Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa © photo by Mary Annette Pember
The World
Comes to Ingrid's Funeral
News From Indian Country
© Late March, 1999
"Since the time that human beings offered thanks for the first sunrise, sovereignty has been an integral part of Indigenous peoples' daily existence. With the original instructions from the Creator, we realize our responsibilities. Those are the laws that lay the foundation of our society. These responsibilities manifest through our ceremonies … Sovereignty is that wafting thread securing the components that make a society. Without that wafting thread, you cannot make a rug. Without that wafting thread, all you have are unjoined, isolated components of a society. Sovereignty runs through the vertical strands and secures the entire pattern. That is the fabric of Native society."
-Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa 1999
"I would like to make three promises to the Menominee nation:
- That I will support the search for truth and justice for what has happened;
- That the work that my wife dedicated her life to, will continue and;
- That my son Maeh-kiw-Kasic will be raised like his mother would have raised him; he is now yours, a son of the Menominee Nation… Nineteen years ago, the Menominee Nation gave me a skinny little Menominee girl to become my wife, I now give you back the greatest possible honor my people believe in, a martyr."
ÐAli El-Issa, Ingrid's husband 3/10/99
martyr: one who sacrifices his/her life or something of great value for the sake of principle.
O'Peqtaw-Metamoh (Flying Eagle Woman)
Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa
July 31, 1957 - March 4, 1999
Tributes For Ingrid…
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