Keewaydinoquay Margaret Peschel

[WINative]

This woman has long been seen as a fraud and a predecessor to Margaret Noodin at UW-Milwaukee and an Ojibwe impersonator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keewaydinoquay_Peschel

[Diana]

Hi Win, did a quick look see, went back 3 generations. All white. Her mother is from England in all censuses. So that a dead end. Her father is Canadian. Looked only at his relatives. They are all white and from Canada, Michigan, England and Prussia. I went as far back to 1830's.

[WINative]

Hi Diana, I appreciate that and I seen a interview she did:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/traverse-city-record-eagle/22288664/

"Her mother, described as an English lady till-the day she died, spent her first nine years in England, She fell in love with Keewaydinoquay's father but, they weren't allowed to marry because her grandparents felt Indians and Christians shouldn't mix, Keewaydinoquay said.

Her father told his; parent "he was white on the top" Traverse City Record-Eagle of ancestral history including a-grandfather who was an Anglican priest, a mother who was Indian looking but learned to say "God save the Queen" in her first breath, and a grandfather who practiced the Indian Midewin religion."

[Sparks]

She hes been mentioned once before in this foum:

Keywaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel was an Anishnaabe professor who did many studies on herbal medicine. It's kind of a strange claim, saying she was [Susun] Weed's adopted grandmother. She passed on 11 years ago, but seemingly Weed did not know that.

[Diana]

I looked again at other relatives all white. Oh, and sorry her father is from Michigan  and the grandfather is from Canada. Looked the up in the Canadian census 1861 and 1851. All white. I'll do a little more in depth search tonight.

[WINative]

She hes been mentioned once before in this foum:

Keywaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel was an Anishnaabe professor who did many studies on herbal medicine. It's kind of a strange claim, saying she was [Susun] Weed's adopted grandmother. She passed on 11 years ago, but seemingly Weed did not know that.

Seems she spawned a group of Non-Indian followers who still follow her lead and claim Ojibwe and lecture on Indigenous culture.

Keewaydinoquay founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization supporting the preservation and evolution of Great Lakes Native American traditions

[Diana]

Here's Margaret's marriage license with her parents names. And the 1920 Census. As you can see they are all white. Also all their neighbors are white.

Margaret Moorhouse Cook
in the Michigan, U.S., Marriage Records, 1867-1952

Name   Margaret Moorhouse Cook
Gender   Female
Race   White
Age   34
Birth Date   abt 1918
Birth Place   Ludington, Michigan
Marriage License Place   Wayne
Marriage Date   17 May 1952
Marriage Place   Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA
Residence Place   Detroit, Michigan
Father   
Wesley J Cook
Mother   
Sarah E Moorhouse
Spouse   
Gerhardt C Peschel


Margarat Cook
in the 1920 United States Federal Census

Name   Margarat Cook
[Margaret Cook]
Age   1
Birth Year   abt 1919
Birthplace   Michigan
Home in 1920   Scottville, Mason, Michigan
Street   East State Street
Residence Date   1920
Race   White
Gender   Female
Relation to Head of House   Daughter
Marital Status   Single
Father's Name   Wesley J Cook
Father's Birthplace   Michigan
Mother's Name   Sarah E Cook
Mother's Birthplace   England


Name   Wesley J Cook
Age   39
Birth Year   abt 1881
Birthplace   Michigan
Home in 1920   Scottville, Mason, Michigan
Street   East State Street
Residence Date   1920
Race   White
Gender   Male
Relation to Head of House   Head
Marital Status   Married
Spouse's Name   Sarah E Cook
Father's Birthplace   Canada
Mother's Birthplace   USA



Name   Sarah E Cook
Age   40
Birth Year   abt 1880
Birthplace   England
Home in 1920   Scottville, Mason, Michigan
Street   East State Street
Residence Date   1920
Race   White
Gender   Female
Immigration Year   1887
Relation to Head of House   Wife
Marital Status   Married
Spouse's Name   Wesley J Cook
Father's Birthplace   England
Mother's Birthplace   England

[Sparks]

Seems she spawned a group of Non-Indian followers who still follow her lead and claim Ojibwe and lecture on Indigenous culture.

Keewaydinoquay founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization supporting the preservation and evolution of Great Lakes Native American traditions

The quote is from her Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keewaydinoquay_Peschel

I will quote the whole paragraph:

Keewaydinoquay founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization supporting the preservation and evolution of Great Lakes Native American traditions. Many referred to Keewaydinoquay lovingly as Nookomis (Grandmother). The group has ties with established and recognized tribes in the area. She was the subject of controversy, much of it stemming from her willingness to teach those of other than native backgrounds. She started doing this at a time when native people had just secured their abilities to openly practice traditional ceremonial rites and religious observances. Kee said it "broke her heart" that she could find no Native peoples interested in learning about their own culture, and she offered her teachings to non-natives as the only way of preserving her heritage. She said to critics that the time was late, and that people of good hearts and like minds needed to work together to offset the users and those that were actively hurting the earth. Some other elders at the time affirmed the wisdom of this, and later many who had earlier criticized her came to appreciate the wisdom of these teachings and proclaim them themselves.

I couldn't find much about the non-profit Miniss Kitigan Drum, except that they are listed as having published a number of printed works, from 1977 and well into the 1990s: Publisher: Miniss Kitigan Drum, St. James, Michigan.

