would occur if the lot was used for a single family residence. Keyholing occurs through the purchase of a waterfront lot by an owner who then grants access by license, easement, or a share in ownership to other backlot owners. Many ownership or easement combinations are possible under Michigan law. If left uncontrolled, a proliferation of keyhole developments could drastically alter both the surface use characteristics and appearance of a lake. As surface water use increases, so do concerns about shore erosion, property values, water pollution, noise, and conflicts between various users such as boaters, swimmers, and fishermen. For these reasons, waterfront owners are more frequently suing to protect their riparian rights and, in some cases, local governments are attempting to regulate keyhole development. In Michigan, a number of local governments have prepared keyhole development ordinances, mainly at the township level. The keyhole provisions have largely been provided as amendments to the local zoning ordinances, but free-standing ordinances have also been developed in some cases. ·A detailed analysis of all the local approaches to keyhole regulation is not attempted here. For such a treatment, readers should refer to the excellent review articles by Wycoff (1985 a, b). It is sufficient to say that all the approaches either focus on controlling access to the lake to minimize 117 �f r conflicts, or they also focus on the recreational/open space uses of the I waterfront access lots. r r r r This is attempted by establishing minimum lake frontage requirements and by regulating the number of docks or launching facilities per lot. Some ordinances go further still and attempt to establish a hypothetical "carrying capacity" or "load limit" for a lake through a mathematical formula. While there is a wide range of local approaches, all of the existing ordinances recognize that lake access is the issue that must be attacked to achieve the regulatory objective. However, there is no clear indication at this time if any of the f ordinances could withstand judicial scrutiny if they were subjected to litigation by an unhappy landowner or developer. Therefore, local governments are cautioned that they are venturing into unfamiliar territory if they contemplate preparing keyhole ordinances. Based on the various ordinances and related court cases, the clearest single implication is that, to be effective and legally defensible, ordinance should be based~~ lake management plan. a keyhole The quality of an inland lake is a reflection of all the activities occuring within the lake's watershed. Therefore, a lake management plan should consider all the land and water use issues within the entire watershed. Keyhole development is clearly within this scope of issues and should not be addressed in isolation. It is difficult to envision a single county-wide plan that would adequately address all the local issues for each of Isabella County's lakes. The ideal situation would be for the municipalities in the affected areas to develop their own ,local plans. However, there are major obstacles to this approach due to a lack of detailed information for each lake and a lack of money for such studies. As a result, there is a need to develop cooperative arrangements involving the state, local governments, and the county. 118 In r r r r r �particular, this will require the active involvement of several divisions of the Department of Natural Resources, the local health department, the local soil conservationist, and all related municipal and county departments. As a first step toward the effective management of its inland lakes, Isabella County should investigate all sources of state and local technical assistance that are available. Central Michigan University should be considered as a source of local water quality data and potential technical assistance. This information should be compiled by the county and made available to the local units. F. Local Planning and Zoning Zoning will be the primary legal tool for the implementation of this plan. For this reason, it is important to note the status of local planning and zoning activities, and their overall relationship to this plan. Isabella County has zoning jurisdiction for eleven of the sixteen townships. Specifically, the following local units are covered by the County Ordinance: Vernon Coldwater Gilmore Nottawa Isabella Denver Broomfield Deerfield Rolland Fremont Lincoln The following five townships administer their own local ordinances as provided for in the Township Rural Zoning Act (Act 184 of 1943, as amended): Wise Sherman Union Chippewa Coe The local zoning patterns established in these townships were considered during the County Plan's preparation by reviewing their current zoning district maps. In addition to these township ordinances the City of Mt. Pleasant and Villages of Shepherd and Rosebush administer their own zoning as 119 �enabled by Act 207 of 1921, as amended. In contrast to zoning, local land use planning activities are very limited in Isabella County. is now being updated. The City of Mt. Pleasant has a master plan which Union Township has been working on preparing a master plan, but has not yet adopted one. Broomfield Township also has a draft master plan in progress and is considering the development of its own zoning I I I ordinance in the future as well. Considering the status of local planning and zoning, the following recommendations are made to help strengthen local planning efforts and to avoid overall conflicts with the County Plan: G. 1. The County Planning Commission should encourage the local units to prepare and adopt land use plans that will help reinforce this plan and address special local concerns. 2. The Planning Commission should review all township plans as described in No. 1. This is required by Section 8 of the Township-Planning Act (Act 168 of 1959). 3. The Planning Commission should review the City of Mt. Pleasant Master Plan when it becomes available. 