Dec 1, 2024
Stories from the Rez
Mel Aanerud
Many of you know that PH member Mel Aanerud managed an electronics plant on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation in the 1970’s. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is a federally recognized American Indian tribal government whose members have lived for generations in east-central Minnesota. In Sunday’s presentation Mel will share personal stories and observations from his time working on the Reservation for an inciteful look inside one of Minnesota’s largest reservations.

Pilgrim House Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Arden Hills, Minnesota
pilgrimhouseuua.org
pilgrimhouse@pilgrimhouseuua.org

TRANSCRIPT
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NOTE: This is the transcript from Zoom and there are likely errors contained below. No effort has been made to proof read this transcript other than to remove certain sections of the program.
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10:15:57 welcome, everyone.
10:15:59 Welcome to Pilgrim House.
10:16:02 We are a lay-led fellowship welcoming all regardless of race.
10:16:07 gender, sexual or spiritual orientation.
10:16:10 We have no creed. Rather, we encourage openness to ideas guided by the principles of the UUA.
10:16:17 Here we explore, develop, and apply our own beliefs individually.
10:16:23 With the acceptance and encouragement of our fellow pilgrims.
10:16:27 We recognize the original inhabitants of the land we currently occupy.
10:16:31 The latest of whom were the Dakota people.
10:16:34 This includes recognizing that we have a debt
10:16:38 to be as good stewards of it as they were.
10:16:40 and to work toward a more just relationship with their descendants
10:16:45 And those were the other original peoples of this land.
10:16:49 Let's open up with our first song.
10:16:52 Here we have gathered, if you have a sin book.
10:16:55 Their songbook, it's number 360, and the words will be on the screen.
10:17:05 Okay, we'll wait till the words get up on the screen here.
10:17:08 And I'll do a short…
10:17:12 injury.
10:17:44 They host me near
10:17:58 Sing Lord God.
10:18:04 song.
10:18:20 We of all ages, women, children.
10:18:27 Sing no to
10:18:36 is our hearts own song.
10:18:47 Kindness can heal us.
10:19:05 Sing no in friendship.
10:19:21 Thank you, Bill and Carol.
10:19:24 Three days ago, we observed the Thanksgiving holiday, each in our own ways.
10:19:30 To many Native people, however, the day was observed as a national day of mourning.
10:19:37 As a Native American Rights Foundation describes it.
10:19:40 This is a day that began in 1970.
10:19:44 as a protest against the silencing
10:19:46 of native voices and the myths surrounding Thanksgiving.
10:19:51 It's a reminder of the historical injustices faced by Indigenous peoples
10:19:56 and the ongoing struggles for recognition.
10:20:00 equity and justice.
10:20:02 This day calls on all of us to acknowledge the truths of our shared past
10:20:08 and to work toward a future where native perspectives are heard and shared.
10:20:14 Fortunately for Pilgrim House, our member, Melanarud, has been doing this kind of work for many years.
10:20:21 And will be telling us some stories about that work this morning.
10:20:25 I light our chalice with the hope that we can brighten the light of truth
10:20:30 about our past history with the indigenous people of this place.
10:20:34 build a warmer sense of community with their descendants with whom we share it in our current day.
10:20:40 and feed a fire of commitment to work toward greater justice.

10:28:43 Today's meditation is slightly adapted.
10:28:46 from one given in 2017 by the UU Minister Jude Geiger.
10:28:52 We come together at the end of another week
10:28:55 some worn down by struggles of health, of home.
10:28:59 or work or current events.
10:29:03 May we be a community that makes space
10:29:06 for the sharing of joys and sorrows.
10:29:09 Angers and hopes.
10:29:11 with grace and forbearance.
10:29:15 In our nation's life we pause.
10:29:18 This holiday weekend.
10:29:20 to remember the Native American lives lost.
10:29:23 or impoverished from the European colonization of what is now our soil.
10:29:29 Though we cannot make amends.
10:29:32 for what has come before.
10:29:34 May we learn from those ways.
10:29:37 Never to repeat them in our lives today.
10:29:44 It's hard to know what to say to introduce Melano Rood. We know him so well.
10:29:49 He has done so much. I'm just going to give him the time.
10:29:53 for his stories. He brings us three stories from his time as the manager of the Mille Lac Spand's electronics plant.
10:30:00 during the 1970s.
10:30:03 Welcome, as always, Nell.
10:30:16 The largest building on the Mille Lacs Reservation when I got there was the CAP building.
10:30:22 It was built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with Community Action Program money and therefore the cap building.
10:30:28 I believe there really were some people at the Bureau of Indian Affairs that wanted the Midawiwen to be there. The Midawiwen is the spiritual
10:30:36 They're the storykeepers.
10:30:39 shamans.
10:30:41 So they asked some…
10:30:44 elderly to look at the plans for the cap building.
10:30:49 And they had a few minor changes and one major one.
10:30:52 They wanted it churn 90 degrees.
10:30:56 And there was plenty of room on the lot to do that.
10:30:59 But they needed the main door to pace south.
10:31:03 Because they could not be in a building.
10:31:07 where the main door didn't face south.
10:31:10 Well, to be in a architects, of course, knew better. And they kept the building the way it was and the main
10:31:17 With the main door facing east.
10:31:18 And of course, the middleweed did not.
10:31:21 go in the building. They stayed in their tar paper shack.
10:31:25 with the door that faced south.
10:31:30 The building had a basketball court in the middle.
10:31:34 that could easily be converted to be converted
10:31:36 communal dining or for…
10:31:40 mass meetings.
10:31:42 It had a commercial kitchen.
10:31:44 It had room for the band offices. Now, there was a small office for the chair and a small office for the treasurer.
10:31:51 And then a larger office with a moon-shaped table that was there
10:31:55 for the Indian Council to meet.
10:32:00 In the southeast corner.
10:32:02 was a much larger office for the CAP director.
10:32:05 The BIA hired this white person to
10:32:09 manage the community action program money and his office was bigger than anything else in the building except for the
10:32:16 for the tenant, for the…
10:32:18 basketball court.
10:32:20 Along the wall was an office for Sister Gertrude.
10:32:24 Sister Gertrude was a member of the Little Flower Mission
10:32:30 convent.
10:32:31 And she was also a registered nurse.
10:32:35 So out of that office, she could do some drugs. She could do some bandages.
10:32:42 And she would even cut up your, she would even sew up your cuts if they weren't too large.
