AC Interview | Marisa Cummings + Annika Johnson: Part 2
Recently, Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Joslyn Art Museum, Annika Johnson and CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, Marisa Cummings sat down to talk about some of the complexities surrounding sovereignty, Federal Indian Law, and recent landmark court cases that underscore the undeniable connections between Indigenous peoples' rights, climate action, and social justice. Listen to the conversation below or on Amplify’s Anchor page, if you’re on the go, and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Transcription
Interviewer: Annika Johnson, Associate Curator of Native American Art, Joslyn Art Museum
Interviewee: Marisa Cummings, CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center
Date of Interview: July 17, 2020
List of Acronyms: AJ = Annika Johnson; MC = Marisa Cummings
[AJ] Hello everybody! I'm Annika Johnson, Associate Curator at the Native American Art at the Joslyn Art Museum and I'm here again with Marisa Cummings, the soon-to-be CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center in Minneapolis [MN]. We’re continuing a conversation that we began a couple months ago--a blog post that is currently online. Here we are for round two. Marisa, welcome again and I'll let you introduce yourself as well.
[MC] Okay, thank you Annika.
Ebe bthite uwibtha tamike. Izhazhe wiwta the Miakonda. Waxe izhazhe wiwita the Marisa Cummings. Tesidne Wa’u bthi. Ishtasunda niashinga bthi. My father is Stampeding Buffalo of the Teside Clan. My mother is white and her name is Kathryn Cummings. My grandmother is Buffalo Tail Clan Woman of the Tesinde Clan.
In my language, which actually is one of the original languages of both the territory I'm on in Sioux City [IA] today, and the territory you’re on in Omaha, Nebraska; one of the Indigenous languages of this area. What I just said is, “I'll tell you who I am. My name is Miakonda. My English name is Marisa Cummings and I am Umóⁿhoⁿ and I belong to the Buffalo Tail Clan of the Sky People.” I could go on and on about who my ancestors are and who I come from but we'll just keep it short this time.
[AJ] Thanks so much. A lot has happened since we spoke a couple months ago. We're in this state of reflection as a community, as a nation and we have a lot to discuss today. I figured, building on our last conversation, that we could begin with a discussion about sovereignty. I'm wondering if you could talk to us about what sovereignty means in a larger Federal Indian Law context, but also at a personal level.
[MC] You know, this word “sovereignty” gets thrown around a lot and it means a lot of different things in different contexts. Sovereignty, of course, is not a word that is Indigenous. It's a settler-imposed word in the English language and it is tied to justice and court systems that are essentially the courts of the conqueror.
When we talk about sovereignty, me myself, I'm inherently sovereign. I'm an inherently sovereign being on my traditional homelands. In a larger context, Native communities are seen as quasi-sovereign domestic-dependent nations according to the Supreme Court. Essentially, in terms of the federal government, we are as sovereign as they allow us to be day-to-day. An Act of Congress can actually eliminate reservations and our tribal communities. An Act of Congress is the only way that traditional land can be diminished.
We say we're sovereign nations. In our minds, we are still sovereign nations with our own governance, our own ways, our own identity, culture, language. When we signed the treaties with the federal government, those treaties were signed on a nation-to-nation basis. Statehood was just happening at that time and statehood would not have happened without treaties being signed. Nebraska for instance, and the treaty that we signed in 1853-54. That treaty allowed for the state of Nebraska to be established because we had to cede our homelands to make room for statehood. It's really important to understand historically how that worked and what treaties mean. Treaties are the supreme law of the land. If you break a treaty with any sovereign entity, say like Greece, that can be an act of war and yet, we know that almost every treaty that the United States government has signed with Native people has been broken.
Sovereignty can mean different things in different places. There's also the idea of quasi-sovereignty, which really means you're not sovereign. It's a really complicated word and that's why I always come back to the fact that I'm inherently sovereign. You know, I'm a sovereign being on the traditional homelands of my people.
[AJ] Thanks. There is a lot to unpack there. It's a very complicated term and I feel like sovereignty in general, and Federal Indian Law especially, does not make its way into mainstream conversations. We have had a few major cases recently that we can dive into that relate to sovereignty. Discuss these as you'd like, but I'm also curious to hear more about inherent sovereignty and how you assert that at a personal level, within your advocacy work and within your artwork.
