Student Project Showcase

Liana Ysabel Bautista

Op-Ed: An Indigenous Perspective on the Spread of Infectious Disease

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented turmoil and disrupts the way that we conduct our daily activities. When seeking answers to how the spread of coronavirus could have been limited or what can we do to anticipate the next pandemic, we can turn to the indigenous Anishinaabe tribes’ concept of “aki” and their solutions to the invasive species in their communities. Paralleling the spread of these species to the current spread of coronavirus, we take away key lessons on our relationships to natural wildlife and how they influence human behavior concerning the spread of disease. The difference in how we perceive others and our surroundings ultimately determines the outcomes of a population’s health.

Michael Anderson

Water Politics through the Lens of Aki

In the early 1900s dozens of hydroelectric dams were constructed along the rivers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to power mining operations around which the local economies flourished. The dams flooded river valleys consuming thousands of acres of land, hundreds of houses, and the livelihoods of westerners and natives that inhabited them. Still today, tribes fight for the justice promised to them by the power companies while world leaders push evermore mightily for clean energy. Are the rewards of hydroelectric energy worth what it has cost us as a society? This presentation explores the question through the lens of Aki - an Anishinaabeg word representing the idea that land belongs simultaneously to no one and everyone. 

Sharika Elahi

Mutual Aid: How We Can Learn from Communal Housing Movements

This project is an analysis of what it means for us socially and psychologically when we own our land and resources privately versus when we are part of a collective. As participants of a culture where the private ownership of property remains a key feature of success, I explore how we can begin to imagine new versions of success and adult life that diverge from this mainstream narrative of the American dream. I argue that one of the material effects of living in a capitalist society, in which individualism and privatization are prominent values, is that we turn to each other for help less often. Mutual aid efforts, which have recently entered into the forefront of public consciousness, rely on our ability to turn to others in our community for support. How can we build up successful mutual aid efforts if many of us do not feel comfortable with the idea of receiving help from others? How can we mobilize all people to get involved in forms of resistance in which we depend on each other? To answer these questions, I look to different examples of communal housing, such as joint households in old Bangladesh, Robin Kimmerer’s discussion of communally held Native American land in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, and my own personal experiences living in Ann Arbor cooperative housing. What I find from these examples is that we should not think of mutual aid as an alternative form of assistance in which we turn to each other rather than to charities, but as an opportunity to create the conditions for something new. An effective way around psychological barriers keeping us from seeking help is to ground mutual aid efforts in collaboration, rather than the idea of aid itself. We must consider: what could I do with others that I can’t achieve alone?

Amelia Jelic 

Preserving Indigenous Language is Necessary for the Conservation of the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are thought of as a very important resource for millions of people across the Midwest. The idea of water as a commodity for humans to buy, sell, or use has led to issues with water quality, harmful algal blooms, and overuse. In order to prevent these dire issues, we need to change the way we think about water and the environment in general. In the Great Lakes specifically, Indigenous language and knowledge are important pieces of this process. This op-ed explores the Anishanaabeg concept of aki and how, through Indigenous language, we can engender reciprocity with the land and water we depend on.

Clarisse Owens

A Layout of our Food System

This presentation covers changes in the food system of the United States over the last century. The infrastructure and energy sources used to produce and distribute food have impacted the way that individuals view and interact with food. Within this, there are racial, environmental, and economic injustices that have led to inequities across the food and health of humans. Progressive legislation, mutual aid, and grassroots movements are some suggestions for fixing the food system. These solutions are inspired by practices of indigenous groups of the Great Lakes region that prioritize reciprocity with environmental systems and communities. 

Maggie Stagner

Cultural Conservation

Conservation efforts and ideology vary across different cultures. Stark differences are particularly apparent between the efforts of the Anishinaabeg populations, native to the Great Lakes region, and other populations inhabiting the same area, North Americans of primarily European descent. The books and stories that are read to children in the two cultures demonstrate some of the fundamental differences in how humans relate to their environments. Typical Western English books hold humans central to most story lines with very little focus on the realities of nature. Anishinaabe stories teach the celebration of and respect for nature with an emphasis on reciprocity by blending fiction and fact. There is a genuine and foundational appreciation for the environment in this native population. Their children are taught from a very young age how to respect and care for the land they live on. Countering the Western preservation of what humans need to survive, the sustainability and conservation efforts in native cultures are concentrated on the protection of everything living.

Ryan Montgomery

Cosmologies, Development, and Land

Beliefs shape your thoughts and lead to actions, whether this is on a personal or global scale. This story offers one perspective of American development: from our initial cosmological choice through the collapse of the Native American “Middle Ground” and the development of Capitalism. Had the United States chosen to follow a cosmology other than Manifest Destiny, such as Skywoman Falling or Biblical Creationism, the world as we know it may look dramatically different.

Theresa Benton and Esther Ladkau

The Rouge River: Redlining, Riverbanks, and Restoration in Metro Detroit

Once so toxic and polluted it caught fire, the Rouge River is a symbol of the struggle to achieve equitable restoration that enhances environmental justice in Michigan’s most socially diverse region.

For over one hundred years, the Rouge River has been a vital component of southeastern Michigan's industrial machine. It has transported goods to and from faraway places, provided hydropower, and received enormous amounts of industrial and municipal waste. Affected to this day by the wounds of that abuse, the Rouge struggles to heal as it faces a larger adversary: development and sewage from its densely populated, concrete-encased watershed. A history of segregation and environmental injustice within the watershed complicates the restoration of the Rouge River as those communities situated on the most degraded parts of the river are also those with the fewest resources to do anything about it. This situation leaves the Rouge and its citizens with some complicated questions regarding its shifting identity: is it a sewer, a lost cause, or an untapped recreational resource? Who decides? And who pays for these changes?

Mackenzie Dalton, Alexandra Eason, Catherine Kim, Esther Ladkau, and Hunter Schotts

Midland, Michigan: Confronting Chemical Contamination

Concern over toxic pollution from Dow Chemical’s plant in Midland, Michigan, pushes environmental activists and government agencies to clean up contamination in the face of corporate cover-ups, legal disputes, and conflicts of interest.

Similar to other industrialized areas around the Great Lakes, Midland, Michigan, has suffered from water pollution since the early 20th century. Chemical industries in Midland began using the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers to dispose of industrial waste in the early 1900s. The resulting toxins accumulated in the soil, fish, and wildlife, causing harm to both the environment and the people living and working in the region. As scientific and public awareness of water pollution increased throughout the U.S. and the Saginaw Bay area during the 1960s, government regulations and new federal environmental regulatory agencies helped limit the public health impact of toxic waste. Although progress to clean up and restore polluted areas has occasionally been confrontational and difficult, the efforts of local activists and environmental organizations have helped keep parties responsible for carrying out remedial actions for the Tittabawassee River.

This case examines the motivations and roles of Dow Chemical Co., bureaucratic agencies, and environmental NGOs in historical and modern activities involving chemical contamination in Midland, Michigan. From the manufacturing processes that produce toxic waste to the legislation that aims to prevent chemicals from contaminating bodies of water, we will look at historical and modern events that have shaped water quality in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers and led the way to a cleaner future.