In this picture, I am about 12 years old in my army surplus pants ready for Sunday school. We were so poor that I had to borrow a neighbor’s cat for the picture.
The Early Years
I was born on the Isabella Native Reservation near Mt. Pleasant, Michigan that had been home to my family for generations.
My Mother was Rosella Marie Jackson. After her Mother died, she and her 2 older siblings were enrolled in the Mt. Pleasant Industrial Indian School by her Father with the instructions that they remain there until they graduated.
My Mother divorced an alcoholic abusive husband and left the Isabella Indian Reservation with 4 small children with the hope of finding a better life.
While attending nursing school, she married a farmer named John Wolfe. They bought a small farm near Dansville, Michigan and begain to build a family life.
Two years later, my Mother died in a terrible tractor accident while I was driving the tractor. I was 13 and she was 32 years old!
After Mom died, Jack Wolfe and I began to argue because he wanted me to work the farm, and I wanted an education. Jack got physical with me and during the fight my dog bit him. When I got home from school the next day, Jack had shot my dog.
Killing my dog was the proverbial straw. That night, I packed my worldly belongings in a small cardboard box and with 2 pairs of boxing gloves around my neck, I left the family farm. I walked the 4 miles down a dirt road to Dansville. I was 14 years old!
I knocked on my Dansville High School principal's door, and said: “Mr. Briggs I need a job and a place to live.”
He said: “Earl Risch just had a stroke, and his left side is paralyzed”. I was paid $30 a month ($1 a day) and my room and board. I had more money than any kid in school!
I graduated from Dansville High School, attended Spring Arbor College and then joined the US Army. I had an Army "buddy" from Phoenix who constantly reminded me that: “it never snows in Phoenix”! That sealed the deal!
A month after discharge, we arrived in Phoenix, Arizona.
Engineering and Construction
My first job in Phoenix was working for L.H. Bell & Associates, a Consulting Engineering firm that designed interstate freeways and bridges. I worked for 3 engineering firms for a total of 13 years.
Then I acquired a General Engineering contractor's license and installed underground utility pipelines in the Southwest. Most of my work was for the Indian Health Service on Indian reservations in Arizona.
During this time, I also acquired a Real Estate Broker’s license and dabbled in Arizona residential and land real estate.
My Tribal Enrollment Experience
In 1972, I submitted a bid to work on a Bureau of Indian Affairs road project. I was required to submit my tribal enrollment number to qualify as a preferred Indian contractor.
Because I was born on the Isabella Indian Reservation, I had assumed that I was automatically a member of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe (SCIT). Imagine my surprise, when I called to get my enrollment number, I was informed that I did not have an enrollment number and the tribe did not know I existed! It took several years of extensive documentation to get a tribal hearing for enrollment. It was a difficult process.
If it had not been for my Aunt Violet it would have been even more difficult. After several years of documentation and hearings, Aunt Vi and I walked into the Tribal Chairman’s office and Aunt Vi (all 5’ of her) said: “This man is my sister Rose’s son and I want him enrolled!” I was enrolled in 30 minutes!
In one generation, from my Mother to me, I nearly lost my tribal connection! I have continued a thirty-year effort to get my 2 children enrolled and have not yet been successful because I cannot find official documentation for my Grandmother. I have documentation for my Grandfather.
It all happened so quickly, from being born on the reservation into a family of full-blooded Indian people; to my children and grandchildren who have been denied their birthright to be recognized as tribal members.
If the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe does not modify enrollment documentation requirements, I will be the last Chippewa in my family, forever! My experience is typical for most of today’s Urban Native population.
Published Map and Book
After leaving the Isabella Indian Reservation as a child, I had no connection or communication with the tribe. As I was finishing a construction project in Kingman, Arizona, I began spending time in the library doing Indian genealogy research. I set up a door on 2 sawhorses from Home Depot as a workspace in my apartment and put my drafting experience from my engineering days to good use.
Indian genealogy research is difficult because Indian people did not begin to keep records and documentation until around 1900. Personal Indian history was verbal based on stories, traditions and elder knowledge.
Due to my pragmatic nature and engineering background, my research evolved into a map format. I felt that it was important to know the contemporary demographics such as:
- What is the Indian population?
- How many tribes still exist?
- How many reservations are there?
- What are the resources on the reservations?
After doing marketing research and consulting with Jim Willinger at the Wide World of Maps in Phoenix, I thought there might be a viable market for such a publication.
In 1990, I formed a company called The Indian Data Center and we printed 10,000 copies of the first edition of the Map of American Indian Reservations. About midnight, the whirring sound of the printing presses stopped, and I said: “looks like the hard part is done”. Jim Willinger said: “No, the fun part is over; the job of marketing is just beginning!” Little did I know how true that statement was.
In my naivety, I thought Indian organizations and map stores would buy the maps by the hundreds. After 2 or 3 months, the 7-foot-high stack of maps had dropped by an inch. I realized that I had a $30,000 marketing problem!
I set up shop in a small house in Sunnyslope, Arizona. Computers were just becoming prominent for small business. I had never turned on a computer. I bought a computer and began to learn about marketing. This led to an education in marketing and a connection to the Indian community that changed the course of my life for the next 20 years.
Over the next 20 years, every 2 or 3 years as each printing sold out, I would update the map, but the general format stayed the same.