[MC] Right. Just to get back to your first question about the cases that have happened: we have McGirt vs Oklahoma, which we've been waiting on a very long time to find out what the decision was going to be by the Supreme Court. If I remember right, it was a 5 to 4 ruling that found when the Muscogee (Creek) people were put on the Trail of Tears, they were promised a piece of land when they reached what was then called Indian Territory, currently called Oklahoma. When they got there, they were not awarded that land base.
It's complicated how this stuff works and [how cases] make it to the Supreme Court. Essentially, there was a Muskogee man who was tried for a sexual assault and his attorneys appealed the case on the basis that the state had no jurisdiction over the crime due to this land dispute. It made it all the way to the Supreme Court and then we have the finding that yes, that is Muscogee (Creek) land now.
I'm really at a state where I'm trying to unpack it all and what it means within a colonial context. Essentially, what the decision said was that crimes committed within that territory are federal jurisdiction if they fall under the Major Crimes Act. The Major Crimes Act was originally seven crimes--now I think it's a lot more than that--crimes that are committed in Indian Country; Indian Country is within the boundaries of any reservation and that's actually a legal term. In Indian Country, crimes that are committed that fall under the Major Crimes Act become federal jurisdiction. This is really important when we talk about MMIW [Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women] cases, but that only applies to Indians because Indians only have jurisdiction over Indians on Indian land. We have no jurisdiction over non-Indians on Indian lands so a non-Indian offender would still fall under state jurisdiction.
The complexity of Federal Indian Law is incredible. If I hadn’t taken a year of classes specifically geared toward Federal Indian Law, I wouldn't have a clue. It's very, very specific and even lawyers that go through law school barely touch on Federal Indian Law. It's a very specific academic field. Yesterday, the Tribe ceded some of its jurisdiction to the state, so it's really confusing right now. A lot of people are trying to figure out what's going on. The positive is that now in boundary disputes, only an Act of Congress can diminish Indian Territory. Therefore a state encroachment--states are always trying to take land from Tribes; it's been happening since day one--so now states cannot do that. Those original boundaries are in place, and that was kind of a win, but we're waiting to see what else comes out of this. You know, I saw these Facebook #LandBack posts and I'm like, “No, the land isn't back.” Think in terms of crimes that fall under their Major Crimes Act. We still have no jurisdiction over our own people. We can't implement traditional law if it falls under federal law, or state law. Federal sentencing is much more severe than state. If all Indians fall under federal jurisdiction, the consequences or their sentencing is going to be much harsher or longer. We also don't get fair trials within the state because border towns are incredibly racist.
There's so much complexity to this. In my mind, we come back to inherent sovereignty. I live in Sioux City. I live outside of the boundary of my reservation but I live on my historical territory. I feel it's really important for us to reclaim this idea of historic territory--the places where our ancestors are buried--the connection to land, human and non-human relatives in these spaces and return to decolonizing the way that we think about land and space and how we interact with others. To me, I'm on my homelands and that's all there is to it. My ancestors walked the same land that I'm on and have for a very, very long time. That's how I would break that one down.
As far as the #NODAPL [Dakota Access Pipeline] decision that just came down, I'm anxious to see how it's appealed. I'm excited that it happened but I’m also anxious about what this appeal is going to look like. Again, we're given crumbs. The Supreme Court gives us crumbs and we're supposed to get excited about that. I'm not getting excited about that, you know? We're the Indigenous people of this land; we are inherently a sovereign as Nations, Clans, and Individuals. We have the right to harvest wherever we go. We have the right to connect with our human and non-human relatives how we see fit in kinship systems. That makes us a political entity, not just a race of people. Race is a socially constructed idea that was implemented for the purpose of upholding white supremacy here in America. I'm looking at our kinships, our kinship ways, our kinship systems, how we adopted people from different groups, how they were just part of us, and how we identified with different groups of people. Looking at how we’ve internalized this idea of race as a people is really complex. Lots of decolonizing work to do.
[AJ] Can we return to this idea of #LandBack, which is a major part of advocacy around Indigenous land right now? Can you talk about this a little bit more? This is a huge trend. I see it all over Instagram, especially in relation to a lot of the court cases right now. Can you talk about that further?
