- Today on "Extra Credit," we visit the Chippewa River, explore some of the materials used to make Native American clothing, and discuss cultural appropriation.

(upbeat music) Welcome to "Extra Credit," where we meet interesting people, explore new ideas, and discover fun places together.

I'm your host Yash.

Today's show focuses on the rich history, heritage, and cultural contributions of Native Americans.

First, let's head to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to learn about the culture, diversity, and spirit of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe.

(dynamic music) - So we're here at the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinaabe Culture and Lifeways.

It's significant in that it represents the culture and the history of the Anishinaabe people, specifically the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe.

It's our permanent exhibit here that is nationally renowned.

One of the premier museums here in the Midwest.

And you'll start from our ancestors, the petroglyphs area, that talks about kind of that pre-European contact.

From that you'll see exhibits that highlight on the seasons, kind of what our ancestors lived in, and how they survived through that.

Then you kind of walk into a segment that is pre-European contact.

So what our ancestors did, how they functioned on the land.

From that goes into European contact, and kind of the settlements and the camps, migration patterns.

And then from that, you kind of transition into present day, and how our people live today.

It's an opportunity here to kind of get that opportunity to understand Native American culture, to ask questions, to see the facts behind them.

You may think one thing about Native American culture, but have been afraid to ask.

It's a very open environment.

Having that access to ask the questions that you want answers to, and proper answers to, is very important.

And that's part of what this museum helps us do.

(dynamic music) - I remember our textbooks talked about Native America as this barren wilderness, sparsely populated with savages, people who were totally unsophisticated and barbaric.

Thankfully, Europeans came along and brought them religion and civilization.

That's what was taught to me in elementary school.

And I don't know if it's changed all that much since then, but nothing could be further than the truth.

Native America at the time of contact was 100 million people, connected by social and cultural networks that spanned both continents.

They had some of the largest cities in the world.

Outside of St. Louis, there was a city called Cahokia, around the year 1000 to 1400.

It was the biggest city in North America until 19th century Philadelphia.

It had over a 100 earthen mounds in the shapes of pyramids.

Some of those pyramids were as large as the pyramids in Egypt.

And the whole city was aligned to celestial events.

Their astronomy was more advanced than Galileo.

Their architecture was extraordinary.

Native Americans domesticated corn, potatoes, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, vanilla, chocolate.

60% of the grown food in the world today originated through the domestication of Native Americans.

It's horrific what Europeans and later US people did to Native Americans.

But it's also horrific that we denied ourselves the knowledge that Native Americans had accumulated over tens of thousands of years, about how to live in this land, and how to live on Earth, and our responsibility as citizens of the world.

What is encouraging is that through this horrific period of 500 years of oppression of Native culture, that they have had the strength to keep it alive, and are still willing to share it with the world.

And I think the world would benefit greatly from it.

(dynamic music) (gentle music) - Enclosure of Trees here is one of the council areas that the Odawa had in Waganakising.

And each tree was purposely misshapen.

And each chief would sit by their appropriate tree and hold council with all of their brethren and kin.

Standing in this area is hallowed ground.

This is, to me, the equivalent of Congressional Hall, these are where the government took place, this is where government was executed.

I can point to other areas within the reservation and say the Odawa met here, met there, but this is still intact.

This is still here.

The trees are still growing, they're still alive.

They have those stories within them.

They seen the changes that the Odawa had to navigate to be here today.

And just like the Odawa, they're still standing.

We're still here, we're still in our homelands.

We're going forward into the future.

But you know, it's good to know that these spots still exist, so we don't get too far off track.

We always know that we are Waganakising Odawa.

And these trees are reminders of who we are.

And I think that's a really special piece of our identity, is being identified with things beyond yourself.

(dynamic music) - [Narrator] In Isabella County, the Sasiwaans Immersion School is at the forefront in preserving the Anishinaabe language for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe's youngest members.

- It started in 2008 when the tribal council passed a resolution saying that language was important and they were gonna do something about it.

We have three classes now.

And we're full capacity, there's 12 students in each class.

