History Of Leech Lake

Host: Elaine Fleming

Elaine is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Nation who lives in Cass Lake, Minnesota. Her parents are Simon and Dorothy Howard. Raised in Cass Lake, Elaine followed the annual rounds of the Ojibwe with her family. As a child, she was introduced to the spring’s sugar bush, summer’s berry picking and gardening, fall’s wild ricing, and winter’s storytelling. In addition, her family has always followed the powwow trail, and made their own regalia.

Elaine spent ten years in the U.S. Army where she completed her baccalaureate degree with a major in history. She attained her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2003 and a Master of Education degree in 1998. She currently chairs the Arts and Humanities Department and teaches at Leech Lake Tribal College.

In her personal life, Elaine is an Ojibwe storyteller and jingle dress dancer. She is also known as the first female, Native American mayor in the state of Minnesota. Her most important role in life is as a mother of three children and grandmother of two. Elaine loves the outdoors and walks regularly. This past winter, she learned how to snow shoe.

Picture: Elaine Fleming, Snow Shoeing.

The History of Leech Lake is a 10 minute program designed to educate listeners about the History of Leech Lake Reservation by covering various subjects. This program will help listeners discover things about Leech Lake that they did not know and may discover a history not described in any textbook.

#	Show	Length
01	Introduction to History of Leech Lake Elaine Fleming; A storyteller and historian.	9:59 Min
02	Demography The numbers of people that originally inhabited this Turtle Island in the 1500's. Image: Mn congressional party investigating proposed forest	9:46 Min
03	Decimation By Disease One of the hardest things that hit the indiginous people of Turtle Island was the disease of the newcomers creating the first pandemic on Turtle island where 75% of our people died. Image: Small Pox Narrative	11:02 Min
04	Wiindigo The story of how disease effected our people and the legend of Wiindigo. Image: Wiindigo	10:46 Min
05	How We Got The Name Pillager William W. Warren's story of how the Leech Lake Band Members got the name Pillager. Image: Ojibwe Woman, Bear Island, 1900	11:16 Min
06	General & Peoples History General history as compared to peoples history. Peoples history of Leech Lake with focus on the Sandy Lake Tragedy. These are some of our stories not known by the general public but should be known to all	11:33 Min
07	Sandy Lake Tragedy with Flatmouth Speech The Sandy Lake Tragedy of 1850 with Flatmouth speech.	9:10 Min
08	Traditional Roles Of Women Ojibwe women, ikwewag, fulfulled important rolls for our people and worked in seasonal rounds. Women were respected and necessary to hold together the world of the Ojibwe people. Image: Isabelle Taylor, great grandmother and Marie Johnson (sitting), great-great grandmother. Image 2: Isabelle Taylor, great grandmother. She didnt smoke and always wore her hair in a braid down her back. Image staged by photographer.	13:22 Min
09	Ojibwe Women & Trading Era, Respect & Marriage Slowly, trading era goods would change the way the Ojibwe looked and worked. Womens rolls changed during the trading era. Traders and Ojibwe women.	13:21 Min