Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community - Book discussion with Brenda Child April 12, 2012

Brenda Child discusses her new book, Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community. Too often ignored or underemphasized in favor of their male warrior counterparts, Native American women have played a more central role in guiding their nations than has ever been understood. Many Native communities were, in fact, organized around women's labor, the sanctity of mothers, and the wisdom of female elders. In this well-researched and deeply felt account of the Ojibwe of Lake Superior and the Mississippi River, Brenda J. Child details the ways in which women have shaped Native American life from the days of early trade with Europeans through the reservation era and beyond.

Brenda Child is a member of the Red Lake Ojibwe Nation, Chair of American Indian Studies and Associate Professor of American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Her other work includes Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (1998) and Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000 (2000).

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/thursdayscals12.php