Leadership in crisis: navigating change (part 3)

Jay Schlender:

Welcome to Indigenized Connections On Air, a podcast brought to you by the University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Community Vitality in the area of Leadership and Civic Engagement, and also by the Minnesota Indigenous Leadership Network, which explores the issues that impact tribal communities and leadership throughout Minnesota. I'm your host, Jay Schlender and I'm the American Indian Leadership and Civic Engagement Educator. My guest today is from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Prior to her service on the tribal council, she was a ranger for the National Park Service. She joins us now, please welcome Chairwoman Drost to the podcast. Please share with us your leadership journey.

Beth Drost:

Hello. My leadership journey has been a lifelong journey. I've always kind of fell into or gravitated towards those roles where you're directing people and bringing people together and directing teams in a way. I was a jock all through high school, a captain on my volleyball team, and I was our class president for a couple of years running. I've always just kind of been drawn into that role, volunteered, or thrown in to that role as a leader, but developing leadership skills is another story. Taking each and every opportunity that you can, to develop the skills, and to move forward, being involved in classes and groups and being able to practice the way that you want to be seen.

Beth Drost:

It's been a long time for me, developing into what they call a leader, but as for being an elected tribal leader, that's a whole different ball game. I feel that I was kind of propelled straight up into that, which I wasn't expecting. So being able to bring the skills that I've learned through all of my experience in education to be able to speak with the people and for our people has been just a tremendous journey in the past year for me since July, 2019.

Jay Schlender:

It's interesting how you talk about how you're propelled into tribal politics. Is there any specific circumstance or anything that motivated you, because prior to that you're in the park service and is there anything specific that kind of motivated you to run for tribal office?

Beth Drost:

Well, there was the passing of our longtime leader here in Grand Portage, Norman Deschampe was a 27 year tribal leader in Grand Portage. When he passed, it left a really big hole that nobody would have thought anybody could fill. I really certainly have not filled that hole. But in that situation there were people who came forward and said, “Hey, you should do this. You know, you've been in school, you've been in management, you've been in leadership, you should do this!” I thought maybe some time when I was in my fifties, I would run for tribal council and be able to have that esteem where people look up to you. But I ran for council and for the chair position and I was elected at that time and that's why I think it was just kind of a propelling because I was not looking for it, but it was the right time. I believe right now we're getting through this COVID-19 stuff together as a team and the way I like to move forward.

Jay Schlender:

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's also speaks volumes that your community seeks you out. You know, sometimes for many different people that pursue public office, in any type of position, sometimes it's just something that is a personal goal of their own. That your community seeks you out is to be commended. So as you mentioned, we're in this time of COVID-19, in a stay -at-home order from Governor Walz and in these challenging times, what is important for tribal leaders to keep in mind?

Beth Drost:

Well, I think a tribal leader shouldn't forget why they are where they are. You're there for the ultimate health and safety of your people, your land, your community, and your culture. We have a lot of responsibility and in times like this, it's been really nice to come together with other tribal leaders who are battling kind of the same challenges as we are. You can't get lost in yourself at this time. Here in the Minnesota Chippewa tribe area, we're in the midst of an election that got delayed because of all of this. All of the chairs in Minnesota Chippewa tribe are actually running for elections during all of this. The kind of stuff goes by the wayside is those campaign events right now because they're not going to help us right now. What we need to remember is that we're here for the people and the people put us here and that's not to be forgotten.

Jay Schlender:

Yeah, absolutely. I think what you said really, really rings true in times of crisis, sometimes it brings out the best in all of us, but also the worst in us as well. So sometimes you have to think about when this first was implemented with people fighting over toilet paper, rushing to get to the store and, all these different suppliers. Then you see these stories of courage of people getting out the harvest and practicing our treaty rights and being able to provide and sustain ourselves in a natural way too, so it was a good thing. With that, how have you navigated change within your position during this time now? As you mentioned, you were just recently elected July of 2018 and getting into office. Then next thing you know, you're dealing with this global pandemic. So I'm interested to hear how you have navigated changes during this time.

