Ryan Winn

Menominee program harvests healthy knowledge

Published by LPulaski on Thu, 09/09/2021 - 10:50am

Jennifer Gauthier is inspired by indigenous food stories. The Menominee tribal member recognizes that the important work tribal nations throughout the world were doing to practice food sovereignty was inherent in the knowledge of her people.

CMN’s new president explains leadership philosophy

Published by admin on Wed, 07/07/2021 - 9:31am

Netāēnawemākanak translates to “all my relations” in Menominee. College of Menominee Nation’s new president, Christopher Caldwell, also sees it as the school’s obligation.

Educating culturally responsive teachers

Published by admin on Thu, 06/03/2021 - 2:58pm

Dr. Lauren “Candy” Waukau-Villagomez is a “change agent” for Native American education. In the administrative world, that moniker refers to someone who is hired from outside an organization to be a catalyst for reinvention. For the College of Menominee Nation professor known endearingly as “Dr. Candy,” it means transforming the Western model of education into one that produces culturally responsive teachers.

MIHS teachers causing wisdom to sprout with plants

Published by admin on Mon, 05/10/2021 - 2:41pm

The Menominee name for the month of May is Pāhkwan-kēsoq — The Budding Moon. While many Wisconsinites will spend the month cultivating their own gardens in anticipation of a fruitful crop, Menominee Indian High School students will mark Pāhkwan-kēsoq through culturally grounded cross-curricular activities centered on planting and gardening.

Native symbols at Thanksgiving and beyond: Honoring Richie Plass

Published by andynewsengin on Tue, 04/13/2021 - 11:06am

Editor’s note: Our columnist and CMN faculty member celebrates the life and work of a Menominee activist who confronted problematic indigenous emblems.

Celebrating Menominee Restoration Day: A discussion with Sylvia Wilber

Published by andynewsengin on Tue, 04/13/2021 - 11:06am

This Dec. 22, we each should take time to commemorate Menominee perseverance. On that day in 1973, thanks to the efforts of Menominee leaders Ada Deer, Sylvia Wilber, and countless others, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed into law the Menominee Restoration Act, which returned the federal trust status guaranteed to the tribe through its treaties with the United States.

Speaking Mahican: A virtual journey

Published by andynewsengin on Tue, 04/13/2021 - 11:06am

“Sta kaakway misnimow,” means, “I’ve got nothing” in Mahican, an ancestral Mohican language. My students at College of Menominee Nation (CMN) garner the English iteration of this complimentary phrase whenever they’ve made a definitive point that needs no further context from yours truly.

Aboriginal comedy — many stories, only one legend

Published by andynewsengin on Tue, 04/13/2021 - 11:06am

I met Charlie Hill in a building named in honor of his father’s service to the Oneida Nation. It was the summer of 2010, and we were both in the Norbert Hill Center’s Auditorium watching the debut of a play written by College of Menominee Nation students. As the script’s editor and the production’s director, I was seated in the back watching the audience laugh at our carefully staged punchlines. My heart skipped a beat as I recognized that the man seated down the row from me was the man whose career I’d often lectured about.

Poetry in the meter of the oral tradition

Published by admin on Wed, 03/31/2021 - 11:48am

“All music is poetry,” Louis V. Clark III stated. “I write in a musical manner. I hear drums in my head.”

I asked the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin tribal member to describe his craft in honor of April being Nation Poetry Month. Clark, a retired blue-collar worker who penned poems and stories throughout his life, began a second career as a published man of letters within the past decade.

Native American values trump ‘misinformation’

Published by admin on Tue, 11/03/2020 - 1:58pm

Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of monthly columns by Ryan Winn, a member of the faculty at the College of Menominee Nation. The columns will explore Native American culture and history and the impact on both native and non-native communities. The first column expands on an earlier Shawano Leader story, “Misinformation, the stories we choose to tell.”