I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
July 3, 1997
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
REDLAKE -- Five hundred members of the Red Lake Nation gathered here Wednesday at the tribe's Humanities Building to begin the process of recovering from the rash of violence teen-ager Wesley Strong's death has sent across the reservation.
Earlier in the day, 350 Redlake residents and 150 Ponemah residents set out walking toward each other an met 17 miles later at what is known as "the cut-off," a grassy, picnic area on the east side of Lower Red Lake.
The "Peaceful Solutions Walk," organized by a subcommittee of the reservation's community unity planners, was the symbolic journey for young and old of the tribe, who began the arduous path toward reuniting a long-ago peaceful people, according to the event's organizers.
Sunrise ceremonies by spiritual leaders at four points around the lake were conducted prior to the walk not only to give strength to those who were walking, but to the entire community in pursuit of peace, something that has eluded the reservation for many years, spiritual leader Frank Dickinson said.
According to Keith Lussier, an organizer of the event, even the rain, which threatened to ruin the event, stayed at bay until the last few miles of the walk, which was a good omen.
The Rev. Pat Sullivan, Red Lake's new Catholic priest, who celebrated his first day on the reservation by participating in the walk for peace, viewed the rain similarly.
He said the rain, as it makes its slow trek from the ground to streams, through the earth and rock and back to the ocean, was yet another symbol of the slow, agonizing process the Red Lake community was undertaking.
"It was good for me to walk with the young and the old, and to walk alone to think and look and be quiet," Sullivan said in an opening address at the traditional feast. "Our walk down the road to peace will be like the rain slowly working its way through rock back to the ocean. Peace will slowly work its way through all of our lives."
Lussier, who walked eight to 10 miles on the walk, told the gathering it was time to stop blaming others and pointing fingers at people other than themselves. He said it was time for healing.
"We're not going to push these people (who committed violence) and communities (where it occurred) away. Let's extend a hand to them," he said before the feast. "We're one nation here. We need to start acting like one nation."
Tribal Chairman Bobby Whitefeather, who walked 10 miles from Ponemah -- where he was raised -- before being sidelined by a blister, said it was time for his people to love one another.
"Our time we spend here needs to be productive for our children," the chairman said. "So, I implore you ... everyone ... we are a family. It is your responsibility to take care of one another. It's a monumental task, but with the number of people I see here, I think we can do it."
After the traditional feat held in the tribe's casino situated on the shores of Lower Red Lake, members of the tribe split into four groups to discuss peaceful solutions to the violence which has recently escalated on the reservation, stemming from the May 25 stabbing of Strong, a Red Lake High School senior killed at a graduation party.
Subsequent to Strong's death, several more reservation members have been injured in incidents believed to be related to his death.
Although Strong's death was not discussed much by tribal members at the gathering, many of the key organizers believe it was the impetus of the community's clamoring for peace.
Dickinson even said Strong's sacrifice was what pushed the long-silenced issue of violence on the reservation to the forefront of Wednesday's event.
"If it weren't for Wesley Strong, somebody else would have been the victim. Now, because of the tragedy, everybody knows something is wrong," he said. "So, now it is time to make some changes and bring our community back into balance with each other."
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