- The language and culture go hand in hand.

And language is who you are.

So it's important in that way.

- And hopefully we give them enough language that they will continue to learn as they go along.

Once they leave here, they get very little.

So we have to give them a very good, sound foundation.

That's our biggest challenge, I guess, to try and get them to be really interested in the language, that they will continue to learn it.

- When I first came here, there were people that did not say (speaking another language) Now, now you see people, you say (speaking another language), and they've put their thumb up, (speaking another language), and there's more vocabulary coming out.

Everybody is starting to use it.

The little ones understand it.

And it's truly a revitalization.

They're very strong in their effort in preserving our Anishinaabemowin language.

(dynamic music) - Look out his wing feathers, so he could peek through to see what was going on.

Well, the creator looked around and he thought all the animals had turned their faces away.

So he grabbed ahold of the rabbit, right by the top of her head, right by her little short ears.

How about back here?

- [Student] Halloween is coming up, how would you make a historically accurate Iroquois costume?

- Excellent question.

She's asking, with Halloween coming up, how would we make a historically accurate costume?

And the answer is, we can't.

Very simple.

We cannot.

Because these things that I'm wearing today, which are very, very important to me, are part of my tradition.

I don't wear these things as a costume.

I am not dressing up pretending to be Onondaga.

I am Onondaga.

Now, when some people look at me, they say, but Mr.

Ground, you have very light colored skin.

Yes, I do.

I happen to have an Irish grandfather, and my skin color is a little bit more like his, as opposed to the rest of my family, who has very dark skin.

It's genetics, can't do anything about it.

But I am still Onondaga.

Well, Mr.

Ground, you don't have long hair.

Nope, my barber cuts it short so it fits under my hat.

So I don't wear my hair long.

You wear glasses?

Yeah, of course I do, yeah.

Your phone was ringing a few minutes ago in your bag.

Yeah, it was, because of course we have phones today.

So, when I wear these things, it's not that I'm dressing up pretending to be somebody.

I am Onondaga.

And these things are very important to me culturally.

Now, sometimes we see people trying to appropriate other people's cultures.

And they are trying to take things from them, maybe because they are interested, maybe because they don't know that it's important to certain groups of people.

But to make a costume, and dress up, and pretend to be somebody that you are not, in a group of people, a culture of people, that is still alive and practicing their traditions, that is what we call cultural appropriation.

And that would not be accurate.

Now, sometimes people will say to me, well, Mr.

Ground, we dress up to be things like pirates, and that's a person.

Yes, a pirate is a job.

It's not a culture.

Would it be appropriate if I did, like they did back in the 1920s, and did blackface all over my face, and drew big red lips, and wore big white gloves and a top hat, would that be appropriate?

Absolutely not, no.

That blackface costume is something that people did before we understood better that that was very damaging to the people that we were portraying, or really in many ways, mocking.

So a lot of times today, when people try to make a costume, even if, or a logo, we could go that way also, even if they say they are trying to be respectful, or to honor a certain group of people, it is appropriating, or taking away from our culture.

So I would ask that all of you, as you get ready for Halloween coming up, that you would not choose to appropriate a culture of people, but if you wanna dress up like a job, like a doctor, or a pirate, or anything that you want it to be, that that would be perfectly fine.

(dynamic music) (upbeat music) (mysterious music) - Hi, my name is Merlin Chappuis, gallery teacher at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

And today we're gonna take a look at a few of the materials used by Native peoples to make clothing both historically and in the present day.

These materials might be used to make everyday wear in the past, or to make regalia for important cultural events today.

First off, we have buckskin, an animal hide.

That was one of the most common materials used to make clothing.

This particular hide comes from a deer right here in Southeast Michigan.

Native peoples would put the hide through a process called tanning in order to make it suitable for wear.

This would remove all the fur that you see here and make the leather nice and soft, like you see right here.

Sometimes, especially in northern climates, the fur was left on for insulation purposes, like you see with this caribou hide.

The individual hairs are hollow, which helps trap air and keeps its wearer warm in Arctic conditions.