[MC] We say things sometimes and I don't know if we fully understand what they mean. #LandBack means different things to different people. When the case happened in Oklahoma, everyone was like #LandBack, but essentially that land is not back. The Tribe does not have jurisdiction over Tulsa. The Tribe cannot implement traditional law. The Tribe has no jurisdiction over non-Natives residing there or private property, which is almost all of that territory. It gets more complex when I think of #LandBack. I think of acknowledging a connection to the land that falls within my traditional territories and I think of going into other groups. We didn't have boundaries, we had shared territories. When people talk about these territorial acknowledgments, it gets complicated because it's almost like we're adopting colonial [thinking around land ownership ie: “this is MY land”]. The reality is that many groups lived on the same land base simultaneously and there was trade that was happening, and ceremonies, and interaction. It was a different idea of “land.” That’s not to say that when resources were scarce, people didn’t fight. There were fights. There was war. It was not a utopia but we were stewards and caretakers of the land. What was viewed by [colonial settlers] as a forest going crazy was actually a very well-kept food system for us. There's a lot going on there. I could go on and on.
[AJ] It sounds like #LandBack has a lot to do with dismantling a colonial mindset. We talked about decolonization a lot during the last interview and this comes up a lot in conversations. I'm wondering if you can elaborate a little bit on food sovereignty and how this relates to the #LandBack movement and dismantling the colonial mindset.
[MC] I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about racist policies that have been in place since contact. These racist policies forced us to assimilate in many ways and adopt the mindset that we were somehow lesser than white Americans. Many of our people did the best they could to survive and that involved being acculturated or assimilated into mainstream society. What we're seeing now is a movement in Indian Country among Indigenous people to reclaim those systems--the ones that have never been lost that people went into hiding to maintain--and to reclaim those systems that may be lost soon. They’re talking to elders to gain that knowledge and understanding of traditional food practices, knowing that we need these traditional seeds--these little living beings that have been passed down for thousands of years--as food systems moving into the future, especially with the effects of climate change.
We've survived climate change before. Our people have been through this before. This is just another time of change. We're taught to think about how to survive. You need food systems. You need clean water. You need one another. You need these traditional ways of knowing in order to be able to live off the land, if you're required to do that. That's something I see happening among younger people. They’re reclaiming their traditional systems that are all interconnected. Spirituality, ceremony, art, food systems, land, women, men are all interconnected. It's a way of knowing that I think is being reclaimed by a lot of people.
When we talk about #LandBack, there’s the Treaty of Fort Laramie right now and the #LandBack movement happening at Mount Rushmore with Nick Tilsen and NDN Collective. What they’re saying is, “This is stolen land, flat out.” A court case said that this was stolen land. It's unceded territory, meaning they never signed a treaty relinquishing that land. The last treaty they signed said that land was theirs, and yet, it's been taken and sacred mountains have been defaced with racist presidents. There's a lot going in that movement and a lot of it is about bringing awareness. If they wouldn't have had that uprising, there wouldn't have been an awareness that “hey, this is stolen lands and we want it back because it's sacred to us and it's meaningful to us.” There's that part of #LandBack where [Native communities] want that land physically back in their treaty boundary. I think in terms of awareness, the #NODAPL movement really brought these issues to a national and international awareness.
[AJ] I'm wondering if we could talk about that further but also [talk] about solidarity. I think, due to this unprecedented level of national attention, that you have a lot of non-Native people who are joining this movement and trying to support. I'm wondering if you could talk about solidarity a bit from non-Native communities in this process of giving land back and recognizing traditional knowledge.
[MC] My mind went to about 20 different places. The #NODAPL movement really projected this idea of reclamation of traditional practices because they were happening at camps. I think, for a lot of us, we were doing these things ourselves but really didn't feel like we had a support system. [#NODAPL] really allowed us to connect with other Indigenous people doing the same work and to work collectively to push this movement forward and uphold treaties in order for us to protect the environment so that our children's children’s children will be healthy and safe and in a great community moving forward.
In that instance, it was about water and maintaining clean water systems in the midst of an oil pipeline that's extractive. You have these two polarities and when we [talk about] solidarity, I looked at some of the solidarity that was happening at camp and it was a little toxic and unguided. So then we have to look at whose job it is to teach people how to stand in solidarity. We're already exhausted trying to do all of this work outside of our jobs and families and so, for me, I'm not a fan of the word ally. I think it's thrown around too much and everyone's an ally now. There's more to do than saying, “I don't believe racism is good.” That's one thing. It's something different to be an anti-racist. It's something different to actively promote anti-racist dialogue, terminology, and call out people. To me, that's what it means for someone to stand in solidarity. It means that you're going to stand up and fight on the frontlines. That means you will also be a target. It means you will understand what it feels like to lose friends and family and jobs because of your solidarity.
