Miigwech

The organization argues that Indian boarding schools were made to “assimilate Native youth into white society” ² and supported the assertion by Biden administration Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, when she suggested, “The United States directly targeted American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children in the pursuit of a policy of cultural assimilation that coincided with Indian territorial dispossession.” ²

Leadership

Meredith Kennedy-Fisher is the founder and executive director of Miigwech. She has been a director for the Little Traverse Bay Bands Odawa Indians government and the Intertribal Council of Michigan. Fisher was formerly on the executive board for Think Babies Michigan, a company that advocates for more tax money to be invested into early childcare systems, ³ and sits on the board of Promote the Vote, a voter engagement initiative of the National Council of Jewish Women. ⁴

Programs

Rock the Native Vote

Rock the Native Vote is Miigwech’s voter registration program. According to its 2022 tax return, Miigwech spent $52,500 on voter outreach media in Michigan. The program continued through the media toolkit in the Michigan Tribal newsletter through November 2024. ⁵

Doula Initiative

The Doula Initiative is Miigwech’s birth and parenting program. The program trains birth workers (doulas) on traditional Native American practices regarding pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood. Miigwech works with community members to help attain Medicaid reimbursement from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for doula services during pregnancy. Miigwech states the program “[has positive] impact the social determinants of health, support birth equity, and decrease existing health and racial disparities.” ⁶

Zagaswe’iwe

The Zagasw’iwe program combines the ideas and goals of Native tribes in Michigan to advocate their causes with local and federal governments. The group wants to educate the general public about “historical traumas and its long term effects…seeking repatriations in the form of Land Back treaties…[and] inserting curriculum into Michigan based education about the effects of Indian boarding schools and all other US Indian policy.” ⁷

Holy Childhood Boarding School

Miigwech states that Native American communities were destroyed by Indian Boarding Schools throughout the United States since their inception. The group focuses on the Holy Childhood Indian Boarding School in Harbor Springs, Michigan. Holy Childhood Boarding School was opened in 1880 and was the first in Harbor Springs to be run by the federal government. It is speculated that as federal policy towards Native Americans changed, the school focused on assimilating Native American children into mainstream American culture. Assimilation mandates were no longer legally required, but former students claim they were punished for speaking anything other than English or expressing their cultural norms. Some speculate the children were treated differently based on skin color and some students claim they were given numbers instead of being called by their names. It is suggested that foundations that wrote favorably about the school are “examples of how white, wealthy Americans maintained their privileged status while claiming to help their Indigenous neighbors.” ⁸ Miigwech promotes public awareness of Holy Childhood Boarding School-related stories and histories. ⁷