More than a thousand band members gathered at Mille Lacs Tuesday to hear their new chief executive's State of the Band address. Melanie Benjamin defeated former executive Marge Anderson last June. Her campaign stressed accountability and reform. Yesterday's speech amplified those ideas. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill has this Mainstreet report. { Benjamin's central theme was courage. She reminded the attentive audience of the courage shown by past generations of Ojibwe. They were warriors in the past and in more recent conflicts ranging from the Great War to the Gulf War, and they defended their language, their religion, and their treaty rights.