University of Michigan

Univ. of Michigan to Remove American Indian Diorama

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Something has long seemed amiss in the spacious halls of the University of Michigan’s Exhibit Museum of Natural History.

Nestled among exhibits of ancient dinosaur bones, prehistoric fossils and avian taxidermy, miniature 3-D scenes depicting Native Americans have been on display for decades.

Indian faculty members, students and others who visit have often felt the dioramas were out of place in the museum. Soon, to many Natives’ delight, they will be taken out.

“We are living, breathing, contemporary human beings,” said Margaret Noori, a professor of Ojibwe language and literature at the University of Michigan. “Many of us felt it was wrong that we had been represented so long as little dolls in the context of a natural history museum.”

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Meg Noori in the Freep

Kate Fort

Patricia Montemurri at The Freep profiles Meg Noori, a University of Michigan professor who teaches Anishinaabemowin.  Click through for some nice photos and an audio clip of her class.

“Izhaadaa Giizhigowaande!

Catch Margaret (Meg) Noori at any University of Michigan event and that’s how she exhorts fellow Wolverines to “Let’s Go, Blue.”

Meg, 43, is a professor of Ojibwe Language and Literature. In the classroom and at home, she seeks to celebrate and preserve a language of the American Indians who populated the Great Lakes region for several hundred years before European settlers arrived.

Using the language of her ancestors every day, says Meg, “is one of the most meaningful things I can do.”

“Inside Tribal Politics” Panel at UM on Monday, Nov. 10

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

I will be sitting on a panel on tribal governments on Monday with Ada Deer and David Cornsilk at the University of Michigan.

Tribal Politics Flyer

Panelist Biographies

University of Michigan Anishinaabemowin Classes Profiled

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

In USA Today:

DETROIT (AP) — The statistics might not be promising, but personal experience offers Brooke Simon hope that her ancestors’ language won’t disappear.

Lecturer Margaret Noori leads a weekly Ojibwe language study group at the University of Michigan, Thursday, April 3, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“I can walk down the street and hear someone yell ‘aanii!’ from across the street,” said the 20-year-old University of Michigan student, referring to a greeting in Ojibwe, or Anishinaabemowin. “Students aren’t afraid to use the language and learn about this language.”

Simon participates in the Ann Arbor university’s Program in Ojibwe Language and Literature, one of the largest of its kind in the nation. It seeks to teach and preserve the American Indian language spoken by about 10,000 in more than 200 communities across the Great Lakes region — but 80% of them are older than 60.

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Detroit News: Tribe Demands Remains from U-M

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Detroit News:

ANN ARBOR — On the wooden shelves of a University of Michigan laboratory, thousands of relics — ceramic bowls, copper beads and stone and bone tools — await the careful eyes of researchers.

The ancient burial artifacts provide rich details about vibrant cultures that hunted, fished, raised crops and traded goods throughout the Great Lakes and beyond, archaeologists say.

But a group of Native Americans led by the Saginaw Chippewa of Mount Pleasant say hundreds of human remains, and the funerary objects buried with them, are being wrongly held and they are asking U-M to return them so they can be reburied.

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Saginaw Chippewa Tribe to address U of M Board of Regents regarding Ancestral Remains held by U of M

ilpc

From the email announcement:

CALLING OUT FOR SUPPORT!

The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe (SCIT) was just notified that
a request was granted to address the University of Michigan’s Board of
Regents during their meeting TOMORROW, Thursday, March 20. The meeting
will begin at 3pm in the Regent’s Room of the Fleming Administration
Bldg. in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Joseph Sowmick, SCIT Public Relations Director, will read a
5-minute statement during the Public Comment session regarding the 1,200
or more “culturally unaffiliated” ancestral remains and their associated
funerary objects that are being held by the University of Michigan.

The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe is asking for a unified
mobilization of support from all Anishinabe people. MACPRA
representatives and Ogitchedaw (George Martin will be present with his
Eagle Staff) are strongly encouraged to attend. All interested peoples
who support the return of our ancestral remains, please join us.

We are planning to meet in the plaza between 2-3pm in front of
the Fleming Administration Bldg. located on Thompson St. All present
will not be able to go into the Regent’s Room, but a delegation of
support can be present in the plaza.

Cherokee Freedmen, 40 Acres, and a Mule

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Atlantic:

Up From Slavery

How great a difference would the famous “40 acres and a mule”— the plot of land promised to freed slaves after the Civil War but never distributed—have made to the long-term prospects of African Americans? In a new paper, a University of Michigan economist examines the fortunes of slaves freed after the Civil War by the Cherokee Nation. As Cherokee citizens, these freedmen were granted the right to “claim and improve any unused land in the Nation’s public domain.” Analyzing farm data from 1880, 15 years after emancipation, the paper finds that a black freedman in a Cherokee community was five times as likely to be a landowner as the typical African American in the former Confederacy. The average black Cherokee man owned livestock worth 80 to 90 percent as much as the livestock of a nonblack Cherokee citizen, whereas the typical Southern black’s livestock was worth only 45 to 60 percent as much as the livestock of the average white man. And the data suggest that Cherokee blacks were more likely to make savvy long-term investments: in 1880, 60 percent of Cherokee freedmen farmers had planted peach and apple trees (which take three to seven years to bear fruit), compared with only 5 percent of black landowners in the South. This evidence, the author concludes, vindicates General O. O. Howard, the superintendent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, who claimed that “more might have been done to develop the industry and energy of the colored race if I had been able to furnish each family with a small tract of land to till for themselves.”

—“The Righteous and Reasonable Ambition to Become a Landholder: What Would Have Happened If Former Slaves Had Received Land After the Civil War?,” Melinda Miller, University of Michigan

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Granholm – Hearing Tomorrow

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The Eastern District of Michigan (Judge Lawson) will hear cross-motions for summary judgment tomorrow in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Granholm. Here are some of the materials:

Cantrell Motion for Summary Judgment

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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.”

Winona LaDuke to Visit Ann Arbor — Nov. 12

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Sponsored by: The Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs and the Trotter Multicultural Center as part of

Native American Heritage Month

 

Winona LaDuke

 

United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People

 

November 12, 2007

7:00-8:30PM

 

Trotter Multicultural Center, Lounge

1443 Washtenaw Ave.

(10 minute walk from Diag)

 

Winona LaDuke is an Ojibwe activist, environmentalist, economist and writer. In 1994, Time Magazine named LaDuke one of the nation’s 50 most promising leaders under the age of 40.

LaDuke was named Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine in 1997 and won the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1998. Additionally, she ran as the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000 with Ralph Nader.

At the age of 18, she addressed the United Nations for the first time and we are fortunate enough to have her with us as she offers some of her thoughts on the significance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

 

The flyer is here: Winona LaDuke Flyer