Lisa Bellanger

Take the time to get to know other people. What we share with each other and what we are willing to learn about each other will really make a difference as we grow old with people of other cultures.

Lisa Bellanger

My English name is Lisa Bellanger. I was born in Cass Lake, Minnesota on the Leech Lake Reservation in October, at 11:40 pm, in 1961. I was born 20 minutes before Columbus Day. I am second degree Medewiwin. It is our spiritual society. My spirit name is Young Links Woman and I am from the Martin Clan. A martin is like a fox. I am from the White Earth Nation in Northern Minnesota. I live in Minneapolis now.

I went to school during the year in the cities, but in the summers I lived on the reservation with family and friends. We also traveled up to the reservation in the spring for maple sugar time and the fall for the wild rice season, so we could harvest the wild rice off of the lake, pick grapes, and go hunting.

I remember growing up and dancing with grandmothers. Women dance in a jingle dress, a healing dress, and there is healing power. The grandmas would wear this dress and you could only wear it if the grandmas picked you. We would dance in a row and a line through the crowd, around and by the people.

I went to school at Webster Elementary. I went to school with kids from other races. By third and fourth grade people started calling me names. I knew when they called me names it wasn’t right. I got tired of being harassed and punched a boy in the eye. I’m not a fighter. It was not one of my happiest moments.

I went to a junior high called St. Paul Open School. This was a time when cultural groups began to take more pride in who they are. I helped form an Indian club at the school and a class on American Indian history. It was the beginning of my organizing years. I learned you had to come up with different ways to teach about equality.

I became involved in demonstrations and protests. One time, my son Jacob and I were watching the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves play ball in 1987. He saw them do the tomahawk chop. My son, said, “Why are they doing that?” Later, I was with other people and we were talking about the Braves and the World Series coming to the Twin Cities. I told them what my son Jake said, and they said, “He’s right. We can’t let them come here to the Twin Cities and do that!” I launched a huge demonstration which evolved from a little boy’s idea of what was right.

We’ve been forced to put away Indian things and assimilate into the main culture. We have learned, though, that it is hard on our people, so we have to bring culture and traditions back. We believed in Ojibwa that when you are born you come to this earth with four things; your language, name, clan, and free will or choice. A horse will always be a horse, but as people, we have the power to change. We have a relationship to the earth and view water as important. Nothing can live without water.