Andy Favorite on Manifest Destiny at White Earth

The idea of ningaabii’an offering a gift of sorrow is, perhaps, difficult at first to understand. It is, however, an integral part of the journey. Below, the former White Earth tribal historian, Andy Favorite, explains a painful part of Anishinaaabe history—the treaty era, when the Ojibwe in Minnesota lost ten million acres of land, were cheated out of millions of dollars of timber revenue, and endured “a forced dependence on government commodities and rations” that lasted more than half a century. In the second video, Andy Favorite explains how non-Native people even tried to steal the Ojibwe’s identity.

Andy Favorite, sadly, passed away in 2012. He was a brilliant historian and a fearless storyteller. We honor him and his wife, Mary, chi miigwech (‘we offer thanks’).