Ah!

This is all my relations.

I'm Matica Wilbur.

No, this is all my relations, and I'm Dallas Goldtooth.

I am so excited for today's conversation with Teresa Sheldon, the secretary of the

Talalap tribes, my homelands, my sister, my relative, my good friend.

I've been wanting her to come on the podcast a number of

times and it just so happened to work out that she gets to be with you, Dallas Gold.

Oh yeah, I am so excited to have gotten a chance to talk to Teresa. I've known Teresa for a long time.

Every time she shows up, she shows up in leadership, not just as an elected official, but also as a community leader.

That's what we explore today is, look, what does the leadership mean?

Right? When we talk about the future of tribal nations, of native communities, what does governance mean? What does it actually mean to be a leader?

And sometimes elected leaders aren't the leaders that we need them to be.

And I think Teresa in this interview really kind of dives into that. It's such a critical conversation, Dallas, because we're caught functioning in the system that wasn't made for us. And so there's so much conflict around tribal leadership. I don't know what it's like on your res.

But in Tallalup, you know, it could be pretty rugged, Dallas, the way that elections go.

We actually had an election recently where there was a tie.

And the only precedence for a tie was a coin toss.

I'm not joking. I love joking. And here we are at General

Council doing a coin toss for a five-year elected official position. You know, I mean...

That's traditional. Well, let me tell you, I remember some years ago, about 20 years ago, my tribe, I'm from the Lower Sioux Indian Community, South Minnesota.

It was the first year.

The first year that candidates ran the party platform, like as a party, as a like a unified block.

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