Washtenaw County sheriff Jerry Clayton talks with Sarah Taylor, the county's dispatch operations coordinator, before the April 6, 2011 board of commissioners meeting. Taylor and two dispatchers were on hand to receive a resolution from the board of commissioners in recognition of the work of the dispatch staff.

The board heard a report on the Digital Inclusion project, which was launched in 2008 to help address the county’s “digital divide” – the gap between people with computers and Internet access, and residents who lack those resources. Run by B.Side: The Business Side of Youth at Eastern Michigan University, the program uses old computers donated by the county government, and trains youth to refurbish them for re-use. To date, the program has distributed over 200 computers to low-income residents.

Also at their April 6 meeting, commissioners gave initial approval to a new fee structure for the county’s soil erosion control program. Proposed by the office of the water resources commissioner, the new fees – part of a broader ordinance overhaul – aim to recoup staff expenses associated with administering the program.

Commissioners also honored the county’s dispatch operators during Wednesday’s meeting. And as one of two appointments to county committees and boards, former county commissioner Ken Schwartz was re-appointed to a four-year term on the veterans affairs committee, which advises the county’s department of veteran services.

Several people spoke during public commentary – topics included criticism of the cost of public health inspections for small businesses, concerns over the results of an autopsy for a man who died after being Tasered last year, and denunciation of the University of Michigan’s relationship with China.

Soil Erosion & Sedimentation Control Ordinance

Commissioners gave initial approval to changes in the county’s grading/soil erosion and sedimentation control ordinance.

The state requires that all counties operate a soil erosion and sedimentation control program, covering all local municipalities that don’t have their own programs. [The law outlining this requirement is in the state of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act , Act 451 of 1994 as Amended, Part 91.]

In Washtenaw County, the office of the water resources commissioner handles the program for local governments in Augusta Township, Lodi Township, Webster Township, Northfield Township, York Township, Salem Township, Superior Township, Scio Township, Saline Township, the cities of Saline and Ypsilanti, and the village of Dexter.

One of the major changes of the proposed ordinance revision relates to the fee schedule. In the past, fees were charged on a per-acre basis. New fees are set at a flat rate, with additional charges for staff time spent on projects, at a rate of $95 an hour. Fees would increase for many applications, depending on the size of the project. A new transfer fee – ranging from $100 to $200 for developments less than 10 acres, and more for larger developments – is also imposed for inspections when property changes ownership.

The new fees are designed to recoup more of the cost of staff time spent on these projects, according to the office of the water resources commissioner.

Among other changes, the revised ordinance eliminates the Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Appeals Board. [.pdf of ordinance draft changes proposed] [link to soil erosion fee schedule]

The changes, if given final approval, will take effect on July 1, 2011.

Soil Erosion & Sedimentation Control: Commissioner Discussion

Yousef Rabhi said he assumed that many elements of the ordinance are included to conform to state law. For example, logging, mineral mining and oil and gas exploration are exempt from soil erosion permits and waivers. Janis Bobrin, the county’s water resources commissioner, confirmed that these are part of the state law.

Rabhi also asked for the rationale behind eliminating the section on denying permits. Bobrin said they didn’t want to simply turn someone down – they would identify issues to correct, and would expect a resubmittal. It might take multiple times, she said, but it didn’t seem appropriate to simply deny the permit.

Rabhi then expressed concern about the new fee structure. By charging a flat rate to move soil on acreage over a certain size, the county wasn’t discouraging large-scale soil disturbances, he said. It seemed there’s no disincentive for disturbing as much soil as developers want.

Bobrin said she and her staff spent a lot of time trying to ascertain how much staff time was spent on different types of projects. The new fee structure reflects that time investment. For large-scale development, they do charge on a per-hour basis, she noted. Smaller developments are usually residential, she added, and the amount of soil disturbance usually is limited to the actual construction site.

Given the economy, huge developments aren’t as much of an issue now, Rabhi said, but they might be in the future, and those types of developments aren’t a sustainable land-use practice. It seemed the county was moving in the wrong direction in terms of its fees for large-scale developments, he said.

Bobrin noted that most of the decisions related to developments were under the control of the local governments. She also noted that the county didn’t have the staff to police all of the projects – there’s only one erosion control employee for the entire county.