4. The Planning Commission should review all zoning amendments proposed by the townships that administer their own ordinances. This is required by Section 10 of the Township Rural ·zoning Act (Act 184 of 1943, as amended). Revision F f J r .9.f. the County Zoning Ordinance As previously suggested, the County Zoning Ordinance will be the primary legal tool for implementation of this plan. For this reason, it is extremely important for the Planning Commission to thoroughly review the existing ordinance. This should be done to identify revisions that are necessary to accomplish the objectives of this plan and also to alleviate problems that r r have been encountered while administering the present ordinance. Some recommended revisions are summarized here for further consideration by the Planning Commission. This list should not be considered exhaustive by lW -r �any means. It is based only on a brief review of the current ordinance. During the revision process, it is likely that other desirable changes will be found. It is important that the eventual changes are properly detailed and complete beyond the brief observations noted here. POTENTIAL REVISIONS TO THE ISABELLA COUNTY ZONING ORDINANCE 1. Organize the text so that all regulations concerning each district are identified in the regulations for that district. This information may be conveniently displayed on a series of charts. 2. Add some definitions that reflect current land use implications. 3. Consider replacing the single agricultural district with a range of agricultural zones along with appropriate definitions. 4. Revise the lists of permitted and controlled uses in the various districts where they are presently too broad or too narrow. 5. All of the special land uses are currently handled on a discretionary basis. It may be desirable to consider some of these on a non-discretionary basis with a clear set of standards provided in the text. 6. Consideration should be given to revising the controls for home occupation uses so that they reflect current lifestyles and community desires. 7. Consider revisions to the present junkyard regulations so that esthetics and visual impacts can be addressed more effectively. 8. Revise the provisions for Planned Unit Developments to develop more workable regulations. 9. Revise the zoning district map so that it is consistent with and aids implementation of the land use plan. 10. Other changes suggested by an intensive review of the contents, procedures, and experience of the County in administering the existing ordinance. 121 �H. Short-Term Implementation and Continued Planning The completion of this plan does not signal the end of the planning process. It is, in fact, only the beginning. It is impossible to anticipate every development proposal or land use issue that may come before the Planning Commission, and this plan makes no attempt to do so. County Plan is written to anticipate change. Instead, the Isabella The Development Goals and l I J Objectives stated in Section VI form the policy framework of the plan and should be consulted whenever a land use issue needs to be resolved. In addition, this plan should be continually reviewed to incorporate new or updated information as it becomes available. updated at approximately five-year intervals. The plan should be formally Furthermore, additional planning studies should be undertaken to expand on this plan's data base and address special areas in more detail. The Planning Commission need not be the J f r f lead agency for all such studies, but it should be actively involved in their development. Subject areas that need to be addressed in the near future are transportation and agricultural preservation. Finally, this plan attempts to establish a cooperative basis for continued planning that will involve all government units and appropriate agencies in county-level decision making. It must be remembered that it is the regular activity of planning, not the resulting documents, that is most important. To help initiate this process, some short-term implementation activities are suggested for the Planning Commission on the following page. 122 [ r J ' �r ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION I SHORT-TERM PLAN IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS Activities Approx. Dates Summer 1986 Initiate review of County Zoning Ordinance Fall 1986 Officially adopt the Comprehensive Plan. Present the Comprehensive Plan to the Board of Commissioners and seek their endorsement. Winter 1986-87 Review the Mt. Pleasant Master Plan. Investigate sources of lake management planning assistance. Hold a discussion of intercounty planning issues with the Midland County Planning Commission. Spring 1987 Hold an advisory meeting with SCS and CES regarding farmland issues Initiate advisory meetings with local governments and agencies. Summer 1987 Initiate farmland protection planning activities as needed. Fall 1987 Prepare draft of proposed Zoning Ordinance text and map changes; incorporate special areas such as farmlands and inland lakes. 123 �APPENDIX A: B I B L I OG R AP HY �BIBLIOGRAPHY DiNovo, F. and M. Jaffe. 1984. Local regulations for groundwater protection, Part I: Sensitive area controls. Land Use Law! Zoning Digest, Vol. 36(5), pp. 6-13. DiNovo, F. and M. Jaffe. 1984. Local regulations for groundwater protection, Part II: Source controls. [and Use Law! Zoning Digest, Vol. 36 (6), pp. 5-11. Isabella County Planning Commission. 1967. Comprehensive Area Water and Sewer Plan. Isabella County Planning Commission. County. 1969. A Comprehensive Plan for Isabella Isabella County Board of Commissioners. 1980 Revision. Isabella Couhty Zoning Ordinance. Toner, W. Zoning to Protect Farming: A Citizen•~ Guidebbok. of Agriculture, NaITonal Agricultural Lands Study, 1981. U.S. Department Toner, W. Saving Farms and Farmlands: A Cbmmunity Guide. American Planning Association, Planning Advisory Service Report No. 333, 1978. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. Soil Survey of Isabella County, Michigan. 1985. --Wycoff, M. Inland lake keyhole development: An analysis of local zoning approaches, Part one. Planning and Zoning News, March 1985, pp. 6-12. Wycoff, M. Inland lake keyhole development: An analysis of local zoning approaches, Part two. Planning and Zoning News, April 1985, pp. 5-9. �APPENDIX P LAN R E V I E W A ND B: ADOP T I O N D O C U ME N T A T I O N �r \ r ' r r ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARING/ COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DRAFT June 16, 1986 A Public Hearing for the Isabella County Comprehensive Plan Draft and special Commission meeting was held on June 16, 1986 in Room 124 of the Isabella County Building, 200 North Main Street, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. MEMBERS PRESENT: KatharineLindfors, Vice-Chairperson, Pamela WebbDriscoll, Evelyn Kent, Richard Sherbarth, Howard Quackenbush MEMBERS ABSENT: Wayne Husted, Chairman, Bernard Flint DIRECTOR PRESENT: Bruce E. Rohrer OTHERS PRESENT: Caroline Ramsey, Recording Secretary Doug Bell, E.C.M.P.D.R. The hearing was called to order at 8:11 p.m. by