10:32:48 And she kept the records.
10:32:50 So that all the people that ever saw her
10:32:53 There was a record, their history of their
10:32:57 of their medical stuff.
10:32:59 And she made appointments for them, for the doctors and the dentists.
10:33:03 And even for the hospital if that was necessary.
10:33:07 The little flower mission gave her a Subaru.
10:33:11 to get people to their appointments.
10:33:14 First time I met her, the first thing she said was, do you have a car?
10:33:18 And I said, yeah. Is it a Subaru?
10:33:21 And I said, no, you really should get a Subaru.
10:33:28 All right, Garbo was chair.
10:33:31 of the Mille Lacs band at the time.
10:33:33 He would give her a bad time.
10:33:35 I mean, he would… So what is this thing called purgatory? Explain that to me now.
10:33:41 So you Catholics should go to Mass once a week, right? I go as a Midawiew and I go every day.
10:33:48 And who are these three gods you've got?
10:33:51 And we have lots of spirits. Everything has a spirit.
10:33:54 But we only have one Gaethje monotone, only one great spirit.
10:33:58 Explain these three spirits to me.
10:34:01 I finally told him, you know, you're going to chase her away if you keep this up.
10:34:05 And he said, no, no, no, no.
10:34:08 She's found her mission and it's us.
10:34:13 My building was up the hill to the west.
10:34:16 6,000 square foot cinder block building.
10:34:20 It had an office for me and there was a reception area, two bathrooms.
10:34:24 receiving and shipping dock.
10:34:27 And then about 5,000 square foot of space to do assembly in.
10:34:32 The problem is that they weren't doing any assembly.
10:34:35 The person that started this was an IBM retiree.
10:34:41 who moved up there and decided to bring sheltered workshop work, if you know what that is.
10:34:48 You know, it's dividing bolts and putting screws on or taking screws off and
10:34:54 You know, really technical, very technical stuff.
10:34:57 And he was doing it in the basement of the CAP building for two years.
10:35:04 The chairman at the time was a guy by the name of Sam Yanke
10:35:08 Sam had much greater thoughts of what this business was going to be, and he built him a 6,000 square foot building.
10:35:16 By the way he built it with EDA funds.
10:35:19 He didn't get any grant. We had to pay
10:35:22 make payments on it every month.
10:35:26 Well, he said there was no way I was ever going to make enough money, that this was nice in the basement. You know, the couple people had some work and it…
10:35:33 And it supplemented his retirement pay.
10:35:38 But to move into that building that he'd have to pay off, he'd never make it.
10:35:42 He quit. So they moved into the building and then they hired me.
10:35:49 Well, by the time they were in the building, they had 13 people working for work that was worth
10:35:55 four or five people. The first week I was there, I laid off eight people. It made me one of the most popular people on the reservation.
10:36:04 I had four goals. Number one.
10:36:06 I wanted to make it profitable.
10:36:10 I wanted to put as many
10:36:13 Indians to work as possible.
10:36:15 And I didn't want IBM to be the only company we did business with.
10:36:20 As a matter of fact, my hope was that at some point no one would have more than 50% of the business.
10:36:28 Of course, I had done work for IBM before with another company, and I made power supplies for them.
10:36:33 And I knew that this group could put power supplies together. So I asked them to allow me to bid on those, and they did.
10:36:41 And I won every bid that I bid.
10:36:45 For a couple of reasons. Number one, we were cheaper than anybody else.
10:36:48 Our salaries were not as high as most minority companies because we were out in the woods in Mille Lacs County.
10:36:55 Secondly, there were some taxes that we didn't have to pay.
10:37:00 And so it worked out for us.
10:37:03 Well, it finally worked out for us.
10:37:06 The first year, we lost money. I mean, we were bleeding money.
10:37:09 I actually had to sell some of my own stuff.
10:37:12 put it in the business to keep it going. But I had faith in the
10:37:18 in the general manager.
10:37:22 The second year we made money.
10:37:25 And I wanted to prove this to the…
10:37:28 to the Indian Council, which was my only stockholder.
10:37:32 So I took as much out that I thought I could afford to take out of the company and I took it to them and I said, here's the money.
10:37:38 we made last year. That's your money.
10:37:42 Now, I'm suggesting that we build a clinic for Sister Gertrude with the money.
10:37:47 And they agreed.
10:37:49 So they had already started a construction company.
10:37:52 And Sister Gertrude got together with the
10:37:55 foreman of the construction company and they came up with how much it was going to cost to build the building she wanted.
10:38:02 Significantly more than I had.
10:38:05 So I went to ADA. I mean, I was paying monthly payments to them anyway, and they had other kinds of programs, and I suggested that they give me
10:38:14 a matching grant.
10:38:16 And they said, no. They certainly were willing to lend me the money, though.
10:38:22 So I went to Congressman Oberstar.
10:38:25 And I let him know what a great thing we were doing at Blacks.
10:38:30 And what I was trying to do now.
10:38:33 And a couple days later, I went to EDA and I got my matching grant.
10:38:38 I wasn't concerned about doing that at all.
10:38:42 So she built her…
10:38:45 her clinic had a clinic.
10:38:48 a…
10:38:50 dentist's office on one side. They had a chair and all the stuff that you normally have except
10:38:55 We couldn't afford x-ray.
10:38:57 No x-rays. There was a reception area and an office for Sister Gertrude.
10:39:03 And on the other side, there were two
10:39:08 places for the doctor to have intercourse with the…
10:39:13 to talk with the patients. With the metal table and, you know, all the terrible stuff they have in those
10:39:21 And she had a doctor that was there most of the time.
10:39:24 So I went in to see her, and the first thing she said was, have you got your Subaru yet?
10:39:31 And I said, no, no, I don't. But how do you like your new digs? And she said, well.
10:39:37 I don't know what heaven is going to be like, but I got a feeling it's going to be a little like this.
10:39:45 Little Flower Mission came to her and said, it's time to move.
10:39:51 You belong to this convent and we tell you when it's time to move.
10:39:55 And she said, I don't want to move.
10:39:57 Well, that's not your option. You move.
10:40:00 Yeah, I do have an option. I quit.
10:40:04 She really did have a mission.
10:40:06 And that was the people of the Mille Lac span of Minnesota Ojibwe
10:40:12 After she quit.
10:40:14 She was always Sister Gutrude anyway.
10:40:16 But after she quit, she was kind of
10:40:19 You realize they didn't take my Subaru away. But now she didn't have…
10:40:27 a roof over her head and food to eat.
10:40:29 And I don't know where Art found the money.
10:40:32 But he was paying her
10:40:34 poverty wages.
10:40:37 And she was happy.
10:40:41 Well…
10:40:43 I had my goals.
10:40:46 So by the fourth year.
10:40:50 I had plans to
10:40:52 To add space to the building, another 6,000 square feet. It had to be at a
10:40:57 funny angle, though, because they had some wetlands that were sacrosanct.
10:41:03 And I had enough business to fill it all. We had 65 people working.
10:41:08 And we were making money.
10:41:12 And I had business enough coming in.
10:41:16 But for about 30 more people.
10:41:17 I thought, in the new building
10:41:24 Well, what happened then is that I found out what I was worth because people were
10:41:29 were coming up and they wanted me to come to work for them.
10:41:32 So I found out what my skills had a value.
10:41:37 And I tried to figure out how I could get anywhere near
10:41:42 that value out of that company.
10:41:46 And there was no way to do it and still make a
10:41:50 a prophet.
10:41:52 So I did leave. And they hired a young Indian that
10:41:56 It was a good little manager.
10:41:59 The first year I went up there once a week.
10:42:03 to help them along.
10:42:04 And then it got to once every two weeks and then finally once a month.
10:42:09 And as my time going up there diminished, the calls from Art Garbo increased.
10:42:15 Because I could see them every week before that. And after that, then he had to call me.
10:42:20 And he was calling me about everything he was going to do.
10:42:25 And if I ever disagreed with him.
10:42:28 He would say, who the hell asked you and hang up on me. And then in the afternoon, he would call back. He never apologized, but his apology was to call back and ask me something different.
10:42:41 Well, it was 15 years later. I mean, so this business has been in business
10:42:46 19 years with what I had and then the two years before that.
10:42:49 That's a pretty good run for a small business.
10:42:53 And they were beginning to lose money.
10:42:56 And Art wanted me to come up and look.
10:42:58 So I came up and I spent the day.
10:43:01 And I found that they hadn't put on any new customers. They'd gotten new work.
10:43:06 from the old customers, but they hadn't found any new customers.
10:43:11 And the amount of work was just decreasing.
10:43:15 And the problem…
10:43:17 that I saw immediately was that he hadn't laid off enough people.
10:43:20 That's why we're there, they were losing money.
10:43:25 Well, I called the companies that we were doing business with
10:43:29 And every one of them gave me the same story.
10:43:32 We went to you because you were minority owned and you were cheap.
10:43:38 we can now get the same thing done cheaper.
10:43:41 by sending it to Mexico or China or Indo or Vietnam.
10:43:46 Even with…
10:43:49 The transportation costs.
10:43:52 And they said, unless you could reduce your costs significantly.
10:43:57 It's all going to be gone within a year or two.
10:44:00 Well, I tried to figure out how we could do it cheaper, and there was no way we could do it cheaper.
10:44:04 So I took it to art, but I said…
10:44:06 I'm sorry, but the business model that I had
10:44:11 Just doesn't work anymore.
10:44:13 And he said, good.
10:44:16 So let's close it down. I want to turn it into a bingo hall.
10:44:21 Well, I wasn't too pleased about that until he told me, well, he had already signed an agreement with Strand Casino
10:44:30 of Crystal, Minnesota, and they were going to build a casino
10:44:32 And then we're going to use that building as the center for the casino.
10:44:39 Well, I went up for the mass meeting when the Grand Casino was making their
10:44:44 their pitch to the community.
10:44:48 They said they were taking that building and they were taking that wetland that was sacrosanct just a couple years
10:44:54 And they're taking seven homes.
10:44:56 And the one they were most concerned about.
10:44:59 They were taking the medical facility.
10:45:04 But they said not to worry.
10:45:06 Because you will make enough money the first
10:45:10 to build a real one.
10:45:14 I was kind of upset about that. I thought what we built was real.
10:45:22 So anyway, they went ahead and…
10:45:27 Then Art started calling me even more often because the only two
10:45:32 other casinos that were operating in Minnesota at the time
10:45:36 was the Dakota.
10:45:38 ones in the cities.
10:45:40 And they had a model. All the money they made was divided equally among all their members.
10:45:48 Well, all their members was 126 for one of them.
10:45:53 And 320 for the other.
10:45:55 Mille Acts had a population of
10:45:58 of 4,800 people.
10:46:01 He said, that model is not going to work.
10:46:05 being only a third of those people were on the reservation. The rest of them were, who knows where they were.
10:46:10 They were registered with Malax.
10:46:12 And they wanted their money.
10:46:15 Well, he came up with a plan. He came up with three different sets of money.
10:46:21 One was going to be a
10:46:23 a stock fund.
10:46:27 Because he said, if the casinos are really going to make that much money, sooner or later you white guys are going to figure out some way to take it away from us.
10:46:36 So I'm going to invest as much money as we can in your businesses.
10:46:41 And they have one of the largest stock in
10:46:44 funds in the state.
10:46:47 The second group of money was going to go into economic development.
10:46:51 He had an idea of owning a good part of the western side of Lake Mille Lacs.
10:46:58 One of the great purchases they made
10:47:00 When I was at the reservation and I'd get a new contract in, often I needed some startup money. I needed money to buy equipment or materials or something, and I'd go to the bank in Onamia.
10:47:12 And one of the young brothers, the two young brothers owned the bank.
10:47:16 They would come out to the reservation and see what I was doing. They'd say.
10:47:20 You're really doing a great job here. And then they would turn down the loan.
10:47:26 The reservation now owns that bank.
10:47:29 And they own the bank in Tinkley and about four or five other banks. And they owned the two major hotels in St. Paul, if you didn't know that.
10:47:39 There's a lot of businesses around the state of Minnesota that Mille Lacs owns.
10:47:45 The other thing was…
10:47:47 Infrastructure.
10:47:48 And he put together an infrastructure plan.
10:47:53 And the…
10:47:55 Grand Casino people had talked, the first thing we'd do would be a medical facility.
10:47:59 And he said, no, the first thing we're going to do is a building for the middle.
10:48:07 a real building for the Middle Wayland.
10:48:09 And I said, well, Art…
10:48:11 I think the first thing you might have to do is sewer and water.
10:48:15 And he said, who asked you?
10:48:20 Well, the casino people said the first thing he was going to do was sewer and water.
10:48:25 Because they weren't going to open up a hotel and a casino with the sewer and water system they had.
10:48:31 So they put in a first class sewer and water system. As a matter of fact, most of the people on Wigwam Bay
10:48:36 have now asked to become part of
10:48:38 Air, water, and sewer system.
10:48:42 Then he had everything else laid out. First, they were going to build
10:48:46 The Middle Webon Lodge. Beautiful building.
10:48:50 It's on the highest point of rainbow point.
10:48:54 It's got logs, walls.
10:48:57 where the logs are about that size.
10:48:59 And they're burnished brown.
10:49:02 And it just stands out. It's a beautiful, beautiful building. I've never been inside because I'm not allowed.
10:49:08 But it's outside a beautiful building.
10:49:11 And second came the medical facility and then the three
10:49:16 schools. And the thing that he did is that the…
10:49:19 The government center was the last thing on his list.
10:49:23 Well, they've gone through his list and they've
10:49:26 put in a community center with a pool and a number of other things but
10:49:30 They followed his plan.
10:49:34 Art died.
10:49:36 before the casino was completed.
10:49:38 So we never saw any of it done.
10:49:44 I was up there one time. I went to the medical facility just to see what it looked like.
10:49:49 Beautiful, beautiful building, if any of you have been there.
10:49:53 Probably haven't, but if you want to someday, just drive by. It's right there on the lake.
10:49:58 It's a tall, high roof building.
10:50:02 It has three…
10:50:05 doctor offices and a dentist's office and the dentist office has…
10:50:09 has x-ray. They have little emergency room set off separately and a couple
10:50:15 A couple of hospital rooms set up.
10:50:18 Just in case the name of your hospital can't take them or there's an emergency of some kind.
10:50:23 So I stopped in to see this sister, Gertrude, didn't I?
10:50:27 came in and she says, have you got your Subaru yet? And I said, no, no, no.
10:50:35 And she said, you realize the band bought me a new one. Well, that's good. So what do you think of your digs here?
10:50:43 And she said…
10:50:45 Well, I don't know what heaven is going to be like, but I got a feeling it's a little bit like this.
10:50:53 She died a couple years later.
10:50:57 I don't know if there's a heaven or not.
10:51:00 But I sure heck hope that…
10:51:03 God is smart enough to give her a little clinic and a couple of Ojibweis to take care of and
10:51:09 And give her a Subaru to drive around London with.
10:51:25 So Bill has a couple more stories for us, but we'll have our second song first.
10:51:30 Now.
10:51:32 What are we going to do?
10:52:16 Father, Spirit, where are you?
10:52:19 In the sky song in the forest sound your cry.
10:52:26 What to give you, what to call you?
10:52:36 Many drops are in the ocean deep and light. Sunlight bounces off the ripples moon a sky.
10:52:48 Oh, to give you, or to call you.
10:52:58 I am empty times darkness.
10:53:04 Would you give you, what to call you, Lord.
10:53:20 our hearts and run us.
10:53:47 Georgiana Day was on the Indian Council that hired me.
10:53:51 The next year, she decided to run for the school board.
10:53:56 In the Oneamia School District.
10:53:58 She was 47 years old, had six children. She was on her second husband.
10:54:03 And she had quit school when she was 16.
10:54:07 Her chances of winning were
10:54:09 Well, she won.
10:54:11 And she knew exactly what she wanted to do. She went directly to the school board and she complained. She told them.
10:54:18 what the children were up against in that school.
10:54:23 And then she went to the administration and did the same thing. And then she went to teachers and told them.
10:54:29 And she said it was kind of like spitting in the lake.
10:54:34 So she called…
10:54:36 of meeting of the school board on the reservation.
10:54:40 The chairman of the school board let her know that she didn't have the authority to do that.
10:54:44 She said, what the hell? I'm going to do it anyway.
10:54:48 And if you'll show up, I'd like it.
10:54:50 Well, six people showed up. Three of them were teachers.
10:54:56 To have an Anishinaab.
10:54:59 complain in the 1970s was very unusual.
10:55:03 to have them actually have them actually
10:55:05 to a school board meeting in Onamia to talk about the trials of their children
10:55:12 That just was never going to happen.
10:55:16 But get them there.
10:55:19 in their home front.
10:55:20 And they were very polite, but they told them.
10:55:24 Exactly what they thought of the way the school was being run and how their children were being discriminated against.
10:55:32 The people from the school district, I think.
10:55:37 Listen.
10:55:39 Not sure they heard.
10:55:41 But the people that heard were the students.
10:55:46 They thought that they were up against something new.
10:55:49 And they found out it's the same thing that their parents and their grandparents had been up against.
10:55:57 And they heard their parents and their grandparents
10:56:00 Taking their side.
10:56:03 Saying the school district has to do something about this.
10:56:07 And that was the leaders of the tribe.
10:56:10 that got up and said.
10:56:13 This has to change, and it has to change now.
10:56:17 Well, they were impressed as hell.
10:56:21 Two days later, Georgiana Day comes to my office and she says, I want you to meet
10:56:27 with the senior class.
10:56:29 And I said, why?
10:56:32 Not exactly within my job classification, but
10:56:36 She said, well, I want you to help them come up with a project
10:56:41 that they can do for the entire reservation.
10:56:44 And I said, why?
10:56:47 And she said, well…
10:56:49 There's not much for teenagers to do on the reservation.
10:56:53 And if they quit school, they're going to have more time
10:56:58 And they're going to get in trouble.
10:57:00 They're going to get into drugs. They're going to get into alcohol.
10:57:03 And they're getting in trouble with the law. And there's enough of our children
10:57:08 in your jails already.
10:57:11 I didn't consider them my jails, but I understood what she was saying.
10:57:17 So I met with the six…
10:57:20 Seniors, there are only six.
10:57:23 And we talked for better than an hour.
10:57:26 Before we got around to…
10:57:29 this project.
10:57:30 And I asked them if they had any ideas about the project, and one girl did.
10:57:35 It turns out that the Indian Council had started a grocery store in the basement of the CAP building.
10:57:42 And there was concern around the reservation saying, why did they start a grocery store
10:57:48 If the prices are too high for us to be able to buy anything there.
10:57:53 Well, they only had one cooler and they had the essentials you know
10:57:59 eggs and butter.