Dennis Wojcik, chief deputy water resources commissioner, told Rabhi that the previous cost charged per acre wasn’t a deterrent for developers. The new fees are meant to recoup the cost incurred by county staff to provide the erosion control service. For larger sites, which require more inspections and reports, developers will pay more because they’ll be charged for staff time on an hourly basis.

The thought behind the fee structure is to reward people who are doing the right things, Bobrin said. The people who don’t meet the requirements and have to submit multiple plans will face higher charges, because their applications will require more staff time. They’ll pay for every inspection that county staff does in the field, she said.

Alicia Ping asked whether Bobrin or her staff had talked with local communities about these changes, to get feedback before implementing the new fees. They had not, Bobrin said. If local governments don’t have their own program for soil erosion and sedimentation control, then the county must do it. Her staff did discuss the changes with the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Ann Arbor, and that group had been supportive, she said. Bobrin said they’d be happy to meet with local communities to talk about the changes.

Noting that the appeals board has never been convened and is now being eliminated, Dan Smith asked what the recourse would be for someone who wasn’t satisfied with the process. Bobrin said the initial appeal would be to her – that’s the process with subdivision or condo development reviews, and at times she has asked the staff to revisit their decisions and work with the developer to address certain issues. If a property owner still isn’t satisfied, they could appeal to the county administrator or the board of commissioners.

Outcome: Commissioners gave initial approval to the ordinance changes. They are expected to take a final vote on this item at their April 20, 2011 meeting.

Digital Inclusion: Computers for Low-Income Residents

Wednesday’s meeting included a presentation about a program that provides refurbished computers to low-income residents. Derrick Jackson, director of community engagement for the sheriff’s office, began by telling commissioners that he had chaired a digital divide task force that was formed in 2007, when he was working as a deputy county clerk. The task force was an outgrowth of the Wireless Washtenaw initiative, which aimed to provide wireless Internet service to all residents in the county. [That project is no longer active.]

Organizers of Wireless Washtenaw realized that they needed to address the county’s digital divide – to help the people who didn’t have access to computers. In his own life, Jackson said, he’s “connected to the matrix” through his personal cell phone, his work cell phone, his laptop computer. He can access things like the county’s online employment information, and receive email alerts with job listings. There are others who have more limited access, through their jobs, school or library. But there’s another group that has no access at all, he said.

Of the roughly 138,000 homes in Washtenaw County, a survey found that 20-25% have no computer. Of those, residents of about 9,000 homes indicated that the key factor was cost, Jackson said: “They simply could not afford it.” So the task force focused on those 9,000 homes, and looked at how they could provide computers to those residents. They used the Food Gatherers model, he said – collecting computers that would otherwise be headed to the landfill, refurbishing them, and getting them into the hands of people who need them.

They got a $16,200 grant from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to get started, with the goal of becoming a self-sustaining program – and that’s what has happened, Jackson said. The task force is a great example of what government can do, he said – for a small amount of resources, their work was having a large impact, thanks to the efforts of the B.Side: The Business Side of Youth at Eastern Michigan University. Launched in 2007, B.Side is a program to develop entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency in young people ages 13-20.

Jackson handed off the presentation to the B.Side’s director, Jack Bidlack. In October 2008, the B.Side started its digital inclusion program, Bidlack said, working out of space provided by EMU’s College of Business. They initially trained five youth to clean and refurbish 86 computers that they received from Washtenaw County government. By December of 2008, 80 computers were ready for use, and turned over to the county’s Employment Training & Community Services (ETCS) department for redistribution to low-income residents.

It became apparent that ETCS wasn’t equipped to handle the technical questions that arose from people who received these computers, so B.Side took that on as well, Bidlack said, seeing it as additional opportunity for training youth. They created a system that allowed ETCS to distribute vouchers, and residents would bring those vouchers to B.Side in exchange for computers.

In 2010, they attended an ETCS open house to promote the program, Bidlack said. While they didn’t get much response that day, word soon spread and within two weeks they’d been contacted by about 50 people. Over the next four months they distributed 125 computers – more than they’d given out in the previous 18 months.

The program has employed 14 local youth, Bidlack said, including over 1,200 hours of paid training. One young man who worked with the program for a year made over $2,000, he said, in addition to learning technical and leadership skills. Last fall they did a pilot program, working with special needs students at Ypsilanti High School. They’ve also hired four EMU student site coordinators for the program, and one community coordinator to oversee the Ypsilanti High School project.

