Unknown Speaker 0:04
Hi,
Unknown Speaker 0:04
this is Mia McCrumb Senior BBA and host of today’s Michigan Voices Podcast Episode, United we stand.
Unknown Speaker 0:29
years 1817 and Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan and general Duncan MacArthur of Ohio, are to meet with the chiefs and warriors of the Wyandotte, Cienega, Delaware, Shawnee, pottawattamie, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes of the Native Americans. In this meeting, the chiefs are to cede 4.6 million acres of land to the United States in return for cash compensation and reservation allocation. As the United States signed off on the most significant Indian treaty, the Treaty of Fort megs 40 of those 4.6 million acres are to become the University of Michigan land that was once inhabited by the Chippewa, Ottawa and pottawattamie tribes, who signed the treaty that allowed for the foundation of the University on native land, with the agreement that the European settlers would provide higher education for the Native youth as well. Despite this agreement, none of the tribes who signed directly experienced the benefits of this land grant, as record show non attended the University for the next 130 years. As a fall 2020 report show 85 Native American students attended the University making up about point 1% of the student body.
Unknown Speaker 2:01
One of the students is sumaira. Toby, a class of 2021 graduate, who I got the chance to interview in regards to indigenous people social justice, here at the University of Michigan.
Unknown Speaker 2:19
Hi Samira, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being on. Can you give us some insight into your background?
Unknown Speaker 2:26
I am totally new to the mess up wapa NOK tribe and mastery Cape Cod, I am Wampanoag that means I stand in the mouth of the river and I belong to people the first slide, I stand with people on the webinar webinar keep all Eastern dawn first on first like peoples of New England, I’m related to them, they’re all our relations and beyond, really. So having a strong lump in our culture, there’s a lot that feeds me, I, I do my best as an urban native to use a tradition So allow me to thrive in non traditional spaces. But being a mixed woman having African American Heritage belongs to Cape bird, also having come back from Mali and multi family Kanaka maoli, meaning family of Hawaii and family of New Zealand who are traditionally moldy. That gives me a lot of a lot more coaches to really help mold my idea of what my potential is as a woman and how I can walk in a good way.
Unknown Speaker 3:24
What was it like for you coming to Michigan,
Unknown Speaker 3:27
when I got to Michigan, I had a mission. I was like, I’m gonna get this degree, I’m going to support Native students because I had just left California. And I was working within the Indian Education Program, which is like a program here to support Native students and be included in like our K through 12 curriculum. So I already felt like I knew what I wanted to do or who my community I was that I wanted to work with. And I actually ended up finding family.
Unknown Speaker 3:58
Samira is not only a student, she’s an activist for indigenous rights and decolonization at the University of Michigan, including pedagogies, or the way that material is taught in order to include and uplift indigenous peoples. So Sameera, what was your reasoning behind the creation of the decolonizing pedagogies initiative?
Unknown Speaker 4:23
So I guess on campus, why, why I started the decolonizing pedagogies initiative, and really brought together our global indigenous indigenous constituents was because indigenous visibility is really, really low. And not only that, but I felt like it was my my duty really, to stop perpetuating the idea of being indigenous just because I have enrollment number or I meet a certain blood quantum or I fit the phenotype of my community and decided that we need more people being aware of the fact that a lot of natives on campus are coming to campus to learn what their indigeneity means to them. Because a lot of us are displaced, a lot of us have a different experience and the ones that are relatives who have stayed on reservations or stayed in traditional communities, and have maintained those those kinship values for generations, and I am one of the ones who decided to leave home and stay away from home to continue what I believe is my purpose. And when I released the decolonizing pedagogies initiative, I actually lost a lot of like campus friends, I guess you could say. So there was administrators as like not administrators, staff, who are working with like native ontologies, and higher education, who were like, taken aback by the revolutionary document of saying, indigenous people are global, and includes black people, because black people also are indigenous, they have a home to where they belong to which they came from. We’re an African diaspora. We’re not just African American, we’re more than just, we’re more than what non African American people or black American people can conceptualize us to be, like, made. natives who are white passing on comfortable. And like, our community small so everyone’s taught the story, people are taught the story behind my back. And I found out about it. And like people who are my Auntie’s, like we’re just extremely evil.
Unknown Speaker 6:34
Auntie or uncle is an honorary term to show respect and to show that a person is gaining knowledge from another in Indigenous People’s communities.
Unknown Speaker 6:45
And I decided to like really take a step away from organizing and learn how to, like, prepare my community first for, like, critical thought before like disseminating paperwork, because it was like a learning curve. But it just goes to show you like in our community, there’s not enough diversity or indigenous diversity.
Unknown Speaker 7:13
So it sounds like NASA, or Native American student association, is struggling with inclusivity, can you go a bit deeper into how you perceive this yourself?
