Michael Decorah, senior intergovernmental affairs specialist for the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, said Wisconsin tribes continue to strongly support the tribal regalia proposal. (Screenshot via WisEye)
Wisconsin’s Special Committee on State-Tribal Relations has considered reviving three bills, including one that would protect students’ right to wear tribal attire at their graduation ceremony. It has also discussed other ideas that could be introduced into the bill next term.
The commission, chaired by Rep. Jeff Mursau (R-Crivitz), is made up of five other Wisconsin legislators and tribal members and is charged with studying issues affecting Native Americans, tribes and groups in Wisconsin and developing recommendations and legislative proposals.
Mursau said the committee would likely reintroduce three recently rejected proposals in the next legislative session — all of which passed the Assembly but never came up for a vote in the Senate.
It would prohibit school boards and charter schools from banning students from wearing tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies or school-sponsored events. Fourteen states have laws on the books protecting the right of public school students to wear tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies.
Michael Decorah, senior intergovernmental affairs specialist for the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, said the proposal is one that Wisconsin tribes strongly support, and he wants to see it reintroduced. He noted that the bill had support in the Assembly.
“This is part of our sovereign actions that we try to do to remain a sovereign nation,” Decorah said. “Sometimes having to ask permission is sometimes hard to do.”
Joey Awonohopay, secretary of the Menominee Tribal Legislature, said it was “heartbreaking” that the vote did not come to a floor vote, when he is still hearing about the issue from graduate students.
“We absolutely want this bill to pass this year,” Awonohopay said.
Liz Arbuckle, a tribal council member of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, said that as the mother of two tribal members who have graduated, she felt it was important for students to be able to graduate with emblems of their tribal affiliation.
“It can be very challenging, very difficult. We get criticized a lot for graduation rates and why aren’t kids doing better? And this is something they have to be very proud of to be able to represent their tribe, to represent themselves, to show that they’ve done well, which can sometimes be against all odds,” Arbuckle said. “It’s a very big deal.”
Another proposal would allow tribal governments to make certified copies of civil registry records for administrative use.
Lisa Liggins, secretary of the Oneida Nation, recalls that the proposal was originally submitted after Ho-Chunk Nation personnel who were photocopying certain documents were notified that doing so was illegal.
“All of those documents were erased and then the filing process changed where we needed originals and those originals stayed on file. We were going to keep them, but that’s an unnecessary expense,” Liggins said. “I know extra copies are usually only $3, but if you don’t know you’re going to have to turn one in, that can be an extra expense and a burden on tribal members who are just trying to enroll their kids.”
Another proposal would give tribes a say in whether applicants can be granted a lifetime license to teach American Indian languages associated with the tribe. If a tribe were to notify the state Department of Public Instruction in writing that it wanted the right to approve those applicants, DPI would be prohibited from issuing a lifetime license without the tribe’s consent.
The committee also considered ideas that will be discussed at future meetings. One idea is to create a special tribal office in Madison, and another is to require a “tribal impact statement” when new bills or administrative rules are introduced, similar to the fiscal estimate required for bills that have a potential financial impact on the state.
Decorah, of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, said the tribe would also be willing to support any progress on a medical marijuana bill, which “could give our people access to an option to treat the many ailments that we face, from addiction to cancer to chronic pain.” He noted that tribes sometimes face three or four times the rate of other Wisconsin communities with these issues and that legalizing marijuana has led to a reduction in opioid use and overdoses in some states.
A Republican Assembly proposal to legalize medical marijuana by creating a handful of state-run dispensaries in Wisconsin failed this year. Democrats criticized the proposal and pushed for broader marijuana legalization, and Senate Republicans opposed the idea of state-run dispensaries.
“The reality is that tribes can no longer wait for inaction,” Decorah said.[We’re] “It’s just unacceptable to see our people bury our children – we bury a mother a week before their children graduate from Head Start.
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