FROM REZ KID TO PROSECUTOR IN FEDERAL COURTROOM
By Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimlowin Editor
Band member Syngen Kanassatega takes pride in his roots of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Reservation. He says he is a “Rez kid” at heart and will always be proud of that. Growing up in the two vastly different communities of both Vineland and the Twin Cities area, he has seen some of the worst of both — and the best of both worlds. Kanassatega is a millennial making a difference as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with hopes of helping his generation and future generations live in safer communities through culture, tradition, and the Federal courtroom.
Kanassatega grew up in Vineland on Timber Trail Road with his family. He said he was an average Rez kid running around playing games with little to no interest in school and much less interest in going to college. He had dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. His family moved to St. Anthony in Northeast Minneapolis at the young age of 6 years old. He and his family lived in the Cities, but continued to come home to the Rez on weekend visits and ceremonial dances. “So, I feel like I never lost that Rez side of me,” he said with a grin. “I remember going back after college and my Rez accent just came back naturally when I moved back up there.”
His grandparents strongly encouraged pursuing higher education. “They didn’t see any shame in it and didn’t see it as losing my ‘Indian-ness.’ They encouraged me to go learn and bring back new ways to help make the Rez a better place. I know they cared a lot about the future of the Band.”
Throughout his high school years, he continued playing soccer and attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. His focus was zoomed in on soccer until an injury forced him to shift gears and he became focused on his studies.
As he matured, he began to compare the differences of living on the Rez and living in the Cities. The community where had lived in the Cities did not have neighbors dying as a result of alcohol or narcotics at the same rate as his neighbors on the Rez. And that thought never really left him. He realized life didn’t have to be the way it was on the Reservation. “We didn’t have to lose family members to alcoholism or drugs. We can make life on the Reservation better. Acquiring more education inspired me more to learn new ways of thinking that can help us put people in positions to succeed,” he said.
Kanassatega graduated from college in 2008 with a major in Public Policy, and returned from New York to the Reservation in 2008 with no intention of becoming an attorney. He took his first job at 22 years old with the Mille Lacs Band government as the Deputy Assistant to Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin.
“Working for the Tribe at that time in the Chief Executive’s Office, I had to be familiar with laws,” Kanassatega said. “There was a lot I felt I didn’t know but needed to know in order to help the Tribe. I think at that time, there may have been only one or two tribal members with law degrees. I felt it was best to go to law school as a service to the Band. And it worked out.”
His father, Jay Kanassatega, is an attorney and professor of law. He served as the first solicitor general of the Mille Lacs Band and was instrumental in helping the Band design and draft various pieces of legislation, and implemented the first division-of-powers Indian government in Minnesota, including the Band’s first court system. Jay Kanassatega had often tried to convince his son to be an attorney. Throughout his son’s educational journey, he didn’t pressure him. In fact, his dad taught him to follow his own path. Through his studies and experience in policy making, Syngen Kanassatega firmly believes, “We are a nation built on law, and policies become law.” During his role in the Chief Executive office, he realized it was his calling to go back to law school.
He attended the University of New Mexico School of Law and did an internship at U.S. House of Representatives in DC in the summer 2014, with former Minnesota 8th District Representative Rick Nolan’s office. There, he learned the legislative process.
He grew his passion for the law-making process and the foundation of law. Returning to the Chief Executive’s office in the role of Legal and Policy Counsel for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe was a game changer for him, he said. “Everybody operates under a foundation of law. For Congress, that foundation is the Constitution. But for the Band, the foundational law is our culture and the Mille Lacs Band statues Titles I through V. Working with [Rep. Nolan] and being a part of the legislative process, I was able to help [Chief Executive Benjamin] in that role for seven years.”
It wasn’t always easy. “Early on, I think many people saw me as [Benjamin's] lawyer. Over the years, I think I built a reputation that I called it like I see it and I wasn’t afraid to advise [the Chief Executive] as to the state of the law, whether it was Band statues, state law, or federal law and whether it was favorable to her or unfavorable to her,” Kanassatega said. “I was able to advise her very neutrally. I think she appreciated that. I know there are commissioners and former commissioners who appreciated that as well. I think that is what makes her a good leader — she wants to know what is honest and not just what is in her favor.”
