Indigenous Insights

KBIC Housing Department - Beth Connor Beth Connor is the Housing Department Manager. Her focus is the admissions and occupancy department. She gives us an update on the latest activities at housi...

KBIC CEO Brigitte LaPointe-Dunham Update 5-17-24 In this one: The KBIC's financial audit is now complete. The report should be back within the next 30 days. Spring clean up was a success. Also, an update on...

After several years of research, writing, designing and planning, the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center is proud to announce the launch of a new website "Walking Together - Finding Common Ground." This website is a companion to an exhibition by the same name that is currently touring Indigenous communities throughout the Upper Peninsula and the Midwest. https://nmu.edu/walking-together/home

"Walking Together: Finding Common Ground" project was developed by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan in conjunction with the Great Lakes Peace Center and the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University. The goal of the project is to uncover, acknowledge and document the truth about Indigenous experiences in the Michigan Native American Boarding Schools. The site includes historical information about the schools in Michigan but also interviews with boarding school survivors.

A part of this project is the exhibition, “The Seventh Fire.” The title, "The Seventh Fire," comes from the Seven Fires Prophecies which were given to the Anishinaabe people over 1,500 years ago, which foretold the catastrophic events that would befall their people over the next several centuries. This display features a timeline of the history of the Anishinaabe people as well as videos that show the many different perspectives on decolonization and Anishinaabe culture, including foodways, education, sovereignty and the challenges of living in a colonized world.

"The Seventh Fire" was developed over several months by a dedicated committee of individuals from the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center, Center for Native American Studies at NMU, the Great Lakes Peace Center, the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan and the Native American Student Association. It was funded, in part, by the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It was funded, in part, by the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

KBIC Fire and Emergency Management - Tom Chosa Tom Chosa is the Director for the KBIC's Fire and Emergency Management Department! In this one: KBIC FEMD is looking for new team members and also have an ex...

Don't miss an opportunity to catch a FREE viewing of the film BAD RIVER hosted by the Superior Watershed Partnership on Thursday, May 9 at 7:00 pm at the Marquette Cinema.

BAD RIVER, narrated by Quannah ChasingHorse and Academy-Award nominee, Edward Norton, is produced by Grant Hill (owner of the Atlanta Hawks), Allison Abner (writer for Narcos and West Wing) and award-winning filmmaker, Mary Mazzio. The film chronicles the Wisconsin-based Bad River Band and the Band’s ongoing fight for sovereignty, which unfolds in a groundbreaking way through a series of shocking revelations, devastating losses, and a powerful legacy of defiance and resilience. This inspiring project brings us through the epic sweep of history into the present, with a David and Goliath battle over a 70-year-old pipeline on the brink of rupture into Lake Superior, the largest freshwater resource in America. As Eldred Corbine, a Bad River Tribal Elder declares in the film… “we gotta protect it… die for it, if we have to.”
www.BadRiverFilm.com

The KBIC Spring Contest Pow Wow kicks off TOMORROW at the Superior Dome on Northern Michigan University's campus in Marquette, Michigan!

Keith Secola is headlining at the 39th Annual Tucson Folk Festival! Come see him play live from the Plaza Stage on Sunday, April 7 at 4pm! The Tucson Folk Festival is Arizona's largest free admission music festival - see you there!

"Native folk & blues rocker Keith Secola is an award-winning songwriter, producer, guitarist, and native flute player. His music is familiar to thousands of fans across North America and Europe. Keith’s famous song, 'NDN KARS', is considered the contemporary Native American anthem and is the most requested song on Native radio in the US and Canada. Keith Secola is Anishinabe (Ojibwa) originally from the Mesabi Iron Range country of northern Minnesota, now residing in Arizona. He is a member of the Anishinabe Nation of northern Minnesota and southern Ontario."

For more information on this year's headliners, visit: https://www.tucsonfolkfest.org/headliners/

At U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Indian Affairs we are working hard to invest in the land, people, and sacred places that make Indian Country beautiful. Today, we honor a new era of ! Learn more about our programs and opportunities at https://www.bia.gov/bia

Join us for an afternoon of Traditional Ojibwe Storytelling with Tribal Elder, Joe Dowd!

We will also be hosting an evening session - a date/time will be published soon!

WE DID IT!!!
13-YEAR-OLD Native American boxer, Beth Smoke has won the
2024 Silver Gloves female intermediate heavyweight champion held in Independence, Missouri!!!
In a 1st round RSC (Referee Stops Conest) Beth Smoke earned her national boxing belt!!! Give her a hand!!!

‘Walking Together: Finding Common Ground Traveling Exhibit’ shares untold stories of Native American boarding schools The Walking Together: Finding Common Ground Traveling Exhibit debuted this weekend.

The American Museum of Natural History will close two major halls exhibiting Native American objects, its leaders said on Friday, in a dramatic response to new federal regulations that require museums to obtain consent from tribes before displaying or performing research on cultural items.

“The halls we are closing are artifacts of an era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples,” Sean Decatur, the museum’s president, wrote in a letter to the museum’s staff on Friday morning. “Actions that may feel sudden to some may seem long overdue to others.”

The museum is closing galleries dedicated to the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains this weekend, and covering a number of other display cases featuring Native American cultural items as it goes through its enormous collection to make sure it is in compliance with the new federal rules, which took effect this month.

Museums around the country have been covering up displays as curators scramble to determine whether they can be shown under the new regulations. The Field Museum in Chicago covered some display cases, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University said it would remove all funerary belongings from exhibition and the Cleveland Museum of Art has covered up some cases.

Via: The New York Times

Learn your language!

"How the Beaver Got Its Tail" - Told by Barbara Nolan YPT's online Storytelling Series spotlights Indigenous and non-European oral storytelling traditions. In this video Anishinaabemowin educator Barbara Nolan t...

📅 SAVE THE DATE!

🌟 Join us for the 46th Annual Maawanji'iding, scheduled for July 26-28 at the Ojibwa Campground! 🌟

Please note this date has been changed from the previous announcement due to a schedule conflict.

🗓️ Stay tuned for the official flyer coming your way soon!

Upcoming in the KBIC!

Golden Globe victor Lily Gladstone, renowned for her role in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ secured the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama award, etching history as the inaugural Indigenous woman to claim this honor. In a groundbreaking moment for the rising star, this marked her first-ever Globes nomination.

Commencing her triumph speech in the Blackfeet language, Gladstone expressed gratitude to her mother, emphasizing her dedication to incorporating their language into the classroom despite not being Blackfeet herself. She shared, ‘I’m so grateful I can speak even a little bit of my language, which I’m not fluent in, up here. Because, in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English, and the sound mixer would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera.’

Gladstone emphasized the historical significance of her win, recognizing it as a collective achievement. She stated, ‘This is a historic win. It doesn’t belong to just me. I’m holding it right now. I’m holding it with all of my beautiful sisters in the film at the table over here, and my mother, standing on all of your shoulders.