Table for Two

Introduce yourselves!

Kadra: I am a transplant to Minnesota. I grew up in Iowa and came to Minnesota to take a gap year between undergrad and graduate school. So I did AmeriCorp and, after a year of that, I enrolled at the University of Minnesota. While I was there, in addition to doing public policy, I also wanted to get a minor in human rights. In my human rights program, one of my projects was sex trafficking and the issue of human trafficking, nationally and locally.

At the time, it just so happened that there was this huge case involving Somalis in the Twin Cities. We have a pretty large Somali diaspora — I think we have the largest in the country. Depending on who you ask, we have about 100,000 Somalis living here, mostly concentrated in the Twin Cities, but also in the rural areas and as south as Mankato and Rochester. But in the case, the traffickers were from the Twin Cities and the trafficked youth were also from the Twin Cities, so this was a really big federal case, and it was something that shocked the community.

I started to get involved with the Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force. They wanted to follow this national trend at the time — there were 6 or 7 other states that had passed the State Harbor Law that takes a victim-centered approach to combatting trafficking. So I worked with him to do the initial research for this project.

In that process, I got connected to two ladies whose names are also Kadra Abdi, and we came together to start a nonprofit organization called The Kadra Project, and the goal of The Kadra Project was to create a safe space for East African women and girls who are victims of sex trafficking. But also to build bridges with other communities of color who were also doing the same thing. One of the first meetings we had was with a Native American Women’s Organization in Minneapolis called the Minnesota Women’s Indian Resource Center — a one-stop place that provides social services and shelter. We worked with them and other organizations to learn from each other. They were already established, doing wonderful work, and we were just starting up. So I made the connections.

It’s been a great partnership, but I also have felt like community engagement wasn’t a focus. It wasn’t what was bringing people together. I didn’t find that community members were part of the conversation. I didn’t feel like they were invited to the meetings. Local communities who have seen this happening in their neighborhoods weren’t invited to the conversation, and I wanted to shift that.

Minnesota has now passed the Safe Harbor Law and is now seen as a national model of how to do this work. And I know that there is stuff happening in North Dakota as well, and I’d love to hear you talk about that Cheryl. If you have any experience or know what’s happening locally there. I already have some yeses from people here who would love to partner up with people in North Dakota to get this conversation started about how we can work together and how we can be involved local communities to be a part of the conversation.

It’s happening right in front of them, and they’re not invited to these meetings.

Cheryl: There used to be an Indian Center per se in Bismarck, in the early 80s through the early 90s, but that organization was serving people just by having a food bank or clothing bank. They would give limited social service assistance. In the interim, when there wasn’t a Native-serving organization, a group of us got together and talked about having a center again, but we really didn’t want it to be a social service type of organization. We wanted it to be more of Native people helping Native people — being more of a catalyst for leadership.

That’s how Sacred Pipe came about. We started in 2007, just having conversations and getting a nonprofit started. It really didn’t get going until I got kicked out of my tribe after I went through a whole political mess, left the tribe and was at a crossroads. Oddly enough, that’s exactly when I got the Bush Fellowship.

The Bush Fellowship allowed me to complete a data survey, and near that time, we got our 501c3 status. It all worked out well, and I’ve been able to start operating this past year. The ideas has always been to engage Native people to say, “These are the types of services we need, the programs we need and the gaps in service. Here’s how we’d like to be proactive in the community.”

That led to the Community Engagement Teams. It’s an opportunity for Native people to really speak up. For example, one of the needs they’ve talked about is the need for a parenting support. There are so many needs for our Native youth — they are over-represented in foster care and the juvenile justice system and detention in high school, special ed. And instead of asking for services in the school or court systems, they said, we need parenting support for ourselves — a place where we can talk about how to be a better parent, how to help my child, how to advocate for them and work better with the schools.

That is such a good thing to me. That is Native people taking ownership of these problems, and that’s the vision that we had early on when we started the Sacred Pipe Resource Center.

