Sovereignty is Sacred

Celebrating Art Gahbow Day — April 26, 2022

By MICHAEL LeGARDE, SR. COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST

Against a blue backdrop, in raised letters of gold at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum, is a quote by the former Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Chief Executive, the late Art Gahbow. It states, “Our sovereignty is as sacred as our land. It is our right and ability to control our own destiny.”

Sovereignty. Land. Destiny. Those three words are what were important to Art Gahbow, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Chief Executive from 1972 to 1991. Many from the Mille Lacs Community have memories of working for Chief Executive Gahbow.

"When I think about Art, he is the definition of our traditional values, and he was so funny. His humor was unbelievable, but he had a very serious side," said Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin. "When it comes to tribal governance, he taught me about bravery and about focusing on the needs of the entire community, versus the needs of an individual. Art had so much integrity and always spoke the truth. People may not have always wanted to hear it, but he did not play political games. His actions were not about getting re-elected, but what was the best for the Mille Lacs Band as a reservation and as a community."

Tadd Johnson and Don Wedll are two more of the many people who had the opportunity to work for and with Chief Executive Gahbow on several important issues dealing with sovereignty, land, and yes, destiny.

“They [the Mille Lacs Government] had changed their statutes in the early 80s, to the separation of powers, division of powers form of government, which is why he was called Chief Executive and not Chairman. I got there [with the Band]in 1987,” explained Tadd Johnson, former Solicitor General for the Band, who at that time was with the VISTA program. “We had a fairly rough first meeting. He was asking, ‘What the hell are you doing here? I don’t know who you are. What are you doing here as a VISTA volunteer?’ I was told later that he thought I was an FBI agent, because he couldn’t figure out why an attorney would come to the Reservation.”

It was after Chief Executive Gahbow did some background checks that he figured he could put his trust in Johnson. It wasn’t suspicion as much as it was caution. Chief Executive Gahbow only wanted the best or the Band, and that included the people who would work for the Band.

“He was a real powerful advocate for rights of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe,” Johnson said. “He was always taking on the feds and the state. Art was a warrior and not afraid of a fight. He set the vision out there for what the Band could become. Gaming was taking off in the last year of his life, and his vision was that everybody could have a job.”

Another vision he had was the reestablishment of hunting, fishing, and gathering rights. Don Wedll was Commissioner of Natural Resources during this era and remembers Chief Executive Gahbow’s efforts to reestablish the Band’s treaty rights.

“There were all kinds of things happening in the greater sphere of things about tribal governments,” Wedll recalled. “One of the things I remember mostly is Art talking about tribal sovereignty. I had no clue what it meant at that time.”

The Chief Executive’s goal was to make things better. “Did he make mistakes along the way? Yes, he did,” Wedll said. “But he also made some real valid and ground-breaking changes: The separation of powers for instance, and giving the State of the Band Addresses was his idea. He did the first State of the Band in 1984. That was totally unheard of, that a reservation would give a State of the Reservation status. It’s like the State of the Union address, but it was for the Reservation, it was telling the people what the status of their government was, and what they could expect in the future.”

Earl Barlow, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Director in Minneapolis, attended that first address and confided in Wedll that the State of the Band was a tremendous idea, and was most likely to be copied by tribal governments across Indian Country. It was.

Other historic milestones, in no particular order, included the development of Nay Ah Shing School, the recognition by the State of Minnesota that tribes, in this case the Mille Lacs Band, did not have to waive their sovereign immunity to receive any kind of state funding, and his assertion of the concept of self-governance as opposed to self-determination. Self-governance was key to the Band litigating the 1837 Treaty.

“Art wanted the treaty rights litigated,” Wedll said. “Every State of the Band Address from 1984 on, he directed me to file a lawsuit against the State of Minnesota. It was in 1990, when we had enough money saved, and this provision in ‘self-governance’ where we could use funds to file the case and proceed with the lawsuit.”

Chief Executive Art Gahbow Wewinabi was born on April 26, 1935, on the Mille Lacs Reservation. He was a fluent Ojibwe first-language speaker. On June 10, 1972 he was elected Chairman of the Mille Lacs Reservation Business Committee, later to be known as Chief Executive with the statute change in the 1980s, and served until he passed away in 1991.

April 26, 2022, is recognized as Art Gahbow Day, a day to celebrate a dedicated leader.