Political Quotes

“today I rise to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Honor the Earth Homecoming Celebration and Powwow. The story of Honor the Earth begins with a small group of Lac Courte Oreilles who wanted a better future for their tribe and their people. The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe--Ojibwe: Odaawaa-zaaga'iganiing--is one of six federally recognized bands of the large Ojibwe Nation that originally occupied the upper eastern woodlands area of the North American continent. The Treaty of 1854 established the LCO reservation. In 1971, the LCO community, and other people from neighboring bands and Tribes took over Winter Dam in protest of flooding lands, broken treaties, and desecration of LCO land, people, and traditional livelihood. Eddie Benton-Benaim, supported by the American Indian Movement, helped lead the 5-day effort to take over the dam. This effort led to the renegotiation of the dam license which helped the tribe recover several hundred acres of land, compensation for damages, and the development of Tribal hydro generating project. The following year, 1972, there was a reunion of the people who had occupied the dam; they called it Honor the Earth powwow. Every year since, the Ojibwa people come together as they have always done; they celebrate with prayers, feasting, songs, dances, and honoring. The 1972 and 1973 powwows were organized as contest powwows and were sponsored by a handful of individuals and then by LCO AIM, LCO Tribal Governing Board, and the St.…”