Post by Moon Seeker on Jul 21, 2009 14:01:36 GMT -5
'Extraoardinary Woman' tells real Native American story
by Joe Kernan
On March 8, Eastern Connecticut State University anthropology professor Julianne Jennings of Warwick was one of just nine women to receive the Extraordinary Woman Award in Providence. The award, which recognizes women from different ethnic origins, recognizes outstanding work in different areas of the community that enhance the resources available for women - resources that Jennings once needed herself.
“I was dependent, I had children. I was homeless and living outside near a lake on Route 165 and Route 3,” she said, explaining how she was fleeing an abusive situation in the mid-1990s. “We would eat what we could pick out of garbage cans and we used to steal food from picnic baskets. I’m not ashamed to say I stole food for my children.”
That was tolerable in the summer but as colder weather approached, Jennings had to find an alternative.
“I was the first resident of House of Hope,” she says.
“But I knew that I had to think about what I would do in the long term. I took advantage of a scholarship from the Indian Council and went to CCRI. But life has a way of getting in the way and it took me 17 years to get my degree.”
Jennings, a Cheroenhaka Nottoway Native American, had been giving talks and demonstrations of Native American culture and history but says now that it was a somewhat watered-down and pandering sort of act, giving people the culture as they wanted to see it; out in the woods communing with nature and living the simple life.
“I was acting like the white man’s Indian,” she said, “conforming to the idea they already had of what Indians were. I wasn’t talking about the true story, the story of how Indians suffered because of the European settling of the country.”
Jennings started training to be a nurse but realized that she would rather study anthropology instead and eventually teach the true story of how Europeans deliberately tried to extinguish Native American culture in Southern New England. It was time to bring her scholarly discipline in line with her passion. She enrolled at Rhode Island College and got her degree in anthropology and then earned a master’s in anthropology.
“I have to thank professors Richard Lobban and his wife Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban for much of my academic success,” she said. “They encouraged me and helped me immeasurably.”
Jennings currently teaches a First-Year Program Liberal Arts Colloquium entitled "Mixed Blood Indians in Southern New England" at Eastern Connecticut State University.
“I got the job almost before the ink was dry on my diploma,” she said, still somewhat surprised at the events now as compared to the days when she saw less hope on the horizon. Now she is teaching what she loves and watching her kids enjoy advantages she didn’t have.
“I was in a dead-end job and I knew I had to do something if I wanted things to change, so I took the plunge, quit my job and enrolled in school,” she said. “It wasn’t easy to do but I had to try. I was the first Native American to get a masters in anthropology at RIC.”
She has been busy ever since. Jennings is the author of several books and journal articles on Native American culture and recently co-authored the book, “A Cultural History of the Native People of Southern New England.”
In 2007, she received the Eve Ensler’s “girl thingy Warrior” Award presented by Rhode Island College for her advocacy against violence and sexual assault on Native American women.
During the Extraordinary Women event Jennings received 11 citations from the city of Warwick, Office of the Mayor, Scott Avedisian; The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Office of the Secretary of State, A. Ralph Mollis;
The United State Senate from Senator Jack Reed; the city of Providence, Citizen Citation, from Mayor David Cicilline; the state of Rhode Island, General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio; the city of Cranston from Mayor Allen Fung; a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse; Governor Donald L.Carcieri; Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Representative James Langevin; from the House of Representatives from Speaker William J. Murphy and Attorney General, Patrick C. Lynch.
Understandably, Jennings is proud of her accomplishments and hopes that her story inspires more women to assert themselves and be all they can be.
Now, Jennings can tell the story of Native Americans to her students as it was and not as people would like it to be.
“What I teach is not the stories they learned in school or from mainstream culture,” she said. “When I tell them that George Washington’s Indian name translates to ‘destroyer of towns’ some of them get upset but it is essential that people know the truth and the truth is not always easy to take.”
Now Jennings has to think about the next step, which would be a doctorate in anthropology, but for now, it’s telling her students the woman standing in front of them who is not wearing a buckskin outfit is an American Indian.
“We have to dress in buckskin, feathers and beads to be taken seriously, yet those of European ancestry do not have to wear tall black or shoes with buckles,” she said. “Wearing regalia needs to be put back into context with ceremony and not as ‘show and tell.’ Mainstream America has effectively marginalized our inherited way of being but it is past time to tell our story.”
johnstonsunrise.net/pages/full_story/push?article--Extraoardinary+Woman-+tells+real+Native+American+story%20&id=2267716--Extraoardinary+Woman-+tells+real+Native+American+story&instance=lead_story_left_column
by Joe Kernan
On March 8, Eastern Connecticut State University anthropology professor Julianne Jennings of Warwick was one of just nine women to receive the Extraordinary Woman Award in Providence. The award, which recognizes women from different ethnic origins, recognizes outstanding work in different areas of the community that enhance the resources available for women - resources that Jennings once needed herself.
