Margaret Noodin, Professor

[Advanced Smite]

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin Ojibwe Professor
Post by: fairbanks on April 15, 2022, 05:10:02 pm

Here's an interesting article about cultural appropriation within context of non-natives profiting off of learning native
languages.

https://medium.com/literature-and-social-change/give-me-back-my-language-d8244c817067

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Title: Re: Margaret Noodin Ojibwe Professor
Post by: Smart Mule on April 15, 2022, 05:58:03 pm

Non-Native people have commodified and even copy-righted Indigenous languages. They have stolen bodies of work that have belonged to tribes. I know of several instances of this personally and I am sure there are many more. If a person lacks ethics and monetizes the work they are doing for personal gain or notoriety when they are not part of that community, it's a serious issue. And ultimately, as shkodenhskwe and WIN have said, this is an Ojibwe issue and it HAS caused harm. This needs to be taken into account.

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Title: Re: Margaret Noodin Ojibwe Professor
Post by: advancedsmite on April 16, 2022, 12:13:12 am

Margaret was interviewed multiple times about diversity in education by Urban Milwaukee. Bolding and underlining added for emphasis by me.

It’s important that native students are taught by American Indian teachers, Noodin said, because diversity in the classroom will lead to better results overall.
“If you go to a school and you see a diverse group of teachers, you see a diverse groups of leaders in that school encouraging you to do your best, and in that group you can see yourself, you have a better chance for success,” she said.

https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2018/11/15/grant-helps-attract-native-american-teachers/

Margaret Noodin is the director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education at UW-Milwaukee, which is dedicated to strengthening American Indian education at all levels. She points out that it’s also not a simple matter of numbers — the diversity of tribal populations in the state means representation goes deeper than the racial categories in the state Department of Public Instruction’s data. “We should be actually taking enough of a nuanced look to say, where are there schools where there is a high population of Native students, and are there teachers in those schools that match that population?” she said. “Frankly, if you go and get a Cherokee teacher and say ‘Yay, we solved the teaching problem, we’ve got a Cherokee teacher teaching all of these Menominee students,’ that doesn’t actually solve the problem — it’s not someone who speaks Menominee, who experienced termination, who has the knowledge of what it’s like to be Menominee.”

Noodin pointed to the history of Native American boarding schools, which forcibly removed children from their parents and stripped them of their traditional language and culture to force them to assimilate into white society. That legacy, she said, means Native populations have unique concerns about education that may need to be addressed if schools want to cultivate a pipeline of Native teachers. “In the U.S., the federal government attempted to do harm to Native communities through education,” she said. “That’s partly why it’s been harder to get Native folks to say, ‘Yeah, I want to go to college, I want to be a teacher, I want to be a professor,’ because it’s been the way their communities have been harmed in the past.”

https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2020/06/30/k-12-teachers-dont-reflect-students-diversity/

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Title: Re: Margaret Noodin Ojibwe Professor
Post by: educatedindian on April 16, 2022, 01:51:57 am

Quote from: fairbanks on April 15, 2022, 05:10:02 pm

Here's an interesting article about cultural appropriation within context of non-natives profiting off of learning native languages.

https://medium.com/literature-and-social-change/give-me-back-my-language-d8244c817067

Nowhere does it talk about it being wrong to teach a language. Appropriation in novels and music.

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Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: educatedindian on April 16, 2022, 02:03:09 am

Quote from: shkodenhskwe on April 15, 2022, 04:34:51 pm

I came here to politely request that you do not speak on behalf of Ojibwes if you are not one. I am one. And that is also the harm done here. Noori has spoken on behalf of our people and our language and has mined community elders to build her resume and she is not Native. Not one ounce. There are other voices that speak on behalf of themselves, and that is our way.

Thank you to everyone in this forum who has contributed.

I learn my language from my elders and my family. We absolutely do not need a non-Native person teaching our language.

Hello, I never claimed to speak for anyone else. But we can all see plenty of support for Noodin among Ojibwe, most of all from her many students and the many elders she's worked with.

Bolding above and below is mine.

----------
https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/about-ojibwe-language
The variety of Ojibwe used in the Ojibwe People's Dictionary is the Central Southwestern Ojibwe spoken in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canadian border lakes communities. Today, it is spoken mainly by elders over the age of 70. Ethnologue reports 5,000 speakers of Southwestern Chippewa (Lewis, 2009), but a 2009 language census by language activists Keller Paap and Anton Treuer shows approximately 1,000 speakers in Minnesota and Wisconsin, with most located in the Red Lake community of Ponemah (Treuer, 2009).

The UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger lists Ojibwe in Minnesota as “severely endangered” and defines it as a language “spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves,” (UNESCO, 2010).

Revitalization efforts are underway, with immersion schools operating in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ojibwe has a growing number of second-language speakers, and the language is taught in many secondary and post-secondary classrooms throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario.

----------
That's 6,000 speakers out of over 300,000 Ojibwe. Less than 2% fluent, most of them over 70.

I can't think of a single example of anyone else, outside this thread, ever saying you must be of that people to teach the language, and I don't think anyone else can either. Does anyone remember a white teacher being fired or barred from teaching Spanish, Japanese, etc?

I never heard of Dineh, Hopi, or O'odham requiring Indian Only for the language programs when I was at ASU. The CNO
doesn't do this either.

-----------
https://anadisgoi.com/index.php/culture-stories/751-cherokee-nation-hiring-10-new-teachers-to-help-with-expansion-ofcherokee-language-program-immersion-school
Cherokee Nation needs 10 certified teachers, including one who has a special education certification. Applicants are not currently required to speak Cherokee but will be trained as part of the program.

“Preserving the Cherokee language and growing the number of Cherokee speakers is critical to the Cherokee Nation’s future,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “This will continue to be our priority, which is why I recently announced that we will create a second Cherokee language immersion school under the umbrella of the Cherokee Language Department. To help with these language preservation and perpetuation efforts, we need to hire new teachers who can help us achieve our goals. We will provide them with all of the tools and training they need to succeed while working with our language program.”

Many of the tribe’s current state-certified teaching staff are at or near the age of retirement, so the new teachers will help fill the gaps being left by those who are retiring, as well as fill the new jobs being created by expansion of the Cherokee language program.

“Education is such a critical component of our mission to not only save our beautiful Cherokee language, but to create an environment where the language grows into the daily lives of Cherokee society once again,” Deputy Chief Bryan Warner said. “We can and will accomplish this goal, and we’ll start by bringing in teachers who are committed to helping shape the minds of young Cherokees. These certified teaching careers are great opportunities for our educators.”

Those hired by the Cherokee Nation will go through approximately 30 months of training including 24 continuous months of Cherokee language learning within the Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program, along with six months of immersion school teaching methodology training and the study of other successful immersion school systems.

“We are asking anyone with the right heart and who are certified teachers to enlist with us to save our language,” Cherokee Nation Language Department Executive Director Howard Paden said. “Whoever applies will be asked to develop with us so they can become a more efficient Cherokee teacher. That way, we can do everything together, in unity, to preserve our Cherokee language. If anyone out there feels like they have the heart to get this accomplished, please apply today or reach out to us in the Cherokee Language Department and ask questions.”

[Advanced Smite]

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin Ojibwe Professor
Post by: fairbanks on April 16, 2022, 04:17:08 pm

Quote from: educatedindian on April 16, 2022, 01:51:57 am

Quote from: fairbanks on April 15, 2022, 05:10:02 pm

Here's an interesting article about cultural appropriation within context of non-natives profiting off of learning native languages.

https://medium.com/literature-and-social-change/give-me-back-my-language-d8244c817067

Nowhere does it talk about it being wrong to teach a language. Appropriation in novels and music.

That wasn't my point, nor the articles point. The point is that Noodin has profited off of Anishinaabemowin by selling a bunch of books, all while claiming a false Ojibwe identity.

As far as the idea that non-natives are needed to teach endangered native languages - I really disagree with your comparison of Spanish (a colonial language) being taught by Gringos. Also, the idea that it's inevitable that non-natives will be teaching native languages for the foreseeable future (maybe true in higher education spaces). I think it's potentially problematic because it can perpetuate and reinforce the historical minimization and erasure of more-than qualified natives who can teach but intentionally aren't picked by the colonial academic complex.

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Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: Smart Mule on April 16, 2022, 07:03:40 pm

https://anadisgoi.com/index.php/culture-stories/751-cherokee-nation-hiring-10-new-teachers-to-help-with-expansion-of-cherokee-language-program-immersionschool

Cherokee Nation needs 10 certified teachers, including one who has a special education certification. Applicants are not currently required to speak Cherokee but will be trained as part of the program.

