A new group is creating a mobile “community center” for Native American and Indigenous communities in Milwaukee.
The Urban Indigenous League was formed last fall after Antonio Doxtator, who co-authored a book about the history of American Indians in Milwaukee, started a social media group discussion on the needs of Native residents in Milwaukee.
The responders quickly reached a consensus: they wanted more community spaces.
As interested people joined a group chat and began meeting virtually on Zoom, the question became: “How do we bring an intertribal organization together to have, what we call, a community center?” said Brian Harrison, one of the league’s organizers.
Continuing Native tradition
For Carla Jones, a league member and organizer, the group continues a tradition of Native community groups in Milwaukee that provided safe and intertribal gathering spaces but became less active over time.
“I feel like there was a lot of good going on in our community, a lot of startups happening, Native businesses and organizations,” Jones said. “And then COVID hit, and everything stopped, obviously not just for the Native community, but for the world.”
Jones is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation and was adopted and raised by an Oneida man. Harrison is an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation.
While the Milwaukee area has formal resources for the Native community like Southeastern Oneida Tribal Services, or SEOTS, 5233 W. Morgan Ave., and the Indian Community School in Franklin, Harrison said the league’s organizers wanted to provide another community-oriented space.
Hosting events in the community
Jones and Harrison said the Urban Indigenous League is designed to be intertribal and reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of Native and Indigenous people living in an urban area like Milwaukee.
In Milwaukee County, the population of people who solely identify as American Indian and Alaska Native is 7,507, but that number expands to about 21,500 when including people who identify in two or more racial groups, according to 2020 census data.
The grassroots group held its first event in February. Since then, members have held monthly events at different locations around Milwaukee with help from volunteers and donations from community members.
The gatherings have been tied to seasonal events like back-to-school or celebrating the fall harvest. Turnout has ranged from 20 to 70 people.
“We just kind of shared some ideas and just came up with, hey, let’s just get together and play games. Have crafts. Kind of play our music. Have speakers come in to teach us about our culture,” Harrison said.
Celebrating Native American culture
The Urban Indigenous League’s November event, held at SEOTS, celebrated National Native American Heritage Month and featured food, a session on language revitalization, painting, games, raffle prizes and resources.
The resource booths included the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline and First Nations Fostering, a collaborative of Wisconsin tribes and county social service agencies.
Photos from Urban Indigenous League’s past events decorated the tables, with a handful raffled off as prizes.
Jami Balicki, a photographer focused on Native culture in urban and suburban spaces, joined the league after attending its first event in the spring and has been taking photos as a way to give back.
“I think what’s beautiful is creating that visibility,” said Balicki, who is a descendant of the Oneida Nation and also has Mohawk ancestry. “And I think that’s why photographing the community, too, is so important to me. Because we’re not seen as a monolith, like this is just who we are.”
Learning about language and cultural resources
Brad Kroupa, executive director of the Forest County Potawatomi Foundation, gave a presentation on tribal language revitalization based on his experience learning the Arikara language as an enrolled Arikara member of the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation.
Some attendees shared their experiences learning their tribe’s language and how they keep it alive by taking classes, using translated popular songs and media or incorporating phrases into texting or everyday conversations.
“We have a lot of ancestral knowledge that is being ignited in our communities just by talking about it, just by being around each other,” Jones said. “I think we inspire a lot of healing in each other just by sharing a lot of this.”
For more information
Urban Indigenous League’s next Native Community Spaces event will be from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11 at SEOTS, 5233 W. Morgan Ave. The event will include making of vision boards, storytelling, food and giveaways.
Learn more about the Urban Indigenous League on its Facebook page.
Catch up with the people and organizations who make Milwaukee great by reading “NNS Spotlight.”
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
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