kweehsitoolaanki kinwaalaniihsia: Miami Citizen Daryl Daryl Baldwin is well known throughout the Myaamia community. He is that linguist guy, the tall one with the braided hair who came to Oklahoma to teach early workshops on the Myaamia language back in the mid-90’s. He is to us, his relations, the leader of the Myaamia effort to restore our heritage language. His devotion to the work of language revitalization led to the creation of the Myaamia Center at Miami University and his appointment as the Director. He is the backbone of a language reclamation effort that, with an expanded staff, has produced a Myaamia Dictionary, a Myaamia storybook, multiple online language resources, and many other language learning tools. And now he is known not only to us, but far beyond our community circle. It was announced in September that Daryl Baldwin was chosen as a 2016 MacArthur Foundation Fellow. So what is the MacArthur Foundation? And what does Fellow status entail? According to the Foundation’s website I offer the following: “The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a Myaamia Center Director Daryl Baldwin, pictured teaching at Miami University, has been marked capacity for self-direction.” named a 2016 MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Photo courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation Continued on page 1B website.
Eight Tribes of Ottawa County Stand Against the Grand River Dam Authority
Office Special Project Researcher
A ring of tables with additional chairs for spectators were set up in the council house on Wednesday, August 3rd for a scheduled consultation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Army Corps of Engineers to address issues related to the Pensacola dam which is owned and operated by the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA). The hydroelectric dam, which was completed in 1940, created Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees just down river from Miami, OK and results in the regular flooding of lands significant to all of the tribes in Ottawa County. Over the past 76 years the GRDA has operated the dam without consulting with impacted tribes or reimbursing for the regular flooding of land. Throughout the 20th century many tribes who suffered a removal were focusing their efforts on surviving as a community, so concerns related to the dam fell by the wayside until such a time as the tribes were able to address them. The sequence of events leading up to the consultation began last Spring when the GRDA applied for a temporary variance that allows them to raise
By Ian Young, Cultural Resources
the level of the lake. An elevated lake level, while reducing the cost of energy production, also raises the threat of flooding on vulnerable properties upriver from the dam. Upon learning of the GRDA’s application, the Miami Tribe spearheaded an effort among the nine tribes of Ottawa county to bring FERC, the Army Corps, and GRDA to the table to discuss the impacts of past dam operation along with the concerns for the requested variance. Each of the tribes sent a representative from their business committee to give a testimony of their people’s experiences caused by the dam and the resultant flooding. In some instances high waters cut elders off from access to health services and turned tribal complexes into island chains. Consultations such as these are critical to insure that tribes’ best interests are taken into consideration whenever they are impacted in any way, and this first one allowed the nine tribes to give voice to the concerns of the past seventy six years and continue engaging in the future. Following the August 3rd consultation, FERC granted GRDA’s temporary variance of the lake level; howContinued on page 8A
aatotankiki myaamiaki...
Chief Douglas Lankford addresses representatives of the Grand River Dam Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers during a meeting held on August 3, 2016 in the Miami Nation Council House. Representatives of each of the eight Tribes of Ottawa County attended the meeting. Pictured with Chief Lankford are Miami Nation Second Chief Dustin Olds (far left), Chief Billy Friend of the Wyandot, and Chief Ethel Cook of the Ottawa. AM Staff Photo.
Two handwritten journals documenting the governmental actions of the Miami Nation from 1862 to 1910 have been repatriated. See the articles on page 6A and 6B .