Vice-Chairperson Lindfors. NEW BUSINESS A. Contract - County Zoning Ordinance Revisions Mr. Rohrer discussed with the Commission crembers the future necessity of revising the County Zoning Ordinance. He advised that Pamela Webb-Driscoll has offered to research and gather data necessary to revise the current zoning ordinance for a fee of $6.00 an hour to cover expenses. Mr. Rohrer recommended that the Commission allow him to enter into a contract with Mrs. Driscoll to do this work for $6.00 an hour and not to exceed $360.00 and that the money be transferred from the Part-Time Planning Assistant Line Item to Contractural Services. Discussion followed. A motion was made by Richard Sherbarth and seconded by Howard Quackenbush to authorize Bruce E. Rohrer to enter into a contract with Pamela Webb-Driscoll for the purpose of researching and gathering data for revising the County Zoning Ordinance for a fee of $6.00 an hour but not to exceed $360.00 and that he make the necessary line item changes for payment, subject tothe concurrence of the County Prosecuting Attorney and County Board of Commissioners. Motion carried. PUBLIC HEARING/ COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DRAFT Doug Bell, E.C.M.P.D.R., presented a brief summary of the composition of the Plan Draft. Mr. Rohrer recommended that the primary trade center portion of - the Future Land Use Map be extended to Summerton Road to incorporate the M-20 commercial corridor where growth is taking place. Vice-Chairperson Lindfors opened the hearing to the public for their comments and/or recommendations. �Public Hearing/ Comprehensive Plan Draft Page 2 June 16, 1986 Jerry Cole, 1251 N. Shepherd Road (772-4158), was present and requested a copy of the Plan Draft. George Davidson, Gratiot County Commissioner, was present but stated that he did not have any comments/recommendations. Correspondence was received from Donald Schuster, Listening Ear Crisis Center, and Kathy David, County Commission on Aging. Mr. Rohrer advised that John Riley, D.S.S., contacted him and advised that he will forward comments later this week. Mr. Riley feels that the Plan needs to put more emphasis on Human Services. r r Mr. Rohrer advised that Dave Pasquale, City Planner, contacted him and advised that he will be forwarding written comments later this week. p Mr. Rohrer advised that Robert Caltrider, County Road Commission, contacted him and advised that he felt the Plan reflected the Road Commission's thoughts in regards to transportation. r r No other correspondence was received and there were no other people present to offer comments/recommendations. ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Pamela Driscoll and seconded by Richard Sherbarth to adjourn the public hearing and special meeting. The hearing and special meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m. Howard Quackenbush, Secretary Caroline S. Ramsey, Recording Secretary r .r r �NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD AND PUBLIC HEARING PROPOSED ISABELLA COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN The Isabella County Planning Commission has prepared a Comprehensive Plan for the County. The proposed plan is available for public review and comment before official action is taken. The Planning Commission will conduct a Public Hearing on the proposed plan as follows: Monday, June 16, 1986 7:00 p.m., Room 124 Isabella County Building 200 North Main Street Mt. Pleasant, Michigan The proposed Comprehensive Plan establishes a set of policies to guide the future development of the County and to provide for the multiple uses of its resources. The Planning Commission's recommendations for implementing its proposals are also included as part of the plan. The proposed plan will be available for public inspection at the Isabella County Department of Resource Management, Room 202, 200 North Main Street, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Copies of the plan will also be available at the following locations: Mt. Pleasant Public Library, Charles Clark Library (CMU), Gladys McArthur Memorial Library (Weidman), Coe Township Library (Shepherd), Fremont Township Library (Winn), Isabella Township Library (Rosebush), and the Rolland Township Library (Blanchard). Copies will be available during regular business hours. The Planning Commission will accept written comments on the proposed plan until June 16, 1986 at the time of adjournment of the the above public hearing. Comments should be mailed or delivered to the Department of Resource Management at the above address. Written comments are preferred to ensure accuracy and to allow time for the Planning ColllI!lission to study the comments prior to the public hearing. Public participation in the review and comment process for the plan is welcomed and encouraged. Howard Quackenbush, Secretary Isabella County Planning Cow.I11ission �~ 1.1.: t I I-:-.~; ./.l;', .fil , NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT J-ERIOD :\: i'" \.;' / ; .;:: . AND PUBLIC HEARING ! . ll . ;,-. .,. l>:'_-,( PROPOSED !SABELLA COUNT)' ,' .·I.· - . ,·:,~··i ,.·,/,._;;; ,. , COMPREHENS,IVE PLAN ,_.i.it/~'- ·? ),:• Affidavit of Publication , .. ~~: · ,. : . STATE OF MICHIGAN County of Isabella County of Gratiot 1 . .'. ,J , ',. ·,~ ,, ~l ~ ..:•~' . ':·. ' J\. The Isabella County planning Commission has pr~P!lre~ /ii C~m.prehensive Plan for the County. The prop-f~ ose~ plan· is available for public review and comment ;·;before official action Is taken. The Planning Commls- : aIon will corduct a Pu~llc Hearing on the proposed pla~ ; }. t. •: :i '('. ·(. i;;_<, as ~oil~~!\: '; / ,; f . . . ., . ,. \•' t. · ..... ·'Monday, June 16, 1986 .. , 1 •,,;_l , -; '. / ·, ,;!i •,.... v;.•,:.•,,· 7·00pm R00 m124 ' ··· 1 J. ·, ,·· B lid' i·.:c-.> ·,--1/·;·,": . Cl if t On E . Fo rr e St being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is publisher of ·:;-,,:,•••,> ·:,:.';.. _,.·,·,l. l b II 'c'' · ·i~ . ,.:):... ,aa ea ounty u 1ng :·.,:.,'v'~_.•;·, , · the MORNING SUN, a public newspaper printed and published in the Cities of Mt. Pleasant and Alma, in said .. ~ ; ,·:\l::., i \ '. . 200 ~ortti M11in Street <+.':·. ;,; ,;' ;_\;; :.: '. ·- · 0 .·. ;/}i?\'W1.1~i~\ counties and circulated in said cities and counties, that the annexed printed notice was duly printed and ¼JV/\/{ . Plr:~jt;} ~ic~~~a.