10:58:02 milk and Pringles.
10:58:06 I never saw another potato chip on the reservation.
10:58:09 Pringles was it, and it was essential.
10:58:16 So they decided to look into that. And they established a plan of action.
10:58:22 First thing they did is they got a grocery list.
10:58:26 And two of them went to Onyamia.
10:58:29 And check the supermarket out.
10:58:31 Two of them went to relax, to the little grocery store in the basement.
10:58:34 And two of them went to Norm Cash's store.
10:58:38 Norm Cash had a little store just north of the reservation.
10:58:42 had two pumps out in front.
10:58:44 some fishing tackle and some grocery items.
10:58:48 They came back and they checked and it turned out to be about what they thought.
10:58:54 The store don't name you. It was significantly cheaper.
10:58:57 than the store at Mille Lanks.
10:58:59 But Mille Lacs was actually cheaper than Norm Cash's store.
10:59:04 So then they decided they had to do some interviews. So they went and interviewed
10:59:08 The members of the Indian Council.
10:59:11 And they heard from all of them the same story. We did not start that store
10:59:16 to be sheeper. We don't have money to subsidize
10:59:21 the food. It's a matter of convenience, that's all.
10:59:25 So if you're doing something and you need a couple more eggs, you can go down there and get it without having to drive all the way to Anamia.
10:59:37 interviewed the person that was running the store.
10:59:41 And she said, it's a matter of
10:59:44 volume.
10:59:45 See, the store in Onamia will buy 60 dozen eggs.
10:59:50 And I will buy six.
10:59:52 Well, they're going to charge the one in Onamia significantly less per dozen than they're going to charge me.
10:59:58 And then there's the transportation.
11:00:01 Because someone's got to bring those goods out here.
11:00:06 So they came back and they thought, well, now we understand the problem and we can tell
11:00:10 the community what the problem is. And one guy, one boy said, what, there's more.
11:00:17 There's more.
11:00:19 So how much cash does it take to go from the reservation to Oneamia and back? And they figured it out and they thought.
11:00:26 It's inconsequential. For one trip…
11:00:30 But how about 12 trips a year or 20 trips a year or 50 trips a year?
11:00:36 No, it's a lot of money.
11:00:38 So they decided to include that.
11:00:40 And he said, how about just getting there?
11:00:43 Only 4 in 10 people on the reservation had a vehicle.
11:00:47 So if you were going to go shopping, you had to plan it out with somebody else.
11:00:53 And then there was that stretch of highway, 169,
11:00:57 between Oneamia and the reservation.
11:01:01 had already been a study done on that. They found that
11:01:05 Four.
11:01:07 the deputies for the county would stop four cars driven by a
11:01:12 Indian to every one driven by a white.
11:01:16 And there was a whole lot more white cars going than there were Indian cars.
11:01:21 I want that included, too, he said.
11:01:25 So they drew up their brochure and they had drafts and they
11:01:30 explained everything. They really did a really fine job.
11:01:34 A little help, but they did a fine job.
11:01:36 So I took it into anemia and I got it printed and I got it back and they delivered one to every household on the reservation.
11:01:44 Everyone was pleased.
11:01:47 The Indian Council was pleased because it explained why they started the store.
11:01:53 And the store manager was pleased because we explained why.
11:01:57 The prices were so high.
11:02:00 And everybody else on the reservation was pleased
11:02:03 All this information was given to them by their own students.
11:02:07 The only one that was kind of upset was Norm Cash.
11:02:13 But it's all right. He blamed me, so it was all right.
11:02:18 Georgiana Day took this brochure they had put together and went down to the school
11:02:24 Talked right away to some teachers, said, look.
11:02:26 what our students can do.
11:02:29 And the teacher said, no.
11:02:32 No, we've had those students for four years now.
11:02:35 That's beyond their capability.
11:02:37 Somebody else did that for them. Probably that manager of the IBM plant.
11:02:48 Well, it really didn't make any difference because a week later, Art Garbo comes in my office and he is mad.
11:02:54 He says, what the hell did you tell those kids anyway?
11:02:59 I had no idea what he was upset about, but those six
11:03:02 seniors decide they were not going back to school in Omnia.
11:03:07 But we don't want to quit.
11:03:09 They told him, we don't want to quit. You said at that meeting that you would take care of things.
11:03:15 And we want you to take care of things. We want to graduate from high school, but we want you to take care of it.
11:03:23 So Georgiana Day goes into the school and talks to the superintendent of schools and she says, look, we'll provide
11:03:32 a classroom for them.
11:03:34 Can you provide a teacher or two to come out and do the basics that they can graduate?
11:03:39 And he told her, no, that would be discriminatory.
11:03:43 And she said, what?
11:03:46 Well, what if the white kids wanted to stay home?
11:03:49 You know, we don't have enough teachers to let everyone be home at school.
11:03:55 So on a whim, she said…
11:03:57 So what if we hire some teachers ourselves?
11:04:01 And he said, if they're certified teachers, and they're not any of mine.
11:04:07 We'll figure out some way to let them graduate.
11:04:10 So she came back with that information.
11:04:13 And Art said, I don't know where to find teachers.
11:04:20 I happen to be involved in politics in the city of Columbia Heights.
11:04:24 One of the people that I dealt with was by the…
11:04:28 Name of Richard Bennett.
11:04:30 Dick Bennett was on the board of
11:04:34 the Minnesota Federation of Teachers.
11:04:37 I brought it to him and he brought it to the board, and the board thought, what a great idea.
11:04:42 So they put it in their weekly newsletter.
11:04:46 What they were trying to do to help the Mille Lacs Reservation. They sent it out to all their teachers.
11:04:51 an older graduated retired teachers
11:04:55 And most importantly to them, they sent it out to all those kids that were coming out of school
11:05:01 to become teachers because they thought this might convince them to join their union rather than the other one.
11:05:09 Well, it worked.
11:05:12 Within a week, we had five or six
11:05:15 Resumes. And they just kept coming.
11:05:19 and coming and coming.
11:05:22 Art study had over a hundred
11:05:24 Resumes.
11:05:26 So he hired a few to start with the seniors.
11:05:31 And then that same week.
11:05:33 The juniors, sophomores, and freshmen
11:05:36 And we're going to the high school. He said, if the seniors don't have to go, we're not going either.
11:05:42 Oh, well, okay.