It's dangerous but this is what we live every day maintaining our identity outside of assimilation. For those who assimilate into society, it's much easier. I know because I did it for quite some time. It's easy to assimilate, be a token, and keep your mouth shut when things get rough and racist things are said. It's a lot more difficult to make yourself a target, both in your community and outside your community. To me, that's what standing in solidarity means: you're down for the cause in all ways, shapes, and forms. It's doing the work.
[AJ] We're having this national conversation about anti-racism and what this looks like in advocacy work that's happening. I am wondering if you could speak to the intersections between what's going on in Indian Country and the Black Lives Matter movement.
[MC] It's amazing to see these young Black women primarily leading this movement and so clearly articulating what racism is doing and what being an abolitionist looks like, knowing that slavery has changed and evolved but not ended in this country. There's intersectionality between Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty, Black liberation meaning Black people have not been liberated from oppression or violence in this country. [Indigenous people] have not been liberated from oppression or violence, even on our own land bases. There's definitely a lot of work I think we need to do in learning as we move forward how we're going to exist together and what that's going to look like.
To me, if one group is being oppressed, this is their time right now. This is their time; this is their movement and we have to stand with them. I don't think I'm alone in this. The American Indian Movement was in Minneapolis on the ground right there during the protests. There was definite intersection and support from the Native community in Minneapolis. They tore the Columbus statue down. Columbus is someone represents colonization in so many forms but he also represented the beginning of slavery in this country. There are a lot of commonalities in dehumanization and the way racism works in order to maintain white social, economic, and political [superiority] in this country.
[AJ] I've seen a lot of AIM [American Indian Movement] flags at the protests in Omaha and it's wonderful to see that and the video of the Columbus statue going down in front of the Capitol in St. Paul is just glorious in my mind. You know and they're singing and you could hear the drums and I just feel like that's such a powerful moment that builds on decades of activism all coming to a head at this moment. Maybe this is a good time to talk about Minnesota because you're preparing for a move to take on a new position. I'm wondering if you could talk about what you'll be doing in your position [CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center in Saint Paul, MN] and your feelings about moving to Minnesota. You're going to be in Dakhóta and Anishinaabe land. What will that transition look like for you?
[MC] Right now, it's just getting everything in order. It happened pretty quick. I will be the President and CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center and I couldn't think of a better fit for the work that I love to do, that I'm passionate about, and that I believe in so strongly: the healing and care of our women and children. It's really exciting. It is a little sad to leave my homelands and not be so close to our community where we hear the language and there's doings and dances and that sense of identity. But we're only four and a half hours away and there are other Umóⁿhoⁿ people in Minneapolis. Moving to Minneapolis between the Dakhóta and Anishinaabe people, Umóⁿhoⁿ people have always been between those two groups so it's interesting because we always had the Dakhóta on one side and the Anishinaabe on the other. I'm really excited to be welcomed into their homelands and form great relationships with people and do some really good work.
As far as moving, moving is just no fun. We all know that.
[AJ] It always takes longer than you think. You'll be working with women. What will that work look like for you?
[MC] I'm not at a director level so as the President and CEO it's more overseeing directors work. As far as initiatives and developing the strategic plan with the board, the community, and our employees we will find out what our vision is, what our values are, and how we can incorporate those into all of the work that we do.
I would love to see programming come out of that process that is culturally based. I would love to see work with food sovereignty and our seeds and gardening. There are a lot of things that I would like to see but until I get there and can really look at all the programs, I can't really say what will happen right away [other than] developing a strong infrastructure within the organization, developing capacity, and ensuring that we can do really good work that impacts the lives of our women and children in a really good way.
[AJ] That's so exciting. Congratulations. It seems like such a perfect fit. We talked in a phone conversation a couple of days ago about activism in the Twin Cities and I wanted to add. The Native art scene in the Twin Cities is really incredible and as an artist yourself, I know it's a lot of work to move your studio and it'll probably take a bit of time to get all of your sewing equipment set up, I'm wondering how you see sewing and making as part of the work that you'll be doing. I know you haven't started the position yet, but in general, how does this [practice] relate to healing for Native women?
