When offered the chance to join a group of talented and service-minded individuals throughout the state, we leapt at the opportunity to become part of the longstanding partnership between SLIS and the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. What could be better than to have multiple opportunities to travel up to the beautiful Lake Superior and work hands-on in a tribal library?
Going into the partnership we knew our greatest contribution would be an IMLS Enhancement Grant for the Red Cliff Library. To prepare for the grant writing process we met with Louise Robbins who gave us the background of the project and context for writing the grant. She became our group guide for the remainder of the semester.
With Louise at the wheel we embarked on our first group trip to Red Cliff on Friday, February 19th. On the way we stopped in Ashland, Wisconsin at the Northern Waters Library Service (NWLS) to chat about Red Cliff’s eventual public library status. Chatting with the people at NWLS highlighted the importance of thorough statistics keeping to maintain public library status. This became a major focus of our research and grant goals.
Our next stop was the Red Cliff Tribal Administration building, home of the interim Red Cliff Tribal Library. There we met with Nancy Newago, Krystle Topping, Dee Gokee-Rindal, Ellen Kwiatowski, and Marilyn Miller to discuss the overall goal of the IMLS Enhancement Grant. From the meeting we identified “walking in two worlds” as the goal of the grant: helping tribal members maintain their cultural identities while providing them with the tools and resources to be successful in societies that often ignore indigenous knowledge and lifeways.
After the meeting we were acquainted with the library’s facilities, collections, and cataloging procedures. We spent a few hours cataloging new items before heading to Legendary Waters Resort to settle in and unwind before dinner at Pier Plaza with Dee and her daughter Linda. A dip in the hot tub under the stars was a relaxing end to a productive day.
The next day was the day of much cataloging and an informative meeting with Marvin DeFoe. Marvin was willing to share cultural knowledge with us in order to improve our understanding of the community’s needs and how a tribal library could best serve them. Listening to Marvin helped elucidate the importance of relevant cultural programming as a source of community support and knowledge sharing. We told Marvin about a recent donation, from Sharon and Tom Metz, of boxes of Native American-focused books for the Red Cliff Library. He suggested that rather than incorporate the items into the Native collection, that we instead create a separate collection in honor of former Wisconsin state legislator Sharon Metz. Marvin then treated us to delicious wild rice soup and fry bread. We didn’t want to leave! As Andrea put it, our visit with Marvin felt like a hug in every way.
We did in fact leave, and headed back to the library to continue cataloging and to create the Metz Collection. Around six o’clock Nancy confiscated our sharpies, scissors, and other supplies so we could go to dinner at Maggie’s Restaurant in Bayfield. At dinner we sampled many tasty ice cream flavors ranging from chocolate to peppered raspberry to lavender. We ended our trip to Red Cliff with a quiet evening back at the resort, already preparing for grant writing as soon as we got home.
-Lindsay Barcus, Abigail Cahill, Andrea Parmentier, and Kayleen Jones