Letters To The Editor
Gratitude to cherished Elks for sponsoring the reunion, vital car dealerships for providing beverages, the Northern Plains Independent for sustaining freedom’s printing press and everyone making Wolf Point special — including local accents and humor.
Reunion members often reflect on Main Street vibrancy. The “boomerang dollar” reminds: money spent locally can circulate 7–10 times, building trust and opportunity. Massive Hi-Line basketball gyms stand as monuments to a time before monopolies crushed local shops. Stock market corporations act like vacuum cleaners, sucking wealth out, leaving empty storefronts, turning towns into Williston/Billings economic suburbs; 17 independent Wolf Point businesses closed when Williston’s Super Walmart opened.
To pull money back, rural communities rely on public agencies like Fort Peck Dam, USDA, Highway Department, Job Service and Fish, Wildlife and Game. Glasgow has largely won the tug-ofwar to capture these economy- boosting offices. New technologies may accelerate wealth drain, and structural shifts like four-day school weeks ripple into lost businesses and weakened community life.
Can communities redesign to keep wealth, talent, opportunity rooted locally?
Solution: Immigrants doctors, lawyers, and engineers — would teach in Wolf Point if given the chance. To overcome recruitment barriers, tribal nations can assert their sovereign legal status. When Wood’s Power Grip left, some local businesses declined 25 percent.
Immigrants don’t replace local talent; they expand opportunity and fill vacant houses/buildings before all are burned. Nationally, immigrants or their children drive half of new businesses and technological breakthroughs, founding giants like Apple, Nvidia and Google. Bringing that energy anchors new boomerangs, global connections, and perspectives.
Jackie Gysler
