Michigan Indian

Makwa, a Song About a Bear

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Kenny Pheasant’s got a lovely singing voice.

How the song came to be…

One morning when I went to teach at a local school , the first chorus of a song came to me that I had heard about a year ago. So, as I was driving, I began to sing it. This inspired me to write some additional verses that came to me very naturally. When I got to school that day, I taught it to the children and they loved it. We sang it every day for about two weeks. One day when I was leaving the school, the bus drivers met me at the door and said, “Mr. Pheasant, could you please teach the children another song, because we want to hear a different one now”. I guess what the children were doing was singing this song on the bus on the way to school and on the way back, every single day.

[from Kenny’s Anishinaabemdaa website, sponsored by the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians]

LCC Talk — Son-Non-Quet Gould — Nov. 27

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

“HOW AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES WERE POLITICALLY RECREATED IN THE 20TH CENTURY”

Or

“HOW AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES CAME TO BE”

Presented by Son-Non-Quet Gould

Okema (Chief) of the Swan Creek Black River Confederated Ojibwa Tribes of Michigan

At this presentation Mr. Gould will examine the tribal policies of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and their ramifications for American Indians. He will be giving special attention to the Wheeler-Howard Act or the Indian Re-Organization Act of 1934.

Okema Son-Non-Quet (Gerald) Gould has taught American Indian Studies at Central Michigan University, Saginaw Valley State University and Lansing Community College (HUMS 225, Great Lakes Native American History and Traditions) and been a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Mott College, the National Council of Social Studies, the Michigan Council of Social Studies, the State of Michigan and a Cub Scout Pack in Grand Ledge, Michigan. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University, former Fellow at Michigan State University in Native American Studies and Visiting Fellow at Harvard University on Michigan Indian Tribal Governments and Constitutions.

Mr. Gould is of Anishnaabeg (Ojibwa) ancestry, and is currently Okema (Chief) of the Swan Creek Black River Confederated Ojibwa Tribes of Michigan, a State Historic Tribe (de Lac Ste. Claire, Anchor Bay and Lac Nipissing Tribes of Michigan). He is also the Great-Great Grand Son of Okema Pay-me-quo-ung, (1813-1888), Tribal Chief of the Swan Creek Black River Ojibwa Tribe (Signatory to the Treaties of 1855 and 1864).

In his role as Okema, Mr. Gould has testified before the United States Senate Select Committee on American Indian Affairs and the U.S. House Resources Committee on American Indian Affairs. Mr. Gould is currently a thirty-two year senior staff member with the State of Michigan.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 4:30 PM,

ROOM 205 B, A&S Building, LCC

(next to the Kennedy Cafeteria)

 

Presented by the CIIE, Center for International and Intercultural Education Office,

Dr. Stephen Appiah-Padi, Director

For more information, call the CIIE at 517-483-9963 or 483-1006 or email hayhoe@lcc.edu

Manoomin Project — Planting Wild Rice in U.P.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Earthtimes.org:

(Marquette, Michigan) – Teenagers planted wild rice on Saturday in a four-year effort to restore the grain to northern Michigan with help from American Indian guides.

Delayed six weeks due to a severe drought that hampered Midwest wild rice production, at-risk teens on Saturday (November 3, 2007) planted several miles of the Dead River near Marquette beating a snowstorm that arrived Monday afternoon.

The groundbreaking Manoomin Project has teamed hundreds of at-risk teens with American Indian guides who have planted over a ton of wild rice since the summer of 2004 .

Manoomin means wild rice in Ojibwa.

Wild rice disappeared from Michigan over a century ago and is a vital part of Native American ceremonies and traditions.

“You are the first ones to bring wild rice back to the area,” the teens were told by American Indian guide Dave Anthony of Marquette. “I am pleased that you are here and what you are doing today is very important.”

“This is very, very significant, this is a gift from the creator, it’s food grown on the water,” said Anthony, who attends Northern Michigan University (NMU) and belongs to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa (Ottawa) Indian based in Harbor Springs, MI. “Wild rice is the original North American grain and is very nutritious.”

The importance of the project was not lost on the teens who picked up a few Ojibwa words.

“Megwiich,” said Danny Carello, 13, of Ishpeming saying “thank you” to nature in Ojibwa while carefully tossing wild rice seeds into a small pond along the Dead River.

Inland Settlement Consent Decree Materials

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

The final documents are here

Stipulation

Consent Decree [sans appendices]

Sixth Circuit Opinion — Denial of Motion to Intervene by Amici

Bay Mills Charlotte Beach Land Settlement Bill Update

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

From the Port Huron Times Herald: “Stupak’s bill is the latest of several attempts to win congressional and presidential approval of the Aug. 23, 2002, land swap approved by then-Gov. John Engler and Bay Mills, a Chippewa band based at Brimley in the eastern Upper Peninsula.“The tribe gave up its long-standing claim to 110 acres of property at Charlotte Beach, a community on the St. Marys River, in exchange for a reservation on the 15-acre Thomas Edison Inn property in Port Huron.”

