by By Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
Educated at CMU, SCIT Chief Ron Ekdahl strives daily to honor the past and focus on the future
Fighting is in Ronnie Ekdahl’s blood. His grandfather and great uncles were boxers in the 1950s and ’60s, and Ronnie – a coming-into-his-own teen-ager – figured he’d give it a go, too.
“They were tough,” Ekdahl says of his grandfather et al. “That’s what they did. They fought … and they were good at it.”
Ronnie entered a boxing tournament in Traverse City, lost both of his bouts in his first, and, as it turned out, last boxing tournament. Getting hit in the face wasn’t all that appealing to Ekdahl.
Everybody, it’s said, has a plan until they get hit in the mouth. At the end of the day, it isn’t about how many times you take a hit, but about how many times you get up, and about learning about how to counterpunch, fend off the uppercut, win on points.
“My grandfather, right after my fights, he was in his 70s, and he’s right in my face,” Ekdahl says. “‘You need to move, you need to duck, you need to work on your cardio, you need to work on your stamina.'”
YOUTHFUL ENERGY
Two bouts in, Ekdahl was finished with boxing.
But working on his cardio, his stamina, and learning to duck and to move – developing some savvy – well, he was just getting started. He was finished with boxing, but taking a major step on his way to manhood. Real toughness is slow-cooked, and not earned in three-minute rounds with the gloves up.
The morning after his boxing debut-turned-swansong in Traverse City, Ekdahl, a high school junior, was on the Central Michigan University campus for workout with the Chippewa football coaches. He was physically and emotionally exhausted.
But he showed up. He showed up.
And that had become, and continues to be, the ethos of Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Chief Ronnie Ekdahl.
He watched his parents, well in their adulthoods, endure and overcome long odds to earn their college degrees; he walked on to the Central Michigan football team and eventually becomes a starter on back-to-back Mid-American Conference championship teams; he earned his own college degree; and became the Chief of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe at just 31 years old.
Chief Ronnie Ekdahl’s story is one of perseverance, of achieving goals, of growth. It’s about showing up, and of getting up.
HERE YOU ARE
Ronnie Ekdahl was elected Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Chief in 2017 while serving in just his second term on Tribal Council.
The goal-oriented Ekdahl was just 31 years old, one of the youngest Chiefs in SCIT history. He and his wife Rosemary were – and still are — raising a young family when he was elected.
By that time in his life, Ekdahl had learned a lesson that some spend a lifetime seeking: You control what you can, and you accept what you cannot.
Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth. Sometimes, that ‘hit’ is the sweet kiss of fate, something you want. It’s about how you react to it that truly defines a person. Showing up is one thing, being prepared to deal with it another.
“At the swearing in, it was ‘OK, you’re the Chief of the Tribe and (I was) introduced to the community as Chief Ronnie Ekdahl, the new Chief of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe,'” Ekdahl says. “All of that weight, I felt it, I felt it on my shoulders.
“It was a highly emotional moment because of the weight, the gravity of the situation, and everything that was taking place. It’s a sink-or-swim situation. What’re you going to do? You’re the guy, you’ve got to make decisions.”
Ekdahl’s senses were, and continue to be, heightened as he first embraced the role and then grew into it. He is often the youngest person in the room at any given meeting involving tribal personnel.
Being Chief and a member of tribal council carries a lot of responsibility. Their collective decisions affect all Tribal members, directly or indirectly.
TAKING NOTE
Last fall, Ekdahl was named as a 40 Under 40 Award recipient by The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. The award goes to individuals under age 40 who have demonstrated leadership, initiative and dedication, and have made significant contributions in business and in their respective communities.
Barely a year after becoming one of the youngest Chiefs in SCIT history, the deferential-to-a-fault Ekdahl was recognized as one of the shining young stars in Indian Country.
“It was just an incredible honor, so inspiring, so humbling to be with these professionals, truly rock stars at what they do,” he says. “The only reason I have the recognition is because of my Tribe, because of what the leaderships of the past had the vision and had the drive to create that which has sustained us and has given us everything that we have today.”
And who is Ronnie Ekdahl today? The former defensive lineman strikes an imposing physical presence. His shoulders are broad, and, with a nudge, he appears as though he could step back on the football field and chase down a quarterback or stop a running back in his tracks.
