American Culture Department 
and not a language, or even 
in 
the 
Native 
American 
Studies 
Department, 
which 
we 
should 
have?”
Jackson-Tobey 
teamed 
up with the office of Multi-
Ethnic Student Affairs and 
the Residential College to 
host 
events 
throughout 
November 
for 
Native 
American 
Heritage 
Month. 
She’s also helping to set the 
stage for this year’s Dance for 
Mother Earth Powwow, which 
will take place in the spring.
Jackson-Tobey emphasized 
the importance of respecting 
tradition 
and 
finding 
harmony between University 
students 
and 
the 
Three 
Fires tribes in Michigan, who 
participated 
in 
the 
initial 
land grant. The University 
has a particularly contentious 
relationship with tribes in 
Michigan. In addition to a 
lack of recruitment of Native 
American students, there was 
the 1902 creation of the racist 
honor society Michigamua, 
which 
appropriated 
sacred 
native traditions and objects 
while 
University 
officials 
participated. 
The 
name 
was 
changed 
as 
recently 
as 2007 to The Order of 
Angell, 
and 
has 
since 
claimed to cease reference 
to 
pseudo-native 
culture.
“This 
year, 
our 
team’s 
biggest goal is to bring our 
communities back together— 
meaning Michigan and our 
tribal 
communities— 
and 
asking for forgiveness from 
our 
tribal 
communities, 
because 
Michigan 
has 
wronged 
them 
in 
many 
ways,” she said. “One of our 
biggest symbols this year is a 
strawberry, which signifies 
forgiveness and friendship.”
Joel Begay, who graduated 
from the University in 2018 
with a master’s degree in 

Public 
Health, 
is 
Navajo 
and 
moved 
to 
Michigan 
to 
pursue 
molecular 
epidemiology after studying 
at Colorado College in an 
effort to relate his education 
back 
to 
Native 
American 
community health. He now 
works with the Great Lakes 
Inter-Tribal 
Epidemiology 
Center as an epidemiology 
officer and explained how 
the region has suffered from 
the lack of a large urban 
institute for epidemiologists.
“When 
we 
talk 
about 
health disparities for Native 
Americans 
in 
the 
United 
States, we see that Natives are 
disproportionately affected in 
many ways,” Begay said. “But 
just within Indian country 
of the Great Lakes region, 
the communities in this area 
are even more affected in 
comparison to other regions. 
There is a huge need that I had 
an opportunity to improve 
American 
Indian 
health.”
When 
coming 
to 
the 
University, Begay was struck 
by the school spirit, which 
he still holds close to his 
heart. 
However, 
he 
also 
found 
his 
identity 
deeply 
underrepresented and faced 
barriers to receiving faculty 
and institutional support to 
study Native American health.
“As a Native student, I 
wanted to not only have 
a research mentor to help 
me pursue my dreams of 
conducting 
Native 
health 
research, but I wanted them 
to be Native too,” he said. 
“Unfortunately, 
I 
didn’t 
find that, at least not until 
Jan. 2017, I met radiologist 
Dr. Roubidoux at Michigan 
Medicine. And we’ve been 
best friends since. Michigan is 
a leading research institution, 
which 
I 
appreciate, 
and 
that’s how I know I picked 
the right school. But it seems 
like 
everybody 
is 
doing 
the 
same 
work. 
Diversity 
is more than just a student 
body or faculty. It’s a matter 
of the things that they’re 