11:05:44 Well, he wasn't figuring on hiring that many teachers, but…
11:05:48 He was going to figure it out somehow. But now we don't have enough room.
11:05:53 Well, there was a school building, a great school building built on the reservation in 1924, and it was used into the 50s.
11:06:02 And the amazing thing to me was amazing to me
11:06:05 that it hadn't been trashed.
11:06:10 So he had a structural engineer look at it. The engineer said, sure, you can
11:06:13 I think you're going to open a school there.
11:06:16 It was grades one through nine. So there were nine
11:06:19 rooms in it. Now we had enough room for those he wanted.
11:06:25 Then he said, what I'd really like to do is start my own school system.
11:06:30 I'd like to pull all the kids out of that school, including the grade school kids.
11:06:36 Oh, well…
11:06:39 So Georgia in the day.
11:06:41 goes down to St. Paul, to the Department of Education.
11:06:47 She asked them what it takes to become a…
11:06:51 a school district and they gave her a stack of paper like that.
11:06:56 She came back to the reservation with a stack of paper and she came right up to my office. She said, I need some help.
11:07:03 And oh no. Thank goodness Art followed her right up and said, so what's the first thing we need? And she said, a superintendent.
11:07:12 Well, I got one.
11:07:15 Really?
11:07:17 Turned out that there was a superintendent of schools who had retired to a lake home
11:07:23 up and relax. And he thought that retirement would be fishing every day.
11:07:29 Well, he found out that fishing every day was really boring.
11:07:36 So Art said, would you be our superintendent? He said, oh, no, no, I've done that. No, no, no, no, no.
11:07:42 It's only 140 kids and it's one building.
11:07:46 Oh, well, maybe then.
11:07:49 Okay, here's Georgiana Day, and here are the papers. Get to work.
11:07:56 Two days later, they went down to the Department of Education with their papers filled out.
11:08:01 And the Department of Education fast-tracked it.
11:08:05 Because they were getting so many complaints
11:08:07 from the Oneamia School District, and they had to send someone up to investigate every complaint.
11:08:13 They figured if they can get all those…
11:08:15 Those Indians out of that school that their complaints would be significantly less. They'd actually save money.
11:08:25 So the Indian, the Mille Lacs Reservation.
11:08:30 school district was formed.
11:08:34 still operating today.
11:08:37 They have three state-of-the-art schools.
11:08:41 First thing in the morning at each of those schools in assembly
11:08:45 Where amid a wee one comes and tells them
11:08:48 a story. The stories is the story of their history.
11:08:52 the stories of their culture.
11:08:56 And they decided if English was a required language, then Ojibwe should be too.
11:09:02 And they are rebuilding the Ojibwe language on the Malacian Reservation.
11:09:09 That superintendent of schools needed an administrative assistant.
11:09:14 And he hired a 49-year-old lady.
11:09:18 With six children.
11:09:20 was on her second husband.
11:09:22 And then quit school at 16.
11:09:27 Georgiana Day.
11:09:30 was the godfather, your godmother.
11:09:33 of the Mille Lacs band.
11:09:36 school system.
11:09:38 And for many years thereafter.
11:09:41 She continued to work for that school system.
11:09:44 Bill.
11:10:58 Did you know that there are two
11:11:00 Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota.
11:11:03 There's the Red Lake Tribe.
11:11:06 And they consider themselves different because they're on unceded land.
11:11:10 For all the time I was on the reservation.
11:11:14 Roger Jourdain was the chair up there.
11:11:17 And for many years after.
11:11:20 Every year he would go to New York.
11:11:23 And he applied for UN membership.
11:11:27 He was unceded land, for goodness sake.
11:11:30 I mean, he always got turned down, but he tried every year.
11:11:34 But from there, he would either go to Washington or St. Paul, and he would smooth.
11:11:39 Roger knew more politicians and more government agents than probably
11:11:44 Well, certainly any other
11:11:46 Indian in the Minnesota.
11:11:48 Probably more than 90% of the people in the state of Minnesota.
11:11:53 And it showed.
11:11:55 Because when he was sharing…
11:11:59 before George Goodwin.
11:12:01 He got everything first.
11:12:04 And normally more.
11:12:06 then he would have normally gotten.
11:12:09 Because he knew who to talk to and who to snooze with.
11:12:13 The other tribe is the Minnesota Chippewa tribe.
11:12:18 They don't like the name very much, but it was incorporated in the 1930s during the Roosevelt administration.
11:12:25 They don't like the Chippewa name terribly well.
11:12:28 But that's what it is.
11:12:33 The Bureau of Indian Affairs had relationships with each of the individual seven
11:12:39 reservations. They did not.
11:12:41 do anything specifically with anything specifically
11:12:44 What is the Chippewa tribe? It was a place for the different reservations to get together.
11:12:50 periodically to find out what they were doing on their reservation.
11:12:54 And making sure that everyone got the same advantage
11:13:01 They decided, the year I went up there to hire
11:13:05 An executive director. His name was George Goodwin.
11:13:09 He was a college graduate from the White Earth Reservation.
11:13:15 He was just turned 30.
11:13:18 They told them you can have this job.
11:13:21 As long as you bring in more money than your salary.
11:13:24 in new money.
11:13:27 So the first year he brought in four times his salary.
11:13:30 And the second year he brought in eight times his salary in new money.
11:13:35 for the first time.
11:13:38 Those seven reservations.
11:13:40 They were part of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe.
11:13:42 got ahead of the red lake drive.
11:13:49 I was working at the Mille Lacs Band and our
11:13:53 Our chairman was Art Cara.
11:13:56 I was also either elected or appointed to positions at the state level
11:14:00 with the JC organization now.
11:14:04 The JC organization that was a
11:14:08 training organization. We train local people on how to run
11:14:12 projects in their own town. So all the projects that the JCs had were local within the little
11:14:19 towns and districts where the chapters were.
11:14:23 Except for one.
11:14:25 Well, because I was on the…
11:14:29 Inside the…
11:14:32 Art Shadow is one of the high mucky monks in all the NRA.
11:14:37 I'm not sure how high I was. One of the programs that they ran was something called the TOIM program, the 10 Outstanding Young
11:14:46 Minnesotans.
11:14:48 Now, it was changed from understanding young men to a standing…
11:14:52 young Minnesotans while I was…
11:14:54 one of the monkey mucks
11:14:56 For good reason, I think.
