UPDATED: 9/16/2024
The Chi-Nations Youth Council has issued a statement regarding Rose Miron & D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies Rewriting Chicago Native History.
Statement
After attending the Indigenous Chicago Exhibition at the Newberry Library, we needed to make a public statement on the Newberry’s narrative created to describe our work and relationships with the land.
We do not categorize ourselves within the same context as the American Indian Center (AIC), Trickster Cultural Center, and Northwestern University – Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR).
- American Indian Center, Open Letter: Heather Miller and the Anti-Black Mural
- Trickster Cultural Center, Native American woman who worked as cultural advisor to Blackhawks sues team for sex harassment, fraud
- Northwestern University, John Evans and the Sand Creek Massacre
We are not Peaceful Indians who uphold anti-Blackness. We stand against the use of mascots, we believe theory without action ain’t shit (speech by Fred Hampton), and how Zionist institutions like Northwestern University will never have our best interests in mind.
- Fred Hampton, You Can Murder a Liberator, but You Can’t Murder Liberation (1969)
- Inside Higher Education, Northwestern Students Face Charges for Newspaper Parody
We recognize the love and labor put into this exhibition by Indigenous and Native community members, artists, contributors, and curators, we do not want to erase any of this important work or cause any retaliation from Newberry’s institutional network against those who have the best interest of our community in mind however, not all curators and contributors are acting in good faith and used their platform to tarnish the reputation, legacy and validity of the First Nations Garden and Chi-Nations Youth Council.
The First Nations Garden is an act of resistance and, therefore, is a hostile space for white supremacist heteropatriarchy. Our goal has been to uplift the legacy of Native Peoples in Chicago, standing up against the genocide and displacement of our peoples.
We recognize the Chicago Indian Village and the takeover of Belmont Harbor as a legacy that needs to be upheld in our work and the founding of the space; historically, the American Indian Center has spoken against these movements and currently co-opts that movement as their own.
Our work does not center on giving our knowledge and labor freely nor for the benefit of settler colonialism. Our work is here to build community and solidarity with the global Indigenous while reinstating a consent-based culture.
We believe that rapists and stranglers should NOT hold positions of power within a community. We have created the First Nations Community Safety Framework to help guide us in creating spaces that do not center the needs of the abuser at the expense of the victims.
For over a decade, we’ve made asks for other Native organizations to do the same and have been met with lateral violence, gross misconduct, and the creation of pro-abuser and rape culture-centered spaces, the American Indian Center (AIC), Trickster Cultural Center, the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative (CAICC), and Northwestern University – Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR) are not our community, and we do not hold the same values.
We believe Rose Miron, Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, intentionally mislabeled The First Nations Garden in an attempt to blur lines between Native organizations, she was given prior notice that we did not want to be lumped in with Native and colonial institutions that cause harm to our Chicago Native community. We believe this act intentionally misled the public and will tarnish the Chi-Nations Youth Council and The First Nations Garden’s reputation as a victim-centered space.
Rose Miron created a narrative that Native Peoples are a monolith and reinforced a common stereotype of peaceful environmental Indians who are stewards of the land in service to settler colonialism. We explicitly stated we did not want to be included outside of the exhibit and map created for Indigenous Chicago if we would be lumped together with organizations and projects we do not align with within the community.
Rose Miron acknowledged this but never directly contacted any representatives from the Chi-Nations Youth Council or First Nations Garden and alluded to further exclusion and erasure rather than giving us agency over our experience, works, and narratives.
We are not associated with The American Indian Center (AIC), Trickster Cultural Center, Center for Native and Indigenous Research At Northwestern University, or the Chicago American Indian Collaborative (CAICC), and the blurring of the lines between organized groups benefits those organizations that have a long history of co-opting our work, exploiting the Native People of Chicago, and conducting questionable research practices on Native families.
Since the American Indian Center is directly involved with Lawrence Santiago’s mound (*The Coiled Serpent Mound is not listed on Lawrence Santiago’s website) and his Since Ever Since is housed at the Trickster Cultural Center, it would make more sense to lump them in with his comic book square than with the First Nations Garden.
We believe Rose Miron intentionally mislabeled the First Nations Garden to uplift organizations who do not uphold our values and center rapists, mascots, and pretendians to meet the Newberry Library’s Indigenous Chicago Project Goals of “supporting the growth of the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative” at the expense of less privileged Native peoples and groups in Chicago. These acts will cause long-lasting and irreparable damage to our reputations as Rose Miron works to engage her light interest in rewriting the “founding” of Chicago.
Through Rose Miron’s handling of this situation, we understand that we are not the community Rose Miron wants approval from to accomplish her next professional goal. The narrative of Chicago is not a light interest of ours, but the reality of how Native peoples can be seen, to develop our identities, and navigate our place within the settler state.
