Below is a numbered timeline (1994-2023) with a selection of 52 excerpts from articles, interviews, books, and NAFPS posts in which Margaret Noodin makes claims of having Native American ancestry. A corresponding source list follows. If there isn’t a link, I have the source documents saved offline which are available upon request. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list. There are likely additional examples out there. This post and the upcoming genealogy posts were developed using publicly available information.
Margaret Noodin posted on NAFPS that she’s never claimed to be enrolled in a tribe with two individuals supporting those statements despite evidence to the contrary. The timeline below includes two instances in 2006 and 2009 when MN used the word “enrolled” about the Minnesota Chippewa Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Margaret Noodin has used the verbiage “descendant of”, “family from”, “member of”, and “relatives from” the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and/or Minnesota Chippewa many times over the years. There are at least ten examples on the timeline in which Margaret specifically mentions the Minnesota Chippewa or some variation.
An additional post with genealogy will show that Margaret’s grandmother was born in Massachusetts and didn’t move to Minnesota until sometime between 1911-1919. I will go into more detail on this issue in another post.
Margaret Noodin was referred to as being “Anishinaabe” and “Indigenous to the Great Lakes” in late-2022/early-2023 and having “Ojibwe ancestry” as recently as a few weeks ago. Despite saying earlier in 2022 on NAFPS that she “will ensure that all websites contain no implication of descendancy, ancestry or ethnicity.”
Many of the claims on the timeline should be able to be corroborated in some way. For example, the claims Margaret makes about her uncle and Mide in #18. I can find no evidence that Margaret’s uncle or his children have any involvement in Minnesota Chippewa or Anishinaabe communities. Would they corroborate Margaret’s claims if asked?
Pay close attention to Margaret Noodin’s claims about family members attending boarding school. She has contradicted herself multiple times. In 2012 (#23), Margaret states that the generation before her parents (grandmother and great-aunts/great-uncles) attended boarding school. In 2022 (#47 and #48), Margaret shifts between her great-grandmother, Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Myers) Hill, and great-great-aunt, Jennie (Myers) Fontaine, being at an “Indian school” in a series of NAFPS posts. The claim that her great-great-aunt, Jennie (Myers) Fontaine, was in an Indian school invalidates Margaret’s genealogical claims about Henri Lavallee. She claims a man named Henri Lavallee was rumored to be her great-grandmother’s father and that John Myers was her stepfather. Well…there is an 11-12 year age difference between Lizzie and Jennie AND Jennie’s birth record and numerous other records state that John Myers is her father. If the alleged Anishinaabe ancestry is from this Henri Lavallee, why would Jennie have been in an Indian boarding school?
1994
1. "The instructor is Meg Aerol, an Ojibwe from Minnesota who is fluent in U.S. and Canadian dialects."
2006
2. “I have Metis relatives that came from the Montreal area”
3. “the tribe that we were enrolled in is the Minnesota Chippewa from Grand Portage area.”
4. “Meg Noori, Ph.D. (Anishinaabe and Metis)”
5. “long-time jingle dancer”
2008
6. “…said Noori, a Minnesota native of American Indian heritage.”
7. “ancestors who were part Minnesota Chippewa and part Metis”
8. “didn’t start taking (Anishinaabe) lessons until she was 15”
2009
9. “Anishinaabe (MN Chippewa) and Metis”
10. “member of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe”
11. “affiliated with the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa Indians and Metis community of Quebec”
2010
12. “Metis relatives that came from the Montreal area”
13. “the tribe that we were enrolled in is the Minnesota Chippewa from Grand Portage area”
14. “when I was growing up we were just all, you know, we were Indian, and that was good, because the ones before us pretended to not be Indian”
15. “my dad, would always say, "I didn't get to learn this," and drag us down to the Indian Center”
16. “I grew up in Minnesota, so my first encounters or memories of Eddie Benton were as the person who ran the Little Red Schoolhouse, which was a Native magnet school in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and so I can remember wishing I could go to that school, because it was all Indian kids”
17. “I would not presume you were of a similar religion or that you wanted that same thing with Mide stories. We were taught that to share those stories -- you would not do that, unless it was the right place and the right time. I personally think that you need to acknowledge their existence, so I'm probably in between. When I was very little, I would have been told, "don't even say that word, your uncle is going to get arrested," you know.”
18. “so, I might think of some uncles that did a lot of fiddling that were Metis - - uncles that were -- that was native music to us, but it was fiddling. It was very mixed with European tradition
19. “if I wear a jingle dress now or when my daughters were wearing those jingle dresses -- I mean, you wouldn't have seen those in the even 1700's, 1600-1500's, you wouldn't have seen those type of dresses, but you know, as traditions move forward -- just the way my daughter dances on Friday dance night is not the way her grandmother would have danced either”
2012
20. “Margaret Noori, Minnesota Indian Tribe”
21. “Noori, a professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, whose activist aboriginal parents raised her to speak her ancestral language…”
22. “Margaret Noori "Giiwedinoodin"(Anishinaabe) and Fionna Noori "Nitaanimiikwesens" (Anishinaabe heritage, waabzheshiinh doodem)” (YouTube Description)
“In my family, my parents did not speak the language. They had a generation before them who had gone to boarding schools. They heard it but didn't speak it and
they told me all through the American Indian Movement “You should learn it. You have to really focus on it.” So, I heard it a lot as a child. I would go to ceremonies
and events, but I did not become at all a proficient speaker until I studied it much later.” (Transcription begins at 6:56)
“I didn't have anybody that was really checking if my proficiency was where it should be. I had to go out and find that in the community, go back to my relatives and
make sure I had that side.” (Transcription begins at 18:25)
2014
23. “Anishinaabe poet Dr. Margaret Noodin…”
2016
24. “Noodin is a specialist in the Ojibwe language of the Great Lakes region and performed several traditional songs, with attendees singing and even dancing along with them.”
