The Ability to See Through Things
The Ability to See Through Things: Odawa White of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College
Northern Wisconsin in winter is a place of fragrance. The sun is bright, the air is fresh with the scent of spruce, fir, tamarack, cedar, white birch, and aspen. Squirrels chirp. Eagles glide high. The blue sky gives hope. And before Dr. Odawa White (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe) enters his office, he lays tobacco at the base of the spirit pole outside Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College’s (LCOOC’s) main campus building in Hayward, Wisconsin. Everything seems natural for him now that he is back home and helping to make a difference as LCOOC’s dean of student affairs.
White was raised on the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation and says with pride, “Part of my dream and power of my Ojibwe name has been a focus of what I can do for our community.” White’s father, Lewis, is from Lac Courte Oreilles and his mother, Monica, is from Grand Portage, Minnesota, and the Fort Williams reserve in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which are both Ojibwe communities. Odawa is married to Brandy (Ho-Chunk) and has three children—Ayden, 18, Miinan (which means blueberries in Ojibwe), 16, and Everett, 11. Since he can remember, his Ojibwe heritage has guided him. White often thinks back to his childhood and a cherished moment. For his naming ceremony, he was honored with Ozaabadiis. Translated to English, the name means “the ability to see through things.”
The power of White’s name would surface when he needed it most. When he was a young man attending mainstream midwestern universities, White had to walk gingerly through cloudy social expectations. He had to work double compared to his non-Native peers. “I struggled through what should have been normal life tasks. Instead, ordinary responsibilities for some became challenges for me,” explains the soft-spoken dean of student affairs.
Yet, paradoxically, White’s journey through a new culture would benefit him later. At the time, he could not see the social capital he was gaining. He was obtaining the mainstream university’s high regard for diverse experiences and perspectives.
When he would finally come home to Lac Courte Oreilles, literally arriving full circle, the ability to analyze and culturally deconstruct various ways of thinking would benefit him. Helping his students see through things, such as unexpected barriers, is exactly what he has been able to do. White, with the help of his colleagues and community, offers unique answers to those students’ challenges. Unlike the traditional American university, LCOOC’s solutions are heritage themed. This approach has supported some Native undergraduates who have had one symbolic foot out the door because they believed they were in academic purgatory, with a murky future at best.
To read the full article, go to: https://tribalcollegejournal.org/the-ability-to-see-through-things-odawa-white-of-lac-courte-oreilles-ojibwe-college/