In October 2024 I finished up my term as a LdF Tribal Council member! Soon after the initial announcement of the upcoming 2024 Tribal Election, I made a single post on Facebook that I would not be running for re-election this term. I was doing some major reflection a few months before this post and was trying to plan which path to take in this fork in the road. Being a Tribal Council member had been a personal goal of mine since I was a child and I greatly enjoyed and found fulfillment in contributing directly to strengthening my Tribe's sovereignty through policy and decision making. At the same time, I'm at a stage in my academic career where I’m still technically a trainee and it’s vital I produce and produce more scholarship to further my career.
For those unfamiliar with research careers in Science, in order to continue on the track I'm on to hold a faculty/ professor position, I'll need to write articles on my research that are peer-reviewed and present my work through research presentations. At the same time I'm doing this work, there is an overwhelming need and want from Indigenous communities for more media (books, podcasts, art) made by Indigenous peoples for Indigenous peoples. To use the phrasing by the AICR journal’s upcoming special issue, Indigenous communities are going through an Indigenous Renaissance. After immersing myself in the Native creative space these past few years, I see and feel the many different ideas, thoughts, and creations that Native artists/academics are making and I agree that an Indigenous Renaissance is in motion.
At the same time, the broader Native community is going through a reckoning of ousting Pretendians (people who claim Native American/Indigenous ancestry but either completely make it up or base it off of unproven claims by family stories or through genetic ancestry test) who have contributed to the scholarship of the Native community. Just the other day I was reading a book that cited intersectional work that I wanted to read but when I checked the citation and searched the name, it was someone who was pretending to be Native American. UW-Madison, the school I’m doing my postdoc at, also recently went through a high profile Pretendian case (search Kay LeClaire).
Though I feel that I had been able to create and assist in curating and pruning multiple policies and ideas in my time as a Tribal Council member, academic institutions and the broader Native communities would not be able to recognize the immediate importance of my work and contribution. Though I've authored multiple Tribal resolutions that have passed and I worked hard alongside other Tribal Council members to make important and difficult decisions, a majority of this work isn't recognized and relevant for my academic CV. I have also found that writing non-fiction to be almost impossible while so deeply engaged in governmental duties. For those who have written extensive non-fiction before, you'll know it's an all-consuming task. I attempted a few times during my term to write up an article I had been thinking about since graduate school but my input on pressing topics related to the Tribal government was needed as well, which also required reading, writing, and thinking in a vein usually completely different from what I was writing for Science. As someone who wants to continue to contribute to Native media and scholarship, I made the difficult decision to not run for re- election this term and focus on my writing and creating but also to not do a disservice to my Tribal community and the position itself.
The title of this post is very tongue-in-cheek for those who know me or are familiar with my readings and work in Science. It may come off as that I'm "not including politics" in my work anymore or that my formal political career is over, but it's just the opposite. I'm now even more familiar with how politics (commonly used as a shortcut for upbringing, respective culture, bias, ideology, etc), especially Tribal, state, and Federal, is present within the broad work I do. What I mean by post-politics, is that my formal governmental title is no longer directly attached to me and I’m focusing on other topics. My former position will haunt me as I move forward in this next stage, not in a malicious or bad way but in a way that can't be forgotten and will be there to guide and inform me as I travel down this road. I also aim to run again in the future for LdF Tribal Council and hope to bring even more experience and knowledge into the position.
These past few years, I've been able to read, learn, and research and I'm bursting at the seams to create. I have created a few beadwork pieces these past few years but that's been my major outlet. Along with dozens of beadwork ideas, my ideas for writing fiction and nonfiction are also overwhelming me, along with the urge to pick up painting and podcasting again and the desire to learn new techniques like weaving and embroidery. While I've been thinking about how I want to approach my creative phase, the 2024 elections and a huge increase in BlueSky users moving over from X (aka Twitter) has happened in the background. This has served as a reminder that it's important for me to provide some updates and maintenance to my public facing social media and personal website and that my Ojibwe thoughts and ideas are important for work now, in the future, and for Indigenous youth who may be inspired by me, like I was and still am by the Native scholars and community members that came before me.
I write this post to serve multiple functions. First and foremost, it's a way for me to remember what I was thinking and planning! I've read a few things I've written pre-2022 and it's mind boggling to me how I've forgotten about interesting ideas and goals I put forth. Second, it's serving as an announcement that I'm going to be posting to this blog post on my website more often and that I'm going to be co-publishing this on my brand new Substack (@raylallen). I don't picture this blog and Substack having a huge following but I think it's important for folks who want to cite my work. And finally, I'm currently drafting up some longer manuscripts and finishing up some bigger artwork projects that have been on the back burner for months, and I really needed something to warm up my writing and something I can finish to give myself some confidence! To quote a famous fictional plumber, "Let's Go!"