Acknowledged for my acknowledgement

It began last month with a scrawled message on one of our bathroom murals.  Stolen Land  

 Having grown up in Minnesota I am keenly aware of this fact. And I have made my own personal efforts to study and consider ways to acknowledge the painful history of American settlement of lands inhabited by our Dakota brothers and sisters.   Growing up, my parents exposed me to stories, places and people that opened up both the tremendous beauty and the gross injustices present in our world. This included trips to Pipestone and Mille Lacs as well as the Upper Sioux Agency and Fort Snelling.  Throughout this past year, conversations arose in many parts of my life about how to be involved in the process of reparations including helping my church write a Land Acknowledgement.  And so, with the scrawled message calling to me, I sat down and attempted to write a land acknowledgement for Butter Bakery Cafe as well.  

Here was my first attempt. 

Land Acknowledgment for Butter Bakery Cafe

We are the current stewards of land that has been, and still is, the home of the Dakota/Anishinaabe people. This land was taken from them and because of that history we live with broken hearts and broken relationships.  It is our intention at Butter Bakery Cafe to care for this land as it was intended by its original inhabitants and to repair the damage to the land and the Dakota people through amends and reparations as we rebuild relationships and seek balance with all life.

Shortly after writing that land acknowledgement, it became necessary to order wild rice for the café.  As I have each of the previous times that I have ordered from the Red Lake Nation Foods website, I included a “hello” and inquiry about wholesale pricing as a restaurant in order to offer retail bags of wild rice to my neighbors.  Over the past couple of years, however, there had been no response to this inquiry.

This time I received an immediate email of Boozooh! (Hello)

And then a call at the shop a couple days later.

I had the opportunity to meet Wayne Charwood, who was reaching out to me from Red Lake where he had recently been hired to make sales contacts with other businesses. We chatted about his work there, as a farmer, fisherman, wild rice harvester, forager, and as a salesperson.   I shared my interest in providing a space to offer their wild rice and their story.  He offered to set up a sales display that could provide space for all of the food products offered by Red Lake Nation foods.  He saw my interest as more than just offering a spot on a shelf in my shop to retail the wild rice we were using.  However, because I was “in the midst” of other activities at the café (working a cook shift at the grill), I needed to let our conversation hold there – and I told Wayne I’d take a look at my shop’s space to see how I might fit a display of this size.  He agreed to send me a photo of the shelving unit so I could picture it in the café.

The next couple days spilled into the weekend – where I was busy in the kitchen and the front counter, as well as working to prepare the café for its Christmas closing and for a full day away with family.  I wasn’t being too attentive to emails and phone messages during that time – there was just so much going on with family and shop activities that needed my attention. I did notice that Wayne was intent on following up with me and so I did attempt to place the shelving unit (in theory) in a couple places in the café, imagining the effects of moving some of the current shelving or my beverage case for a new addition.

Not having yet responded to the first email he sent, I was just a wee bit surprised when I finally listened to Wayne’s voicemail Monday that he would be in the cities the next day and it would be a great opportunity to drop off the shelving and products. 

By the time I was aware that, yes indeed, I was going to need to create a space for the unit, it was Tuesday morning and Wayne was at our door ready to help get the case set up.  I now understand that my expression of interest was indeed the affirmation he was looking for that I was ready for the business relationship to begin.  Had I said yes?  I couldn’t quite recall, but, now, yes was the answer.  And as Wayne graciously set up the display for us, I found myself happier by the moment that I had at least expressed openness to the invitation and had a way to make the purchase of these items. 

Had I tried to find “just the right” place and time – or had I tried to calculate a better “cash flow” time than the end of a rough December – I likely would have just pushed a decision like this out farther and farther from the immediacy of doing, and likely in the process risked losing the relationship.

Through the writing of a land acknowledgement, I know I had sent my hopes out into the spirit world with no real understanding of what “reparations” could look like.  I had written of my hope for building relationships with no real plan for how that might get started.  

And then it did.

I committed to making the journey to Red Lake this spring to visit Wayne. I am committing to grow this relationship through learning and the sharing of stories.

The spirit works in mysterious ways.  I feel spirit-touched. I am grateful. I feel like I have been joined on the path by one who has been patiently walking with me for a long time. It’s time we walk this path together.