Delabreau elected to lead Menominee legislature

New chairwoman vows to face challenges in 2020
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

KESHENA — Joan Delabreau is the new leader of the Menominee Tribal Legislature after it voted 6-3 Sunday to elect her chairwoman over Legislator Ron Corn Sr. during the tribe’s annual reorganizational meeting.

Delabreau, who was the legislature’s vice chairwoman for the last two years, will become its leader for the fourth time.

Douglas Cox, who served as the legislature’s chairman for the last two years, will serve as vice chairman after a unanimous vote. Legislator Pershing Frechette will serve another term as secretary, also by unanimous vote.

Legislators must be nominated to leadership positions.

Frechette, who nominated Delabreau, said that he doesn’t always see eye to eye with her on some issues, but he believed her years of experience made her the best on the legislature to lead.

“In my eyes, this individual is the most prepared when we have complicated issues to debate,” Frechette said. “We don’t always agree, and we have had some heated debates in the horseshoe (the tribal legislature dais). But in the end, we’ve always respected each other’s positions.”

Frechette said the coming year was going to present some challenges for the legislature, and Delabreau would provide “proven leadership” to help guide the governing body in the coming months.

Delabreau will receive a $90,000 salary but will not receive any per diems for attending meetings like the other legislators.

Delabreau echoed the concerns about coming challenges in her acceptance speech.

“It’s going to be a very challenging year as we work with our different entities and with the outside greater society as we try to accomplish all the things that we need for our tribe,” Delabreau said.

One of the big challenges Delabreau sees is working with the tribe’s charter entities and making sure they function. While the legislature is working to keep existing Menominee businesses functioning, it is also trying to bring in additional businesses to allow tribal members to do more business on the reservation so they don’t have to go off-reservation for basic essentials, as well as allow them to work closer to home.

“There’s no downturn in the greater society, but up in our society, there’s something of a change,” Delabreau said. “As legislators, we created the charters with the exception of MTE (Menominee Tribal Enterprises). We still need to work together to ensure a strong foundation for them because they do provide a lot of employment.”

Delabreau said she expects the legislature to put in a lot of work on combating opioids on the reservation.

“We struggle, just like any other community,” Delabreau said. “We focused on prevention, and we’re getting some efforts to show that’s paying off. On the flip side, though, we’re concerned about drug-endangered children because that’s going to affect those children for the rest of their lives.”

Despite serving as chairwoman on three other occasions, Delabreau said she was surprised to be asked to serve again.

“Whether they voted for me or not, it’s always a difficult choice,” she said.

Delabreau noted that the downside of being chairwoman is that her family members will not see as much of her as they’d like.

“They’re going to have to understand that, as usual after 15 years, they will continue to come in last as far as my dedication and commitment to serve the Menominee people and to serve the needs and the desires and the demands of the Menominee Tribal Legislature,” Delabreau said.

The reorganizational meeting also included the oath of office for the legislature’s two newest members, Gena Kakkak and Ron Waukau Sr., who were elected in January to replace Craig Corn and Eugene Caldwell, as well as Ron Corn Sr., who was elected to a second term in office.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com