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Articles
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| Profiles: Bill Morrow |
By Phyllis Kirchner
I had the great pleasure to interview one of the most venerated Council Member’s this week and that is Mr. Bill Morrow. We sat in his office and here are a few questions and comments. “You have been on council now for little more than 10 months, what programs are you a liaison to”? “ Well I am co-chair to the health board, and like an interim/liaison to the Tribal court, police department, ICW but it hasn’t been completely determined, it is more his area of expertise but nothing definite has been decided.” He said.
A lot of people come to you for help, what is the difference between being on council than being a law enforcer? Bill told me that when he was a cop he was called out on an emergency for help in the law sense, but now people come to him for help for tribal monies, fuel help, etc which has opened his eyes more now to the needs of the public.
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Have you had any achievements you’ve set out to accomplish? “What I was looking at here was a lot of communication going back and forth to people” he stated also “like trying to do some of these business idea’s that we are trying to do, want to let the people know what we are doing, let them know what we are facing, get the information out there that people are asking.”
I know that working towards crime and lowering it is a big factor, what are you doing now to get to that goal? “Well I am not directly involved in it now like I use to be, but trying to hold people accountable for their actions, and make them understand why, why these guys get involved with you, you do something to attract their attention crime wise, yeah they will come and ask you about it. I think now looking for funding to help educate people on the matters, help out the young adults”. Want the younger adults to be proud of who they are and where they came from” he said. “Being proud you are from Lac Courte Oreilles”.
In your campaign you indicated that you would give up a part of your salary and put towards programs here, have you done that so far? Yes, one of the programs we started was the “Tooth Fairy” and I give 2500.00 of that a year” and also gave my Christmas bonus check to the health department to help with eyewear for the elders.
Can you tell us about Council’s future plans? In regards to strengthening and developing our judicial system for the tribe? “Right now we are trying to look for grants for services and our personnel to help supplement that” he indicated. “The problem we got here is alcohol, why not tax it” he said, “Look at the amount of deaths and sickness we had due to the usage of alcohol” Some people don’t see it as a way of helping them, instead it’s more like picking on them but it’s actually a way of saving their life.
Has your life changed since being on council now for a year? If so how? “Yes” he said, “I can live a more normal life” “I go to work in the mornings and I can leave at 4:30pm, got weekends off” compared to getting phone calls at 3 in the morning for some emergency happening, when he was a police officer.
Has your interest changed since being on council, do you see other areas of concern or interest that’s in need of assistance or attention? “Yes, getting the right information to the people, like with the people who have jobs, you hope that they are doing the job they are expected to do, showing up to do the job they’re hired to do” he said.
It has been said that by others that you’ve been instrumental on getting the clinic back on its feet, you along with Gary clause are co-chairman on the health board, how does that work with 2 co-chairs? “I like the situation like that, again I think the whole health board has everything again and I feel that there is not one person over there trying to do the whole job as before, the director and the health board were doing it as a team when I look back over there you can see they feel important over there, there could be some disputes and as I told Gary, this thing is going good, why can’t we step out and let him (Gosh) run it. To me I don’t think council should get involved into the day to day operations with personnel, etc our job should be, and this is my opinion now, is to get this up and running, once we get it going, let this group run it, let the committee’s run it…and we step out. Basically Bill feels good about how the Health Department is running now, the communication that is going back and forth and the changes that have been made.
You’ve been on travel lately; can you fill us in on what’s been happening in Indian Country concerning LCO? “I think LCO is pretty well established as far as stability goes, sure we will have some rocky roads but we are a pretty stable place compared to some “he indicated.
I see a new building is nearly finished, when does the LCO Law enforcement expect to be up and operating there? “Maybe in about 2 months he said, they still have a lot of things to put in that building and I personally haven’t been in there yet ,I am trying to distance myself from that police stuff, they have a new chief there now, it’s his department now so let him ruin it” he said. “I would have liked to have seen the court go with the Police department I think it’s important to have the police department and the court departments close together as well” he stated.
Eventually I would of liked to of seen our own judicial center, courts facility, detention facility, I am all for not having to incarcerate people you can do that but you’re going to have some people thumb their nose at the situation and what you going to do them, you got to be able to call their bluff. Again you said want to do this, hey this is your shot their giving you the opportunity to go out and do what you got to do if you don’t want to do it then we’ll take care of it, but I hope you do, like I said go back to something and prove me wrong I guess.
Speaking of future developments, is LCO Trying to get our own jails and maybe abolishing public law 280? I would like to see our own jail here I think what we need more than that is our own juvenile detention/treatment center. Again there, that treatment and our thing for that is our kids go and work with the elders and learn our traditions and customs and learn to be proud of who you are and if they disagree, well this your option this is your choice go there or we’ll put you here, I like how it goes back on the person, you make the choice and it’s up to you.
Can you tell us who were the prior LCO tribal members that were involved with the county enforcement for LCO? “ Well first there county deputy sheriff was George Schmock he was an officer back in the late 60’s early 70’s, but Ron Tainter and Wayne Corbine were the first full time Sawyer Country deputies sheriff’s on the road back in the early 70’s.” He said. They went to Roswell, New Mexico for the training to become police officers. “New Post had a jail back in the 30’s and 40’s” it was the first for LCO. We had to always rely on Sawyer County for the Law Enforcement.” Norman Guibord was a constable at one time” “Then there was Roger Diamond also, Roger went to the academy in Burnham City, Utah, he was a few classes before me” he said.”Before I left for the academy, I use to ride around with Ron and Wayne for a little bit and that sparked my interest in becoming a police officer” I guess I was interested in law enforcement before cause my dad was doing it too but he was working for Red Cliff, I got out of high school and I remember I worked for a lumber company and it was like 20 below that night and I thought, man this wasn’t for me so I went and contacted the BIA I applied for the academy in Utah I left here in January 75 and I remember the night I left it was like 58 below wind-chill, so I left out there and I graduated in March. I came back here and I got hired on county. I was gassing up my car and another squad pulled up and said sheriff primly wanted to see me, he asked how school was, it was alright I said, I enjoyed it. Sheriff Primly said “I never heard anything” he said. Bill told him that because he went through it himself, he didn’t get any sponsor or anything. Then Primley told him to come on in on Monday that he’d get Bill a job.
I asked Bill if there were any prejudiced back then amongst the police officers and he said no we all worked pretty well together.
What do you think of Public Law 280? “I think were sitting pretty good. We have the best of both worlds, this is where the state has criminal jurisdiction and people think they have it, but we do too. Were Concurrent jurisdiction which is just as much as them, the only thing we got is we just can’t incarcerate over a year or fine more than 5000.00” he indicated. We got to depend on them and they got to come in here and give us the service too at no charge to us.
There has been some talk about getting rid of the public law 280? There’s been some talk about it I thought about that before too, but then again we would have to have our jail too. But I remember talking about that before but possible retrocession, we would probably have to get like BIA officers in here saying we’ll get the jail built, we’ll get the personal and equipment, but then you talk to some of the other officers too and they’ll say you think you’re going to get cream of the crop officers, you’re not, you’ll going to get the ones who have trouble getting along on other places too. But them being here then you’d actually take that over so I guess it has its’ pro’s & con’s. Also if we had a jail here, if we actually had to lock somebody up I think they would have to go to either Eau Claire or Madison, because it’s a federal jail and this is not a federal jail.
At some time in the future when you are not on council anymore, will you go back into being an officer again? I asked. “I would like to keep my foot in the door, help with counseling, planning stuff like getting help for others, find some funding to get these programs underway.” He said. Bill has 5 children; there is Juliette, Donny and Dusty, Tyler and Lyndsay. Bill also told me he has a significant other and has been together for 9 years. I was great pleasure learning about the police back then earlier on. I never knew about the Jail in New post, it would make a great research to find out about that at some point. Bill is working towards helping the communities at LCO; wish him all the luck during his term as LCO Tribal Council member. Until next time….
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Posted on May 23, 2010 22:23pm by admin
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Copyright 2010, LCoTimes.com
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