Indigenous Chicago exhibition centered on organizations outside Chicago and community members with no lived experience of being a Chicago Native. Rose Miron chose to rewrite our history, we are disappointed and hope for the future of Native Peoples who created long-lasting legacies such as the Chi-Nations Youth Council creating the First Nations Garden and being integral in the cross-cultural coalition that led to the removal of the Columbus Statue, we would hope in the future these acts will be highlighted and uplifted and not rewritten and forced into a convenient narrative that moves to innocence and serves white supremacy.
- The City of Chicago, City Funding Approved for Three Community Gardens
- Chi-Nations Youth Council, Statement: Christopher Columbus Statue Removal
As an educational and research institution, a protocol should be created to not erase the first voice of Native Peoples in Chicago. Rose Miron, Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, should not feel so entitled to rewrite the history of the Native People of Chicago to serve their colonial agendas and erase those who disagree.
Action Request
We request that the Indigenous Chicago exhibition label be updated and that future comic reprints correctly identify the First Nations Garden and not include colonial institutions that harm our community.
For example, “The First Nations Garden was founded by Chi-Nations Youth Council as an act of resistance and is currently being held in a 99-year urban land trust for the Native community of Chicago to feed our people and practice our culture.”
Updates
9/16/2024 – Additional Statement by the Chi-Nations Youth Council
We have had multiple people reach out and ask for additional information, including if there should be public action. We are not currently asking for a public boycott or additional actions.
We are still awaiting a response from Rose Miron, Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, regarding why our gift deed was improperly handled. We requested approval of any publications, and the Deed of Gift (signed 1/23/2024) was submitted after Rose acknowledged that we would not like our work lumped in with other Native organizations with which we do not align.
Despite previous communication, Rose Miron, lead on the Indigenous Chicago Exhibition, approved a narrative that tarnishes the work of the Chi-Nations Youth Council and the First Nations Garden.
We hope the Newberry Library doesn’t use this opportunity to shift blame from Rose Miron’s mishandling and lack of “neutrality” to Native and Indigenous contributors on the project.
We would like to reiterate that we recognize the love and labor put into this exhibition by Indigenous and Native community members, artists, contributors, and curators, we do not want to erase any of this important work or cause any retaliation from the Newberry Library’s institutional network against those who have the best interest of our community in mind.
9/16/2024 – Email response from Astrida Orle Tantillo, Newberry Library President and Librarian
Note: No response from Rose Miron, Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies and lead on the Indigenous Chicago Exhibition.
Dear Chi-Nations Youth Council:
This note is to acknowledge your email from Friday evening. As you mention in your message, the Indigenous Chicago project has involved many Indigenous and Native community members, artists, contributors, and curators.
The curatorial team for the exhibition – Rose Miron, Analú María López (Huachichil/Xiui), Doug Kiel (Oneida), and Dave Spencer (Mississippi Chata/Dine) – consulted on an edit to the label text in which you are mentioned so that you are no longer named in the same section with other organizations.
The separate label relating to your work now reads:
“The First Nations Garden (Winso, Wilkonge Otishinikaaso), established in the Spring of 2019 due to community organizing led by Chi-Nations Youth Council, was founded as an act of resistance and is currently being held in a 99-year urban land trust for the Native community of Chicago to feed the community and practice Native culture.”
As you have requested, a new label is being printed and will be installed shortly. We will also make updates to future reprints of the comic book catalog.
Sincerely,
Astrida Tantillo
9/16/2024 – Email response by Chi-Nations Youth Council
Thank you for the update.
Questions remain as to why our deed of gift was not appropriately handled? We requested to approve any publications. The deed of gift was submitted after Rose’s acknowledgment that we would not like our worked lumped in with other Native organizations that we do not align ourselves with. Despite previous communication Rose as lead on the Indigenous Chicago Exhibition approved a narrative that tarnishes the work of CNYC and FNG, and continues to avoid responding or accountability, it appears the blame is being shifted on all the curators. This shift in blame is disheartening as Rose has publicly been positioned as lead curator on the project and as Director of the McNickle Center has the responsibility to build relationships with Native communities. Rose was the only curator centered at the Exhibition opening- as no other curators were given agency to speak on their roles and experiences working on the project.
Additionally, Rose has never directly reached out to any representatives from CNYC or the FNG. In forwarded correspondence we were threatened with erasure by Rose and must question how many community members, history makers, and less privileged Native People were erased during this process?
Our community is larger than gatekeeper organizations whose mission is assimilation. Rose’s continued bias toward Native Organizations associated with the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative has resulted in irreparable harm to Chicago’s Indigenous communities. We hope in addition to the fore mentioned changes that the McNickle and Newberry library will create policies to appropriately work with Native and Indigenous peoples and that this work will be lead by leaders in the field who are accountable to and understand the complexities of our communities.
