"The executive committee selected me as its spokesperson for tonight. While I am honored and humbled at this service, I am more impressed that the Tribal Council has asked us here. It takes a lot of courage to accept us and our new way. And to admit that we young people might have something wise to offer shows our Tankosin culture is changing.
"Before we start, I would like to first clarify our role here tonight. The Tankosin TDG is, we hope, going to replace the electoral system given to us by the white people. It's been seven years since we started, three of us in that original group are here tonight. We three can all see how we as individuals have grown. We have seen how our institution has grown. While we think we can see a glimpse of the future, we also know we are not ready for Nation governance. So our mission is to continue to evolve, and part of our evolution is being here tonight. Thank you for this opportunity to let us grow.
"Some of you have met Lenard Pash. He is the advisor for the TDGs of Riverbend and Battenor County. He is also our advisor. When he speaks to us, he reminds us that we are not obligated to take his advice. The decision-making role in the TDG always belongs to its elected institution. The advisor cannot force anything into the TDG. But what Len has told us over the years has been so important in our evolution. There almost seems to be a hidden spirit power when advice is not required to be followed.
"In the same manner, we are telling the Tribal Council that it is not obligated to act on this TDG's deliberations, which you are about to hear shortly. We will not hold it against the Tribal Council if what we say tonight goes nowhere. You are the decision makers. You have many other issues to deal with. You understand the resources you have at your disposal.
"It is also important to understand how we six came to our deliberations. We started with 51 issues. And we found total unity with only three of them. So what you are to hear tonight are the voices of six people speaking as one voice. Please consider the source of that kind of power.
"Since the Tankosin Reservation got its settlement 32 years ago, the Tankosin people have somehow had the wisdom not to squander that money. The wisdom to put that money aside and just use the interest revenue has saved us from economic ruin. As time has passed, we have built economic development projects such as The Farm, The Hog Barn, The Ranch, The Store, and Lumber Camp. All five businesses are keeping Tankosion people employed and giving them a sense of purpose and self-sufficiency. But one of these businesses has been operating at a loss for a long time. This leads to our first issue.
"When we looked at the financial statements for The Ranch, we saw revenues of about $200,000 last year. One of us did a little research in the cattle market. While cattle prices go up and down, a 400-cow operation, which the Ranch claims to have, should have revenues of about $500,000 a year. We think this discrepancy warrants an investigation by the Tribal Council.
"Our second issue involves business trips conducted by Tribal Council for the benefit of the Nation. We spent a lot of time on this particular issue. Eventually the consensus from we six was that Tribal Council members do need to travel to learn new things, make contacts, and get some things done with government and business. So we are not against members of the Tribal Council traveling for Nation affairs on Nation funds. But there is considerable distrust within the Nation that these trips seem to be more for recreation than for business. It looks bad on all the Council members when the Council approves of a trip that was not used wisely.
What we propose is that you establish a budget for each Tribal Council member to spend at his own discretion. Each trip should have a report of what was accomplished by the council member. When the elections come up, voters can decide for themselves whether that member spent his or her Nation allowance wisely for the benefit of the Nation.
"Our last point of consensus is the Tankosin language. We six young people start off our TDG meetings speaking Tankosin. But as the meeting gets more complex, we find English better to express our ideas.
"As you know, we have been holding meetings with some of our wiser elders in each season. Many of their speeches are in Tankosin. We can follow these speakers, but we hear that our elders are using a higher level of language than we have. That is a sign we are losing our language.
"About 90 years ago, we had a couple of white linguists study our language. Our oral historians said these people learned our language very well. But more important, the linguists created a syllabus to put the language in written form, which we are not using fully as we should.
"As young people, we understand the apathy of not really wanting to learn a language the world does not seem to want. It may be only wishful thinking to tell young people to learn Tankosin better. We could not see a short-term solution.
"Therefore we recommend that the Tribal Council investigate the possibility of bringing some linguists to study our language, building on what was done 90 years ago. They should study how today's elders use our language before they pass away. Hopefully, they can create a higher-level syllabus for future Tankosin youth to study.
"So we have given you three things to consider: 1) Investigate the finances of The Ranch, 2) Rework therules for travel expenses for members of the Tribal Council, and 3) Find linguists for the preservation of our language. Again, you are not bound to any one of these three recommendations. But please understand that all three came from the consensus of the six young people you see here tonight."
Johnny Lefthand stood up and spoke in Tankosin, "Thank you Eli. Thank you the rest of you. We can see a lot of thought went into your advice. Be certain that all three items will be on the agenda of the Tribal Council within the next few meetings."
For some reason, Justine started chanting a popular prayer in Tankosin. First soft, then a little more confident. Then all twelve of us joined her in unity. Six voices from the present. Six voices from the future. A unique sound I never heard before. But there were more than 12 singers present: six voices from our past also showed up.
Then I thought about that choir at the funeral of Thelma Delgers. It too was unique. Maybe it had voices from the past.
Two years ago, we were just a bunch of crazy young people with strange ideas and no idea on how to move them forward. Now we are in a place of local respectability and consideration. Thelma's death opened the doors for us to progress.
Some circles do move in mysterious ways.