\ l1if :; ~e proposed ~qmpr~honsh(e Plan l!S,ablishes set of " policies to guide the fl!tur~ d~vel!)pment of t~e County .. ;:;and to .provide for thei multiple µsea of its resources. ;, June , 19 8 6 and that the last publication of said notice in said newspaper was on the •. ' The Planning Commiision'a reyommendations for Im-. . , pl~lllenting its proposals ·are also included as. part of ;' June 14 day of 19 86 '·•the plan . ' ,.,, • ·1 . ' ' , ' ' · . .. - .The prop~a~d ~-Ian; will be a~ailable for public ·i~-s~ec- ·,. . tion : !iUhe• lsabelll! c;ounty ·Qepl!rtrr:)ef\t'_2f-,~!J~urce,.,~ Manageme~t, ~ooni' ~02; 200 ..,tforth· Mal,:t ,Street}! Mt,~·-: Ple1,1a11nt, M1ch1gan fn;>m 8:00 a.in, to 4:30 p.m., Mon- ,. Subscribed and sworn to before me the 12 day or June 19 86 day thru Friday. Copiei of the plan )Viii also be available ·''. ai'the following locadon:1 Mt. Pleasant Public Library, · Charles Clark.Library jCMU); Glady, McArttiu'i Me.mo;,~ . ,riat Library 1 (Weidman), :Coe Township _librarv ,.:: · >(Shepherd), Fremont Township Lil:irary (Winni, Isabella t Michigan · i TQWIJShi'p · Library (Rosebush), · and the Rollan.d i• Township Library (Blanchard). Copies will be available is.d. during regular business hours. · · ,; , :: ,,('1~ .<\~!\~t ·{,sH·} My commission expires July 7 1 1989 The Planning Commission will -accept 'written com, ':,,, . \ rrients·on th~ propoaea plim· until June 16, 1~ at the 1:1 time of adjournment of the above public hearing. Com- ·, PUBLISHER'S FEE DISPLAY AD ments shouJc;I be mailed or delivered to the Department •· ; of Re$oµrce ¥~n&Qerrieri! !It the "bove addres~) .Writ; \~ ten com{Tlents arfi! preferred to ensure accuracy and to allow:~!f"!lG f9r t~~ pl~nning Co,nrrils~ioi1 to. study the ,:. _ _ times$ _ _ __ _ _folios comments priorto the pub.lie hearing •.' · ·., . ·: f ; ; Publl¢ participatiqn In the review a_nd comment process : Affidavit of publication$======= . for.the plan_Is welcomed and enc_o!Jrag_e_~,....,,,,;,~~•?r~..!, ,; · Howard Quackenbush, Secretary . . · ·•. ·• ·::'; · :•. · · Isabella County Planning 'Commisslofi' .. .. ,.. ·:"")---- .... , .., published in said newspaper at least - - - ~ in each week for _ ___._ successive weeks, and that the ~ · day of first publication of said notice in said newspaper was on the 14 a ~ z: ~ Received payment_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Total$ _ _ _ _ • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - :t.,~: ~ ,,.., It ~fl -,...,- ~ -:~ ~ ~ - ~ ~ - ~....., ..... " ·-) . . I' �APPENDIX C O MMU N I T Y C: P ART I C I P AT I O N �ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION October 10, 1985 A meeting of the Isabella County Planning Commission was held on October 10, 1985 in Room 124 of the Isabella County Building, 200 North Main Street, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. MEMBERS PRESENT: Evelyn Kent, Chairperson, Katharine Lindfors, Wayne Husted, George Bowlby, Howard Quackenbush, Richard Sherbarth, William Ruddell, and Bernard Flint MEMBERS ABSENT: Delbert Ringquist DIRECTOR PRESENT: Bruce E. Rohrer OTHERS PRESENT: Caroline Ramsey, Recording Secretary Daniel Jones, Part-Time Planning Assistant The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m. by Chairperson Evelyn Kent. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion was made by Katharine Lindfors and seconded by Wayne Husted to accept the September 12, 1985 minutes as circulated. Motion carried. NEW BUSINESS A. Special Use Permit #85-12 (Seiler Tank & Truck Services) Mr. Jones explained to the Commission that Seiler Tank & Truck Services is requesting a Special Use Permit to construct an office and truck/tank storage garage in an A-A (Agricultural) District in Section 22 of Vernon Township. Charles Spranger, representative from Seiler Tank, was present at the meeting to answer questions. Mrs. Kent asked the Investigating Committee for their report. Richard Sherbarth questioned whether the D.N.R. had to give their approval for this construction. Mr. Rohrer advised that he had contacted them and that they had advised that this construction would not come under the provisions of P.A. 61 of 1939. Mr. Rohrer also advised that construction of this nature is not specifically provided for in the County Zoning Ordinance. There were no pro or con responses from anyone present at the meeting. A discussion followed. A motion was made by Richard Sherbarth and seconded by Wayne Husted to approve Special Use Permit #85-12 with the following stipulations: 1. 2. Dust on the road must be controlled. The permit may be revoked if this becomes a problem. All pertinent items to construction and after construction must conform with the County Zoning Ordinance. Motion carried unanimously. �Planning Commission Page 2 October 10, 1985 ISABELLA COUNTY MASTER PLAN A. Update on Progress of Master Plan & Public Response Mr. Jones reported on the responses he received regarding the Goal Formulations Survey. He advised that his meeting was not a public hearing but for the purpose of receiving public input only. ~ Mr. Jones introduced Doug Bell, East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region, to those present at the meeting. Mr. Bell presented an explanation of the process for collecting information to be utilized in comprising the Master Plan and the various steps that are necessary. The last Comprehensive Plan for the County was composed in 1969. Following Mr. Bell's explanation, Mr. Rohrer opened the meeting for public comments and recommendations. The following people were present at the meeting and their comments/recommendations follow respectively. Lyle Thompson - Cooperative Extension Service 1. Advised that he feltprirneagricultural land (USDA Classification 1, 2, & 3) in the County should be preserved at the present time. He also felt that prime agricultural land should not be divided into 10 acre parcels to avoid plat act restrictions, as this amount of land in itself is uselss as farming land and that it would strengthen the agricultural system by changing this in the plat act. 2. Advised he feels there should be fewer zoning restrictions on home occupations regarding what individuals do within their home. However, he feels that there is a need for restrictions for parking and exterior aesthetics of the home as it states to the occupation. 