Arthur "Archie" LaRose
Chairman
Arthur "Archie" LaRose had been a lifelong resident of the Leech Lake Reservation. Archie has been with his wife, Tammy, for the past 19 years and they have four healthy children named Dominic, Tevin, Tiana, and Jaymond.
Chairman LaRose was first elected Secretary/Treasurer in 2002 and has faced political opposition in having to be elected to the Secretary/Treasurer positon three times. He is a grassroots elected official that stands for the rights of the Leech Lake people. Mr. LaRose resigned his Secretary/ Treasurer position and was elected Chairman in April 2008 in an unprecedented primary election victory.
Archie has been an Ojibwe Hymn Singer for the past eleven years. He has lived his life with these fundamental principles; work hard, love your family, treasurer your friends, and respect your elders.
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Chairman’s Report
October 2011
It has been a long election process to fill the vacant Secretary Treasurer position, but after two close elections we can today fill that position with Donald “Mick” Finn. Congratulations! Elections tend to divide people and it is my hope that we can now work toward bringing us all together to work for the common good of the people.
These are tough times and many of our people are struggling and look toward the coming winter with concern. We continue to experience historically high unemployment and poverty rates that exceed anything experienced in mainstream society. We must not allow social problems to destroy us or politics to divide us. We need to be unified not divided. In 2008 we set an administrative agenda to do Native Nation Building and do the planning necessary to move us forward. The goal was simple; to make Leech Lake again an example of progressive, stable, open and honest tribal government.
With that goal in mind the Tribal Council has adopted by resolution a Tribal Secure Transaction Act. On October 21, 2011 an official signing between the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the Minnesota Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie will sign a Joint Powers Agreement at the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda. Once signed, it will allow Minnesota’s Uniform Commercial Code filing system to serve as the registry for tribal liens, assuring lenders that there is security within LLBO’s laws and loans.
Recent events and lack of progress show we need to refocus our commitment toward positive changes. If we can work together we will move forward and make Leech Lake a better place for all of us. We still have business plans to be completed and the creation of a cooperative to get our people access to cheaper food and gas. This will also keep the dollars we spend on the reservation longer.
We have a substantial financial impact on surrounding counties and communities from our government and gaming spending. We pump millions of dollars a year just from our gaming operations alone into the surrounding economies sustaining those communities with our resources better than we sustain ourselves. We need to stop the flow of our money straight off the reservation. Unless we do that we cannot create business opportunities that help create jobs.
The reality is our people are our greatest resource and we need to invest in them through education and workforce development. Because we have a young population in need of education, job training, and jobs. It is a simple fact that education is the key to fighting poverty. We still need to address our school dropout rates, identify and set the priority education goals of the Band, and identify funding needs. It is important that we train for jobs and opportunities that exist or can be created, and not train people just to train them. This will help create job and business opportunities on Leech Lake, and is the key to real Native Nation Building. We still have work to do on that effort including making sure we have a complete planning process in place before we move forward with implementation or any construction.
Education is also the key to our continued cultural survival so this work will also guide our role as a partner in the education improvement agreement that we entered into with Red Lake and White Earth on January 20th, 2011. On that day we signed an agreement to work together on educational improvements in such crucial areas as Ojibwe language preservation, Indian education improvements, grant partnering and grant endorsements.
Recently the Tribal Council and Tribal College had a meeting with area foundation presidents from Northwest Area Foundation, Blandin, and Initiative Foundation to discuss how we can form mutually beneficial relationships. At that meeting education and workforce development were the areas with the greatest potential for poverty reduction. A future follow-up meeting is already being scheduled to start identifying goals. The foundations were extremely impressed by the Native Nation Building initiative, data collection and the strategic planning that has been accomplished since 2008. It is these types of relationships that help bring the resources and focus needed to address issues and help move us forward.
We also continue efforts recovering the 2.4 million of the band’s funds that were released through an unauthorized loan. That loan has now moved into default and we are exploring options to deal with it. We are also still trying to get a fair compensation in regard to the Nelson Act settlement with the other MCT reservations. We also continue to protect our treaty rights guaranteed under the 1855 treaty. We are trying to deal with the Power line issue.
In closing I want to remind everyone we need to stand strong and together and set a better future for our children. I ask the council and the people to work together so we will move forward and make Leech Lake a better place for all of us.
Miigwitch