“Preserving the Cherokee language and growing the number of Cherokee speakers is critical to the Cherokee Nation’s future,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “This will continue to be our priority, which is why I recently announced that we will create a second Cherokee language immersion school under the umbrella of the Cherokee Language Department. To help with these language preservation and perpetuation efforts, we need to hire new teachers who can help us achieve our goals. We will provide them with all of the tools and training they need to succeed while working with our language program.”

Many of the tribe’s current state-certified teaching staff are at or near the age of retirement, so the new teachers will help fill the gaps being left by those who are retiring, as well as fill the new jobs being created by expansion of the Cherokee language program.

“Education is such a critical component of our mission to not only save our beautiful Cherokee language, but to create an environment where the language grows into the daily lives of Cherokee society once again,” Deputy Chief Bryan Warner said. “We can and will accomplish this goal, and we’ll start by bringing in teachers who are committed to helping shape the minds of young Cherokees. These certified teaching careers are great opportunities for our educators.”

Those hired by the Cherokee Nation will go through approximately 30 months of training including 24 continuous months of Cherokee language learning within the Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program, along with six months of immersion school teaching methodology training and the study of other successful immersion school systems.

“We are asking anyone with the right heart and who are certified teachers to enlist with us to save our language,” Cherokee Nation Language Department Executive Director Howard Paden said. “Whoever applies will be asked to develop with us so they can become a more efficient Cherokee teacher. That way, we can do everything together, in unity, to preserve our Cherokee language. If anyone out there feels like they have the heart to get this accomplished, please apply today or reach out to us in the Cherokee Language Department and ask questions.”

This is about immersion school. I feel that immersion schools are the best way to target language reclaimation. There are a good number of immersion schools and summer programs in community in the US and Canada. Even the Minneapolis Public School System has Anishinabe Academy.

The issue with Margaret is her dishonesty that goes beyond just a couple of faux pas. There is a considerable time line of her eluding to or claiming to be Ojibwe, claiming her family is enrolled, claiming to be Eastern Metis (!!!), causing Diana to run in circles regarding genealogical claims (the still not addressed non-paternity event), claims of residential school, name dropping with an enormity that I have never before seen, it makes it hard to take her 'apology' seriously because again, it reads as self-promotion and she is still holding onto the claim of unproven ancestry. I don't really care who she has studied with or hung out with. I'm glad that she had a positive effect on some of her students. This does not change any of the above. She has been deceptive and continues to be. She notes on ojibwe.net

While I would not demand this level of detail from others, I offer the following simply to set the record straight. My ancestors’ names include: O’Donnell, Orr, Hill, Bernard, Bean, Lagunade, Lavallee and Monplaisir. My parents are Terry and Alice O’Donnell and my sister is Shannon. I have been legally married to James Benda, Jill Smith and Asmat Noori. I lived for many years with Red Elk Banks and my current partner in all things is Michael Zimmerman Jr. Asmat and I share two beautiful daughters whose heritage is even richer and more complex than my own.

She wouldn't demand this level of detail from others? This is how we introduce ourselves. Her "Positionality" statement is incredibly ego driven and ends with woe is me. If she had simply been truthful, which we have showed she has not, we wouldn't be here.

Edit to quote

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Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: Defend the Sacred on April 16, 2022, 07:08:35 pm

I work in language preservation. As a volunteer. I have often been approached by data-mining white people, hoping to learn without the checks and balances of cultural immersion. I have always said no. I have never taken money for language work. Rather, I donate regularly to language preservation and do whatever I can to support my Elders and colleagues.

Language is the heart of a culture. It is intertwined with ceremonial life. It is sacred.

I have language preservation colleagues in communities in the Eastern Woodlands, Plains and Pacific Northwest communities who have rescinded their former openness to white students because too many white students went on to use the language to construct pretendian identities. This may not be posted on pages you can google, but all of us in the field know about this problem.

We all know what is happening right now with the Lakota and the Penobscot's struggle for data sovereignty, as well as others who are facing similar thefts, with white people stealing texts and tapes of Elders then denying the Nations access to the materials. Some of these struggles have been documented in the press. Others are only known by word of mouth among those of us in the fight. Personal integrity and honesty is not a small matter when it comes to these issues.

Even when the white thieves have not denied access to the people they stole the materials from, even if they have achieved what they call fluency, not being from the culture we have seen them change the meanings of words to those of the white overculture, as they don't think and see through the lens of the Indigenous culture the language arises from. In this way, their work with the language contributes to cultural loss.

