Derek Bailey the bridge builder

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor

When I spoke on the phone recently with Derek Bailey, current chair of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and now Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, he was crossing the Mackinac Bridge and returning home to Traverse City. The tires on his 2005 Saturn VUE hummed loudly as he passed over the rumble strips on the majestic arch that connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

That bridge is already a well-worn path for Bailey, who traverses the northern part of the state once or twice a week to build political support for his congressional bid next November. He hopes to unseat Tea Party-backed freshman Republican Dan Benishek and represent Michigan’s 1st District, which, following redistricting, now encompasses Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Manistee and half of Mason counties as well as the tip of the mitten and the entire Upper Peninsula. But first he’ll have to win the Democratic primary against Gary McDowell, who lost handily to Benishek last fall. The Congressional seat was previously held by Blue Dog Democrat Bart Stupak, who didn’t seek re-election following the beating he suffered during the health care debate. Whoever wins the primary will likely receive handsome financial support from the national Democratic Party, which has made it clear that it will prioritize reclaiming blue districts that it lost in 2010.

If Bailey succeeds, it will be because he is a bridge builder and not just a bridge crosser. Only eight Native Americans have served in Congress in this country’s 235-year history, and Bailey would be the first from the Midwest. While the dynamic 38-year-old (he turns 39 on Dec. 3) will surely win votes from Indian country, he’ll need crossover appeal to win white voters too. And he’ll need to bridge the heated partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans. The 1st District is considered conservative, but Stupak, a centrist Democrat, held it for 18 years. Can Derek Bailey, who wears his long dark hair in a traditional ponytail and rides a black Victory Kingpin 8-Ball motorcycle, tap into a long history of “Bill Milliken” Michigan moderates?

“I’ve been able to work as tribal chairman with local, state and federal officials from both parties,” said Bailey, who claims that during his exploratory campaign he received emails of support from both sides of the aisle. Half of the members on his exploratory committee were Republican. “I’ve had successful working relationship with Democrats and Republicans … I don’t want to be looked at as a tribal vote.”

The native vote will no doubt come out strong for Bailey. Of Michigan’s 12 Indian tribes, eight are located in the 1st District — five in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) and three in the upper third of the mitten. Through his wife Tonia, who is half Alaskan Native, a quarter Standing Rock Sioux and a quarter Ojibwe, and their three sons, Nimkees, 12, Ohsawkihew, 8, and Maengun, 3, and two daughters, Daanis, 13, and Panika, 11, Bailey has familial ties to the Bay Mills Indian community and the Keweenaw Bay Indian community, both in the U.P. Derek’s father is Odawa (typically spelled “Ottawa” in English) and his mother is of Norwegian descent. During the campaign, Tonia and the kids are living in the town of Brimley near Sault Ste Marie.

In recent weeks Bailey has also taken his campaign national in order to attract fundraising support outside of Michigan. In early November he flew to Portland, Ore. for the annual Convention of the National Congress of American Indians.

“I think we need more people in Congress who understand tribal sovereignty,” he told 2,800 American Indian and Alaska Native leaders. “I know it and I advocate for sovereignty issues. I will do the same in Congress.” Bailey told the crowd that current Congressman Benishek hasn’t connected with people in the 1st District. “He sent my tribe a letter and did not even spell the word ‘Chippewa’ right. I know he does not understand our issues.”

As tribal chairman since 2008 — the youngest in the Grand Traverse Band’s history — Bailey has championed job-creation and the environment, two pillars around which his campaign is building. The tribe fluctuates between the second- and third-biggest job provider in northwest-lower Michigan, following Munson Medical Center in Traverse City and tied with Traverse City Area Public Schools. The tribe’s job creation power surged when it acquired the Grand Traverse Resort in 2003, and again when the doors opened to the new Turtle Creek Casino in nearby Williamsburg in June 2008.

“I told Governor Rick Snyder, ‘I hope you are the first Michigan governor who recognizes the economic impact of the tribe, through gaming’. That’s never highlighted, but it’s substantial.” In an effort to straddle that political middle ground, Bailey includes photos of himself with both Michigan’s Republican governor and President Barack Obama on his campaign website, DerekBaileyforCongress.com.

Meanwhile, Bailey touts the austerity measures that the Grand Traverse Band took during the economic recession. Government cuts, he knows, could win him support among conservatives. “We worked with tribal leaders to reduce our budget by over $5 million. Some services were scaled back but we maintained most of our services. Those were tough choices, but we didn’t run a deficit or leave our future leaders in an economic hole.”

Bailey’s advocacy for the environment is where he can build support among liberals and, perhaps unique to northern Michigan, conservatives too — though he claims that Benishek has done nothing to support the environment, whereas Stupak was a vocal supporter of protecting the Great Lakes.

“When I’m advocating for the Grand Traverse Band on stopping Asian Carp or other invasive species, that’s something that’s relevant to all of us,” explained Bailey. “These issues affect our entire region.”

He writes on his website, “Protection of our greatest natural resource must be shown through a commitment driven by knowledge, understanding and spirit. I will bring that strong northern Michigan voice to the halls of Congress,”

That’s where the rising leader’s Native heritage comes into play. Though sensitive to American Indian stereotypes, he embraces the image of the Native as the caretaker of Mother Earth. “We need to protect what we have been given by our ancestors: we need to love our waters, our land, and save them for future generations. So when I advocate for the environment, it has a deeper meaning.”

Bailey was recently awarded the 2011 Glen T. Miller Tribal Leadership Award from the Great Lakes Region of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society in Wisconsin for his “outstanding leadership on natural resource issues, and the protection of Indian hunting and fishing rights on behalf of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.”

He crossed another bridge early this year when he signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Michael Parks. The agreement, signed on Jan. 28 at the Traverse City Chamber of Commerce, formalized cooperation between the Coast Guard and the Grand Traverse Band to solidify an enduring relationship.

“That exemplifies a government-to-government relationship — hands reached out to each other and saying ‘let’s work together’,” said Bailey. “We’re willing to pay for better commitment, for safety, and for opportunities for our children to explore a career in the Coast Guard, and for the Coast Guard to learn culturally from the Grand Traverse Band.”

Derek Bailey’s most unique attribute may be his experiences working with the needy and impacting people on a personal level. Before making this run for office, he wasn’t a lawyer or a businessman, but a social worker. At 25, Bailey received a Master’s of Social Work from Grand Valley State University then worked as a therapist at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services and as a substance abuse counselor with Project Rehab, which helped inmates at Kent County Jail in Grand Rapids.

“To have a degree in social work has been a tremendous asset,” Bailey analyzed his resume. “As a political leader, passing legislation is at a macro level. But having the experience of working with families and communities and understanding the impact of social issues on individuals, that’s at a micro level. It’s rewarding to me if I can use my education to help others in need.”

When I asked Bailey what his proudest moments have been thus far, he quickly listed meeting President Obama three times, his appointment to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education last year, his accomplishments as chair of the Grand Traverse Band, and signing the memorandum of understanding with the Coast Guard. But then he focused on a congratulatory card he received — and still has — from the elders of the Grand Traverse Band upon getting his Associate’s degree from Glen Oaks Community College near Three Rivers, Mich.

“Being away at college and knowing they are wishing you well: that showed me at the time that I could go out in the world but that I’d always have the community there standing behind me.” Ever since then, Bailey has wanted to give back to his Native community, and honor his roots.

“When you see a luncheon event with both youth and elders, where the elders are playing bingo and the youth are playing along, or serving them food and cleaning up the tables. That’s an intergenerational exchange, and you know there’s learning going on there.”

The analogies between Bailey and Obama are tempting to make. Both are young, dynamic and philosophical leaders who have made meteoric rises through politics: when Obama was running for President, Bailey was running for tribal chair. Both worked on the community level with disenfranchised populations before they ran for office. Both come from minority communities that have been oppressed throughout the history of the United States. Both are bi-racial, half-minority and half-white, and represent a cultural bridge, and perhaps a wound healer. Obama broke the nation’s ultimate color barrier. Bailey hopes to carry a torch that very few Natives before him have done. And of course, they have met on several occasions.

Bailey seemed uncomfortable with the analogy when I floated it over the phone, probably because admitting it might seem arrogant, and because he wants to appeal to voters from both parties next fall.

But Bailey did concede that he has learned a lot from Obama’s employment of Internet-based social media and government transparency. He appears to be harnessing the same strategy to appeal to voters — using Facebook, Twitter and weekly email blasts. He has also recorded Grand Traverse Band presentations so that they could air later on public access television. Bailey said that, under his reign, the Tribe has also paid for advertisements in the Traverse City Record-Eagle to show how its money is spent.

“Government transparency is something I believe in, and my actions as chairman have been extremely transparent … I have treated media as a fourth arm of government.”

Perhaps the greatest complement that Bailey has received in this digital age came from Lee Sprague, the “Ogema” or “leader” of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians.

“You’re the first e-Ogema,” Sprague told Bailey.

This GlenArbor.com article is sponsored by the Martin Company, a company with unmatched experience in the local real estate market.