Beth Drost:

Yeah, it's been a roller coaster since the very first day. My very first day the tribal government sat down and told me that we had been cyber attacked by ransomware that had hit on a whole bunch of places on the 4th of July. That was my very first day. It's like, okay, now you have to deal with this. It's trial by fire, right? It's just getting in there and digging in. The change part is, I want to be a leader who doesn't put things upon people, but I want to be a leader who people want to come alongside and take on the ideas and free form them and make them into the best kind of ideas possible. So I think with that kind of training that I've had to be able to hear the different sides of a story and adapt different ideas into the main idea so that we don't just have my idea, we have the whole group's idea. One little piece out of everybody is in those ideas and I think that's the way to change, is to create the buy in from your team around you and to go together and go forward as a team. You're stronger.

Beth Drost:

I think bringing it back to the State of Minnesota and the tribes in Minnesota, we've been having a daily call on during all of this for the last seven and a half weeks. It came up on one of the calls. Somebody asks a question, are any other states working with their tribes or the tribes within their boundaries like the State of Minnesota was? The question was kind of answered. Like we might be the only ones doing this right now, if that's not transformational between tribal and state governments working together on these big issues, it's a really amazing and really a fun time to be in tribal politics.

Jay Schlender:

Well, I guess it's refreshing to have your perspective too, because sometimes it can be overwhelming and you can only imagine, as you mentioned cyber attacks, and then you're just getting into this position. Being a former council member myself, the elders in my community said it's going to take you about two years to understand, to fully grasp, so I listened to that and I always held that in my mind all the time because, like yourself, I was asked to run for council, had a degree and, various amounts of experience, but didn't want to get ahead of myself thinking I knew all the answers. So it was a very, very humbling experience.

Beth Drost:

Well, I think that's one of the most important qualities of a leader is that humbleness in being able to take it away from yourself. That's the goal, right? That is the biggest goal.

Jay Schlender:

What kind of changes do you see coming to Grand Portage post COVID-19? What kind of changes do you see coming for your community?

Beth Drost:

I see different kinds of change. I see behavioral changes of course, and physical changes in the way we do things. But, I guess I'd like to focus on some of the cultural aspects that we've gotten kind of back to in this time. Our resources department has been utilizing our net fishermen to deliver food to those on the reservation. We've also been providing venison to our tour band members and we always have a stockpile of wild rice from the fall that we usually sell in a restaurant. You know, we're kind of reutilizing these resources that we have and thinking we have all we need right here. That has been one of the coolest things. That just kind of sends those tingles down my neck to be like, we have everything we need to survive right in front of us.

Beth Drost:

We need to use that more. We need to get back to more of a time when we can survive off of our land and survive off of what was given to us. So that is one big change that I'd love to see more food sovereignty and more people getting back to doing the same, the songs and doing the dances that they can relearn now. That is one of the most exciting things as for like physical and everything that we do. Our closest shopping is 45 minutes down the road. So we're even traveling to get our groceries that far. I think our county has become a lot closer knit because we're one of the only counties right now, Cook County in Minnesota, without any cases. So right now a lot of people are focusing on prevention and education. The changes that are coming are we need to protect ourselves. We need to be able to enact the kind of the resolutions like we do with the council to be able to stop people coming in when we can and to be able to regulate ourselves because that's what sovereignty is, having the ability to make our own rules within our own boundaries. I see more of a return to a sovereign tribal land where we are making decisions that are the best for people.

Jay Schlender:

So when you guys are harvesting, say you're setting nets, what type of fish are you getting: walleye or are you getting whitefish?

Beth Drost:

This time of year over on this side we have got a lake trout, they were catching some menominee as well. They’re catching the steelhead that were running up in the creek. So there are a lot of fishermen out on the creeks. It’s kind of cool to look up the creek and you see six young men with their poles in the water. Definitely social distancing of the stream is kind of cool. We've got the lake trout and the whitefish and things like that.

Jay Schlender:

Nice. Yeah, that's always a true delicacy, I guess, for us inland Ojibwes, we have more access to wildlife. So for all the tribes around it that are on the big lake whenever they were looking for an opportunity to get some whitefish where I was looking to barter or trade.

