It's like, 'That's embarrassing - we don't want to be Indians.' I think there was a time where we claimed not to be Indians because it was advantageous not to be. his grandmother still had some of the traditional ways and they were sort of embarrassed about that. The legacy of boarding schools in my own family. That was not my family story they were not poor in that way. Marie, the Native Americans were living in a slum - I mean it was an impoverished community on the edge of town. Northern Michigan is not a great place to farm and we were not agricultural people to begin with, so they lived more by hunting and gathering and land got sold off. Well, the way that happened was that they gave allotments of land to families and said, 'This is your land, stay on it and farm it.' The rest of the land became the state of Michigan. But we were the test case: In Michigan in the 1830s, they had this idea of getting the Indians to sign a treaty and in exchange get put on reservations. We were not removed we weren't like a Trail of Tears tribe. We're today throughout Ontario, northern Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and throughout Canada, so we're one of the biggest tribes. I became an enrolled member when I was in college. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians they're in Sault Ste. WGLT: Can you talk about to what extent your own identity factors into how and what you teach?Įpplett: I'm an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, spoke with WGLT about the course (one of multiple he teaches), its goals, Native pop culture and more. ![]() We're still making art and it's all around you - you kind of how to learn how to look for it, is the thing."Įpplett, who is also an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Most of what you learn about Natives puts us in the past - that's how we're often represented," Epplett said in an interview with WGLT. We're still alive and telling our stories. While still a chance to learn about performance art of various types, Epplett's class is also designed to teach students that Native American art and culture is alive and well - not something relegated to the past. The emphasis on pop culture is intentional. The pitch was successful Epplett has been teaching the course since the spring 2022 semester. It started as an eight-week seminar course that Epplett designed for honors students after finding that students were really engaged with the material and the course itself really popular, Epplett pitched it as a full semester course in the theater department. ![]() ![]() Shannon Epplett teaches at Illinois State University.
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