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Animikii Mazina’iganan: Thunderbird Press with Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) is excited celebrate the release of “Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe’s Graphic History” by renowned artist, Carl Gawboy (Bois Forte), on Tuesday, April 30. \\This will be the first release by Animikii Mazina’iganan: Thunderbird Press. The event is free and open to the public. “Gawboy is a once in a generation scholar, artist, and visionary. But what has always impressed me as well, is his sense of humor, his genuineness, and his ability/willingness to share with those of us who want to learn about Ojibwe culture and lifeways,” said Pam Neil, Chief of Interpretation at Grand Portage National Monument 1999 - 2020.
“Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe’s Graphic History” explores the fur trade from an Ojibwe perspective, offering insights into Ojibwe life, kinship and clan systems, technologies, and puts Ojibwe women back at the heart of this remarkable era.
The fur trade was the first global trading system and the Ojibwe people were key players in a historical period that has shaped the geography, social structures, and history of Minnesota, and the nation. More than 800 pen and ink drawings, connecting historical records and art, oral traditions, Western and Indigenous scholarship, family history, and contemporary artisans, tell this important story.
“The book, the fur trade itself, is about how the Ojibwe Nation formed an interdependent, multicultural community and created something beautiful and unique,” said Gawboy, “That’s why I’m bringing this book to Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College’s press, where Ojibwe values educate a multicultural community to create something beautiful and unique.”
“This book is brilliant!” said Tim Cochrane, Minnesota Book Award winning historian, and former Superintendent of the Grand Portage National Monument. “Gawboy weaves the ‘large picture’ of the fur trade into small pictures to illustrate the point and display his abundant sense of humor. This is a real treasure and his presentation wonderfully humanizes the story. There isn’t anything like this in the fur trade literature so it is a one-of-a-kind book.”
Animikii Mazina’iganan: Thunderbird Press is a teaching press for those living in the present and dreaming of the future. The press aims to publish innovative, culturally significant, high-quality works in English or Anishinaabemowin.
Fur Trade Nation will be the press’ first publication. At this point, the press is limited to publishing one manuscript each academic year.
