Under the Campus, The Land

UNDER THE CAMPUS, THE LAND is a set of public conversations about the place of the U.S. university in Native and settler colonial histories and futures. Organized by Andrew Herscher, these conversations will bring together Native and settler voices speaking to and about the university around four themes: reckoning with the settler university, advancing Native student activism, investigating university land, and making amends to the land. These conversations will take place in conjunction with two exhibitions at the University of Michigan Museum of Art: Andrea Carlson’s Future Cache, which commemorates the Cheboiganing Band of Ottawa and Chippewa people who were violently displaced from land in Northern Michigan now owned by the University of Michigan, and Cannupa Hanska Luger’s You’re Welcome, which explores histories and narratives of land occupied by the University of Michigan.

Generously supported by the Native American Studies (NAS) Program at the University of Michigan, the U-M Arts Initiative, Stamps School of Art & Design, Stamps Gallery, UMMA, and the Department of the History of Art at the University of Michigan

Participant Bios

October 27, 2023

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART (UMMA)
525 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Reckoning with the Settler University

How can universities that were founded on colonized land, funded by the colonization of land, and dedicated to advancing colonialism reckon with their histories and the ongoing legacies of those histories in the present moment?

Introduction
Ethriam Brammer, Assistant Dean and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Implementation Lead, Rackham Graduate School

Panel
Misty Blue, (White Earth Nation), Grassroots Solutions, Toward Recognition and University-Tribal Healing Project, University of Minnesota
Phenocia Bauerle (Apsaálooke), The University of California Land Grab, University of California, Berkeley
Jon Parmenter, Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project, Cornell University

Respondent
Matthew Fletcher, Harry Burns Hutchins Collegiate Professor of Law, Law School; Professor of American Culture, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Investigative Memorialization: The Anishinaabe Land Grant and the University of Michigan

In the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs, Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi people granted land to an institution where their children could be educated. Taking ownership of this grant, the University of Michigan acquired three properties in the 1820s. What needs to be known about the Anishinaabe land grant and the University of Michigan’s use of this grant in order for the university to carry out its treaty obligations?

Presentation
Andrew Herscher, Professor of Architecture, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Professor of History of Art, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Respondent
Andrea Carlson, Artist and co-founder of the Center for Native Futures

5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

2023 Binda Lecture: Keynote

Tristan Ahtone, Grist

October 28, 2023

STAMPS GALLERY
201 S. Division St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109

10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Making Amends to the Land

How to move beyond acknowledgments of land histories to restoring right relations with the land after its Native relatives have been forcibly displaced?

Panel
David Michener, Curator, University of Michigan, Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, Heritage Seeds Project
Andrea Knutson, Associate Professor, Native American Heritage Site, Oakland University
Eric Hemenway (Little Traverse Bay Band Odawa), Department of Repatriation, Archives, and Records, Little Traverse Bay Bands

Respondent
Shiloh Maples, Anishinaabe community organizer, seed keeper, and storyteller, Food sovereignty organizer and “Spirit Plate” podcast host

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Advancing Native Student Activism

The effort to hold the University of Michigan to its responsibilities to Native people has been led by generations of Native American students. This effort culminated in the 2018 report of the Native American Student Task Committee. What has happened at the university as a result of Native student activism? What hasn’t happened? And what should happen in the future?

Introduction
Andrea Wilkerson, Program Manager, Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs

Panel
Shannon Martin, Tribal Elder, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians & Descendant of the Ancestors Whose Land the University of Michigan Was Founded Upon
Joe Reilly, (Cherokee), U-M Alumnus and Community Member
Samara Jackson-Tobey, (Mashpee Wampanoag), Native American Student Association Alumna; Citizen of Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
Josephine Conti, current U-M student and co-chair for the Native American Student Association

Respondent
Bethany Hughes, Assistant Professor, Department of American Culture, University of Michigan

2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Guided Tour of The Blessings of the Mystery Exhibition

Related events & exhibitions

• October 26, 5:30 p.m.: Cannupa Hanska Luger: How Do We Remember? A conversation with Monument Lab Co-Founder Paul Farber, Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI
• October 27-28: Under the Campus, the Land, UMMA and Stamps Gallery
• October 27, 5:00 p.m.: Under the Campus, the Land – ​2023 Binda Lecture: Keynote by Tristan Ahtone
• October 28, 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.: Memory & Monuments Open House
• October 28, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.: Live podcast recording of Broken Boxes by Ginger Dunnill and Cannupa Hanska Luger, with artists Andrea Carlson and Matika Wilbur, UMMA
• October 28, 6:00 p.m.: Matika Wilbur Artist Talk and Book Signing, Stamps Gallery, 201 S. Division, Ann Arbor, MI
• October 26 – 28: Andrea Carlson Future Cache, UMMA
• October 26 – 28: Cannupa Hanska Luger You’re Welcome, UMMA

Related events & exhibitions coordinated as part of the Memory & Monuments Weekend program of the Arts & Resistance Theme Semester, organized by UMMA and the U-M Arts Initiative in partnership with the Stamps Gallery and “Under the Campus, the Land” series of conversations by Taubman College faculty Andrew Herscher.

The Arts & Resistance Theme Semester, organized by UMMA and the U-M Arts Initiative, is generously supported by the U-M Office of the Provost, the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch, and Erica Gervais Pappendick and Ted Pappendick.