Unknown Speaker 7:26
This is like an exclusive to because I really have not spoken to anybody out like any, any media about, like about what, how hard it was, stand up as a black native and say, You know what, like, half of my community actually can’t even stand here and go to get education can’t get a degree can’t have a second, a second chance like I did, because they don’t fit these criteria, the criteria that I am privileged enough to fit. I did not talk about like, how being a NASA was not a healthy experience. How using my truth was sometimes too much for other people to handle. When I released this document, it was during It was after I had, I had taken a ceremonial fast, which is like, we call them vision quest. And I went and did some, like, Did protocol with my family up over here in aloni. territory. And I, like took part in prayer. So I could really ask God to bring us into a different space where, like, our revolution was peace is bringing us true peace, because we needed it, you know, and I felt like as a black native woman, I’m watching like, black men dying in the streets. I’m watching my community, lose sight of what’s important. And my perspective, I am struggling with my own family stuff. And, you know, this was my way of saying, you know what, I’m not going to just take a backseat to this. I’m going to say something I’m going to work to make our tomorrow a better tomorrow.
Unknown Speaker 9:11
So where do you think this united statement that calls for decolonization of education and increased recruitment efforts? stands within the Michigan community?
Unknown Speaker 9:24
Oh, I said the statement is the statement I stand behind 100% IT community stands behind the the statement 100% are there? my constituents do and quite honestly, if you don’t stand behind it, I would love to have a debate with you. Because I think I think you’re I think you’re not the future. Sad to say if if you can’t understand how I’m if your idea of indigenous freedom or indigenous sovereignty, the general you and my perspective, right is just restoring one nation to its capacity towards towards resourceful capacity. By maintaining blood quantum rules or enrollment rules, and not including urban, native and displace native funding and in programming, then I don’t want anything to do with you. Because I have met too many urban natives on my journey, who are not either not here today, or who are not well, because they don’t have the same idea of belonging as other people. So I will fight for who I believe is my family who I believe matters to me.
Unknown Speaker 10:40
This statement was released last year, and you’re soon to graduate. Have there been any action taken sense?
Unknown Speaker 10:49
Yes, so the residential college is betting a elder in residence program, which is extremely amazing that the School of Education has been developing, or has been beginning that conversation of like, what is DICOM? Is it pedagogies? And like, how does that how does that fit fit in there. And their mission, they’ve been working on that. cs has, like made a statement to commit to decolonizing, pedagogies or decolonizing. In general. The, the Office of od has definitely heard our cry. And they’re definitely doing their best to take a decentralized approach to decolonizing, Michigan, or just creating more awareness of anishinabeg and First Nations of American ontologies on campus, vetting a university let acknowledgement because universities is seated on traditional land, and has a responsibility to native native or additional back, excuse me, communities because of the formax trading, but the entire University of Michigan, that those who are invested in diversity have been touched by that document and have been doing what they need to do to make a better environment.
Unknown Speaker 12:08
I know we have talked a bit about decolonizing pedagogies. But the other aspect of the United statement is for increased enrollment and recruitment of indigenous people. What does that mean to you?
Unknown Speaker 12:22
I think recruitment and retention is so much deeper than just making the students students like they belong, I feel like it’s it’s about like, for me, it’s about saving lives. Like I wish I didn’t lose family members because like they didn’t know that like, going to college was like an opportunity that was not just a white person, like, like, option of becoming rich and successful, but actually like connects you to a world of communities who believe in Celebrity, who have a good mind, who want to help, and who build, who ultimately build your community and build your, your your spirit, they help build your idea of what’s possible in life. And they open up your mind to new rounds. And that’s so important, like so important. So recruitment retention is more about like, does for me mental health, wellness, in saving, but not like white Savior, but like really saving people’s lives, saving people’s lives.
Unknown Speaker 13:24
Samira, you have done amazing work here at the University of Michigan. And I’m sure he will be doing the same at the University of Washington. But before you go, do you have any advice for those who are interested in supporting this initiative? Or taking action?
Unknown Speaker 13:41
You know, it’s not going to be what you want to hear. Because it’s just not but hear me? Well, I get this, I get this question a lot, okay. People are asking me like, when one I’m not an elder, I am 21 years old. I’m a I’m a stubborn woman. I am sumaira. And so when an elder might tell you will be different. But as a mixed native, who, by the way, that makes me no less native, because I’m mixed. But because I’m a mixed native. I believe that every table I sit at is not just my native ancestors who are with me, it’s everybody who I’m related to who may be possible. And that is much more that is a lot of people. There’s a lot of different ethnicities, a lot of different people, people with different capacities. So with that being said, I’m not as worried about Native wellness, I’m worried about everyone’s wellness. And I believe that when we uplift native people and native ontologies when we restore native thought system into our institutions, we give way to build those bridges and what we need to have to uplift immigrant immigrant communities to uplift displaced native communities, which is to uplift more Just what we’re looking at right now. Um, so if you want to support native community, be well support, like, actually go in the mirror and look at yourself and ask yourself, Am I happy? What do I need to do to be happy? Happy? Am I accountable? Am I an accountable person is what I believe the world to be the only way I think the world functions. I believe that is how you support native communities. And once you start to figure out who you are as a person, then you can start to open your eyes and see, oh, wow, there’s these. There’s these people who have existed in America for a very, very long time, who I did not know their genocide, I did not know their experience. I did not know this how settler colonialism has manifested historical trauma in these communities and has now been incorporated into our into how we function or how we sustain ourselves as Americans. And I like, I didn’t know all these things, but now because I have a heart to learn, and the peace to listen. Then you can start to ask yourself, where you have a surplus and what you can give
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