[MC] Absolutely. Returning to our traditional crafts is absolutely a way to heal and to connect. Whether that be making jingle dresses, or birch bark baskets, or elm bark baskets, whatever that looks like, sharing that knowledge and bringing in people who have maintained that craft throughout their lifetime to teach about the importance of that craft is really important. Sometimes we do things without having the teachings behind them and we lose something. We lose an element of power within those traditional teachings. I am really excited for that.
As far as moving goes, I keep looking at all my stuff, my fabric specifically and my trade cloth and I'm like, “Oh my gosh, how am I going to do this and where am I going to move it and am I going to have time to work on it as much as I like?” I'm really excited to share whatever knowledge I have with people, if they chose, because that's my connection. Also, it's my homelands in my community. When I am sewing and making and creating I feel very much connected to my grandmothers and that’s really important.
[AJ] So much has happened in the past couple of months and with a move, you're moving an entire family. I've heard a lot of conversations lately about family, especially with COVID and now we have families in closer proximity who are spending a lot more together. We talked about family a couple days ago and I’m wondering how you think, within the national discourse on anti-racism, on the virus, on the presidential elections, what role does family and the home play in all of this?
[MC] The family and the home is where everything starts when we do this work. Decolonizing and healing starts with our families and our kinship systems, then our Clans, then our Nations, then the broader, larger community. It's almost like it radiates out from the family. The healing that has to happen and the work that's being done, specifically with children, in this time of COVID, I think we're realizing how much work it is to raise children. Our children go to school, through these government systems like daycare and school are all systems that are teaching our children and we're not teaching our children.
For me, we have four little ones that we take care of through foster care and we did a garden. As we were preparing the land to plant the seeds, I talked to them about community. If the community comes together [the work] goes faster. We'll be able to plant faster and then that's more food for us. If we don't work, we don't eat. Teaching them that idea of a work ethic, and coming together as a community to do that work, was something that I realized they might not have learned if they were at school that day.
Also, with song and dance and the things that they're learning at home, the girls want to put their jingle dresses on and practice. That's a part of affirming their identity, which I think is critical in creating healthy little humans who go out into the world to do their work. I'm processing all of this too right now with COVID. Our families are connecting more, maybe getting on each other's nerves a little bit more, but in a traditional format, this would kind of be how it was.
Working within this is very challenging. Working with little ones all around is definitely a challenge for everyone. I look at the school year moving forward. Will they be in school? Will they be learning from home? There's a lot of unknowns right now as to what that will look like. I’m trying to think of how I can supplement their education with traditional teachings, like maybe tanning a deer hide, or something like that, to get them outside and active and moving. There's definitely a lot going on there but I feel like it's a good thing to have this time of reflection.
My oldest is 27. She lives in Chicago and we talk almost daily. She tells me about the reflection she's going through living alone and meeting with her friends to eat in a park and all the ways she’s living with COVID right now. I see her level of reflection and understanding and she is incredible. This next generation is incredible. I'm so excited to see the work that they'll do to project a lot of these thoughts and methodologies that have been happening for a long time. If we look at what happened with the Washington team renaming because their funders pulling money, not because they chose to be moral and ethical. Now other teams are following suit and other teams refuse to follow suit like the Black Hawks. The Washington team also refused and then it wasn't their choice anymore.
That's been going on for generations. To see it come to fruition all within a week, McGirt vs Oklahoma, #NODAPL, and then the name of the Washington team changing, it was like, “Holy smokes! Are all the stars aligned right now?” I think all of that is happening because of Black Lives Matter and because of the social consciousness that they are very intentional and deliberate about bringing to the people.
I also think that because non-people of color, or white people, have been exposed to more groups over the past generation or two, because segregation has somewhat quasi-ended, I think that people are more open to [decolonial] ways of thinking. There's tons of work to do in decolonizing. There's tons of work to do in educating. Education is an [inherently] racist system in this country. How can we start teaching people about federal Indian policy as part of their education; educating about them about the Indigenous people that are on the land they occupy; educating them that treaties are as meaningful to white people as they are to us? That treaty is what allowed you to be on the land. That treaty is collective. It's not just one-sided.
I think we're entering a time where we can really look at that clearly. Part of that is because of phones and technology and being able to capture instances of overt racism that we have been experiencing--it's not an influx, like people tend to think--this is what's been happening for quite some time but it wasn't proven. People didn't want to take a person of color’s word for it. Now the entire country has it in their faces. This is happening. This is proof that it's happening. You have some in complete denial who choose to be in denial and choose to maintain the sickness of white supremacy; and then there are those who are like, “I want to change this but I don't know how or I'm scared, I'm fearful;” and then you have those that are just jumping in headfirst ready to be in solidarity with us.