What Noodin has done, and continues to do, may have brought some words to a particular group of students. But she gained this access under false pretenses, and continued to misrepresent herself after it is clear she knew better. Then she came here and wasted people's time and energy. As someone who has repeatedly misrepresented herself, she cannot be trusted to honestly convey culture/language.

Her exploitation and commercialization of language does not excuse her fraud, it compounds it.

[Advanced Smite]

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: Smart Mule on April 16, 2022, 11:31:47 pm

https://turtletalk.blog/2013/01/18/native-women-language-keepers-indigenous-performance-practices-january-28th-tofebruary-1st-2013-university-of-michigan/*
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~petra/langkeep.html*

From "Native Women Language Keepers: Indigenous Performance Practices — January 28th to February 1st 2013, University of Michigan"

In the afternoon, we end our gathering with a presentation by Margaret Noori, followed by a communal reflection on aesthetics, women and performance. 2.00-4.30, Duderstadt Center, Conference Room 1180, North Campus.

Margaret Noori (Anishinaabe) received an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in English and Linguistics from the University of Minnesota. She is Director of the Comprehensive Studies Program and teaches the Anishinaabe Language and American Indian Literature at the University of Michigan. She is also one of the founders of the drum group Miskwaasining Nagamojig, current President of Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures, one of the Clan Mothers who coordinate the annual Native American Literature Symposium, and member of the Anishinaabemowin-Teg Executive Board. Her book Bwaajimowin: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature is forthcoming from MSU Press and her poetry has recently appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas and Cell Traffic by Heid Erdrich. For more information visit www.ojibwe.net where she and her colleagues have created a space for language that is shared by academics and the native community.
She will be work-shopping a chapter from a forthcoming book on Anishinaabe narrative traditions which traces the way “oral” traditions are actually “physical” performance traditions which carry thought into space and allow us to exchange our interpretations of the world around as word which becomes stage dialogue, story, lyrics or poetry.

Contact for information and queries, contact the symposium directors, Margaret Noori and Petra Kuppers: mnoori@umich.edu and petra@umich.edu

(my bolding and italics)

And directly from her CV associated with the above -
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5523.0;attach=3966 **

Artist in Residency Program Funding 2012
“Native Women Language Keepers: Indigenous Performance Practices”
University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies
Noodin, Margaret with Kuppers, Petra
(Funded at $15,000)

She was calling herself a Clan Mother. A CLAN MOTHER. With no clue who her supposed people were.

*Strikethrough added by advancedsmite during reconstruction of the thread to indicate a broken link. Content no longer available at Turtle Talk Blog. Added link to another site that contains the quoted text. The content has been saved offline should it become unavailable in the future. See attached PNG file to reference original thread.

**Strikethrough added by advancedsmite during reconstruction of the thread to indicate a broken link. See attached PNG file for reference.

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Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: WINative on April 17, 2022, 08:30:37 pm

This is from the 2018 Electa Quinney US Dept of Education grant application of her staff bio's at the time. This particular white woman is someone Margaret mentored and groomed to take over Native leadership programs in the Quinney Institute and at UWM. Besides orchestrating the drum she has also ran some pseudo ceremonies for students and later claimed to be Hawaiian since she lived there.

Maurina Paradise, Administrative Manager
Ms. Paradise's cultural competence is extensive, and she is a leader in the Multicultural
Network committee and across the UWM campus sharing information about American Indians,
striving to use her privilege as a white woman and create space for the voice and visibility of the
American Indian students and staff. Ms. Paradise participates with the student drumming group
by learning to understand and sing in Arusbinabemowin; motivated, not by any requirement, but
by her own volition to learn and better understand the culture and the community she is working
with and representing. In addition to the duties directly related to EQI, Ms. Paradise is an
instructor for American Indian Studies teaching AIS 101: Introduction to American Indian
studies. Every year nearly one hundred students enroll in AIS 101 to gain a better understanding of American Indians.

[Advanced Smite]

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: Smart Mule on April 18, 2022, 07:25:55 pm

https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/download/2229/2008/

"Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, I was in my forties at the time and am a second-language speaker affiliated with the
Grand Portage Band
of Chippewa Indians and Metis community of Quebec."

