In his brilliant book about his participation in the American political experiment, “Time Present, Time Past,” former New Jersey senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley offered this telling observation about the need for heroes in a democracy:
“…it is in our local communities that the real heroes live. They are individuals like Dorothy Bradley, Deborah Floyd, Ada Deer and Reverend Watley, whose humanity calls out to us….”
Wisconsinites will note the name of Ada Deer on that list of heroes whom Bradley identified during his travels around the country. Deer is the first woman chair of the Menominee Nation who went on to serve as assistant secretary for Indian affairs at the U.S. Interior Department and as director of American Indian studies at UW-Madison.