Marisa Cummings speaking at the Justice for Zachary BearHeels Memorial Walk on Friday, June 5, 2020 in Omaha, NE.
There's a lot going on and we also have children that are still in cages at the border--a whole other aspect of what we have to look at in terms of who's free in this country, who has worth, who doesn’t, and who’s allowed in. If you look at immigration policy and how that's gone even from, oh gosh, from the 1920s. Immigration policy specifically only allowed certain Europeans to come in and didn't allow people from countries with brown and black folks in. This is systematic. I keep saying that because I really feel like so many people think racism is interpersonal. I guess the best way to explain that is that there were slave masters that had black children because it was a system that was upheld through law and policy. In order for us to dismantle these systems we have to be anti-racist not just neutral. I'm processing a lot right now. I don't have all the answers. I'm not an expert. I'm just trying to work through all of this and see the best way that we can have a country moving forward that is positive.
Actually, something else, I know that you wanted to talk about dismantling capitalism. There are forms of capitalism that are not oppressive. Recently on Fox News, they released an article where they showed the murders of black men: Martin Luther King, George Floyd, and others and then showed how the stock market went up after those murders. I didn't believe it when I saw it. I actually had to do research. It did happen. That was so powerful to me because it showed the correlation between human life, its worth, and how black lives are still seen as tied to financial capital. The Black experience is different from the Indigenous experience when you look at the one-drop rule. You're black if you have one drop of black blood versus indigenous people that they were trying to breed out. If you're under 25% you're not you're no longer Native. They did that, in very different ways, to divide and conquer. And yet, there's a lot of intersection between these communities.
There's a lot going on that I'm just trying to process and watch my kids process. Being in this time of change, I think it's a transformative time. We clearly have leadership that is not kind or moral right now but that leadership has allowed us to look at our country in a different way; in a way that we haven't looked at it before. I'm just excited to see how these young ones project us forward. In our community, it's all about life and moving forward into the future with generations to come and living in a good, kind, loving way and honoring those teachings and ways of being that have been passed on to us through our ancestors.
[AJ] Very exciting times. I like how you talk about it as transformative because I feel with COVID, I've had a lot of time to reflect on systems in general, even thinking about what the workplace looks like now that I'm home and kind of follow my own work patterns, which maybe vary a little outside of the 9 to 5 schedule. I'm hungry you know multiple times a day. I drink more water when I'm home. I think about systems of labor but also, like you said, we're doing the same thing with school and understanding how school is this very structured and inherently racist system too. I think the next generation is a really powerful generation and to have at such a young age an opportunity to get that sort of bird's-eye view of how systems work, and to comprehend this scale of it, is really powerful. It seems like they're the first generation to really have that opportunity and I'm likewise excited to see [what happens].
[MC] It’s about humanity. When you talk about the workplace, I'm the same way. I'm working from home and I'm like, “Oh it's different. It’s great!” It allows us to be more human rather than in this constant mode when you're at work, “I need to do this, this, this, and this.” Maybe we don't get up to use the bathroom as much as we should, or we don't drink enough water as we should, or we don't eat lunch because we're working through it. We're not paying attention to our human needs and stress levels go up. That’s not to say that COVID hasn’t caused stress levels to go up, but I think we're looking at ways now that we can have better lives and more fulfilling holistic lives. I think that’s what all of us want for our children, and our children's children. They should be able to live their lives and use their skill sets in the best way possible to help support humanity.
I think what's cool too is that a lot of people are planting gardens. When food shortages happen, [I think of previous] generations and my mom's German family that had a meat locker in Petersburg, Nebraska. It was the “Reicks’ Family Meat Locker” and if you needed meat, you went to the meat locker and you had fresh meat. Now we go to Walmart and we get not fresh meat and it’s not local and we don't know who's bringing it in. In two generations we lost this local food system, as well as the gardens that everyone kept. It was normal to keep a garden. We've moved away from that. Now we’re seeing that there wasn't a shortage of meat, there was a shortage of workers at meatpacking plants. Do we want to look at localized butcher shops again and what that could do to feed the health and wellness of our community food systems? I really hope we're looking at all of this and thinking about how we can be healthier, happier humans by dismantling the systems that don't allow other people to be as healthy or as happy.
