An Anishinaabe Tribalography
Investigating and Interweaving Conceptions of Identity during the 1910s on the White Earth Reservation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4854346 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jill Doerfler (corresponding author), Jill Doerfler Jill Doerfler |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 295-324 |
| Publication date | 2009-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The American Indian Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0095-182X • E-ISSN: 1534-1828 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1353/aiq.0.0052 |
| OpenAlex | W2008528619 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 7 |
An Anishinaabe TribalographyInvestigating and Interweaving Conceptions of Identity during the 1910s on the White Earth Reservation Jill Doerfler (bio) Tribalography quantum leap revolution and evolution weaving and writing new worlds and old keyboard drumming indelible marks on the page take shape come together like a sweetgrass basket blade words twirl together circle around form something whole transform life The Overture This is a tribalography—not completely fiction or history but a story that draws on the past, present, and future; documents and imagination; the spaces between reality and rumors of memory. Choctaw scholar LeAnne Howe created the term tribalography to explain her observation that Native stories, no matter what form they take (novel, poem, drama, memoir, film, history), seem to pull all the elements together of the storyteller’s tribe, meaning the people, the land, and multiple [End Page 295] characters and all their manifestations and revelations, and connect these in past, present, and future milieus (present and future milieus mean non-Indians).1 In this article I use tribalography as a methodology and connect multiple elements in a textual weaving that constructs an Anishinaabe tribalography. As an Anishinaabe tribalography, this work will follow in the tradition set forth by Gerald Vizenor and Gordon Henry, who, as Kimberly Blaeser asserts, “shift and reshift their stories’ perspectives, turn the tables of historical events, unmask the stereotypes and racial poses, challenge the status of history’s heroes and emerge somewhere between the probable and the possible, in some border area of narrative.” Likewise, I hope this tribalography will “incite the reader to an imaginative reevaluation of both the accounts and processes of history.”2 Maybe this tribalography will rise up among the Anishinaabeg and bring us new understandings of ourselves, our families, and our nation.3 Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. St. Columba Episcopal Church and congregation, White Earth. Photographer: Robert G. Beaulieu, Photograph Collection ca. 1905, Location no. E97.7W r37, Negative no. 6443-A, Minnesota Historical Society. This article explores the varied ways in which the Anishinaabeg of White Earth defined themselves during the early twentieth century.4 It consists of two primary parts. In part 1 I go beyond the “facts” in order to enliven the (hi)story, to offer an alternative way of remembering the past.5 In this section I have created several characters and collapsed events, but I draw heavily on historical interviews. I use many direct [End Page 296] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 2. Pembina band Indian girl, White Earth Reservation. Inspiration for Ivy Giizhig. Photograph Collection ca. 1897, Location no. E97.1 p33, Negative no. 91192, Minnesota Historical Society. quotes in the interview section; all the statements that I have copied word for word from a document in the Ransom Judd Powell Papers have been italicized. It is my goal to immerse the reader in a story that extends beyond history. This section also includes historical photographs that provide an additional element of framework for the construction of the tribalography. The subheadings in part 1 are taken from A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe by John D. Nichols and Earl Nyholm.6 In part 2 I provide a traditional academic presentation of the “facts,” including details about federal and state legislation as well as an academic analysis of the interviews. The two parts of this story create a weaving; [End Page 297] by pulling together a wide variety of sources, including primary documents, secondary sources, and the works of other storytellers, I have tried to create something new. Part 1 Niibidoon: Weave something In late July 1913 the sun shone brightly, heating the air to 84 degrees. Ivy Giizhig gathered with the other Anishinaabe women in the cool air of the large open-room basement of St. Columba’s to make sweetgrass baskets and listen to the words of Father Vincent.7 The women welcomed the coolness of the stone basement and the company of others. Ivy smoothed her long, dark blue skirt after taking a seat next to her best friend, Suzette Spruce. As usual, the priest was very intent on talking about the burning fires of hell that awaited nonbelievers. Few of the
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Identity (music · Indigenous · Literature · Meaning (existential · Memoir · Narrative · Sociology · Tribe · White (mutation · American Environmental and Regional History · Anthropology · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,47 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2020 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |