The Power of Indigenous Knowledge (with Marvin Defoe)

This episode starts with a meal around a fire, in a place where people have been cooking and eating for more than 5,000 years. Our hosts are Marvin Defoe and Edwina Buffalo-Reyes, members of the Red Cliff band of Lake Superior Ojibwe in Bayfield County. For the last three years, the Red Cliff Tribal Historic Preservation Office has been collaborating with two archaeologists helping excavate sites on tribal lands. Listen to hear what they are doing to reclaim and revitalize the deep history and culture of their people—and to help train a new generation of scholars committed to centering indigenous knowledge.

Voices in this episode:

• Marvin Defoe is an educator, teacher, birch bark canoe builder, and Red Cliff elder. He grew up in the Red Cliff community and is part of the sturgeon clan. Named Shingway Banase in Anishinaabe, he is passionate about maintenance and revitalization of the Ojibwe language. Marvin is past Vice Chair on the tribal council and has been the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for four years. Learn more about the Red Cliff Ojibwe from Marvin in this video from PBS and Wisconsin First Nations educational resources.
• Edwina Buffalo-Reyes is from Red Cliff and of the eagle clan. In her words, "Ziigwaanikwe nindizhinikaaz. Miskwaabekaang nindoonjibaa. Migizi nindoodem. I am a mother first and always. I have three children - one adult and two still living at home. My passion is serving my community in all aspects and spectrums of need. I am currently the Assistant Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for my community. My life path has come full circle and has returned me to my community to raise my children and learn as much as I can about the history and ways of life of my people, the Anishinaabe - past and present."
• Heather Walder is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, and a research associate at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Since 2018, she has co-directed Gete Anishinaabeg Izhichigewin Community Archaeology Project, a collaborative endeavor of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and academic archaeologists. Her research interests include copper metallurgy and glass bead studies to better understand Indigenous trade networks of eastern North America.
• John Creese is an anthropological archaeologist in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Dakota State University with research interests in archaeological theory, landscape and settlement archaeology, GIS, personhood and the body, and community and Indigenous archaeologies. His current fieldwork focusses on collaborative Indigenous archaeology in the Western Great Lakes region of North America. He has published on topics such as rock art and relational ontologies, emotion-work and material culture, and Iroquoian architecture and settlement organization. Dr. Creese is also currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Archaeology.