1. An Anishinaabe Tribalography: Investigating and Interweaving Conceptions of Identity during the 1910s on the White Earth Reservation
- Author
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Doerfler, Jill
- Abstract
In this article the author uses tribalography as a methodology and connects 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, the author hopes this tribalography will "incite the reader to an imaginative reevaluation of both the accounts and processes of history." This article explores the varied ways in which the Anishinaabeg of White Earth defined themselves during the early twentieth century. It consists of two primary parts. In part 1 the author goes beyond the "facts" in order to enliven the (hi)story, to offer an alternative way of remembering the past. In this section the author has created several characters and collapsed events, but she draws heavily on historical interviews. The author uses many direct quotes in the interview section; all the statements that she has copied word for word from a document in the Ransom Judd Powell Papers have been italicized. It is the author's 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. In part 2 the author provides 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; by pulling together a wide variety of sources, including primary documents, secondary sources, and the works of other storytellers, the author has tried to create something new. (Contains 9 figures and 58 notes.)
- Published
- 2009