Mino Nibiwan, Mino Bimaadiziwin: A wall map of Ojibwe Water and Culture. Left to right, cartographer Jessie Conaway, Bad River elder Joe Rose, Sr., Joe Dan Rose, Bad River elder Mary Lou Salawater.
The Bad River Water&Culture Maps Project is a collaboration between the Bad River Ojibwe and Jessie Conaway of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. The Bad River Water&Culture Maps differ from conventional maps of the region in that they showcase water instead of land, and feature Ojibwe cultural perspectives about water. Conaway began the project in the fall of 2011 by consulting with Bad River tribal members Joe Rose, Sr., Lawrence “Butch” Stone, Dana Jackson, Mike Wiggins, Jr., and Edith Leoso, learning about Ojibwe perspectives on the homeland of the Bad River watershed.
In 2013, Conaway interviewed tribal members about water and Ojibwe culture, using poster maps of the watershed and Apostle Islands. That summer she incorporated the places that elders and other community leaders had talked about into an outdoor educational “campus” for the Bad River Youth Outdoors (BRYO) program. In the BRYO program, Bad River tribal youth collected their own map data and stories that went into their webmap, bryomapsite.com
In the spring of both 2014 and 2015, Conaway worked with Bad River to teach a community-based capstone course for undergraduates in environmental studies: Water Stewardship and Sovereignty in the Bad River Ojibwe. In this course, UW Madison students worked directly with tribal members and natural resource experts to learn more about the Bad River watershed, Ojibwe traditional ecological knowledge, and resource management. Students then completed work products for the partnership. In 2014, a student team worked on the cultural atlas for the Bad River Water&Culture Maps Project. In 2015, student teams worked on this map website and curricula for teaching with the maps. Visit capstone website
ABOUT THE BAD RIVER OJIBWE
The Bad River Ojibwe, also called the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, are part of the larger Lake Superior Ojibwe Nation, who live on both American and Canadian soil around Lake Superior. They have inhabited the Bad River watershed for centuries since their migration from the Atlantic coast to the place “where food grows on water”—the wild rice beds of the south shore of Lake Superior. Following the Treaty of La Pointe in 1854, Bad River Ojibwe have maintained their original lands on the lower end of the Bad River and have protected and stewarded its water resources, including its pristine, productive wetlands, fisheries, and springs in the face of environmental threats.
ABOUT BAD RIVER YOUTH OUTDOORS (BRYO)
Bad River Youth Outdoors is a watershed education program that combines outdoor education with teachings about Ojibwe culture and water. In addition to helping create the maps showcased on this page, BRYO participants canoe, kayak, fish, hike, and steward wild rice along the Bad River and learn about the natural resources of the region.
ABOUT JESSIE CONAWAY
Conaway first developed a relationship with Ojibwe people during the effort with Mole Lake Ojibwe to resist a mining project in Crandon, Wisconsin, in the mid-nineties. Conaway sees working for water as an ethical obligation. As a kayaker and career educator, she takes diverse approaches to promote and protect water resources. Conaway has an Environment and Resources Ph.D with a minor in Cartography/GIS from the Nelson Institute.
ABOUT THE BAD RIVER CAPSTONE STUDENTS WHO BUILT THIS WEBSITE:
Zack Strom and Jolie Lizotte took Conaway’s capstone seminar as undergraduate UW seniors in the spring of 2015 and, for their final project, designed this website with guidance and feedback from Conaway and from Bad River tribal members. In addition, they helped to make the maps displayed on this website intellectual property of the Bad River Ojibwe through copyright, and took steps to make Conaway’s Cultural Atlas available at visitor centers in the larger region around the Bad River watershed.
Jessie Conaway with Bad River Youth Outdoors participants on the lower Bad River, summer 2013.
Ganawendan Ginibiminaan! Take Care of Our Water! Bad River Youth Outdoors participants monitoring water quality on the Tyler Forks River in the upper Bad River watershed.