2017
25. “Participants in “Water is Life” include Water Protectors, and are all Indigenous. Those featured are…Margaret Noodin, Shannon Noori and Fionnan Noori...”
26. “I am one of the descendants working to keep our language alive”
2018
27. “…Margaret Noodin, descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Indians”
28. “Margaret Noodin (Anishinaabe)”
2019
29. “Margaret Noodin , who is of Anishinaabe ancestry”
“Noodin will be in Michigan with her daughters, saying a prayer in her native language, enjoying traditional foods such as venison, wild rice and cranberries and giving
a Miigwech…”
2020
30. “Our family is from Grand Portage Lake Superior Band of Chippewa but then also from the Ontario Metis.”
31. “Noodin, who is of Anishinaabe ancestry”
32. “Margaret Noodin is an Anishinaabe poet”
2021
33. “She said she has long been interested in the languages and cultures of her Irish and Anishinaabe ancestors who resisted assimilation and hopes to introduce more people to their stories, which include lessons that everyone can appreciate.”
34. “She grew up in Chaska, near Minneapolis, where she spent time at St. Joan of Arc Church, the University of Minnesota, and the Minneapolis American Indian Center.”
35. “she identifies as American, Anishinaabe, Irish, and Metis.”
36. “I've got relatives from Grand Portage and Montreal, the Ontario Metis. My clan is Pine Marten…”
37. “I identify as both Anishinaabe and Irish”
38. “…we lived in a space where my father, in particular, gave great respect to languages that had been lost in our family.”
39. “…Dr. Margaret Noodin (Ojibwe/Ashininaabe/Metis) Pine Marten Clan, descendant of the Metis Lavallée and Monplaisir families…”
2022
40. NAFPS Post: “I do teach Ojibwe which I heard around me as a kid growing up south of Minneapolis and in listening to stories of my own family came to believe is one of the languages to which we have a connection.”
41. NAFPS Post: “Many people have helped my family get closer to sorting out details of ancestry but early in my twenties it become obvious that there is not enough clarity regarding Indigenous ancestry for any of the current generation to become enrolled.”
42. NAFPS Post: “…Elizabeth Meyers Bean's birth father Henri Lavallee. I may live long enough to understand exactly which part of the Great Lakes her family was from and I may one day have time to do research in Montreal, but until more information is uncovered what I have are family stories recorded by my relatives and other documents which are still not enough to place that family clearly on any roll. Because I was initially encouraged to research this branch of my family tree, and to help with language and cultural revitalization by people at Mille Lacs, Fond du Lac and Grand Portage, these are the communities I have remained closest to. There may still be connections, in particular with Grand Portage, that could be made, but I have always been very clear that I am not enrolled. I still work with folks in all these places, and many other Anishinaabe nations, and would be happy to give you names if you would like references.”
43. NAFPS Post: “I definitely don't come from a family of pow wow dancers and have made a point to never dance in contest pow wows.”
44. NAFPS Post: “Many people here would say that I have repeatedly and regularly insisted for many years now that I am not enrolled and simply have a family narrative of Anishinaabe/Ojibwe ethnicity through the Hill-Lavallee branch.”
45. NAFPS Post: “I will ensure that all websites contain no implication of descendancy, ancestry or ethnicity.”
46. NAFPS Post: “Lizzie's father was Henri Lavallee, her stepfather was John Meyers. I will refrain from mentioning anything publicly about them until I know more and will cease sharing the story she told about her sister attending boarding school until I can verify the school.”
47. NAFPS Post: “Henri Lavallee is Lizzie's birth father. We have family stories of him living is several parts of the Great Lakes which is why our family has searched for the Lavallee name in several communities. I am not at all saying that I have any claim to enrollment through him and Lizzie, only that I was raised understanding this is where we have the connection to Great Lakes Indigenous identity. The term used over time has changed from just Indian (in Lizzie's stories of being at an Indian school) to Chippewa (during my father's lifetime) to Anishinaabe (during my lifetime) - however I believe this is the same diaspora, or confederacy. People in several communities have looked at this with me and I hope one day to find more, but this is what I know.”
48. “Margaret Noodin, the institute’s director, who studies and teaches lost languages, including the Anishinaabemowin her ancestors spoke”
49. “Professor Noodin, who is of Anishinaabe descent…”
2023
50. “…Margaret Noodin, a native Anishinaabe speaker…”
51. “Indigenous to the Great Lakes”
52. "Noodin is a US citizen with Ojibwe, Irish, and French ancestry."
