The First Constitutional Government of the Minnesota Anishinaabeg

• Authors: Anna Krausová
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper I trace the development of Native American constitutionalism in the early twentieth century. Specifically, I focus on the first constitutional government of the White Earth Nation, located in northwestern Minnesota, which in the period from 1913 to 1927 was part of a larger confederative arrangement, called the General Council of the Chippewa. The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of this inter-reservation government for the preservation of White Earth Anishinaabe cultural continuity from which revitalization efforts of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century grew. Using archival resources, I pay attention to Anishinaabe governing practices and their ethical dimension that can be understood in the light of Anishinaabe philosophy which was an integral part of everyday life. My findings suggest that the course of institutional development set by the creation of the General Council in 1913 influenced the path of White Earth governance for the rest of the century.

Keywords

EN

White Earth Nation; General Council of the Chippewa; Indian Office; Indian policy; governing practices

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture
• Year: 2018
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 244-257

Dates

published

2018-11-23

Contributors

author

Anna Krausová

• Charles University, Prague

References

• Beaulieu, Frank, and Theo Beaulieu. Letter to the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 7 June 1923. Box 51, Series 4, Central Subject Correspondence Files, 1906–53, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• Cohen, Felix S. Felix S. Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1958. Print.
• Collier, Ruth Berins, and David Collier. Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991. Print.
• Collins English Dictionary. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 2000. Print.
• General Council Meeting held at Cass Lake. 10 July 1922. Box 5, Series 36, Records Relating to General Councils of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, 1918–23, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• General Council Meeting held at Cass Lake. 19 July 1922. Box 5, Series 36, Records Relating to General Councils of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, 1918–23, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• General Council Meeting held at Cass Lake. 31 October 1922. Box 5, Series 36, Records Relating to General Councils of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, 1918–23, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• Jones, Peter. History of the Ojebway Indians: With Especial Reference to Their Conversion to Christianity; With a Brief Memoir of the Writer. London: AW Bennett, 1861. Print.
• Kappler, Charles J. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904. Print.
• McNally, Michael D. Honoring Elders: Aging, Authority, and Ojibwe Religion. New York: Columbia UP, 2009. Print.
• McNally, Michael D. Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2009. Print.
• Meyer, Melissa L. The White Earth Tragedy: Ethnicity and Dispossession at a Minnesota Anishinaabe Reservation, 1889-1920. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1999. Print.
• Mixed-Blood Council. Resolutions of the Mixed-Blood Council. 10 and 11 July 1923. Box 5, Series 36, Records Relating to General Councils of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, 1918–23, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• Morgan, Thomas J. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1889. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1889. Print.
• Proceedings of the General Council of all Chippewa Indians of Minnesota. 9 July 1918. Box 5, Series 36, Records Relating to General Councils of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, 1918–23, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• Rheault, D’Arcy. Anishinaabe Mino-Bimaadiziwin: The Way of a Good Life. Peterborough: Debwewin P, 1999. Print.
• Wadsworth, P. R. Letter to Charles Burke. 2 July 1923. Box 51, Series 4, Central Subject Correspondence Files, 1906–53, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• Wadsworth, P. R. Letter to Charles Burke. 9 October 1923. Box 5, Series 36, Records Relating to General Councils of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, 1918–23, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Consolidated Chippewa Agency, NARA, RG 75, Kansas City.
• Warren, William Whipple. History of the Ojibway Nation. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1885. Print.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/texmat-2018-0015