[WINative]

Thanks Diane I wonder how she created this Ojibwe fantasy and who she was connected to that helped her?

According to her biography, Keewaydinoquay was born in a fishing boat en route to the hospital from the Manitou Islands, which capsized shortly thereafter, and her survival was interpreted as miraculous. Her childhood name, meaning "Walks with Bears", derived from an incident where as a toddler she was left on a blanket as her parents gathered blueberries, returning to see her standing by bears, eating blueberries off the bushes. Her adult name Giiwedinokwe, recorded as "Keewaydinoquay", means "Woman of the North[west Wind]" and came from her vision quest.
According to Kee, she apprenticed with the noted Anishinaabeg medicine woman Nodjimahkwe from the age of 9 and worked for many years as a medicine woman, at a time when her people had little access to conventional medical care and when conventional medical care failed to cure them, healing more than several patients deemed to be terminally ill.

[Sparks]

I couldn't find much about the non-profit Miniss Kitigan Drum […]

I found this. At this URL, an article can be downloaded:

https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/download/356/260/1122

Keewaydinoquay: Anishinaabe-mashkikiikwe and Ethnobotanist
[By] WENDY GENIUSZ University of Minnesota
Papers of the 36th Algonquian Conference, ed. H.C. Wolfart
(Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2005), pp. 187-206.

From the time she was in graduate school until the end of her life,
Kee worked to build the Miniss Kitigan Drum, an organization dedicated
to teaching and maintaining Anishinaabe knowledge. She describes the
role and purpose of the Miniss Kitigan Drum (cf. note 9):

The Miniss Kitigan Drum, Inc. is the extended family of the Miniss
Kitigan Band of the Amikogenda Islands in Lake Michigan. By now
we are a pretty mixed lot genetically, and the roles we live out in the
dominant society are a contributing network across the entire continent.
The one thing we have in common is our determination to walk
the Sun Trail according to the ancient ecologically-orientated philosophies
of the Anishinaabeg (Native Americans of the Great Lakes
Regions).

Kee described this organization as dedicated to maintaining physical and
spiritual balance by teaching the ancient philosophies of the Anishinaabeg
and by maintaining an encampment where members can continue to
"learn and renew." While teaching at the University of Wisconsin she
started a Milwaukee branch. Through monthly meetings, teaching workshops,
and a summer retreat center, this nonprofit organization teaches
Anishinaabe philosophy and knowledge about plants. Kee taught Anishinaabe
philosophy and knowledge about maintaining and using plants as
food, medicine, and for construction through the Miniss Kitigan Drum
(Geniusz; Simonsen). When I asked Warber if she, too, was involved with
the Miniss Kitigan Drum, she told me that one could not know Kee and
not be involved with this organization because of her dedication to it.
Through Miniss Kitigan Drum, Kee also produced "Mukwah Miskomin
or KinnicKinnick: 'Gift of Bear'" and several other works.

[WINative]

Garden Island is almost wholly owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and is overseen by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as part of the Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area. It is accessible by private boat. The Native American (Ojibwe language) name for the island is Minis Gitigaan, which has become Garden Island by direct translation. Wikipedia citation

So, sounds like Margaret Peschel created her own tribe based off this islands name?

[Sparks]

Garden Island […] The Native American (Ojibwe language) name for the island is Minis Gitigaan, which has become Garden Island by direct translation.
Wikipedia citation
So, sounds like Margaret Peschel created her own tribe based off this islands name?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Island_(Michigan)

No direct answer found to that question by googling Minis Gitigaan or Miniss Kitigan.

Except for some info in my quote here:

I found this. At this URL, an article can be downloaded:
https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/download/356/260/1122

— Read the quoted part of that 2005 article carefully.

[WINative]

Here is one of her apprentices continuing her legacy and her namesake-Wendy Geniusz, and her mother Mary Geniusz was the direct helper of Margaret Peschel. I bet their not Native either.

Geniusz, who is Cree and Metis on her mother’s side, got her name, Keewaydinoquay, from the indiginous medicine woman who taught her mother.

https://www.spectatornews.com/arts-life/2019/09/teaching-through-tea-and-troubling-history/

[Sparks]

… Wendy Geniusz …

AKA Wendy Makoons Geniusz: https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/geniusz/

Dr. Wendy Makoons Geniusz is an Indigenous woman of Cree and Métis decent. She was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but her Cree family comes from the Pas, a Reserve in Manitoba. To honour her Ojibwe namesake, Keewaydinoquay, Geniusz was raised with Ojibwe language and culture. Before coming to York, Geniusz was Professor of Ojibwe Language at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she taught for 14 years.

Since childhood, Geniusz has worked on Ojibwe language and culture revitalization projects in Indigenous communities throughout the Great Lakes Region. All her publications and research focus on creating decolonisation tools for Indigenous language and culture revitalization. Geniusz is the authoress of: Our Knowledge is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings, the editor of: Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do is Ask (by Mary Siisip Geniusz), and the authoress of the Ojibwe plant name glossary found in that text. She is the co-editor (with Brendan Fairbanks) of Chi-mewinzha: Ojibwe Stories from Leech Lake (by Dorothy Dora Whipple).

[WINative]

This is the brother of Mary Lynn Shomperlen (Robert) Geniusz, so her parents were George and Mollie Shomperlen.

https://www.jsonline.com/obituaries/pwix0563482