3. Advised the County does not offer enough information or facilities to accommodate tourism (i.e. stopping stations, road plans, etc •. ). He stated that the County needs to consentrate on directing people through the County and pointing out its historical features, parks, etc •• so that tourism will not have to go to adjoining Counties. Also, stated that the County Parks and Recreation has developed some good plans for the County and that there should be an effort to address the Chippewa River as a resource for the County. Mr. Thompson felt that the County should enhance further development of the paramutual race track. Keith Decker - Union Township Planning Commissioner 1. Advised that in reference to industrial development in rural areas, most of Union Tm-mship 's development has taken place in Sections 12 & 13 and that the Township has made provisions for industrial development for the future in their Master Plan. r; �Planning Commission Page 3 October 10, 1985 2. In reference to future planning for County roads, he felt 8 to 9 miles of blacktop at a time should be repaired and/or constructed with the cost being borne by people who petition for it. Further, he felt that the County needs to straighten offset jogs in the County roads, especially Township and County line roads. Also, that the Master Plan should provide for repair and maintenance of County bridges. Gary Gottleber-Gilmore Township Trustee 1. Stated that he felt one of the County's largest assets was its agricultural land and that it should be taken care of as well as care for our County lakes. 2. In reference to industrial development in the County he felt that provisions should be made for development in the best interests of the County as a whole and that each Township didn't necessarily have to have an industrial park. Also, felt that when a rezoning request for a developm~nt was received, that governing bodies should act quickly in rendering a decision. Dave Pasquelle-Assistant City Manager 1. Advised that the City and Union Township were also working on Master Plans and felt that joint meetings should be held in order to develop plan coordination. He felt that there are several issues that should be addressed collectively: a. b. c. d. future land use define "urban" area transportation economic development (exploring & expanding economy) Jon MacLeod -City Planning Commissioner 1. Expressed the same opinions as Mr. Pasquelle and further advised that the possibility of a County airport should be looked at. Robert Massey-USDA Soil Conservation Service 1. Advised that a soil survey for Isabella County was available and that this survey would be a valuable asset as a planning tool. This survey includes detailed soil maps, limitations in planning and zoning, and a specific definition of "prime" agricultural land. Roger Hinebaugh-USDA Soil Conservation District Board Member 1. Advised that in regards to rural industry in the County the conditions of many gravel roads should be taken into consideration and provided for. �r Planning Commission Page 4 October 10, 1985 Rick Atkin-Isabella County Transportation System 1. Advised that they were working on making a better and more transit transportation system for Isabella County. Details of these plans will be available at a later date. Mrs. Kent thanked the people present at the meeting for attending and for their input for the Master Plan. Mr. Bell advised the Planning Commission that he would have a preliminary draft done before the November meeting and that they would be mailed to them before this meeting so they would have time to review it. FARMLAND AGREEMENTS The following Farmland Agreements were presented: Leigh & Eva Stanley - Sec. 21, Coldwater Township Otis & Vada Conlry - Sec. 23 & 26, Coldwater Township Francis Bower - Sec. 9, Denver Township Ann A. Johnston - Sec. 16, Isabella Township Clarence & Ilene Chapman - Sec. 27 & 28, Lincoln Township Gale & Lois Willoughby - Sec. 23, 28, & 29, Lincoln Township Donald & Agnes Sheahan - Sec. 10, Nottawa Township Richard & Virginia Taylor - Sec. 11, 12, & 14, Rolland Township Clayton & Sarah Nelson - Sec. 20, Rolland Township Clayton & Florence Nelson - Sec. 29 & 30, Rolland Township Joe & Ella Yoder - Sec. 1, Vernon Township Allegra Himebaugh - Sec. 32, Deerfield Township Roger & Carol Himebaugh - Sec. 6 & 8, Fremont Township Allegra Himebaugh - Sec. 12, Rolland Township Rex & Catherine Foster - Sec. 19 & 30, Rolland Township Kreston & Rex Foster - Sec. 19, Rolland Township William & Bertha Stough, Sec. 19, Wise Township Steven & Deborah Schumacher, Sec. 15, Nottawa Township William & Bertha Stough, Sec. 24, Vernon Township Ted & Corinne Palmer - Sec. 21 & 26, Coe Township A motion was made byWilliamRuddell and seconded by Howard Quackenbush to accept the Farmland Agreements as presented. Motion carried. LETTER FROM UNION TOWNSHIP r r r r , Mrs. Kent advised the Commission that Union Township has sent a letter asking for comments on a rezoning request for Roger Card in Section 13. r A motion was made by William Ruddell and seconded by George Bowlby to forward a letter to Union Township stating that the Commission has no comments on this request. f �Planning Commission Page 5 October 10, 1985 ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Wayne Husted and seconded by Katharine Lindfors to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m. ' !J z, Delbert Ringquist, Secretary Caroline S. Ramsey, Recording Secretary �ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION }, !SABELLA COUNTY BUILDING 200 N. Main Street MT. PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48858 1s111 n2-0911 ( ( G 0 u N T y 0 NOTICE OF COUNTY PLANNING ADVISORY MEETIN:i Thursday , October 10 , 1985 7:30 p.m. Isabella CDunty Building, CDmmission Room Mt. Pleasant, MI ' ff 1 The Planning CDmmission is holding an Advisory Meeting to obtain comrrents from local governments and the public concerning development of the new Isabella CDunty CDmprehensive Plan. F A comprehensive plan is a set of policies to guide the general development of the CDunty and to provide for the multiple uses of its resources. As such, a plan needs to be regularly updated as populations, lifestyles, and development trends change. I In order for the Planning CDmmission to adequately address current issues, we need your input concerning areas such as Land Use, Community Facilities, and Transportation. s rrl nt r.