What’s community engagement like for you?

Cheryl: One of the requirements of the Community Engagement Teams is that they partner with a non-Native organization in the community. As Native people, we are so used to being isolated, that we isolate ourselves sometimes. We tell ourselves that we need a Native program, so we create a separate program with separate funding source that just serves Native American people. We need to get away from that model because it’s not cost-effective, and it’s not efficient, and it doesn’t do anyone any good to self-segregate. So we’re ensuring that we’re working with different non-Native groups in the Bismarck-Mandan area.

I’ve gotten a lot of on-reservation people who have come to the meetings. That’s surprising, because there is this on-reservation / off-reservation dynamic that happens, separating their problems. But because our population is so transient or nomadic, we still move back and forth from the reservation to the cities and then back again, so it’s good to see that there is engagement from the reservations as well. It means that they are aware and they are interested in what we are doing here, in Bismarck.

This is a regional issue. We are all a part of this region, and we have to strengthen those connections as we all work in our own communities. We all have a stake in building community and making sure that the least of our brothers is okay. That’s a good development and a big part of what we are trying to at Sacred Pipe, just ensuring that we are part of the community and not excluding a community that we’re a part of. It’s a conscious effort.

Kadra: As you were speaking, Cheryl, I’m reminded of an organization that was started here called the Native American Somali Friendship Committee. It was great to see them come together, but the main purpose was because there was violence between Somalis and Native American people in Minneapolis. So the two leaders from both communities said, “There is a problem. What can we do?” They applied for a Bush / Blue Cross grant and received money to do events that would bring both communities together. It was a beautiful thing. I would love to connect you to them!

I think authentic community engagement is an exchange.

But when you’re talking about community engagement being this two-way street, I love that, and I believe that. I think authentic community engagement is an exchange. It’s sharing ideas, coming together and not putting one community on a platform. We’re here to learn from each other. That’s why I think the Native American Somali Friendship Committee received money, because they believed in their work and they were producing really good outcomes. That’s something I know you care about — how do you quantify the outcomes, not just tell stories? Is there something else there?

Let’s talk about the challenges in your work

Kadra: There is this saying I keep hearing, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” I think it’s powerful, and that’s why I’m doing Iskaashi, and it’s why I’m reminding people that community engagement is not an aftermath or a sub-committee. It should be part of the process. It’s not just emails and fliers. You have to be intentional about wanting people present.

I am not a core part of the Kadra Project anymore. I still support their work, but part of the reason why I left is because I have encountered territorial people. People who just didn’t want to see the organization succeed and made excuses for why we didn’t need an East African nonprofit. Even though there was this huge case — why don’t you want this community to come together? There was a nonprofit that invited the Kadra Project to come in and become a project under their organization. I said no. I said, I think we can still collaborate but that the Kadra Project should stand on its own. But the two other women won, and they went ahead and became a project under this bigger organization. And they didn’t really understand the implication that now that they are a part of a bigger organization, they have to share resources. I sat in on that first meeting, and they were signing the memorandum of the agreement, and I’m reading through it and I’m seeing that someone else was going to become the head person of the Kadra Project. I felt like it was their way to eliminate us! They didn’t want to see the Kadra Project as an independent nonprofit.

Interacting with these territorial people has been one of the most frustrating things in community engagement. They often are also the type of people who consider community engagement just outreach, just about making a phone call.

Hugh: Too often, we diminish the very real personal and professional cost to this type of work and don’t share those things. So when people encounter their own isolation, they think that somehow they aren’t doing it right. Cheryl, I know you faced this personally as well.

Cheryl: The experience I had with my tribe really prepared me for this work I’m doing now. I needed to be kicked in the teeth and go through that!

I’ve been accused of having too much hope. I think that’s one of my biggest assets and greatest curses that, if I believe in it, I want to find a way to make it work. I’m going to keep going. Oddly enough, I always seem to find those people who can help me make it work.