Aquatic mammals also played a role in clothing Native peoples.

Aquatic mammals were often used for hats and gloves since their fur is naturally water repellent.

As an example, we have a muskrat pelt from St. Clair County, Michigan.

Other species included beaver, as well as otter.

Trapping was important, both for food, as well as the fur trade that once dominated North America.

And something that is still practiced by some Native peoples to this day.

Beaver was especially important to the fur trade.

And both Native and European peoples attempted to monopolize areas to control access to beavers.

For our final material, we have wool.

Wool is not native to the Americas, since it comes from sheep, which were brought over by European settlers.

However, Native peoples took to wool very quickly.

And wool blankets, such as this one here, quickly became some of the most valuable trade items in North America.

Wool was used to make blankets or clothing, and oftentimes wool blankets themselves were cut and sewn into coats.

One great example from the museum is a wool coat from the Otoe Nation of what is today Oklahoma.

This coat is covered in different symbols that would serve as an expression of the wearer's identity.

These include, buffalo breathing the sacred breath, horses for transportation and warfare, and stars to symbolize the wearer's religious beliefs.

There you have some samples of materials used to make clothing, both historically, and in the present day.

You can come see the real objects at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

(stone rolling) (dynamic music) - As Haudenosaunee people, as Native people today, we are 21st century people.

We have our cell phones.

Our houses are just like everyone else.

I drive from place to place in my car, a lot, telling my stories.

But we are not some storybook character come to life.

We didn't step off the pages of a history book, or are just on exhibit at a museum.

We are real human beings and have all the same things that all other human beings have.

The same thoughts and feelings, and struggles and joys.

But these things that we have, and that we continue to practice, the beadwork, or the clothing, or the stories that we tell, they still have meaning to us today.

They've been an important part of who we are forever.

And as much as we can watch television, or enjoy the internet like everyone else, we enjoy these things also.

And we love to teach about them, we love to share them with other people, and that's why we continue to practice them.

(dynamic music) - [Narrator] Native American culture surrounds us at every turn in Michigan.

Part of that past, dating back possibly as early as 700 BC, is an old Indian trail between Cadillac and Traverse City.

It's been marked, allowing us to retrace the footsteps of the tribes that called the region home.

- This trail was followed by people before there were roads, before there were, before the White man came.

This was part of a huge trail network that covered the entire United States.

That there were trade goods hauled back and forth.

When people were moving from one place to another, they'd go there.

And so this particular portion of the trail goes from the north end of Lake Mitchell up to West Bay.

- [Narrator] The trail is designated by 33 historic markers, accessible by car.

A map and additional information is available online.

(dynamic music) - People ask me, Eric, why don't you speak your native language?

And I simply say, it was systematically taken out of my community.

A tool that was used for that extraction of Native language was the boarding school system.

(somber music) One of those boarding schools was built here.

And it was the last boarding school in operation in the United States.

It closed its doors as an Indian boarding school in 1983.

Holy Childhood is a difficult story to tell.

I didn't go to the boarding school, but many people in my community did, many people throughout Michigan went to Holy Childhood.

It's a lot of mixed stories with this place.

Some Native students had really good experiences.

But then some of the children literally didn't make it, they died here.

And talk with some of the survivors who didn't have the best experiences.

They talk about being abused and beaten as kids.

And they passed that on to their kids.

That's the upbringing they knew, so they passed it on.

And then I talked to another person, was like, man, I had the best experience there.

I had friends, I ate, it was good.

And this was all going on at the same time these kids were being brutalized.

So it's a very complicated story.

It's a story I don't feel comfortable telling because of the people who are still with us in our community who lived that.

But the story's still there.

The ripple effect through the community's still there.

(dynamic music) (gentle music) - Any actor can tell you, when the bug bites, you never know what that bug will look like.

For me, it looked like little furry, indigenous teddy bears, defending their planet from an invading empire.

They lived in tree houses, fought for what was good and kind, and sang their song of freedom.

And I really wanted to be an Ewok.

I was a five-year-old Native American girl who lived on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana.