'Affiliated with' is very misleading. She leaves it up to the reader to determine what that means. Is she claiming her family is enrolled there like she has in the audio previously posted? Is that a community where she has friends and colleagues? And again with the eastern metis stuff. There is no such thing and as of yet she has not addressed this. What is her affiliation with this fraudulent and damaging community? Is she a member of one of their groups? Is she on a friendly basis with them? Does she go to their events? Having nothing to do with her being a faculty member, it's comments like these, that she claims to have not said, that are what concerns people. While she pseudo apologized she has not come out and said what the truth is, instead she pads her pseudo-apology with names and accomplishments instead of simply saying, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I am not these things, I should not have claimed them and I will stop claiming them, please forgive me. That's all that needed to be said rather than the egoboo that I don't think she realizes she is putting out there. Padding her pseudo-apology is something that has really angered people and made them even more distrustful of her.

Language protection and revitalization is critical to decolonizing and maintaining who a Peoples are and who they can be in the future. This should be Indigenous led. I am not saying there is no room for allies and cohorts in the field I simply do not think they should be leading and I do not believe I am in the minority in that belief.

[Advanced Smite]

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin Ojibwe Professor
Post by: educatedindian on April 19, 2022, 08:30:51 pm

Quote from: fairbanks on April 16, 2022, 04:17:08 pm

Quote from: educatedindian on April 16, 2022, 01:51:57 am

Quote from: fairbanks on April 15, 2022, 05:10:02 pm

Here's an interesting article about cultural appropriation within context of non-natives profiting off of learning native languages.

https://medium.com/literature-and-social-change/give-me-back-my-language-d8244c817067

Nowhere does it talk about it being wrong to teach a language. Appropriation in novels and music.

That wasn't my point, nor the articles point. The point is that Noodin has profited off of Anishinaabemowin by selling a bunch of books, all while claiming a false Ojibwe identity.

As far as the idea that non-natives are needed to teach endangered native languages - I really disagree with your comparison of Spanish (a colonial language) being taught by Gringos. Also, the idea that it's inevitable that non-natives will be teaching native languages for the foreseeable future (maybe true in higher education spaces). I think it's potentially problematic because it can perpetuate and reinforce the historical minimization and erasure of more-than qualified nativeswho can teach but intentionally aren't picked by the colonial academic complex.

If you think academics make a lot from publishing, that's strange. Almost all academic books sell less than a few hundred. Noodin did send an email saying she's giving away all remaining books so she won't make even that small couple hundred dollars in profit.

Did you read my post above? The CNO has a hard time finding Cherokee teachers for their schools. So much that they are willing to train non Cherokee, literally begging anyone willing.

Academia has worked pretty hard to decolonize itself, some places more successfully than others. About the only places with enough money to really make it a complex are the elite schools, Ivy League places, and the racism there can be pretty strong, like Harvard having open white supremacists on faculty.

A public university that's built a relationship wth local communities for half a century, like my old school ASU, isn't colonial. There's dozens of NDN faculty. And one like my school where there literally is no budget anymore to allow a prof to make copies of the syllabus isn't a complex.

Much of this thread has long been a debate not about Noodin, but about unnamed others we really should start threads on. There has yet to be anyone showing she ever got a job, grant, or anything else from her claim except her choosing to believe, against all evidence now, the family story of being a descendant.

[Advanced Smite]

Contains response from Margaret Noodin

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: educatedindian on April 19, 2022, 08:49:41 pm

Quote from: WINative on April 17, 2022, 08:30:37 pm

This is from the 2018 Electa Quinney US Dept of Education grant application of her staff bio's at the time. This particular white woman is someone Margaret mentored and groomed to take over Native leadership programs in the Quinney Institute and at UWM. Besides orchestrating the drum she has also ran some pseudo ceremonies for students and later claimed to be Hawaiian since she lived there.

Maurina Paradise, Administrative Manager
Ms. Paradise's cultural competence is extensive, and she is a leader in the Multicultural
Network committee and across the UWM campus sharing information about American Indians,
striving to use her privilege as a white woman and create space for the voice and visibility of the
American Indian students and staff. Ms. Paradise participates with the student drumming group
by learning to understand and sing in Arusbinabemowin; motivated, not by any requirement, but
by her own volition to learn and better understand the culture and the community she is working
with and representing. In addition to the duties directly related to EQI, Ms. Paradise is an
instructor for American Indian Studies teaching AIS 101: Introduction to American Indian
studies. Every year nearly one hundred students enroll in AIS 101 to gain a better understanding of American Indians.