But he’s more than a decade removed from his days in a Central Michigan football uniform. Now, it’s about understanding and smarts, not about brawn. It’s about learning to be a leader for his nation.
“I have to be mindful of it all the time,” Ekdahl says. “That maturing process is taking a step back and recognizing that you want to accomplish a goal, but you have to take into consideration everything that has happened, what this decision’s affect is going to be going forward, and really doing the best that you can to take in everybody’s reality.”
SHOW DON’T TELL
Ronnie Ekdahl watched his parents graduate from college while they worked full-time jobs and raised a family.
“They didn’t miss any of my athletic events,” Ekdahl says. “They were there, and they were attentive to everything that went on.”
Young Ronnie was attentive, too, and he learned valuable lessons about perseverance and goal-setting from his parents.
His father, Ron, was an Army veteran who put himself through diesel mechanic school at Ferris State University; his mother, Bonnie, earned her degree from CMU.
“I remember sitting in Rose Arena watching my mom walk across the stage and I think that set the standard, set a precedence: It’s not unattainable to get a college education and to work full time,” Ekdahl says. “They set that example. There were barriers, but they got it done.”
They got it done.
“I think that goes to what I do today,” he says. “I can’t just quit. I can’t quit being the Chief even if I have a bad day. I can’t just walk away. There’s too much at stake, you work too hard and it comes down to that: Show up every day. You go to work.
“That’s what you do; you take things as they come at you and do your best to win, to strategize, figure out, problem solve. In the professional realm, that’s what you call it. In the sports world, it’s winning.”
‘IT’S WINNING’
Ronnie Ekdahl, long before he chose the path to tribal leadership – or it chose him, whichever you prefer – had a more short-term goal. He wanted an education. He knew he needed an education. Where that led, who knew?
He walked on to the Central Michigan football team after graduating from Bullock Creek High School. Walking on is akin to showing up at the concert without a ticket. Yeah, you can hear the music, but you ain’t part of things until, well, you prove yourself.
The first step to that? Showing up: Practice, weight-lifting sessions, team meetings. Ekdahl continued to show up and eventually worked his way into a starting spot on the defensive line and helped the Chippewas to back-to-back MAC titles in 2006-07.
Chief Ronnie Ekdahl, former walk-on, Native kid – the first Chippewa to play for the Chippewa football program – understands what it’s like to start on the bottom rung of the ladder.
He’s not self-made. He made the most of himself.
“I don’t learn how to compete, I don’t learn how to work hard, I don’t learn the gratification of a job well done (with football),” Ekdahl says, breaking into a how-did-I-get-here expression. “I’m playing with guys who are going to be NFL Hall of Fame players one day — one day soon. With guys who are still in the (NFL) that have been there for 10 years. No. 1 draft picks, first-rounders, the top receiver in the NFL, the top quarterback in college football history.
“And I shared the roster with them. That’s so crazy.”
TRANSITIONING
Not so crazy, though, that Ekdahl took those hard-earned lessons cultivated through sweat on the field and in the weight room and through showing up on time for team meetings and transferred them into his post-football life that has led him here, to the most-important position in the Tribe.
He lives today, he says, by a philosophy passed on to him and his teammates by then-CMU coach Brian Kelly, evoking memories of comeback wins led by former teammates Dan LeFevour and Antonio Brown.
Kelly, Ekdahl says, would sound a familiar refrain: “Let’s hang around, let’s hang around, hang around until the fourth quarter and we’ll see how it ends up.
“You hang around, you do the work; it’s every player, every play, doing the little things. And there’s our shot. It translates so much to the professional realm.
“‘No, today wasn’t a perfect day; that meeting didn’t go great; this sales pitch maybe fell through;’ whatever it is. Hang around; hang around. Maybe this is that two-minute drill where everything works perfectly, and we win the game. You caught them with your sales pitch on the right day.
“Do those little things to give you a chance to be there in the winner’s circle.”
WALKING THE WALK
Some 18 months into his term as SCIT Chief, Ronnie Ekdahl is fully aware he doesn’t know it all, doesn’t even pretend to know it all. What he knows is to keep his eyes and ears open, hang in.