- I r Your attendance and participation at this meeting are welcomed and encouraged. IT A l B E L L f A p • �ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION ISABELLA COUNTY BUILDING 200 N. Main Street MT. PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48858 ,sm n2-0911 l J ) J ~ r October 2, 1985 TO: FROM: RE : Isabella County Departments and Other Interested Agencies Evelyn Kent , Chairperson Isabella County Planning Commission County Planning Advisory Meeting V D F I s A B E L L A In August, you were contacted with a questionnaire seeking your suggestions regarding County development goals and other aspects of comprehensive planning. The Planning Commission also sent a similar questionnaire to all the municipalities in the County. The Planning Commission is holding an Advisory Meeting to discuss the results of these surveys and other pertinent aspects of the Comprehensive Planning Program. This meeting will be held as follows: Thursday , October 10, 1985 7:30 p.m. Isabella County Building, Commission Room Your attendance and participation are welcomed and encouraged. �ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION ISABELLA COUNTY BUILDING 200 N. Main Street MT. PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48858 1s111 n2-os11 C 0 u September 23, 1985 TO: N FROM: T RE: y 0 F I s A r r f f Evelyn Kent, Chairperson Isabella County Planning Commission County Development Goals and Advisory Meeting The Planning Commission is now in the process of updating the 1969 Isabella County Comprehensive Plan. We are being assisted in this endeavor by the Department of Resource Management and the East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region. The new plan, to be completed by the end of 1985, will serve as a guide for the future development of the County and will address areas such as Land Use, Community Facilities, and Transportation. In order for the Planning Commission to adequately address current issues and priorities, we need your input. On the attached pages, we have listed a numberoforoacfgoal statements that pertain to various aspects of the County's development. From the perspective of your local government, please indicate for each area: 1. 2. Your overall reaction to the goal statement. Specific steps that should be taken to accomplish the goal • Any additional comments you have will also be very helpful. E The Planning Commission will also be holding an advisory meeting to seek input from local governments and the public as indicated on the following page. Please plan on attending! A r All Local Governments in Isabella County B L L } Thank you very much for your cooperation. (,y r rJt �ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION !SABELLA COUNTY BUILDING 200 N. Main Street MT. PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48858 1s11, n2-os11 NOTICE OF ADVISORY MEETING Thursday, October 10, 1985 7:30 p.m. Isabella County Building, Commission Room Mt. Pleasant, MI The Planning Commission is holding this Advisory Meeting to obtain comments from local governments and the public concerning development of the new Isabella County Comprehensfve Plan. Issues that need to be discussed include future land use and other policies related to the County's development. Please designate one or two representatives from your local government to attend the meeting, and bring your completed questionnaire wi'th you (attached). . · If you are unable to attend, please mail your questionnaire to the Department of Resource Management, County 8uilding, by October 10. MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW AND PLAN ON ATTENDING! �Person To Contact Local Government Name I. Goal: Natural Resources To provide for the wise use of the County's outstanding land, water, and scenic resources in order to maintain a high quality environment for all residents. Reaction: Specific steps to take: II. Goal: Parks and Recreation Through the efforts of the Parks and Recreation Commission, continue to maintain and improve the County's recreation areas and programs to meet the needs of all residents. Reaction: r r r r r f r Specific steps to take: -1- r r r �III. Goal: Public Safety Police and fire protection should be maintained at a high level. Reaction: Specific steps to take: IV. Goal: Transportation The County should maintain and improve its roads, bridges, and public transportation services to provide a safe and efficient transportation system. Reaction: Specific steps to take: -2- �V. Goal: Health Services To ensure the availability of adequate health services for all residents of Isabella County. Reaction: Specific steps to take: r r r r r r r r VI. Goal: Agricultural Land Use Agriculture is of fundamental importance to the economy and lifestyle of Isabella County. As such, the County's prime farmlands should be preserved and maintained for agricultural production. Reaction: Specific steps to take: f r r r r r r r r -3- �VII. Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Land Use Goal: Additional residential, commercial, and industrial development is desirable in Isabella County. Such development, however, must be planned and orderly, and must not create an excessive demand for public services. *Note: In your responses, please consider both the desirability of additional development and appropriate locations for development within your local government's boundaries. A. B. Residential Development 1. Is additional development desirable? 2. Do you prefer any specific housing types? (i.e., single-family, multi-family, mobile home parks, subdivisions, etc.) 3. Are there any special locations that are appropriate for development? Please be as specific as possible in terms of roads, sections, etc. Commercial Development 1. Is additional development desirable? 2. Is there a need for any specific types of business? small neighborhood -dares, shopping centers, highway businesses, etc.) 3. Are there any special locations that are appropriate for development? Please be as specific as possible in terms of roads, sections, etc. -4- (i.e., �C. Industrial Development 1. Is additional development desirable? 2. Would you prefer any specific types of industry? manufacturing, warehouses, heavy industry.) 3. Are there any specific locations that are appropriate for industrial development? Please be as specific as possible in terms of roads, sections, etc. (i.e., light VIII. County Government Goal: Isabella County should strive to improve the quality of its services and to facilitate cooperation with local units of government. Reaction: f f r r r Specific steps to take: r r IX. Does your local government currently have any special plans for remodeling, expansion, or construction of new public facilities? Please describe below. -5- �X. Are there other issues or problems that the Planning Commission should address? Any additional comments? Thank you for Your Cooperationi -6- �ISABELLA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION !SABELLA COUNTY BUILDING 200 N. Main Street MT. PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48858 ,s, 11 n2-os11 C 0 u August 8, 198.5 TO: N FROM: T RE: y 0 F I 8 A B E L L A Isabella Camty Departments and Other Interested Agencies Evelyn Kent, Chairperson Isabella Cainty Planning Corrrnission Cainty Development Goa.ls The Planning canmission is no.v in the process of u¢ating the 1969 Isabella Cainty Comprehensive Plan. We are being assisted in this en::ieavor by the Department of Resairce Management and the East Central Planning and Development Region. The new plan, to be completed by the en::i of 198.5, will serve as a guide for the future development of the Cainty and will address areas such as Land Use, ColilIIllnity Facilities, and Transportation. In order for the Planning Canmission to adequately address current iss.ies and priorities, ~ nee:i yair input. On the attached pages, we have listed a number of brood goal statements that pertain to variais aspects of the Cainty's development. Fran the perspective of yair department/agency, please indicate for each applicable area: 1. 