UPHOLDING THE LAW FOR THE SAKE OF LAW
Kanassatega said he didn’t really know much about the office of the United States Attorney until a few years ago. Assistant U.S. Attorneys began to make headlines for their role in high profile cases as they were upholding the rule of law. “Their role is to call it like they see it without any political favor, without trying to impress anybody. That really resonated with me and my role in the Chief Executive office,” Kanssatega said.
While doing a clerkship with former Mille Lacs Band Solicitor General Todd Matha, he was asked to research the Tribe’s history of tribal banishment. Part of that research was to talk with Tribal Elders — a lot of whom have now walked on. “I asked them how our people dealt with bad conduct in our com munity back when they were kids. What they remember was tribal banishment. Sometimes they were marked on their body as they were banished so that other tribal communities would know they did something bad.”
Tribal banishment was reserved for the worst offenses such as murder and rape. At that time, the Band was exploring banishment as a form of punishment for criminal conduct under Band law, but the Band’s Criminal Code was very vague and basic. “Then, my first day working in Chief Executive Benjamin’s office, Mille Lacs County revoked the law enforcement agreement with the Mille Lacs Band Tribal police, and Tribal police were threatened with arrest by county law enforcement. So, we had a criminal jurisdiction enforcement crisis on our hands. A couple of years later, banishment came up in the Legislative Branch again. This time, banishment was too broad. Our compromise was to draft a criminal code and to have banishment as punishment for a crime, not just something someone could file a complaint for. But that lost momentum in the Legislative process.”
With the law enforcement crisis came a drug crisis, including an overdose crisis as a result of narcotics such as opioids and fentanyl on the Reservation. With the Tribal Police Department operating under limited jurisdiction, the crisis continued to grow and overdoses were taking the lives of Band members in record numbers.
“Through all of that, I wanted to make a difference with the fentanyl crisis on our Reservation,” he said. He began to think more about criminal law and what he could do to help his community.
“Right now, the overdoses are unacceptable on the Reservation. I want young Band members to know they don’t have to live that way. There are some young Band members who grew up in households like that. That is what they grew up knowing,” Kanassatega said. “But life doesn’t have to be that way. Our community can be safe one day.”
Kanassatega learned the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota had 10 assistant attorney positions available. “So, I threw my hat in the ring and I got one,” he said with a grin.
He is now contributing to the efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s office as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Narcotics and Indian Country section of the criminal division. Currently, there are 16 attorneys assigned to that section, including Kanassatega. His background in policy is an asset however, with no litigation or prosecution experience in the courtroom, he has had a “big shift in gears.” It hasn’t taken him long to get up to speed as he is learning from an extremely talented team, he said.
“I love this job. I am around dozens and dozens of attorneys who are really bright. The people here really care about the safety of Minnesotans. It really does feel like we are making a difference, even though it is a little at a time,” Kanassatega said. “For me personally, I get to learn from so many lawyers who have prosecuted a wide variety of federal cases — whether they are violent crime cases or white-collar crime cases. I am in the courtroom every week. It is very rewarding.”
Kanassatega has high, yet achievable, expectations for the future of the Band. He said he would like to see more Band members pursue what they love through education in high school and beyond. “I would love to see more Band member law enforcement officers who care about the safety of the community and enforce the laws; more Band member lawyers who want to uphold the laws; and the Band can be an even more effective partner with state or federal agencies.”
With every great success comes great responsibility, for the Band, for himself, for his generation, and the generations to follow. “I feel the weight of the future starting to come down on us. People in my generation are now being asked to speak at ceremonies in Ojibwe. A lot of the speakers and people I learned from are now gone,” he said. “I feel that responsibility slowly be ing put on our shoulders. It is not just language and culture, but for the future of the Band we have a responsibility to figure out what principles and values we want our leaders to exemplify.”
Kanassatega values his Ojibwe culture and the resilience of the Mille Lacs Band. He is gaining experience in prosecuting criminal law in the federal courtroom and will continue bringing his knowledge back to the Reservation with honesty, integrity, and hope.