` Mohican Archival Activism: Narrating Indigenous Nationalism A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Rose K. Miron IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Jean M. O’Brien and Kevin P. Murphy June 2018 © Rose K. Miron 2018 Acknowledgements I would not have finished this dissertation without the mentorship, support, and help of so many individuals, and I feel grateful to be able to thank them here. The first iteration of this project came through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) at the University of Minnesota. After cold-emailing a handful of professors and asking them to work with me on a project, I was fortunate enough to receive my first reply from Jean O’Brien, who would become my project advisor and help me structure my first exploration of this topic. Jean also encouraged me to take one of her graduate seminars, where I met a group of graduate students who would mentor me, help me with my graduate school applications, and ultimately become some of my closest friends. Thank you to Katie Phillips, Kasey Keeler, Akikwe Cornell, and Jimmy Sweet. I feel lucky to have known you all for so long and that you were some of my first role models in academia. The members of my undergraduate thesis committee (Jean O’Brien, David Chang, Brenda Child, and Darlene St. Clair) also provided invaluable advice about the project as I entered graduate school. Upon entering graduate school at the University of Minnesota, I was fortunate enough to continue working with Jean O’Brien and add a co-advisor, Kevin Murphy. Jean and Kevin gave me careful feedback on countless drafts, encouraged me with positive guidance, and shaped this project in enormous ways. Their support for my writing, their care for me as an individual, and their advice in my career development over the last five years has been invaluable. Katherine Hayes, also played a significant role in shaping this project. It was under her guidance during a summer Graduate Research Partnership Program that I first began to focus my work on the Mohican tribal archive, and her mentorship and suggestions for reading helped me immensely as I developed my main ideas for the dissertation. Brenda Child has also been incredibly helpful in guiding how I conducted my oral interviews and pushing me to think about the scope of tribal archives more broadly, and I was lucky enough to work as her Research Assistant on a number of projects with the Red Lake Nation. These experiences helped me further understand community-engagement protocols and collaborative partnerships i with indigenous nations. As I developed the main arguments of this project for my preliminary exams, I also received invaluable feedback from Tina DeLisle, David Chang, Vince Diaz, and Ari Kelman. Several other faculty members and graduate students at the University of Minnesota also played an important role in shaping my ideas and writing. Elaine Tyler May has been supporting and encouraging me since I took a graduate seminar with her as an undergraduate, and Jason Stahl has been incredibly helpful since I was his undergraduate TA. Jason helped me with my grad school applications, was invaluable as I navigated graduate school, and has always been a great friend. My bosses at the Center for Writing; Katie Levin, Kirsten Jamsen, and Jasmine Kar Tang were also incredibly supportive as I moved from being an undergraduate to a graduate student, and Jake Grossman and Jasmine Kar Tang read significant portions of my dissertation, giving me exceptionally helpful feedback. Jimmy Patiño, Roderick Ferguson, Jennifer Pierce, Jean Langford, and Bianet Castellanos all helped develop my ideas in the courses I took with them. At Minnesota, I was lucky enough to participate in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Workshop, where I received instrumental feedback on my own work as well as had the opportunity to participate in intellectual discussions that shaped my understanding and engagement with American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Thank you to Jimmy Sweet, Sam Majhor, Jill Fish, Bernadette Perez, Jessica Arnett, Evan Taparata, Marie Balsley Taylor, Mike Dockry, Mattie Harper, Hana Maruyama, Kai Pyle, and Agleska Cohen-Rencountre for your instrumental feedback and friendships. I cannot thank Katie Phillips, Kasey Keeler, Amber Annis, Akikwe Cornell, Sasha Suarez, Joe Whitson, and John Little enough for their feedback, encouragement, and support. Beyond colleagues, they have become some of my best friends. Fellowships from the Newberry Library, the American Philosophical Society, and the University of Minnesota provided vital support for this project, and I want to the thank the archivists at the Newberry Library, the American Philosophical Society, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Archives and Research Center in Sharon, Massachusetts for their help as I was