In recent months I’ve been increasingly intrigued by a series of articles running in the newspaper Kalihwisaks, which I receive once a week from the Oneida Nation near Green Bay, Wisconsin. In English “she looks for news,” Kalihwisaks is the paper of record for many of my late father’s side of the family who live up that way.
The articles are written by our tribe’s “environmental protection specialist,” a man by the name of Bill Koonz. Each short piece illustrates some aspect of the natural world and reflects the variety of learning Mr. Koonz has experienced in his life, sources of knowledge some people might consider incompatible. Yet it’s precisely his synthesis of formal scientific training, fascinating life experiences, and traditional North American learning that I find unique and valuable.

Bill Koonz was born in 1946 and grew up on a farm adjoining the Menominee Indian Reservation in northeast Wisconsin. His father ran a dairy on the reservation and his mother, who passed on recently after 105 years, was instrumental in organizing the social welfare office on that reservation in 1931. Bill gained a degree in natural resource management at the University of Manitoba and worked as a wildlife and environmental impact biologist throughout that massive province for over 30 years. In 2001 he returned to his homeland in Wisconsin to run the Natural Resources Program at the College of the Menominee Nation, and two years ago took a job with our Oneida Tribal Environmental Department.
Growing up non-native among Menominee people in a rural setting, Bill Koonz surely developed some degree of familiarity with their lifestyle and customs. But it was during his many years studying animals and ecosystems among the Cree in Manitoba that he cultivated deep learning relationships with people whose familiarity with the cycles of the living land stretches back for countless generations. Bill describes this part of his education as "a lot of listening on my part. Once they began to speak I never wanted to have them finish."

Bill has lived the life I dreamt of as a young man but somehow never dared to attain. An internet search of his name yields several sites mentioning his studies of lynx, owls, snowshoe hares, and other northern forest denizens. One of his Kalihwisaks stories tells of his 13 days and nights without supplies on a shoal in the middle of a treacherous river that had claimed the life of his boating partner.

Other articles speak of his deep level of respect for his mentors, including a Cree man named Horace Colomb whose 150-mile winter line of traps Bill helped tend. “The experience taught me a great deal about ecology and living alone in the wild, but much more about respect for the animals being taken and for one’s community. The days of the dog team trapper are over but respect for community and the spirit of the animals should not be. If we lose respect for the animals we hunt, we lose respect for ourselves, our community, the environment, and the Creator.”

Mr. Koonz's use of the term "Creator" reveals his respect for those
who have always lived in, rather than apart from, the natural world. Bill writes fondly about another of his Cree mentors, Walter Cook: "Over my 21 years of listening to Walter each fall, the learning was all in my direction with one exception. One of the biggest joys in my life was seeing Walter’s eyes light up after explaining the lynx/hare cycle to him. It was my only chance to give back to the teacher."

Fundamental changes in lifestyle have come across Indian Country, including Oneida, and today Mr. Koonz strives to help maintain our people's links with the natural world through his work and writings. It is a sad indictment of our times that he must sometimes remind younger tribal members to protect our homelands from game poaching, off-road vehicle use, and other abuses.

Bill Koonz sees the built-in contradiction of viewing the planet as a collection of raw materials for human consumption. Of the future he writes "the consideration is whether (our sense of ourselves - dw) is best derived from the Indigenous 'all species are of equal value' perspective or from the Western European, 'man has dominion over all other creatures' perspective."

I wish Bill continued success in his endeavors, including his self-assigned mission of encouraging others to share their knowledge. We may not all benefit from such a wide range of learning as him, but if we each do our part we can have a positive effect on the future.

Dave Wheelock lives, works, and home studies in Socorro, New Mexico.
Contact him at davewheelock@yahoo.com. His views do not necessarily reflect those of Socorro News, but frequently do. Copyright 2008, Dave Wheelock; all rights reserved.