Green Playdoh Snakes and Ojibwe

My 2 year old is obsessed with snakes. I am not sure if this is from Dora The Explorer or his brief education from his father on "do not touch any snake". Living out here in the West, it is a necessity to educate the youngins about the dangerous snakes that live in our area. Anyhow, now our wee one has a fascination with snakes. We spend many hours making various forms of playdoh snakes. We did this for about 45 minutes this morning. While we were making our green slithery reptiles, I was trying to remember the Ojibwe term for 'snake'. For the life of me, I cannot remember the word! So, I attempted to look it up on the net but became sidetracked at my Tribe's website. I am 100% proud of my heritage and where I came from. My life now is in Oklahoma in the heart of the Osage Nation Reservation. They have accepted me as one of thier own and treat me as such. I still feel a bit out of sorts because I am still learning thier ways-even after 17 years! I still vote and participate (at a distance) with my Tribe, The Saulte St. Marie Chippewas. I wish the disagreements in my Tribe could be done and over with. I hate hearing/reading about this situation everytime I check in with my Tribe. I must say tho, I am happy with the way things are going within my Tribe. The ones who are over-seeing appear to be very competent and doing what is right for my people.


Trial


Written by Cory Wilson, Communications Director
Thursday, 16 February 2006
Circuit Court Judge Charles Johnson issued his latest written opinion regarding the lawsuit involving the Sault Tribe v. Bernard Bouschor and seven former key employees. The latest opinion released by Judge Johnson was derived from a December 19th court hearing and pertained to the Sault Tribe's request to the judge, to rule on a specific matter of the case without requiring a trial. The topic in question was whether severance agreements could be construed as a breach of the employment agreements.The Sault Tribe's lead attorney William Horton stated, "Because the facts of this case are so clear cut, we motioned to the court for the judge to rule in our favor without the necessity of a trial."In some court cases, the facts of a lawsuit can necessitate that a trial is not needed nor required and therefore, the judge has the option to rule on the issue from the bench. After considering all the facts in the case, the Sault Tribe's legal team opted to request the judge for an immediate ruling on the case, however, this motion was denied and therefore a trial remains pending.Regardless of the judge's latest opinion, the case still has not been decided in any way at this juncture and the judge has not ruled for or against the defendants or plaintiffs regarding the improper severance payments and the Sault Tribe's desire to collect those funds. According to the judge's written opinion, Judge Johnson's only action was to deny an immediate ruling from the bench, as it pertains to "the breach of employment agreements" which is only one of the several counts identified by the plaintiffs (Sault Tribe) in the lawsuit.Judge Johnson's latest opinion is available in its entirety by clicking here.

Sault St. Marie Tribe official site
http://www.sootribe.org/


This is a great site to read about Ojibwe and my People's Culture
http://www.ojibwe.org/home/home.html