He takes note of people, of things. His savvy is getting better, and he’s learning to trust his instincts.
He’s added a workout regimen to his daily schedule. Sound body, sound mind. When weather permits, he laces up a pair of running shoes and heads out, alone and on foot, from the SCIT offices at the corner of Broadway and Leaton roads.
He runs the sidewalks along the residential areas surrounding the offices. The SCIT economic driver, the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, a stone’s throw away, as are the Tribe’s police department, wellness center and its care and elder services building.
Chief Ekdahl is, at the end of the day, in charge of all of it. Running, he says, is part of a commitment to become more physically active and take control of his health. He has shed 30 pounds in a year – working on his cardio, his stamina. He’s also leading, setting an example, and making himself accessible. He’s the Chief, yes; but he’s in shorts and a T-shirt, not a suit and tie, and there is no desk between him and his fellow Tribal members.
He’s one of us.
“I think what it really does for me is it’s walking the walk,” he says. “I can tell you all about our health problems on the reservation; I could tell you all about the good things that physical activity will do for you.
“But if you see the Chief out running and it’s 90 degrees out – I’ve done that – it does something to people. I don’t know if it gives them a sense of pride, or it gives them a sense of ‘Wow, look he’s out doing something.’ I think it inspires people.”
Hard to put a finger on leadership, be it on the football field, as an elected official, or at home.
Tough isn’t stepping into the boxing ring as a teenager to carry on a family tradition, and it isn’t squaring off for 60 minutes across the line of scrimmage with an offensive lineman. Doing those things takes a mean streak.
The truly tough part is channeling that into a patient conscientiousness tempered by a strong backbone.
“We have a lot of issues with health care, we have a lot of issues with obesity and diabetes and I want to be an example for my community, yeah, but I want to be an example for my children as well,” Ekdahl says. “I want them to see a healthy role model in their own father.”
SHORT- AND LONG-TERM
There are no fast returns on personal health, setting an example, holding yourself to high standards, to leadership. The success of those aren’t measured in first downs or touchdowns, and the outcome is not always necessarily evident after four quarters.
No, it’s a process. For a man who is still relatively young, Chief Ronnie Ekdahl gets it. The decisions he makes today will have a lifetime of consequence.
It’s critical, he says, that Tribal traditions are preserved and protected, celebrated and respected. In the same breath, he recognizes the need for progressive thinking. He’s been a goal-setter since the beginning, aiming in five years to be on the Tribal Council and then, sometime thereafter, to be the Chief.
His thinking for the entire Tribe is equally as pragmatic.
“The Tribe is so powerful and we’re so fortunate for everything that it does for us as Tribal members,” Ekdahl says. “I want that to be around for my children. I want them to have the same opportunities that I had. And I want their children to have the same opportunities.
“As leaders, when we talk about working together for our future. That’s where it’s at. It’s for our future, it’s for our youth, and that’s where a lot of my passion comes from, the youth. And that was before I was a father. I worked with youth and I recognized that they’re going to be our neighbors, they’re going to be our colleagues, they’re going to be our co-workers one day.
“And what kind of experiences do we want them to have? And what can we provide for them? That’s nation building and that’s the opportunity that I have as a tribal leader, to build that nation.”
EVOLUTION
Fighting, competing, winning – and, sometimes, losing – is part of Chief Ronnie Ekdahl’s constitution. Always has been, and when you stop learning, you stop evolving, and then you just stop.
For him, it’s always been about getting up, working on his cardio, improving his stamina, finding a way, be it through football or through compromise and teamwork with fellow SCIT members.
You hang around, you do the work; it’s every player, every play, doing the little things. And there’s our shot.
In that sense, Chief Ronnie Ekdahl is no different than any of his former teammates, any student, any coach, any husband, any father, or any tribal member.
He listens, he watches, he runs, he adapts, he shows up, he learns.
And he leads.
Tough means something to a teenager lacing up the boxing gloves for the first time, and something else to a college football walk-on who becomes a starter and, eventually, a champion.
Tough means something altogether different to a husband, a father, a Chief. At the end of the day, it still means getting up and showing up.
“I think eventually,” Ekdahl says. “I’ll get there.”
