Commissioner of Education Sworn In
Niiyo returns to ancestral lands to lead
By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR
Niiyogaabawiikwe “Niiyo” (Brooke) Gonzalez was sworn in as the new Commissioner of Education on Thursday, May 12, 2022, by the Honorable Rhonda Sam, District I Associate Justice. The dish setting and swearing in occurred in Band Assembly chambers and was live streamed for those who could not attend.
Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin said Brooke has a huge responsibility ahead of her and is looking forward to witnessing the successes to come.
Niiyogaabawiikwe “Niiyo” Gonzalez prefers to be addressed by her Ojibwe name, shortened to Niiyo. During her swearing in ceremony, Niiyo acknowledged the great work of the late Joyce Shingobe in her position as Commissioner of Education until her passing in January 2021. “I am very honored to take up where she left off too soon. And to acknowledge her today. I was very fortunate to grow up seeing her as a role model at drum and in our communities and seeing her working very hard for our communities.”
Niiyo is a member of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin and she currently resides with her family in Hayward. She is actively searching for a home to relocate her family to the Mille Lacs area. She has two sons, ages 12 and 14, who will make the move as well. Her son’s father, the late Sean Fahrlander, was enrolled as a Mille Lacs Band member. “There are big stakes in this endeavor with my own children being Band members,” she said. Niiyo is married to Chato Ombishkebinez Gonzalez.
Niiyo said she had been thinking about love recently. “Once upon a time, there was a man, who was born here and he walked to St. Croix because he fell in love,” she said.
This was the family story of how her great grandfather, Mike Moose-akiiwenzi Moose “Mosay,” Mille Lacs Band member, met her great grandmother Saangwewegiizhigookwe, a St. Croix Band member, and they regularly attended Big Drum ceremonies. That is where they met and fell in love. “I think about how love works,” Niiyo said. “I have two Mille Lacs Band member children and now my love for them has brought us back to what is our ancestral home as well. I will work very hard to do the best I can to use all of the different types of education that I have received. I have some really fancy paper education, but I also have the benefit of being the student of many Elder teachers of this community. I hope that I can bring both of those together to do my very best for you.”
The fancy paper education to which Niiyo spoke of is an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She received her Master’s Degree in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is in the process of completing her PhD in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization, with her dissertation focusing on developing an Ojibwe values-based framework for leadership development. The process includes “discussing the concept of leadership with some of our Elders,” she said.
Although her paper education is Ivy League, she places a greater emphasis on the education she has absorbed through the teachings of a vast array of Elder women who have been very influential in her life, and also the vast life experiences she has obtained.
Niiyo said her biggest goal right now in the beginning is to “connect with the people.” She said her success of management at Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Medium School at Lac Courte Oreilles, Hayward, Wisc., was building parent and family connections. “So I want to see how that is working here, and seek ways to improve it.”
She will set out to get a real feel for the wants and needs of the community, identify the goals for the school, and determine how they are adjusting those goals.
Niiyo is completing the term of former Commissioner Joyce Shingobe. There were two years remaining in Commissioner Shingobe’s term. “I am really taking it as finishing the term of Joyce. My children’s father considered her to be a relative. I feel a sense of responsibility to finish her term. I would like to do some of the things she had hoped to accomplish. I am trying to stay realistic. This is two years to do something. What can you do in two years? So, I have an understanding to do whatever I do can continue on with Joyce’s goals while integrating a bigger plan that will continue into the future.”
Niiyogaabawiikwe “Niiyo” Gonzalez can be reached at Niiyo.gonzalez@millelacsband.co