exploring this project through research. I also want to thank Juliet Larkin-Gilmore, who was in residence with ii me at the Newberry and has provided a much-needed push for this project on more than one occasion when I was in the throes of tedious archival research. I owe special thanks to the archivist at the Stockbridge Library in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Barbara Allen, who took the time to talk with me about the relationship and history between the Mohican Nation and Stockbridge, and introduced me to Rick Wilcox, who has worked in collaboration with the Mohicans on a number of local projects. Rick was incredibly helpful, and he sent me materials from his personal records that helped shape many sections of this dissertation. Most importantly, I owe an enormous amount of thanks to the archivists at the Arvid E. Miller Library-Museum on the Mohican reservation. Nathalee Kristiansen, Yvette Malone, Leah Miller, and the late Betty Groh have been incredibly helpful and supportive as I conducted research over the last seven years. These women not only helped me navigate the collections, but also became friends that I shared laughs, frustrations, and excitement with. As I began to more regularly attend Historical Committee Meetings and conduct language revitalization research for the tribe, they were invaluable in giving me direction and always picking up the phone or quickly answering an email when I needed guidance. Likewise, I want to especially thank the individuals I spoke with at length on the phone and formally interviewed for this project. Leah Miller and Jo Ann Schedler were kind enough to spend more than an hour answering my questions, and their interviews provide a more complete understanding of the labor required to build an archive and the projects that can grow from a collection than I could have ever imagined. The Mohican Nation’s Historic Preservation Officer, Bonney Hartley, was also generous enough to talk with me on the phone and provide careful feedback on sections of this dissertation on more than one occasion. Those chapters would have undoubtedly been a mess without her careful feedback and guidance on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. Finally, thank you to Jake Fahrenkrog, an environmental consultant who is also my fiancé’s best friend. His explanations of what happens on the ground in Section 106 consultations provided me with irreplaceable information that ultimately shaped much of my fourth chapter, and he was kind enough to give me feedback on multiple drafts of that section. iii I also owe an incredible debt to the other members of the Mohican Historical Committee, who welcomed me into their meetings and provided crucial guidance and feedback on my work. In particular, I want to thank Sheila (Miller) Powless, Nicole Bowman, and Molly Miller for their feedback on my ideas and on various community engagement models I proposed. Nicole and Sheila reminded me of the colonial history between researchers and indigenous communities but encouraged me to continue doing my work with care and in collaboration with the Committee. Their input was critical and I thought about it often over the last seven years that I have worked closely with the tribe. I also want to thank Molly and Leah Miller, both of whom read significant parts of my dissertation and were kind enough to call and email me with feedback and suggestions. I am also indebted to the entire Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation, who welcomed me into their community. In particular, thank you to the Mohican Tribal Council and the Mohican Legal Department, whom I have worked with at various stages of developing this project. Driving the 8-hour roundtrip between Minneapolis and Bowler, WI over the last seven years has not been easy, so I am also indebted to the people who made this travel and my time in Bowler easier. Thank you to Nathalee, Yvette, and Leah, who made my days at the museum enjoyable and to Bonnie Paiser and Jessica Edblom, who run Bonnie’s Place in Bowler and always provided me with company and conversation on my daily lunch breaks. Thank you to some of my parents’ dearest friends, Pam Laking and Blaine Koch, who provided the best company I could ask for with dinners and Wisconsin Old Fashioneds. Finally, I am indebted to Cindy Gloudemans, who gave allowed me to stay at her cabin near the reservation for the majority of my research trips. Finally, I never would have made it through graduate school and completed this dissertation without the emotional support and love of my friends and family, who constantly encouraged me to persevere. Thank you to Abby Vanevenhoven, Rhianna Myers, Jillian Kissinger, Kelly Behling, Jessi Miller, Russell Johnson, Matt Hanson, Katie O’Grady, Sibel Dikmen, Scott Fluhrer, and Jenna Anderson for always keeping me in good spirits and reminding me that my best was enough.