Details about H.R. 2176 are here.

Bay Mills’ claim against the State of Michigan in regards to Charlotte Beach was dismissed in 2001 by the Michigan Court of Appeals. The opinion is here.

More Impacts of Prop. 2 — Financial Aid

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

As the news about the 2007-2008 academic year comes out, we will be following the impact of Prop. 2 on minority students and communities in Michigan, with an emphasis on American Indian students.

Details from the Detroit News: “A record number of new freshmen flocked to Michigan public universities this fall, but some scholarship opportunities for the 40,674 students have dried up in light of Proposal 2.

“The constitutional amendment passed by voters last November not only banned preferences based on race and gender in public university admissions, but also shut down financial aid programs geared toward those targeted groups.

“Scholarships for women in engineering, single mothers, Hispanic scholars and high-achieving black students are among the programs that have been eliminated or altered at some of the state’s 15 public universities. In general, university leaders said they didn’t take away scholarships they promised students before Proposal 2 took effect Dec. 23, but the challenge has been how to help incoming classes without violating the law.”

***

“The Alumni Association of the University of Michigan decided this fall to establish race- and gender-based scholarships after assurances from lawyers that doing so wouldn’t violate the law, leaders said.

“The board set aside $650,000 in seed money and anticipates awarding the first scholarships for incoming students in 2008.

“We wanted to be able to make it possible for alumni and others who want to provide support to do so,” said alumni association president Steve Grafton. “They can’t do that with the university and we can provide that opportunity for them.

“And we are really interested in helping to maintain and build the diversity at the university. This is a recruiting tool that will help the university recruit the very brightest students of color, women in engineering and men in nursing,” he said.

“Much of the debate over Proposal 2 has focused on the University of Michigan, the only state university that admittedly used affirmative action in undergraduate admissions. But the impact of the new constitutional amendment can be felt around the state, as scholarships for students based, in part, on race, gender or ethnicity were not uncommon.

“Universities initiated reviews of all of their scholarship programs. Central Michigan University found four scholarships that involved preferences. CMU didn’t change two slated for Native Americans because they believe those scholarships are based on sovereignty status, not on race.“

New Blog Design

ilpc1 Comment

We’ve redesigned the look of Turtle Talk already, and wanted to note that the artwork at the top of the page is part of a larger piece done for the Indigenous Law and Policy Center by Zoey Woods-Salomon. Zoey is an citizen of the Ottawa Nation, Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, ON, Canada. Her longer biography is here, which includes links to selected pieces of her work.

In this small strip of the larger work, the three suns represent the People of the Three Fires, and the twelve rays represent the twelve federally recognized tribes in Michigan.

Two Casinos in Romulus? Unlikely….

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the Romulus Roman: “It’s possible that the City of Romulus may house two casinos, after all.”Representatives from the Sioux Indians contacted the city recently to restart negotiations that had halted in 2004. The tribe successfully lobbied the city for a ballot issue in 2003 that paved the way for gaming in the city.

“Mayor Alan Lambert said the interest of the tribe could mean that two casinos as opposed to one could be constructed near Detroit Metropolitan Airport.”

***

“In 2005, the Hannahville Indian Tribe signed a deal with the city to open a casino on Vining Road near the airport. State and federal approvals are still pending on that proposal.”

I think they mean “Sault” Indians, not “Sioux” Indians. In any event, the chances of this happening any time soon are paltry at best.

Native Heritage Month at MSU

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

You can download the calendar here: MSU Native Heritage Month Calendar

Highlights include Pat LeBeau’s talk on mascots on the 7th and NALSA’s panel, Tribal Extinction, featuring Marilyn Vann of the Cherokee Freedmen, on the 9th.

U-M Minority Admissions Drops Slightly

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From AP: “Fewer black and American Indian students are attending the University of Michigan’s main campus this fall in the wake of the passage of an anti-affirmative action ballot proposal.”Total enrollment increased by 1,017 students, or 2.5 percent, to more than 41,000 this fall, a record. But the school said Thursday that black student enrollment dropped 3.3 percent and the number of American Indians decreased 1.2 percent.

“Hispanic student enrollment was up 1 percent, while the number of white students increased 2.1 percent.”

From the Chronicle: “The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor said today it had managed to avoid a steep decline in the number of black, Hispanic, and Native American students in this fall’s entering freshman class, the first to be admitted after Michiganders voted a year ago to amend their state’s Constitution to prohibit public higher-education institutions from considering applicants’ race or ethnicity.

“Officials at the university cautioned, however, that much of this fall’s class was admitted before its admissions office began complying with the ban on affirmative-action preferences, known as Proposal 2, on January 10.

“Theodore Spencer, the university’s associate vice provost and director of undergraduate admissions, said in a statement issued yesterday that “the full impact of Proposal 2 is not reflected in the current year’s enrollment numbers because it took effect midway through the admissions cycle.” The university will “have a more accurate indication of its potential impact in fall 2008,” he said.”