David Glass, a Metropolitan State University
graduate,
and his wife, Pam, are co-owners of two cafes and community centers
in St. Paul’s Como Lake area. Each shop celebrates Glass’ Ojibwe
heritage with original Ojibwe artifacts.
Education opened the doors to Black Bear Crossings
David Glass, 51, is uncomfortable with the idea of being called a business success. "Success, like learning, is a long process – never done," he says. "Success comes from seeing opportunities and taking them."
"Education!" He stops to think then grows passionate. “When you have an education, you’re more likely to see the opportunities that build success. The more education you have, the more opportunities seem to be there."
Glass, a Minnesota Ojibwe and member of the White Earth Nation's Bear Clan, has woven together the tribal and urban education experiences from his youth with the education he received at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, one of the 34 Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
Today, his two St. Paul cafes “Black Bear Crossings” and “Black Bear Crossings On The Lake,” opened in 1997 and 2000, respectively, have become community gathering spots.
A visitor can order a hot breakfast on a cold winter morning, then pause to enjoy the decorative motif, art and crafts – most from the Ojibwe culture.
He waves away any suggestion that he’s different from his American Indian brothers and sisters. Like many, he stumbled through some tough times with a sense of worthlessness, bouts with alcoholism and drugs, and a couple of bounces from school. But the voice of his father followed him, no matter what mess he’d gotten himself into: "Get an education."
“Make that education work for you – and for your people,” his father also told him.
Some years later, straightened out and with a four-year degree under his belt, Glass felt prepared for his Ojibwe naming ceremony, one of the most important events of his tribal life. His spiritual leader called him Zhawanuinini, "the man from the south who walks between two bears".
His Ojibwe name describes him perfectly, he says. As his name suggests, he is indeed on a journey, flanked by two bears, in search of knowledge about his heritage.
To Glass, one bear represents those who dismiss American Indians as poverty-stricken people with little to contribute – a belief held even by some American Indians. The other bear expresses those who celebrate the ancient learning of harmony between people and their natural world.
“Walking between those two bears, I’m doing everything I can to help my Indian brothers and sisters see education as the step they must take toward a better life,” Glass said.
At the same time, Glass is using his business savvy and courage to put American Indian culture, its challenges and its successes, into the Minnesota spotlight.
For example, he is chair of the Urban Advisory Council, which brings issues and concerns of the urban Indian population to the state’s Indian Affairs Council. He is active in helping families of the White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota (his childhood reservation) and he finds ways to connect urban youth with their heritage.
A birch bark canoe hanging from the ceiling of Black Bear Crossings On The Lake, in the pavilion in Como Park, is a tribute to such a project. In summer 2001, Glass invited two respected craftspeople from White Earth to spend eight weeks with 20 urban American Indian children. During their free time, this inexperienced teenage crew built an exact replica of an Ojibwe canoe in Black Bear Crossing's shed.
“Every piece of this canoe is from nature,” Glass says proudly. “Even the seams are sealed with pine pitch and deer tallow.”
Working together, this group of urban kids learned to appreciate their culture, where community remains a critical ingredient. But Glass' job is not done until every one of them finishes high school and goes on for more education.
At every turn, Glass seems to form community links. “Let me buy your breakfast today,” he says to an 8-year-old who has just played in his first soccer match. Elsewhere in the pavilion facing Como Lake, several groups are holding conferences, free of charge.
“That’s our way,” he says, recalling how important belonging to a community was when he began at Metropolitan State University.
Four instructors, also American Indian, kept encouraging him, not only to do well in his work but to be involved in campus social life. As a result, he became an active force in a culturally diverse student group – each member valuing the gifts of the other.
Today Glass celebrates the cultural Ojibwe education he’s received from his elders, as he appreciates the formal education from Metropolitan State. He believes that his Bear Clan’s values of courage, strength, resiliency and protection gave him what he needed to enter the university, stay in the program and then graduate.
Glass says his university education is helping him strengthen clan values and pass them along to other American Indian citizens.
Is business success Glass’ goal? “Only if it helps me bring our many communities together, to make us each learn from and respect what the other has to offer.”