And I realized I couldn't actually be an Ewok unless I became an actor.

Luckily, I come from a community of storytellers.

People know that acting can serve the greater good for everyone, so I had lots of encouragement.

And with support from my family, I was soon performing in any way that I could.

That meant traveling far away for lessons, or doing it myself with my friends.

I loved being able to make people laugh and be entertained.

When I was 11, we moved to Seattle.

It was the big city, very different from the reservation.

But, I felt so comfortable in my new school, with people from lots of diverse backgrounds.

Here, there was so much more opportunity to act.

I made friends and immersed myself in every play at my school, even at the community college where my mom taught.

By the time I graduated, I was committed to becoming a professional actor.

I was so happy to be accepted into a conservatory theater program in Montana.

Getting comfortable auditioning was a part of the actor training program.

We were expected to prepare an audition for every show being mounted that semester.

When I saw that one of the shows was J.M.

Barrie's Peter Pan, my heart sank.

In Indian country, Peter Pan is regarded as very racist.

Some of my classmates thought I was a shoo-in for the role of Tiger Lily.

Tiger Lily is a red-faced character who lives in Never-Neverland.

Their only lines are ugh, ugh, wah.

(actors singing) I wanted nothing to do with it, even though I was expected to prepare an audition for every show.

Redskins, the belle of the Piccaninny tribe, squaw, me scalp you if you no nice to me.

I refused to prepare one for Peter Pan.

I didn't feel like I had anyone to talk to.

So I confided in a Native friend who was studying journalism.

A story was published, drawing me further into the controversy.

I really didn't want this to impact my future, but this was racism.

I could tell the dean and the director were not happy with me pointing out Peter Pan's racism.

They didn't talk to me much after that.

They did rewrite the Indians as generic natives of Neverland, and cut the ugh, ugh, wah lines.

But it was still insensitive.

After the controversy, I only got called back by new directors who weren't around for the Peter Pan thing.

My first good role was in a short play by an Irish playwright, a different J.M., J.M.

Synge.

Looking back, I realized that by speaking out, I found my voice, my soul, and my worth in that moment.

I just knew if I didn't start driving, I wasn't gonna see you again.

I hope the work I do expands the way Native American people are seen.

My hero, the late activist and actor, John Trudell, reminded me, his generation made sacrifices so mine could tell our stories with our most authentic voice.

Suddenly, wanting to be an Ewok as a kid made a lot more sense.

- [Announcer] Watch more local stories at KCTS9.org.

(dynamic music) - We took at least a year to visit the communities that we were hoping would be involved in the series.

And met with faithkeepers, elders, community leaders, all across the Americas.

Really asking them what knowledge they would like to share with the world through this series.

And I think what I'm most proud of is that I truly believe it's an authentic voice for Native American people.

Their knowledge is really more relevant today, or as relevant today, as it has been in the past.

One of my favorite locations was a cave on a mountain in the Amazon.

It took about four days to get there, between little puddle jumper planes.

We took a speedboat down the Amazon for two hours.

Then got into four-wheel drive vehicles for four hours.

Then hiked another two hours with all of our equipment and climbed this mountain.

The reason we went there is because it has some of the oldest art, perhaps the oldest paintings in all of the Americas.

And it dates to 13,000 years ago.

And the paintings are in fact, a interactive, 3D, walkthrough solar calendar.

It's a calendar that integrates human figures with celestial bodies, and environmental occasions, like when certain plants bear fruit.

And at the end of the cliff face, on the north and south end, there is an alignment to the winter solstice and the summer solstice.

So it's this precise calendar that is 8,000 years older than the celebrated Stonehenge of England.

It totally rewrote the history of the Americas.

It put the history much further back and much deeper into the Americas than anyone ever believed.

(gentle music) - Wow, what a great show.

I enjoyed learning about the extraordinary contributions of Native Americans.

What was your favorite part of the show?

Visit our website for more exclusive content.

See you next time.

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by Michigan Department of Education, the state of Michigan, and by viewers like you.

(upbeat music) (dynamic music)