11:15:01 But it was amazing what they did. They took people in their 20s and early 30s
11:15:07 And they found people…
11:15:10 who almost to the person who
11:15:13 became leaders in their individual field by the time they were in their 40s and 50s.
11:15:18 It was really outstanding.
11:15:21 who they picked.
11:15:23 So Art came and wanted to know about this TOIM program, and I started telling him about it and he says.
11:15:28 I know all that.
11:15:31 If we nominate George, will he win?
11:15:34 I said, gee, I don't know.
11:15:37 Well, yeah, I think he's certainly well qualified and with a really good nomination.
11:15:42 I think you'd have a really good chance of winning.
11:15:46 And Art said, okay, write that up for me and I'll sign it.
11:15:51 Okay.
11:15:52 But I did. And I spent some additional time on it.
11:15:57 And I put together a really good nomination, I think.
11:16:01 And he signed it and it went in.
11:16:04 I hadn't considered it until after it went in.
11:16:07 What he had said was…
11:16:10 Would he win?
11:16:15 I had no way of knowing if he would win or not.
11:16:19 I wasn't that high of a monkey muck.
11:16:23 So now I got really nervous.
11:16:26 And what was going to happen to my position with these people?
11:16:30 If he didn't win and they expected him to.
11:16:37 The ceremony was held in Duluth that year. About 1,200 people were there.
11:16:42 About 400…
11:16:45 Indian elders.
11:16:48 The Indian elders were excited.
11:16:51 Most people wouldn't have noticed they were excited because they looked as dour as they always do. But I knew they were excited.
11:16:58 And I was nervous.
11:17:01 So they started reading off the winners. The winners would be read off, and they would come down. They would tell their big story.
11:17:08 And then the next one and the next one.
11:17:11 So it was three and then…
11:17:14 5 and 7.
11:17:16 And number eight.
11:17:18 They announced George Goodwin.
11:17:23 I mean, I was relieved.
11:17:25 The Indians were happy and now you could tell that they were happy.
11:17:33 Well…
11:17:36 Before I left the reservation, Art Garbo decided to run for chair of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
11:17:44 But then I left.
11:17:46 But he became chair and it was the 35th year.
11:17:50 of the organization, and he decided to
11:17:54 to create a coin he called me and he said.
11:17:56 You know who could do this? I don't know, but I checked around and I found some
11:18:01 people that could do it.
11:18:03 And he got a hundred coins.
11:18:05 put together, all numbered, one to 100.
11:18:09 He was going to hand them out to him.
11:18:11 people in the order that he thought they were important.
11:18:14 to the tribe.
11:18:19 So I get a call from Art.
11:18:21 He says, I want you up here on Saturday.
11:18:25 Because I'm going to do some awarding.
11:18:28 And I thought, oh, good, he wants me. It means I'm going to get one of the coins. Okay. All right.
11:18:36 So here I am at the…
11:18:38 February morning.
11:18:40 Bright sun shining, cold as hell with it today.
11:18:43 And I'm driving up to Mille Lacs. I get to Zimmerman and start showing.
11:18:49 By the time I got to the county seat.
11:18:52 It was really snowing.
11:18:55 And by the time I got to Millax.
11:18:58 It was that thick on the ground.
11:19:01 I went past the…
11:19:03 the cap building and there were no cars there.
11:19:05 Uh-oh, it doesn't look good.
11:19:07 So I drove up 169 a ways and backed into one of the reservation roads. I knew it wasn't going to get plowed until after the
11:19:17 snow was done anyway. And I walked the 30-some yards down to Art's house.
11:19:23 marked on the door.
11:19:25 Pangea Garbel. Pangea is…
11:19:28 was his wife. She was an amazing lady.
11:19:32 She was working on her master's degree and she taught from time to time at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
11:19:38 And she said, what the hell are you doing here?
11:19:42 I said, well, Art's had invited me. But there's a…
11:19:46 There's a major storm coming.
11:19:48 And it was coming from the north. And of course, everyone else that was invited was north of Blacks.
11:19:54 I was the only one south.
11:19:56 Everyone else knew enough to stay home. I was the dumb white guy who didn't check the weather forecast.
11:20:01 And drove up there.
11:20:04 Well, Arndt had had a snowmobile accident that morning.
11:20:08 hurt his back.
11:20:10 They'd called the hospital to see if they could get a
11:20:14 ambulance out and the hospital said.
11:20:16 Not till after the snow, unless it's life and death.
11:20:20 And it wasn't life and death.
11:20:22 So Arta decided to self-medicate.
11:20:26 something called Jim Bean.
11:20:31 Well, I went in and then saw him, and he was sitting in his chair with the Jim Bean bottle and
11:20:38 I had never actually seen him drunk, and he wasn't drunk, but he was buzzed.
11:20:42 Pretty good. And he showed me three of the coins. They were all the same coin, except there were a number of different, one, two, three.
11:20:50 He said, number one is going to go to Roger Jourdain. And I thought, boy, that's a…
11:20:55 Good political move. The second one was going to
11:20:59 George Goodwin.
11:21:01 Just because of what a great job he was doing for the Minnesota Chippewa tribe.
11:21:05 And the third one he was keeping.
11:21:09 And the next seven, we're going to the chairs of the different individual
11:21:12 bands and then he said number 11 is yours.
11:21:17 Wow, you know, it's even better than I expected.
11:21:19 He said, but yours is over in the office.
11:21:23 I said, well, I'll come up sometime and you can give it to me. No, let's go over there right now.
11:21:29 And Pansy said, don't even think about it.
11:21:35 You can't even get out of your chair, for goodness sake. And he tried to get out of his chair and he couldn't.
11:21:43 I don't know how much it was.
11:21:45 the Jim Bean and how much it was that he just really liked me.
11:21:50 But after conversing for a very short period of time, he said.
11:21:54 Well, George didn't make it here today and you did.
11:21:57 So here, take number two.
11:22:01 I said, no, I can't do that.
11:22:03 I'll come up some other day.
11:22:04 Let's talk about this for a while.
11:22:07 And Pangea said, don't even think about it. This storm is coming. If you get caught in a storm, you're going to be here for days. And I really don't want you here for days.
11:22:18 So I put on my coat and coat
11:22:21 hat and boots.
11:22:23 And I'm getting ready to leave.
11:22:25 Got this number two coin in my pocket. No, I can't do this. Let's talk about this some more. And Angie said.
11:22:32 Don't even think about it.
11:22:36 Be on your way.
11:22:39 So I went and got my car, and they had plowed 169 since I was there.
11:22:44 had to do a little bit of a little bit
11:22:46 rocking back and forth, but I finally got up on the highway and
11:22:49 I made it home without any trouble.
11:22:52 George Goodwin.
11:22:54 had bought an old farmhouse.
11:22:58 He was going to remodel it for his family.
11:23:01 He was spending a good deal of time in the attic.
11:23:04 He was trying to get rid of bats.
11:23:07 You want to get rid of them and then wanted them not to come back.
11:23:12 He got a congestion.
11:23:15 That would not to be bad enough.
11:23:17 that they decided to take him to the hospital
11:23:19 in Fargo.
11:23:22 Well, it turned out he had actually got bat guano.
11:23:25 in his lungs.
11:23:28 And they told me that if they'd have went to St. Paul or Rochester.
11:23:33 He'd have lived.
11:23:38 Well, I arranged to go to the funeral. It was going to be held in the Catholic Church in Natawash, Minnesota. You'll know where that is, right?
11:23:44 It's on the White Earth Indian Reservation.
11:23:47 So I leave early because I'm not really sure how long it's going to take me to get there.
11:23:51 I get there and I'm early.
11:23:54 They stick me in a row and they said, don't move.
11:23:57 Because we're going to put people in here like sardines.
11:24:01 And they did. I mean, we were shoulder to shoulder.
11:24:04 And then there were people along three walls
11:24:08 And I understand there were 20-some people outside that listened to it.
11:24:13 over speakers.
11:24:17 They did the funeral. And then they announced, don't anyone move.
11:24:22 They moved the casket from the casket
11:24:24 the sacristy up to the door.
11:24:27 And they said, okay, we're going to let you out one by one and you can go past the casket.
11:24:35 So my turn came and I got to the casket, and that was George.
11:24:39 And the crook of his left arm.
11:24:42 was a plaque.
11:24:44 I said he was one of the 10 outstanding young Minnesotans.
11:24:51 around his fingers was a chain.
11:24:56 that led to a coin.
11:24:59 Number 11.
11:25:03 Mine.
11:25:06 I had ended up
11:25:09 doing the same thing he had.
11:25:11 It was on a chain.
11:25:13 around my neck.
11:25:15 I felt it through my shirt.
11:25:18 Number two was his.
11:25:20 Number 11 was mine.
11:25:23 And I was thinking about it.
11:25:25 And I heard from the back.
11:25:27 Don't even think about it.
11:25:31 And I turned around.
11:25:33 And there was Pangea garble.
11:25:36 And she said, don't even think about it. Be on your way.
11:26:02 Did I bring? Someone's asking, did I bring the coin?
11:26:06 There are two things.
11:26:07 in my life that I've lost.
11:26:11 that I wish I had.
11:26:14 When I was in Korea.
11:26:16 I had a site on 651.
11:26:19 It was 651 meters high. There was no way to get there except to walk.
11:26:23 or fly.
11:26:25 So I walked that 13 times.
11:26:28 There was a little card that they punched for 13 times, right?
11:26:32 And I lost my wallet once. And you know what? There was money in the wallet.
11:26:35 There were credit cards. There was a driver's license.
11:26:38 All those things that you hate to lose.
11:26:41 And they were all immaterial.
11:26:44 I lost that 651 card.
11:26:48 Well, I was out…
11:26:50 Building, Eric said I was building
11:26:52 I was building them a playground.
11:26:55 At the house.
11:26:58 I had taken it off and set it on top of it.
11:27:02 And I don't know where it went.
11:27:05 It's probably buried somewhere under one of those posts.
11:27:11 So I lost my number two.
11:27:14 What?
11:27:16 They have reissued.
11:27:18 the coin.
11:27:20 And I do have…
11:27:23 a coin. I think, if I remember right, it's number 1900.
11:27:27 40-something. But if you want to see what the coin looked like, I do have it.
11:27:44 Thank you, Mel.
11:27:49 other thanks thanks to today's greeter, Bobby Freeman
11:27:52 Our tech team, Fred Green and Wayne Leblanc.
11:27:56 our musicians, Bill Rohde, Carol Gross, Lolly Jensen.
11:28:00 and our treat provider today was Kathy Anirud.
11:28:02 Soups are provided by Marilyn Jones, Deb Magnusson, Dick Shelton.
11:28:07 The bread is provided by Bobby Freeman.
11:28:10 The cleanup person is blank. It's up to all of us, so pitch in.
11:28:16 And thank you, Mill.
11:28:19 I close with some further words from the meditation from the Reverend Jude Geiger.
11:28:24 We might quote it at the start.
11:28:27 Spirit of life.
11:28:28 source of hope.
11:28:31 Whatever the patterns are.
11:28:33 in this world that give shape
11:28:35 and organization to our lives.
11:28:39 May we develop new ways of relating.
11:28:42 to neighbor and stranger.
11:28:45 without violence or coercion.
11:28:47 deceit or greed.
11:28:50 May we find a sense of humility where we have privilege.
11:28:54 and strength where we face oppression.
11:28:57 In our struggles may we learn compassion.
11:29:01 In our power, may we learn temperance
11:29:05 Let's challenge ourselves to be a healing force for justice and equity.
11:29:10 Knowing that although we've come far and the civil rights struggles of our times.
11:29:15 There are many people still left behind.
11:29:20 and the work of building the beloved community is just as pressing as before.
11:29:28 And now if we can have the slide.
11:29:30 for the chalice extinction.
11:29:33 Join me as we extinguish it.
11:29:35 reading the words on the screen.
11:29:39 We extinguish this flame.
11:29:42 but not of the light of truth.
11:29:44 The warmth of community
11:29:46 Or the fire of commitment.
11:29:48 These we carry in our hearts.
11:29:51 Until we are together again.
11:29:56 Next week's program.
11:29:59 is the future of food production.
11:30:02 with speaker Mary Rogers, who's an associate professor of sustainable and organic horticulture at the U.
11:30:08 Her research focuses on biological and environmental strategies to manage invasive insect species
11:30:15 and improve the production of vegetables and fruit. We hope you can join us.
11:30:19 Please stay, if you can, to join us for conversation. Soup will be served at the window here.
11:30:25 and bread and further treats are in the other room.
11:30:28 Thank you for being here. Please join us.
11:30:52 Thank you.