If you have evidence of faux ceremony and posing as Hawaiian, let's see it. In a separate thread. I took a look online and didn't see any sign of either. Ironically, a review of her on Rate My Prof says "She has no respect for Western civ for as much as she bashes it."

Noodin sent this response to your claims. Bolding is mine.
----------
Maurina Paradise was hired by David Beaulieu (White Earth Ojibwe) prior to my being in the position. During my time her role has been reduced from 100% in the Electa Quinney Institute (EQI) to 20% and is focused on accounting. It does not take much googling to see that currently the person in charge of the Dept of Education – Bureau of Indian Affairs Teacher Training Grants is Sommer Drake (Oneida) https://uwm.edu/eqi/people/drakesommer/* https://web.archive.org/web/20220512231721/https://uwm.edu/eqi/people/drake-sommer/*. I have also twice hired local elders to work in EQI.

Previously Winifred Nahwahquaw (Menominee) served in the role https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igJ_iZ_6HLMand and
currently Vern Altiman (Miami / Anishinaabe) serves in this role https://uwm.edu/eqi/people/altiman-mishiikenh-vernon/. AIS 101: Introduction to American Indian Studies is predominantly taught by Mike Wilson (Choctaw)
https://catalog.uwm.edu/course-search/?keyword=AIS&srcdb=2222 and https://uwm.edu/american-indian-studies/ourpeople/** https://web.archive.org/web/20211020004159/https://uwm.edu/american-indian-studies/our-people/**. Maurina taught it while he was on sabbatical one year but it is easy to confirm that he has returned to teaching the course and has taught it more frequently than any other faculty.

*Strikethrough added by advancedsmite during reconstruction of the thread to indicate a broken link. Original URL was either incorrect in the original post or changed at some point. A page with a similar URL was archived via the Wayback Machine on 5/22/2022. Link to archived page added by advancedsmite. See attached PNG file to reference original thread.

**Strikethrough added by advancedsmite during reconstruction of the thread to indicate a broken link. Original URL was either incorrect in the original post or changed at some point. A page with a similar URL was archived via the Wayback Machine on 10/20/2021. Link to archived page added by advancedsmite. See attached PNG file to reference original thread.

[Advanced Smite]

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: WINative on April 19, 2022, 09:03:00 pm

It looks like Angela Mesic another non-Native woman has been placed in the roles instead of the aforementioned. '

https://uwm.edu/eqi/people/mesic-angela/

Indigenous Languages Project Manager & Administrative Specialist
Angela's role provides significant support to the Director and the Electa Quinney Institute. Angela oversees a wide range of
projects that include:

managing archival projects
handling curricular queries from internal and external partners
organizing and running the 10-day residential camp, American Indian Science Scholar Program in partnership with NARCH
handling administrative and accounting details
In addition to being the project manager of EQI, Angela is an Associate Lecturer in American Indian Studies serving as the
primary instructor for the first year Anishinaabemowin courses. She has co-translated multiple books including

Gidagaashiinh (Little You)
Nijiikendam (My Heart Fills With Happiness)
Gimanaadenim (You Hold Me Up)
Ogimaans (The Little Prince)

Angela completed her B.A. in psychology at UW-Milwaukee and is currently enrolled in the M.S. program in community
psychology at Alverno College. Using her knowledge about the field of psychology she works to disseminate the pedagogical
best-practices for second language acquisition to other institutions and tribal communities. Angela is a very student-centered
member of the EQI team and has often assisted individual students or worked to make improvements to the system on
campus to contribute to their completion of degrees.

[Advanced Smite]

Title: Re: Margaret Noodin, Professor
Post by: MilkyWayKwe on April 20, 2022, 02:27:17 am

Hi, I've read through this. As Ojibwe who thought Margaret was Anishinaabe, I was surprised to learn she is not. A lot of excellent and thorough work has been done by some of the contributors of this thread, to find out her genealogy. It says a lot that Margaret has not been one of those people who felt compelled to do that labour herself, or hire someone, to find out her ancestry at any point in her journey or, more recently, as a way to put this matter to rest. This says something about her will to address it with integrity, if not for herself and the people who love her than for Ojibwe people more broadly.