Beth Drost:

Oh, that's so funny that you say that. Grand Portage recently sent some fish up to our neighbors up in Bois Fort, from our elders to their elders basically. They ended up sending some of their lake fish back with us. So we shared our big lake fish with them and they shared their small lake fish with us.

Jay Schlender:

Yeah. I know. Springtime was always a good time for a walleye and I was looking forward to getting some whitefish too. It must be so great to be able to provide to your elders in your community too. I know that's how it was, a big, big thing that people in my community, even in other communities, I know they always look forward to.

Beth Drost:

Yeah, and it doesn't come in a can. Right? It’s fresh!

Jay Schlender:

Yeah. All the work that goes into whether you're netting or if you’re spearing it's always worth it. So yeah, absolutely. I just got a couple more questions for you. When we look at our leadership, what kind of wisdom do you have for future leaders and their future leadership?

Beth Drost:

I don't know if I have any wisdom yet. I'm really new at this. I think a good thing is knowing when to ask for help and ask often, what do they say, ask early and ask often for help. Just being a leader, you can't be in it for yourself. You just have to practice and practice being in that position. It's not easy to get up in front of people and sum up your thoughts or what you’re about in five minutes or 10 minutes or even an hour sometimes. Just know what your goal is, and that's a happy and a healthy and a safe people. If you're a leader of a team, that's what your goal is, to keep your team safe and happy and keep everybody getting along and going in the same direction. I think a good leader is somebody who brings people together in a positive way. Somebody to follow is somebody who brings other people up.

Beth Drost:

I try to do that anyway, and I hope I'm successful in that area. I know I'm practicing and I'll be practicing for the rest of my life, but know that if you feel the need to lead, then you really need to get out there and be a leader. Don't stand in the shadows and wait for that to come to you, because a leader is someone who's just going to go after it.

Jay Schlender:

Within your own leadership journey, how people sought you out there was something there, a quality within yourself that people believe in you. The way I always look at it is like your assessment for leadership is kind of quantified as in tribal elections. If you're successful, you’re reelected and so that's always a measure of how successful you are.

Beth Drost:

Definitely.

Jay Schlender:

So our last question, what ways do you see tribes connecting through economic development post COVID-19?

Beth Drost:

Oh my, I really like this question because it has opportunity to focus on the relationships that we're building here in this crisis, where we have to come together and we have to lean on each other. We have to ask, what are you doing about this? And what are you doing about this? So the 11 tribal leaders getting together on basically two daily calls maybe, possibly even more than that, dealing with all of this stuff. We are creating these channels in these relationships to be able to learn, to be able to learn about each other. We can create buying power by buying together things that we need. If we need PPE, we can pool our resources and put it together to get a better economics of scale, or we can pool our training of our employees together for our casinos, because we all have casinos.

Beth Drost:

If we all have these kinds of things going on, how can we work together to be able to make it better in the end? So I think for economic development for tribes just creating the relationships between the different tribes and then working between those relationships to really grow them and see opportunity because here in northeastern Minnesota the border is Canada. We've got the lake and we've got the Superior National Forest on the other end of us. We're pretty remote up here, so we don't see anybody on a regular basis. But that brings it to light with all the video conferencing we've been doing have really brought us together. We see where the challenges are for all of us. We see where some of us are weak and some of us aren't. So communication, that's one of the biggest things for economic development is the ability for tribes to trade information.

Jay Schlender:

Miigwech.

Beth Drost:

Miigwech so much Jay. Thank you for the time to share a little bit. Your words are way too kind. Thanks.

Jay Schlender:

Yup, Miigwech. Miigwech to Chairwoman Drost for joining today's podcast to learn more about the Grand Portage Chippewa’s response to COVID-19 pandemic. Please visit www.grandportage.com. To learn more about Leadership and Civic Engagement go to www.extension.umn.edu/community-development/leadership-and-civic-engagement where you will find more resources on growing leaders and strengthening leadership.

Make sure to follow the Minnesota Indigenous Leadership Network on Facebook, www.facebook.com/umn.indigenous.leadership.network to stay up to date on research and resources for tribal communities and tribal leadership. We hope that you will join us again for another episode of Indigenized Connections.