doing, 
funding 
sources.”
In 
regard 
to 
initiatives 
within 
the 
University’s 
Diversity, 
Equity 
and 
Inclusion 
plan, 
Begay 
emphasized 
the 
need 
for 
both 
academic 
research 
reflecting 
DEI 
concerns, 
especially 
in 
comparison 
to peer institutions, as well 
as 
faculty 
involvement.
“I think if we actually 
want to make DEI our utmost 
priority, then we need to have 
faculty participation,” he said. 
“When I go into a DEI event, 
I see a bunch of graduate 
students, a bunch of undergrad 
students, but where is the 
faculty? Where is the staff? 
Why aren’t they participating 
in these conversations? I think 
if Michigan really wanted 
to take DEI seriously, then 
faculty members, regardless of 
whether or not it’s in their job 
description, should go to DEI 
events. The majority of the 
student body is committed.”
Begay hopes the University 
will 
eventually 
create 
a 
physical 
space 
for 
Native 
American students to conduct 
cultural practices such as 
baking fry bread and smudging 
–– a ceremony involving the 
burning of sacred herbs –– 
as well as discussing topics 
personal to them. Additionally, 
he hopes for a center for 
Native 
American 
health 
to 
provide 
opportunities 
for students and create an 
expanding effect for diversity 
of 
research 
and 
faculty.
“I would love for Michigan 
to have a center for Native 
American 
health, 
as 
an 
opportunity and place for 
interdisciplinary 
studies 
that will incorporate public 
health, medical and social 
work researchers and provide 
a space for faculty to gather 
and 
generate 
hypothesis-
driven, 
yet 
culturally 
sensitive, research questions,” 
he said. “And then work with 
tribal 
communities, 
which 
would 
not 
only 
increase 
the 
diversity 
of 
Michigan 
research, but it would 
increase 
the 
diversity 
of faculty, and it would 
provide more internship 
opportunities 
for 
students, native or not.”
Rackham 
Assistant 
Dean Ethriam Brammer, 
DEI 
implementation 
lead, 
holds 
this 
issue 
personally as a former 
first-generation 
student 
of Mexican indigenous 
background. 
He 
said 
many Native American 
and minority students, 
in general, don’t have 
the 
resources 
to 
take 
advantage of educational 
opportunities.
”Genius 
and 
talent 
exist 
in 
all 
these 
communities, they’re just 
not fostered or provided 
the same resources to 
flourish 
in 
the 
same 
way,” Brammer said. “If 
we’re really intentional 
about serving all students 
at every point of this 
educational 
pipeline, 
then by the time they get 
to graduate school they 

should be well represented, 
right? The problem is that 
with 
certain 
communities 
that are under-resourced and 
under-served, 
the 
attrition 
happens 
throughout 
that 
pipeline at a very dramatic 
rate. To reverse it, you have 
to trace it back to the whole 
pre-K 
to 
Ph.D. 
pipeline.”
Brammer said the University 
is 
especially 
accountable 
for 
acknowledging 
its 
roots 
and 
pursuing 
educational 
initiatives.
“One thing the University 
can do better is tell the 
story of the founding of the 
University, and the role that 
the 
Native 
communities 
played 
in 
that 
founding,” 
he said. “The Fort Meigs 
treaty was intentionally a 
partnership to educate Native 
children along with European 
settlers. It’s better (to tell) that 
story, but also recognizing 
a certain responsibility to 
continuing to work with those 
communities to make sure 
the education needs of their 
young people can be met.”
While 
these 
goals 
are 
put on hold, students such 
as 
Jackson-Tobey 
are 
burdened with individually 
representing 
an 
extremely 
heterogeneous 
community.
“When I say I’m Mashpee 
Wampanoag, nine times out 
of 10, people are asking what 
that is,” Jackson-Tobey said. 
“Seldom do I meet someone 
who’s like, ‘Oh, you’re from 
Cape 
Cod.’ 
And 
because 
I’m brown, people question 
whether or not I’m really 
native. When our students 
are given the opportunity to 
learn their own culture and 
their 
own 
language, 
they 
are learning everything that 
they need to know to be the 
best them that they can be, 
and then they get to higher 
education and they’re told, 
‘That doesn’t fit here.’ That 
gets 
you 
(the) 
American 
Culture 
minor, 
which 
truthfully is not dependable.”
Jackson-Tobey 
said 
to 
preserve the future of Native 
Americans, 
educational 
support 
is 
more 
crucial 
than 
it 
ever 
has 
been.
“The 
knowledge 
Native 
communities 
cultivate 
can 
and should be developed,” she 
said. “Because that knowledge 
is dying out, and if the 
University doesn’t take heed 
of that, we’re going to lose 
more than just a community, 
we’re going to lose a whole 
history. And it starts with 
acknowledging our students. 
We need to make sure that 
Native students know they’re 
not alienated. No matter how 
different you are, you belong 
here. Because there’s a place 
for you, a place for your 
knowledge in this community, 
and we are not meant to stay 
in the corners of reservations. 
You 
belong 
here.”

2 — Tuesday, October 9, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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