The map was huge success and I became known in Indian Country as the “Map man.” But you can only present so much information on a 24” x 36” map. Two years later, I published the “American Indian Facts of Life” book as a supplement to the map
These two publications were sold in over 500 retail outlets such as college bookstores, museum gift shops, map stores, etc.
As an integral part of the marketing plan, I began public speaking at Indian seminars, conferences, and trade shows.
Jim Willinger said that I was the only person he had ever known that made a living from 1 map and 1 book. My cousin, Dr. William Cross, who was an active consultant in Indian Country said that he saw the map in every Indian office in the country!
The Indian Land Working Group
The publication of the Map led to a connection with a newly formed organization: the Indian Land Working Group (ILWG). Their mission was to stop the loss of allotted Indian trust lands on today’s reservations due to a process called Fractionation. Fractionation was the unintended consequence of the Dawes Act of 1887.
I was in the second year of marketing the Map of Indian Country when I got a call from Rush Scott of Native People’s magazine in Phoenix. He asked if I meet with Administrative Law Judge Sally Willett. She had seen the map and wanted to meet me. Her office was located on the 16th floor in the high-rise office complex at the Northeast corner of Central and Thomas Road.
I put on my only blue suit and tie. She was in court; I was early and ushered into her office to wait. I did not know the reason she wanted to see me or what to expect. Suddenly the door flew open and this beautiful buxom blue-eyed blonde lady in a black judge robe burst into the room. She was upset with a court proceeding she had adjudicated and let out a spew of cusswords like a drunken sailor! When she took off her robe, it was like she became a different person. She completely switched personalities. We had an immediate connection.
She complemented me on my map. She said she liked the graphic presentation and the thought process it took to organize the content. She explained the Mission statement of ILWG and asked if I would be interested in joining the ILWG. I was quite flattered by her attention and the invitation to become a board member of the organization.
The next week the ILWG had a board meeting, and I was introduced as the newest member. The core group of the ILWG was very smart dedicated people, mostly women lawyers, and other leaders of their respective tribes. The ILWG developed a respected presence at most all Indian land conferences, trade shows and tribal organizations.
I was given a booth at each event to sell my maps and books. In exchange, I became the opening act and Audio-Visual tech guy at conferences and trade shows across the country. I would warm up the crowd with a few jokes, make introductions and then set up and run the presentation equipment. As smart as the people were, most wanted nothing to do with tech equipment.
We hosted our own annual conference that was considered a major event and well attended by most of the 574 tribes in Indian Country. Over the next 20 years ILWG became a powerful legal and political influence in Indian country to the extent that Judge Willett and other members testified before Congress regarding Indian Land Fractionation.
My experience with the organization was exciting and wonderful. My map became the flagship publication for the ILWG and my books were well received.
Native American Community Activities
I became involved in numerous Arizona Indian community activities and national issues:
- President of the Arizona Book Publishers Association.
- Board member of the Arizona National Speaker’s Association.
- Board member of the Phoenix Indian Center.
- Founding member and President of the “Thunderhearts” Toastmasters at the Phoenix Indian Center.
- Founding member and President of the Arizona American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Arizona.
- Board member of the national Indian Land Working Group.
As the first President of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Arizona, one of my duties was to participate, almost daily, in every City, County, State and Federal committee and commission meeting at the time.
The American Indian community has changed dramatically in the last 30 years, and I felt it was time to review the demographic landscape to see if my thoughts and feelings are still the same.
As I began research for the book, one of the first things I noticed was the change in identity from “Indian” to “Native” by the younger generations.
It was disconcerting because “Indian” was our designated identity for 500 years by the public and still is by the US government. We have been “Indians” for so long that it is indelibly programmed in our subconscious.
I am slowly making the adjustment by using "Indian" when referring to the past and "Native" when referring the present and the future. Sometimes using both identities in the same paragraph. The transition is a work in progress.
Personally
I consider myself, at best, a pseudo-intellectual with a fairly well-developed case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I’m spiritually agnostic and rather short-suited regarding Native religion and culture.
Engineering and construction as a career developed a pragmatic personality. I want to know the facts so that I can make informed decisions. Each of us brings different talents and life experiences to the table.
I grew up on farms in Michigan and lived most of my younger years in Arizona around farmers and cowboys. Animal husbandry was part of the lifestyle. When horses mate, the foreplay is often a violent process. The mare usually kicks the heck out of the stud during foreplay. A price for the privilege or perhaps to prove his stamina and strength.
To keep the well-bred pampered stud from being injured, a substitute is brought in during foreplay known as a “tease pony”. The “tease pony” must be too short to complete the job, but he is dumb enough to keep trying.
He may not technically consummate the act, but he is definitely a part of the process. He will take a "licking" but he keeps on "ticking". I am short, (about 5’ – 8”) stout and stubborn. Most of my life, I have been an Indian “tease pony”.
I was a late bloomer and a slow learner, but I am a long-distance runner! I have lived a long life and am in great health.
I still run 3 miles every morning before the Sun comes up. The run is physically, mentally and spiritually therapeutic. After the run, I do an “old guy” workout with weights for about an hour. I play pickleball, do some swing dancing and I am trying to be a good Grandpa.
My philosophy at this stage of life is that “every day is a gift and a holiday!”