Mr. Paquin,
You have three issues in your posts on this thread, which may or may not be
closely related. The first is the American Indian Plaza at TCF Stadium. From
photos via google, the recognition of Minnesota tribes are stele on the plaza.
They look to be "put your best feet forward" pieces--as they should be in such
a public setting. It seems an apt place to put such things as thousands of
people, many knowing virtually nothing about Minnesota Indians, can get a small
glimmer of the richness of tribal peoples in MN and could conceivably spark
interest in wanting to know more about the tribes. I'm glad they did it. I may
even go so far as to go over there and view the stele, even though I don't give
a fiddler's farthing about football.
The second issue is a union wanting AFL-CIO recognition. The history of unions
in this country is fraught with blood, sweat, and tears. It has, virtually each
time, been a monumental struggle to organize a union and get recognition for it
to bargain collectively for working people. Ergo, the tale you tell isn't
unusual and clearly the struggle is not over.
The third is Anishanabe in the legislature. Thee Anishanabe should be in the
legislature, a should the Dakota and the other MN tribes. If you are saying
that the DFL, GOP, and other political parties do not find and promote Indians
for legislative positions, that's true. It's no simple thing to run for office
and it's expensive, but unless Indian people are willing to do all the work to
get party backing and the further work to get elected, tribal people will not
be in the legislature.