2. Yair overall reaction to the goa.l statement. Specific steps that shaild be taken to accomplish the goa.l. r r r r r r r r Please note that it is necessary to respond only to these items that relate to the activities and expertise of yair department/agency, but feel free to address other areas as well. Any additional cO!Illrents yai have will also be very helpful. Please submit yrur CO!Illrents to Dan Jones, Department of Resairce Management, by August 23, 198.5. The Planning Commission will also be holding advisory meetings to seek input fran local governments and the public in the near future. Yai will be notified of dates and times. Thank yrn very rruch for yair cooperation. r �Department/Agency Name I. Goal: Person To Contact Natural Resairces To provide for the wise use of the Cainty's aitstanding land, water, an:i scenic resairces in order to maintain a high quality environment for al 1 residents. Reaction: Specific steps to take: II. Goal: Parks and Recreation Thraigh the efforts of the Parks and Recreation Canmission, continue to maintain and improve the Cainty's recreation areas and prcgrams to meet the nee:is of all residents. Reaction: Specific steps to take: -1- �r III. Goal: Public Safety Police and fire protection shculd be maintained at a high level. Reaction: I I I I I I Specific steps to take: I IV. Goal: Transportation The Carnty shculd maintain and improve its reads, bridges, and public transportation services to provide a safe and efficient transportation system. Reaction: r I I J ' ' ' Specific steps to take: -2- �V. Goal: Health Services To ensure the availability of adequate health services for all residents of Isabella Crunty. Reaction: Specific steps to take: VI. Goal: Agricultural Land Use Agriculture is of fundamental importance to the econany and lifestyle of Isabella Crunty. As such, the Crunty' s prime fannlands shruld be preserved arxi maintained for agricultural pra:iuction. Reaction: Specific steps to take: -3- �1 VII. Goal: *Note: Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Land Use Additional residential, commercial, and industrial development is desirable in Isabella Crunty. Such development, ho.vever, rrust be planned and orderly, and rrust not create an excessive demand for public services. In yrur responses, please consider both the desirability of additional development and appropriate locations for development. a. Residential Development (including single-family, rrulti-family, mobile hane parks, subdivisions, etc.) Reaction: Specific steps to take: J I I I I I ) l ] b. l, Commercial Development Reaction: 1 Specific steps to take: l -4- �c. Industrial Development Reaction: Specific steps to take: VI I I. Crunty Government Goal: Isabella Crunty shruld strive to improve the quality of its services and to facilitate cooperation with local units of government. Reaction: Specific steps to take: IX. Does yrur department/agency currently have any special plans for remc:deling, expansion, or providing ne.v services and prcgrams? Please describe belo.v. -5- �J X. I Are there other isrues or problems that the Planning Canmission shruld address? Any additional canrrents? I - J Thank yru for Yrur Cooperation! l l I l I l l ~ -6- ' ' ,' , �APPENDIX S U P P L E ME N T A R Y S OC I AL D: A ND E C O N O MI C DAT A �COUNT DATA SERIES [l~b-effa C unt!J POPULATION HISTORY AND PROJECTIONS Local Unit ----- 1960 1970 1980 1985 1990 2000 2010 672 1,648 2,458 494 1,063 856 896 536 1,543 1 , 109 1,358 1,003 727 2,552 2,803 1,246 3,784 3 I 141 714 2,160 1,059 1 , 215 966 1 I 916 1,698 2,042 1,105 1,405 5,306 1,389 1,218 1,292 '"',967 3,276 i30 2,261 1,095 1,263 990 1,989 1,770 2,125 1 , 12 2 1,432 "•,650 1,427 1,266 1,384 4,296 3,529 772 2,446 1,169 1,356 1,048 2,134 1,906 2,285 1, 177 1,507 6,213 1 , 514 1,360 1,625 5,160 4,162 882 2,930 1 , 321 1,579 1,202 2,375 2,262 2,706 1,326 1,709 7,633 1 ,6~4 1,540 1,703 5,528 4,412 899 3,129 1,368 1,658 1,229 2,491 2,395 2,856 1,332 1,729 6,420 1,729 ,610 1 , 621 1,769 2,158 2,348 439 1,534 336 insufficient data for project:::..ons 9,837 14,875 14,112 6, 412 20,524 i6,912 6,834 23,746 15 ,978 7 ,069 2 3,047 15,650 7 ,554 23 , 204 13,500 8,833 22,333 13,900 9,211 23 ,111 35,348 44,594 54,110 54,702 57,300 62,399 65,599 596,890 690,573 769,929 770,300 799,300 840,400 864,900 7,823,194 8,875,083 9,262,078 9,170,300 9,387,700 Townships Broomfield Chippewa Coe ':oldwater Deerfield Denver Fremont Gilmore Isabella Lincoln i:'ottawa Rolland Sher,r,an U'l.· nn V.,.rnon !l/is2 531 "3,932 1,214 1,057 1,419 921 1,010 606 l, 757 1,254 1,758 927 S19 4,611 1,310 1,065 1,293 1,416 63"1 Vi.lla.ues ----- Shepher-: Ro.,ebush Citv ---=-C.M.u.* Bal. of City Mt. Pleasant COUNTY TOTAL REGION MICHIGAN 5,038 9,775,100 10,044,300 *Central Michigan University figures supplied by Mt. Pleasant Department of Community Affairs. - 1960-1980 DATA FROM U,S. CENSUS, STATE, REGION AND COUNTY PROJECTIONS BY MICHIGAN DEPAllnt:ENT OF MAMACEKENT A!fD lltrDGET. TOWNSHIP, VILLAGE AND CITY ALLOCATIONS OF COll!ITY PROJECTIONS lit ECMPDll, Vll �ISABELLA COUNTY LOCAL E>'20NOMIC DATA 1980 HOUSING POPULATION ------~-~% % MedTotal Pop. Female Over 65 ian Age_ 1,246 3,784 3, 141 714 2,160 1,059 , I 215 966 1 , 916 1,698 2,042 1 , 105 1,405 5,306 1,389 1 , 218 50.7 49.2 49.3 48.7 50.8 49.8 49.0 49.5 51 • 3 48.3 48.3 49.3 49.6 50.5 48.7 50.7 7. 1 5. 1 8.5 11 • 2 5.8 7.4 9.4 10.4 9. 1 7.4 9.4 11.9 12.0 5.3 8.3 9. 1 26.3 24. 5 26.8 27.0 27.2 26. 1 26.9 29.6 26.2 26.0 24. 3 28.9 30 .9 24.8 27.2 27. 1 489 1 , 331 1,095 341 751 404 400 552 703 571 824 408 931 1 , 955 542 428 1,534 336 50.4 55.7 9.6 13.4 26.7 27. 1 561 136 Pleasant 23,746 54.6 6.2 21 • 5 54,110 51 • 8 7. 