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Racist location names in Minnesota and across the nation were discussed at first Turtle Island Project Native American Roundtable in Munising, Michigan 

Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer, director of the Rum River Name Change Organization Inc. in Wahkon, Minnesota, stands above the Rum River - one of numerous places in the U.S. whose original American Indian names were perverted by racist whites.

Dahlheimer helped introduce a bill to change 14 derogatory geographic place names that are offensive to American Indians.

(photo by Jim Dahlheimer)

Inaugural Grand Island Conference in northern Michigan addressed racism, poverty, teen suicide, derogatory location names, and other issues; Centering prayer, Celtic spiritual issues discussed during Turtle Island Project conference

(Munising, Michigan) - Racism, poverty, teen suicide on reservations, the derogatory perversion of American Indian names on Minnesota rivers and other locations across the country, and learning respect for the environment from Earth-based cultures were among the topics discussed at a Native American Roundtable this weekend in northern Michigan.

Sponsored by the Turtle Island Project, a non-profit based in the Upper Peninsula, the conference was held at the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising.

The reasons for a shocking increase in teen suicides at American Indian reservations was discussed including the 600 attempts and 15 deaths over the past two years at the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. The discussion included whether media coverage of the suicides would be different if the victims were white teenagers.

"I think one of the main reasons for suicide is loss of identity and hope and with that comes deep despair," said Pat Cornish-Hall, a Munising resident who is just discovering her mother's Native American heritage. “I do believe that poverty certainly has an effect on suicide.”

Counselor Joni Peffers of Gwinn said the media should report on the trends of teen suicides in their area but not give the individual details of each attempt or death.

"Each suicide should not be publicized for many reasons," said Peffers, owner of Celtic Cove Counseling at K.I. Sawyer.

While agreeing that Native American teen suicides are often overlooked by the media, Peffers said even trends in white teenage suicides and attempts are not reported citing several recent cases in Marquette County.

TIP co-founder Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard said wars across the globe have been started in the name of religion - but “that is not the case with Native Americans who fought over the theft of land or hunting rights, never over differences in religious belief.”

"Native American never started a war over religious ideology," said Rev. Hubbard, TIP director and pastor of Eden on the Bay Lutheran church. "We (whites) are the kind of people who fight wars over religious ideology."

The perversion of the original Native American name of Minnesota's Rum River and similar derogatory names was placed on the agenda at the request of Thomas Dahlheimer, director of the Rum River Name Change Organization Inc. in Wahkon, Minnesota.

Minnesota State Rep. Mike Joros, D-Duluth, recently introduced a bill that would change 14  derogatory geographic place names that are offensive to American Indians.

The Rum River in Minnesota was named by whites referring to alcohol "spirits" instead of the original American Indian name that meant "Great Spirit."

"Two of these derogatory names were changed from the sacred Ojibwe name for their Great Spirit (Manido) to Devil, as was the custom throughout our nation," said Dahlheimer. "Racial hatred was why many geographic site names were changed from Native peoples' names for the Great Spirit to Devil."

Many faulty translations of Native American names were done out of racism and as a "deliberate insult and slur,” Dahlheimer said.

"These derogatory names remind Native people of the cultural genocide that is being perpetrated against them," Dahlheimer said. "Changing these names it will help in the healing process - but keeping the derogatory names would maintain a racist, derogatory characterization of Native peoples."

Dahlheimer said "heightened awareness of the catastrophic consequences caused by white settlers introducing and selling alcohol to Native Americans - may cause white Euro-Americans to offer all Native Americans their long overdue restitution justice."

Dahlheimer’s views were presented at the roundtable by a TIP volunteer, but organizers hope future events will include a internet camera so tribal officials from around the country can participate without traveling to northern Michigan.

Hubbard said one of the goals of the TIP is to "give Native Americans a venue in which their voices can be heard and listened to.”

"Americans, whether of Native or Euro-American ancestry, are still being oppressed by  political, social, and economic structures, like we were from our European ancestors," Hubbard said. "There is so much evil in the world that we have created structures, such as corporations which are not actually moral entities, but function rather primarily as legal entities.”

“Morality has to do with the ability to feel empathy and remorse, to say that you are sorry and to admit mistakes and ask for forgiveness,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard said it’s rare for corporations and politicians to admit error and only do so “when they absolutely have to and even then, it is often inauthentic and not sincere.”

"If you can not say ‘I'm sorry' if you can not admit to  a mistake you are not a moral entity," Hubbard said.

“We let these structures do our dirty wok for us and then think we can walk free by simply claiming that we had nothing personally to do with the irresponsible immoral actions of our social and corporate institution,” Hubbard said. “That is the height of absolute moral hypocrisy.”

Hubbard said the reason “this evil is so great because it is structured into our political, religious and cultural institutions.”