When we look at [community health], especially with Indigenous populations, we see preconditions for diabetes and preconditions for heart disease and [disproportionately high death rates] before 40, and all of these negative things. I want to say those are a result of racism. Our people were healthy until our [Native] food systems were literally taken from us through force and racist policies. We were given these unhealthy alternatives that then became normalized, and are normalized to this day, so that we aren't as healthy.
There are traumas that are happening to our children and we don't have resources for mental and behavioral health. Maybe these children aren't able to reflect, or work on, or heal from traumas that happen to them. Those traumas compile and affect their lives in [the form of] addiction as adults. We don't look at how racism affects people's lives and takes people's lives and takes the quality of their lives from them. I even look at that in terms of the stress of the work that I do. When you're constantly trying to dismantle systems of racism and you're asked to be on panels where it's basically like, “ask an Indian” and people are violent with their words and hurtful and harmful, that affects my anxiety, my heart rate goes up and all of that affects health. I really hope people start writing more about how people of color, and their health, are affected by racism.
[AJ] I think we're seeing this with COVID and how reservation communities are disproportionately impacted by COVID right now is throwing into relief the lack of health resources and the lack of respect for Tribes’ sovereignty and ability to make decisions for the community’s health. This is becoming so much more present. These issues have always existed but I feel like, with COVID, it's finally coming to light, especially in mass media. There was a huge article about the Diné Nation in the New York Times and I was happy to see that because I think it's important that people realize that this is how decades and centuries of genocidal policy plays out.
[MC] And it's playing out now. This isn't the first epidemic that our people have been through. People refer back to smallpox. Yes, smallpox did happen. It took like 90% of our Tribe in the 1880s. Look at typhoid. Typhoid is what took my great-grandmother at 40. Look at tuberculosis. My grandmother had TB and was in a sanitarium in Rapid City [SD] and somehow survived. She had half a lung and suffered from COPD for the rest of her life. When those conditions were mainstream, even in those times, people were looking at staying home and taking care of the community. Once those diseases became rampant specifically on Indian reservations, or in Black communities, or low income communities, then it was just kind of like, “Oh, it's okay.” But it wasn't okay! People are still dying. In our community, we're looking at two COVID deaths a week right now. I think Thurston County [NE] is fourth in the nation right now for COVID cases but it is not even being reported on in Sioux City, which is the closest urban center, or Omaha.
[AJ] I don't see any reporting on it in Omaha.
[MC] It's like, “Oh, they're dying but it's not us.” I also think it's up to the Tribal leadership to make sure that people know what's going on. It's up to them to issue press releases even though there's always [potential for] racist backlash like we're somehow bad or deserving of these diseases that affect our communities. It's a lot.
[AJ] I feel like in Omaha, there's opportunity, or an imperative, for other institutions, non-news organizations, to take up that slack and also be venues to educate people, share information, and provide platforms for people to talk about these issues because if it not going to happen elsewhere, we need to do that. We need to step up and I'm saying this is somebody who works for an institution. I appreciate Amplify Arts--shout out to you--for hosting this conversation today.
I think we covered a lot of ground. Who knows, we might have a part three, a third installation in a couple of months. I would love to hear how your work in Minnesota is going and how that transition is going. We'll continue the conversation then and we'll wrap up for now. Thank you so much for sharing everything with us. I so greatly appreciate it and I think the readers and listeners as well too. So goodbye for now and thank you again.
[MC] Yes, thank you Annika and Amplify for providing this outlet to have these discussions and I appreciate both of you and keep doing good work.
*This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Marisa Miakonda Cummings holds a Master’s degree in Tribal Administration and Governance from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. She is the former Director of Native American Student Services at the University of South Dakota and current CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center in Minneapolis, MN. Marisa is proudly descended from the Umóⁿhoⁿ Tribe. Follow her on Twitter.
Annika Johnson is Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Joslyn Art Museum where she is developing installations, programming, and research initiatives in collaboration with Indigenous communities. Her research and curatorial projects examine nineteenth-century Native American art and exchange with Euro-Americans, as well as contemporary artistic and activist engagements with the histories and ongoing processes of colonization. Annika received her PhD in art history from the University of Pittsburgh in 2019 and grew up in Minnesota, Dakota homelands called Mni Sota Makoce.