1 22.7 769,929 9,262,078 231,106,727 51 • 1 51 • 3 51.4 10.6 9.8 11 • 3 Townships Broomfield Chippewa Coe Coldwater Deerfield Denver Fremont Gilmore Isabella Lincoln Nottawa Rolland Sherman Union Vernon Wise Total Uni ts ---- -----------Median Owner House- H.H. Holds Income --- ·- 41 3 $14,492 1 , 211 14,817 1,021 18, 1 70 11 , 081 213 671 21,601 350 15,365 379 15,870 322 14,750 645 16,206 543 16,886 621 15,078 363 13,576 498 13,068 1,818 16,148 440 15,801 391 16,058 Med. Val. Ownr-Oc Occpd. Hsng. Uni ts Uni ts --- - -- ---- 1984 EMPLOYMENT Labor Force --695 2 , 155 1,874 312 1,365 579 643 538 1 , 1 52 1 I 01 2 1 , 162 517 634 3,559 829 623 % U~mp~ 11. 7 12.3 10. 7 20.2 349 908 849 187 609 289 336 296 564 414 534 312 453 1,279 377 342 $37,700 34,400 35,200 23,800 53,100 28,900 30,100 31,300 33,800 33,900 32,100 24,900 34,800 43,100 30,800 26,300 17,995 12,266 414 103 33,900 24,900 not reported not reported 6,442 6,145* 13,576 2,621 40,200 13,729 6.6 18,167 16,044 $15,002 10,752 $37 I 500 31,376 8.7 n.a. 319,890 259,903 n.a 202,410 28.9 3.6M 3.2M $19,223 2.3M 30. 0 88.4M 80.4M $17,710 51 .BM n.a. $39,000 $47,200 371,275 4.3M 113.5M 13.2 11. 2 7.5 5.8 11.6 7.6 10.2 10.9 7.9 7.8 1 0 .4 1 2. 6 8.6 13.4 21.0 Villages Shepherd Rosebush 523 119 City Mt. TOTAL REGION MICHIGAN U.S. * 7,052 persons in group quarters. PREPARED B~: EAST CENTRAL MlCMl6AH PL»IHI AND D1.VI.LOPMI.HT Ria&IO �CLAIIE g 1a;..:~ o ...: ·- I • ' • I :~ . a -~l'y r.: . . ~ ,_. -~ ._,, ....... . . :=110/ , v•~ 1> .... '• . D .. l . .7) - 1 • ! ! ·- i • ·: . . . :l ~ -: -~ . ·I i . --· , _:_ I .....fl',... I"'-(\ ' - - \J& V./ ,,,"' r-:- --g . . Y. • I~ ..:. '" Mo ·• \ 17.' ~ I • ' .....__i-;.,. v, ·•~ f' I/ • . I _,,.. . . . ISABELLA COUNTY ........... ........ ISAIILUCO. ce1.a .. •ATI ■ ......... Nen'A.WA. . . . . . U,A • ••• D&NW ■• •... ,,...... ...... ...... ····, ...... v•u•• ...,~ , _ • ■ Ol,4.,,a•· .,. ......, '-••c•r..• Ctt&l'NW,t ,.. • l?RlDl?A.RlDD BY: EAST GNTIW. M10416AN PLAHHIH& AHO DliVliLOPMliHT Rli&IOH �:J\'1/NYS • NOIJnU • '1'10:>Sn.l • M'l'Nl!)'l'S • J.01.l'l'IJ!) • A'l'8 • ON'l'1011f • '1'1138\'S/ • :J'l'N:IIJ\' • NIM0'1'1!) • :IIJ'l'l:) • O:JSOI • Ml'lf~OO • HOlflf~OIJ 9090 0010-c~l lU '!NOHd NY01H:>IW 'MVNiOYS ~ ".lt.S Oi ·-:, '.i ;;nv wuo;b oo; NOl93GI 43\Vd013, ~C ONV f9NiNNV1d NV9iH:)IW lVellN:l) lSV3 < 8 ("'; ~ fX _o z- ~; A l ... Pl p: i a IQ !i2 ~ ~Pl !i~~~ ~ Pt r-.1 ;o ~ lG}J 0 H ~ 0 z 0 0 p:l INDUSTRY NEW CONSTRUCTION 1983 DATA BY INDUSTfY # OF FIRMS EMPLOYEES PAYROLL ($ 000' a) D indi.:::atP-s value suppressed -::o avoid disclosure. Agri cultural Serv's, 203 ~':,_"stry, Fisheries 24 7 Mining 674 17,148 34 Contract Ccnstr'n 5,464 74 317 Manlt fac turing 1 , 203 22,969 Transportation, P-~blic Util~ties 23 4,252 218 '1holes ale Trade 15,311 72 726 Retail Trad<> 296 26,413 3,260 Finance, Insurance, Real Estate 8,393 81 577 llealth Services 1,081 15,t>95 56 Other Services 22S 18,255 2,212 Non-classified 69 1,407 79 Federal Civilian Employment 121 620 ., 1963 Total Personal Income Per Capita Personal Income $440,400,000 $8,232 1980 Households w/ Social Se curity o r Pub l ic Assistance Inc o me 16 , 044 1984 Estimated Population Soc. Sec. Recipients Pub, Assistance Ree's 54,600 5,519 4,386 5,154 Land Are a of the County ( sq . mi.) 576,6 Inland Water 1.3 32.H 10.1' 1983 1984 Resitlential - Units Value (~ OOO's) 168 4,855 H2 6,172 258 9,463 Industrial - Bldgs . Va lue ($ OOO's) •l 4 112 1Tl 5 566 50 3 111 ,ss Commercial - Bldgs. Value ($ OOO's) 7 41; •J 550 9 864 (S millions) Real Property Personal Proper~y 1982 377 34 1983 Offices - Bldgs. Value ($ OOO's) J -----------------------------------~-------------A3sessed valuatlon (not mar~et vnlue} 392 38 New Car and Truck 1982 1983 Registrations 1,535 ::--;o'i9 1984 Tota l Moto r Vehicle Registrations 1984 449 39 1964 2,085 35,563 -------------------------------------------------1984 Coun t y -bas ed Ne ws p a per Circ u lation Daily Sunday Weekly 11,062 ( 1 paper) 1,502 s.o, -------------------------------------------------262 , 112 1982 Oi l Production (barrels) 0.2, -------------------------------------------------1982 1977 0 Gas Production (cu. f t .) - -------- ------ - ------ - -------- --- ---- ---- - -------1983 To tal Agricultural Sales 52 ( $ millions l Crop Sales 17 32, 1, Livestock and Livestock Product Sales 67.311 35 Sources: Michigan Statistical Abstract-1985 / County Business Patterns-1983 1982 CATffiORY Sale s by Co u n t y Fir ms Wholesale ($ mi llions ) Retail ~ 538 146 195 ----------------Branches Fina nci al Institutions, Companies• 20 1983 Commercial Banks 8 2 1984 Savings & Loans 2 $194,817,000 1983 Deposits in Commercial Banks *Operate in county; not necessarily main office . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wyckoff Planning and Zoning Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Planning & Zoning Center (Lansing, Mich.) (Organization) Wyckoff, Mark A. Description An account of the resource Municipal master plans and zoning ordinances from across the state of Michigan, spanning from the 1960s to the early 2020s. The bulk of the collection was compiled by urban planner Mark Wyckoff over the course of his career as the founder and principal planner of the Planning and Zoning Center in Lansing, Michigan. Some additions have been made to the collection by municipalities since it was transferred to Grand Valley State University. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960/2023 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Comprehensive plan publications Master plan reports Zoning--Michigan Zoning--Maps Maps Land use--planning Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-240 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Isabella-County_Comprehensive-Plan_1986 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986 Title A name given to the resource Isabella County Comprehensive Plan Description An account of the resource The Isabella County Comprehensive Plan was prepared by the East Central Michigan Planning and Development Region with assistance from the Isabella County Planning Commission and Isabella County Department of Resource Management in 1986. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Isabella County Planning Commission (consultant) Isabella County Department of Resource Management (consultant) Subject The topic of the resource Comprehensive plan publications Isabella County (Mich.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/870">Planning and Zoning Center Collection (RHC-240)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives