BROOKSTON — While overseeing a 30,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation facility in Missouri, Saydee Whitebird was presented with the opportunity to help her tribe, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, start its own cannabis company.
“The only way I would ever leave … was for my tribe,” Whitebird said of her previous position as director of agricultural sciences at Missouri Made Marijuana.
Whitebird returned to Minnesota and started Whitebird Logistics, which is serving as a consultant to the Fond du Lac Band’s forthcoming Fond du Lac Cannabis Corp. The operation is expected to open sometime in 2024 and will grow, manufacture and sell medical and adult-use cannabis products including flower, edibles and concentrates, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
When Minnesota legalized recreational cannabis in 2023, it gave tribal nations the sole authority to operate and regulate cannabis businesses located on their lands. Because tribal nations are not subject to state regulations, tribal nations have the opportunity to get a head start on the cannabis industry while other cannabis operations navigate regulatory barriers.
The Fond du Lac Band, which declined to comment on this story, is one of several Minnesota tribal nations pursuing cannabis operations. However, the Fond du Lac Cannabis Corp. aims to be comprehensive by providing educational opportunities, jobs, infrastructure and internal quality control.
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“This is going to be just different,” Whitebird said. “They're going to be one of the first tribes to have literally from training all the way through to selling in every detail in between.”
The multi-pronged approach involves a job training partnership with the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, a cultivation and manufacturing facility in Brookston and a dispensary located off Minnesota Highway 210.
FDLTCC expects the 18,000-square-foot cultivation and manufacturing facility to produce 120-240 pounds of cannabis flower monthly and approximately 15,000 edible and concentrate products. The facility will require a minimum of 34 full-time employees with wages ranging from $16-$18 per hour, according to DEED.
“It's in an area that doesn't have a lot of jobs and could really stand use in the Brookston area,” Robert Abramowski, treasurer of the Fond du lac Tribal Council, told the Iron Range Resource and Rehabilitation Advisory Board in May.
To fill those positions, the Fond du Lac Cannabis Corp. will partner with FDLTCC to create a program to certify students to work in the cannabis industry. Though much of the program is still in its preliminary stages, the college expects courses may include teaching agricultural practices, packaging, quality control, information technology and security.
“The curriculum developed through this grant will be in compliance with state cannabis regulations and will be used to train the future workforce for this newly emerging industry in the state of Minnesota,” FDLTCC President Anita Hanson said in an email to the Pine Journal.
The curriculum is being developed in part by Hemant Bid, a longtime researcher in the medical cannabis field who has developed cannabis curricula for higher education institutions across the country.
“I feel that cannabis education can change the world, and people need to understand about the plant and the utility of the plant,” Bid said.
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In his curriculum, Bid emphasizes his “seed to sale” philosophy, which examines all aspects of the cannabis plant from horticulture to its chemical components and societal impacts. Bid strongly believes that anyone who wishes to have a career in the cannabis industry should have a holistic understanding of the plant.
“My belief in the clinical side is that not unless somebody knows the advantage, the power of the drug, but also the disadvantage of the drug, they are not going to effectively and efficiently utilize this plant,” Bid said.
Because the Fond du Lac Cannabis Corp. is providing an opportunity for education and economic growth in the region, the project has been receiving the support of various state agencies. The project received a $250,000 grant and a $2.5 million loan from the IRRRB and a nearly $31,000 pre-development grant from DEED for its partnership with FDLTCC.
Fond du Lac Cannabis Corp. is providing a strong framework through education and infrastructure, so Whitebird is hopeful the Fond du Lac Band’s cannabis industry will remain resilient years down the line when large corporate ventures are challenging smaller operations.
Whitebird, who has worked in the cannabis industry since 2015, believes corporate consolidation of the industry is almost inevitable. However, because the Fond du Lac Band is a sovereign nation that can make ordinances not beholden to state regulations, she believes that the band, along with other tribal nations, is uniquely positioned to take on corporate cannabis.
“They're going to be the gatekeepers of this because if we think everyone's scared about, and I am, too, the beverage companies and pharmaceuticals coming in, who's going to be able to compete with them? Tribes,” Whitebird said.
Whitebird believes that by legalizing and producing cannabis, Fond du Lac Band is offering her people more than just an economic opportunity. Whitebird, who has a deep cultural connection to plants, sees the medicinal qualities cannabis brings. With that, her primary concern is producing and providing her people with a quality product.
Growing up on the Fond du Lac Reservation, Whitebird recalls seeing many people struggle and die from addiction, which she believes stems from a deep generational trauma. Whitebird believes cannabis may remedy those addictions by being more accessible than harder, more addictive drugs.
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“Marijuana is already impacting other people in other states and making their lives better,” she said. “I’m sure it’s going to do the same for my people because it's a plant.”
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