I’ve been accused of having too much hope. Oddly enough, I always seem to find those people who can help me make it work.

I really, really lean on my spirituality. I pray a lot, and I try to do things in a good way so that my steps are guided in a spiritual way to other spiritual people who want to do good things. I pray for that daily, to find other good people who want to do good as well.

I try to stay away from the politics. There are people who do try to do all this for just the recognition or ego needs. But to stay positive, I try to stay away from that and only work with people in the community who have that burning passion to do something and not necessarily do it because it’s a requirement.

Kadra: Cheryl, as I try to connect community-based organizations here to people doing similar work in North Dakota, I need your help.

I have individuals here who are very much interested in helping to combat human trafficking / sex trafficking issue. They understand what’s happening in North Dakota very well, so I want to make those connections happen, but I don’t know where to start.

Also, if we could work together to find ways to create space for both Somali and Native American communities in Minnesota and North Dakota to work well together on other issues beyond human trafficking.

Cheryl: Well, I’m going to tell you a story.

Early on, before Sacred Pipe had even started, we had Dakota Zoo in Bismarck. It occurred to me one time as I was walking through the zoo that almost all the animals in there have a Native significance — something I could say about them as a person. So I thought, wouldn’t it be great if our Dakota Zoo could have a Native presence? We would have signs for example saying, “This is how you say bear in Lakota,” or, “This is how you say Bear in Chippewa language.” You could press a button and hear the language, or you would have a story about the eagle and how the eagle feathers are sacred to us. Or we would have Native interpreters that would be at the zoo to talk about these things or a Native American Day with storytellers and booths.

So, I set up a meeting with the director of the zoo, and I’m pitching this idea to him and I was ready for the resistance, but he sat back, and he’s like, “Great! How do we do it? Who’s going to do it?”

I was so prepared for the resistance that I wasn’t prepared beyond that. I’m sad to say I walked out of there, like, “I’ll get back to you.” It was a spectacular failure on my part because I did not know what it was that I was asking him to do. I have taken that as a really great lesson to me. What do I want people to do? I have to be very specific about what their role is and what their task is.

When I do engagement, it’s not so much, how can we work together? I already have in my mind what I want them to accomplish.

That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned. I’m very specific on how I want to work with people. I feel like you have more of an advantage than I do in that there are a lot more organizations you can work with.

I always think about Bruce Lee, who said, “Be like water.” If this doesn’t work with this organization, we’ll go over here. There are other individuals we can work with. Really defining what you think is best and then trying to move that forward.

I find that it’s not a lack of will; they just don’t know how to help.

Kadra: I appreciate your advice, and I agree 100 percent. I think with community engagement, I know community members are experts of their own well-being, and they know what’s best for them, it’s just creating that platform where they can make those connections happen.

I love that you are very specific and all about being specific in your ask. Minnesotans, actually, are very passive-aggressive, very indirect, so I love that you are very to the point. We can learn a lot from you.

Cheryl: I think North Dakotans are that way, too!

Kadra: It’s a regional problem! We’ve been branded that: Minnesota Nice!

What does your work look like if it succeeds?

Cheryl: For me, it’s about empowering my community and creating leadership in my community so that Native American people are no longer an afterthought.

There will come a day where our voices are loud enough that we won’t be an afterthought any longer. We won’t have to be just a small part of the community but an integral part of the planning, boards and commissions — when our voices are at the table to begin with so we don’t need a side committee. We are there. That’s my ultimate goal.

Kadra: If my work is successful, I would love to see not just the Somali community but communities of color and disadvantaged communities invited to the conversation.

The other thing is having these communities that have been left out as leaders, as the ones to lead these conversations to say, this is how we do it in our communities. We are not here to learn from you, but we’re here to learn from each other. Here us out. And that can only happen if they are invited to the table. What community-based organizations have is local knowledge. They know their communities well. And I think they have something to teach, and I want to make those connections happen.

Being successful is starting that conversation and knowing who’s doing this work and having these people know of each other.