My name is Elizabeth Sherman and I am currently conducting research on Leech Lake tribal members who are educated with a Bachelors, Masters and/or a PhD. There are four reasons why I am doing this research. They are as follows:
My first reason is because many of these tribal members are 50 and over, and some are either elders or are emerging as elders, and deserve acknowledgement, recognition and honor. These tribal members have set a precedent in tribal history to be first generation college graduates. They are, in fact, “trailblazers” who cleared the hard and rocky trail of “non-Indian society” for our younger generations to acquire their college education. They were, not only the first in our Tribe to acquire their college education, but they were the very first to obtain professional jobs.
My second reason for doing this is that Leech Lake history must be
written. Our tribal college graduates must not be forgotten and their
story must be told. They deserve to be acknowledged and recognized as
part of our tribal history. I plan to compile the research and write a
book profiling these Leech Lake tribal members along with an education
tribal member profile.
My third reason for this research and writing the book is that we are
now in a new era of a “new breed of tribal elders”… educated tribal
elders who balanced their lives living in two worlds – one of
non-tribal assimilation/acculturation and tribal society, as well as
those educated tribal elders who received their education and
identified closely with tribal life, and remained on the reservation.
My fourth reason is that we must honor our young tribal people who have
received their higher education. Our tribal experience has shown that
tribal leadership purports to value the promotion of our youth to be
educated, but, in essence, our tribal reality has shown that our young,
educated people are not being validated and supported by tribal
leadership.
I have a great interest and commitment in writing our Ojibwe history.
I am an accomplished author regarding the history of the
Ojibwe-European fur trade. My 122-page manuscript is called
“Aangwaamas (It’s About Time): A Research Report on the Ojibwe-European
Fur Trade Relations from an Ojibwe Perspective” was written for the
Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota State Legislature in
1992-1993.
If you are an enrolled Leech Lake band member and hold a bachelors,
masters or PhD, or you know someone, or have a family member who does,
contact Elizabeth Sherman at 218 335-4031 or e-mail me at:
shesam7@hotmail.com.
