Naming conventions say a lot about how a culture is related to place. The Anishinaabe (Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa) peoples have a unique relationship to the places around the body of water we call Lake Michigan. A deeper look into our naming conventions offers a window of learning how we engage in relationship to place. We will examine Anishinaabe place names in relationship to water and learn how to understand this larger cosmos as an interrelated set of reciprocal relationships that can produce flourishing for all.

Facilitator Mark Freeland is a member of the Bahweting Anishinaabe Nation (Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa) and is currently the Director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. His work is at the intersection of American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Indigenous languages, and land restoration efforts in the Milwaukee River Watershed.