I understand, based on what I've read here, that Margaret has no native ancestry, Ojibwe or otherwise. As I've read through here, I see that she has some championing her. If you are not Ojibwe, why are you championing her? What’s in it for you? Also, if you want to support her, support her to own who she truly is--a white, non-Native lady. Help her to take responsibility for posing as Anishinaabe for years, and gleaning the benefits of that, based on a thread of a family story that she chose not to verify. Encourage her to speak for herself, account for herself (and her children who seem to have plenty of access to Anishinaabe peoples and lifeways even as it seems they are not Ojibwe through either Margaret or their father themselves), and to take questions from Ojibwe who have questions for her.

To me, someone who means no ill will, who sees the errors of their ways, and who loves Ojibwe peoples, would step forth and be accountable to the people. They would not let Elders or students or colleagues or anyone speak for them. They would speak for themselves. As so many contributors here have noted, she is, in myriad ways, disavowing herself of true responsibility, and I would even say, making "moves to innocence" (Tuck and Yang, Decolonization is not a Metaphor), in the face of being revealed.

It seems she has little intention in walking in her path as the non-Native person she is. It seems she’s ok to present to the world in neutral ways now as per her bios on Electa and Ojibwe.net, which are majorly whitewashed versions of previous bios. Why don’t other people associated with her on Ojibwe.net name their Anishinaabe identity? Would it make her look like the white woman she is? Do Anishinaabe she works with have to now keep their Anishinaabe-ness of their profiles because she has to?

This said, it seems she still walks in certain spaces as Anishinaabe>> someone shared with me over the weekend that she was dressed in regalia at a pow wow. Many have posted links here and there about her fluctuating identity and claims. In some sites, she has also identified herself by the Pine Marten clan and in another, by an Anishinaabe name Giiwedinoodin. Anishinaabe clans and names MEAN something. You don’t just discard them. Why has she? Who gave her this name and this clan? What do they say about all this?

I am curious how she got her last name. (Sorry I may have missed it in the previous pages.) Where does "Noodin" as a last name come from? If not through family or marriage, where does it come from and why Noodin? Someone here has suggested she has not benefited from her claims to be Anishinaabe. I find that hard to understand when her whole career is based on it, seemingly including her last name which she publishes and obtains grants under.

Someone also suggested it's time to move this thread to the Fraud section and another to the "Matter Closed" section. As Ojibwe who feels deceived by her, and who has heard that others are grappling with this, and as someone who thinks it's pretty pathetic that she would allow people to labour around her in such ways, doing her genealogical research for her, struggling to navigate this with integrity around her so as not to cause harm, hearing her out and engaging with her, and doing immense amounts of research all while she seemingly performs innocence and still walks as Anishinaabe (at a pow wow anyway), I would like to see this moved to the Fraud section until she truly makes this right with Ojibwe and allows herself to be questioned and provides answers.

I would like her to name her positionality clearly in all her bios (e.g. as white, as settler, as non-Anishinaabe, American--whatever) including Ojibwe.net instead of hiding behind aestheticized professional ones. I would like to see the public profiles of the Anishinaabe people she works with naming their Anishinaabe-ness so as to demonstrate they are not being told to hide it to help her image. She had no problem propping up her bios as Anishinaabe, why can’t she prop up her whiteness and nonIndigenous identity?

I would like her to share how many grants she applied for over the years as Anishinaabe. How many students worked with her thinking she was Anishinaabe? Has she asked? How many gigs has she got with people thinking she was Anishinaabe? Has she asked? In her previous to last Electa bio, she opened by stepping into the fray of identity fraud and race-shifting (which I found to be manipulative and indicative of her intelligence as a PhD familiar with broader academic discourses) but not once has she said how her failures to do her genealogical work, or hire someone, and instead float around on a slip of a story has been harmful.

While I’m glad she changed that bio, it doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t seem to really get the harm of claiming an identity without doing the research to back up a slight story. She doesn’t do the work of naming the harms of identity fraud and race-shifting she identified earlier. This matter, for me, is not closed and I don’t think non-Ojibwe get to say when it is. It won't be closed until Margaret speaks for herself, and answers all the questions people have, stops letting our Elders and whomever else loves her be a crutch for her, and starts acting with integrity. I think there is a way to resolve this but the way she and her supporters are going about it undermines Ojibwe ways and people. The way back into good relationships, relationships with integrity is with hard work and humility; not by claiming innocence or letting Elders and youth protect you.

Thank-you for this difficult work. Thank-you for reading my words.


[Just broke into paragraphs for readabiity. No words changed.-Al]