“I was dependent, I had children. I was homeless and living outside near a lake on Route 165 and Route 3,” she said, explaining how she was fleeing an abusive situation in the mid-1990s. “We would eat what we could pick out of garbage cans and we used to steal food from picnic baskets. I’m not ashamed to say I stole food for my children.”
That was tolerable in the summer but as colder weather approached, Jennings had to find an alternative.
“I was the first resident of House of Hope,” she says.
“But I knew that I had to think about what I would do in the long term. I took advantage of a scholarship from the Indian Council and went to CCRI. But life has a way of getting in the way and it took me 17 years to get my degree.”
Jennings, a Cheroenhaka Nottoway Native American, had been giving talks and demonstrations of Native American culture and history but says now that it was a somewhat watered-down and pandering sort of act, giving people the culture as they wanted to see it; out in the woods communing with nature and living the simple life.
“I was acting like the white man’s Indian,” she said, “conforming to the idea they already had of what Indians were. I wasn’t talking about the true story, the story of how Indians suffered because of the European settling of the country.”
Jennings started training to be a nurse but realized that she would rather study anthropology instead and eventually teach the true story of how Europeans deliberately tried to extinguish Native American culture in Southern New England. It was time to bring her scholarly discipline in line with her passion. She enrolled at Rhode Island College and got her degree in anthropology and then earned a master’s in anthropology.
“I have to thank professors Richard Lobban and his wife Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban for much of my academic success,” she said. “They encouraged me and helped me immeasurably.”
Jennings currently teaches a First-Year Program Liberal Arts Colloquium entitled "Mixed Blood Indians in Southern New England" at Eastern Connecticut State University.
“I got the job almost before the ink was dry on my diploma,” she said, still somewhat surprised at the events now as compared to the days when she saw less hope on the horizon. Now she is teaching what she loves and watching her kids enjoy advantages she didn’t have.
“I was in a dead-end job and I knew I had to do something if I wanted things to change, so I took the plunge, quit my job and enrolled in school,” she said. “It wasn’t easy to do but I had to try. I was the first Native American to get a masters in anthropology at RIC.”
She has been busy ever since. Jennings is the author of several books and journal articles on Native American culture and recently co-authored the book, “A Cultural History of the Native People of Southern New England.”
In 2007, she received the Eve Ensler’s “girl thingy Warrior” Award presented by Rhode Island College for her advocacy against violence and sexual assault on Native American women.
During the Extraordinary Women event Jennings received 11 citations from the city of Warwick, Office of the Mayor, Scott Avedisian; The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Office of the Secretary of State, A. Ralph Mollis;
The United State Senate from Senator Jack Reed; the city of Providence, Citizen Citation, from Mayor David Cicilline; the state of Rhode Island, General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio; the city of Cranston from Mayor Allen Fung; a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse; Governor Donald L.Carcieri; Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Representative James Langevin; from the House of Representatives from Speaker William J. Murphy and Attorney General, Patrick C. Lynch.
Understandably, Jennings is proud of her accomplishments and hopes that her story inspires more women to assert themselves and be all they can be.
Now, Jennings can tell the story of Native Americans to her students as it was and not as people would like it to be.
“What I teach is not the stories they learned in school or from mainstream culture,” she said. “When I tell them that George Washington’s Indian name translates to ‘destroyer of towns’ some of them get upset but it is essential that people know the truth and the truth is not always easy to take.”
Now Jennings has to think about the next step, which would be a doctorate in anthropology, but for now, it’s telling her students the woman standing in front of them who is not wearing a buckskin outfit is an American Indian.
“We have to dress in buckskin, feathers and beads to be taken seriously, yet those of European ancestry do not have to wear tall black or shoes with buckles,” she said. “Wearing regalia needs to be put back into context with ceremony and not as ‘show and tell.’ Mainstream America has effectively marginalized our inherited way of being but it is past time to tell our story.”
johnstonsunrise.net/pages/full_story/push?article--Extraoardinary+Woman-+tells+real+Native+American+story%20&id=2267716--Extraoardinary+Woman-+tells+real+Native+American+story&instance=lead_story_left_column