In total, the program has refurbished 212 computers, helping bridge the digital divide for over 200 residents and nonprofits in the county, he said. They’ve also been able to raise funds equivalent to the grant they received from the community foundation – about $16,000 – to sustain the program.

In the future, they hope to continue their partnership with Washtenaw County, Bidlack said. B.Side picks up the computers, so no county labor is involved. The county saves money by not having to pay to have its old computers hauled away, he said. They’re also partnering with EMU, which will give them another source of computers to refurbish. And by the end of April, they expect to become an official job-training program with Michigan Works, the state employment agency.

Bidlack said possible expansion might include opening a retail store, or becoming a recycling program for other electronics as well.

He concluded by thanking EMU, the university’s College of Business, the county and Derrick Jackson in particular for helping with the program. He noted that they’ve created a sustainable model – he wasn’t there asking for funding.

Digital Inclusion: Commissioner Comments, Questions

Kristen Judge said it was great to hear about good projects like this. She wondered if they’ve looked for private funders or partners to help support the project. It would be a good fit for the Washtenaw County Cyber Citizenship Coalition (WC4), she noted. Bidlack said they hadn’t reached that point yet.

Judge wondered whether they were looking for more computers to refurbish, or whether they were at capacity. Bidlack replied that they weren’t yet a recycler, so if they got too many computers, it would be a drain on their resources.

Noting potential privacy issues, Judge also asked whether the program involved removing data that might be left on the old computers. Bidlack reported that they use a software program that clears the hard drives of data; they then install clean operating systems.

Yousef Rabhi observed that the program addresses several important things. First, it embraces the concept of reuse, which is better for the environment than recycling, and it’s keeping toxic equipment out of the landfills. The program provides computers for people who need them, and trains youth so that they can actually make something. Rabhi said he’s proud to live in a community where an organization like B.Side is so well-supported.

At left: Curtis Hedger, Washtenaw County's corporation counsel, talks with commissioner Dan Smith, vice chair of the board of commissioners Ways & Means committee. Smith officiated the April 6, 2011 meeting in the absence of Ways & Means chair Rolland Sizemore Jr.

Barbara Bergman said she was thrilled with the program. Noting that the focus is on the eastern side of the county, which she acknowledged had needs, Bergman said there are also residents of Ann Arbor who lack access to computers. Are there plans to expand the program to the west?

Bidlack said they don’t have plans to expand beyond Ypsilanti at this point – the program grew so fast that they’re just trying to keep up with demand. But they could always look for partners to help bring the program to other parts of the county, he said.

Dan Smith asked about the computer specs. Bidlack said all the computers are running on Windows XP, and are installed with freeware – software available at no cost. The cost of licensing commercial software programs would be too high, he said. The computers have 40-gigabyte hard drives and most have a Pentium 4 processor. Since most people use the computers for Internet access, not for storing data, the capacity needs aren’t as great, Bidlack said.

Smith also asked how they raised the $16,000 in revenues. Bidlack said most of the money is through ETCS grants, via its voucher program.

Honoring Washtenaw Emergency Dispatchers

During the April 6 meeting, commissioners passed a resolution honoring Washtenaw Metro Dispatch workers, and declared the week of April 10-16 as National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week in Washtenaw County. The dispatchers handle all emergency calls and dispatch law enforcement for the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Northfield Township, the Michigan State Police and the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office. In 2010, they received over 162,000 calls for emergency assistance in the county.

Sarah Taylor, the county’s dispatch operations coordinator, and dispatchers Eric Waddell and Steve Wilson were on hand to receive the commendation. They were introduced by Marc Breckenridge, the county’s director of emergency management. Taylor thanked the dispatch employees for keeping the community safe, calling dispatchers the least-known heroes in an emergency. Their ability to get information from callers and to transmit it accurately and quickly to emergency personnel is critical, she said. The board gave them a round of applause.

Waddell told commissioners that recognition like this is part of what makes the job worthwhile.

Appointments

Without comment, the board approved two appointments during Wednesday’s meeting:

• Former county commissioner Ken Schwartz was re-appointed to the county’s veterans affairs committee, filling the category of a Vietnam-era veteran. His four-year term expires Dec. 31, 2014. [Previously, the board had also appointed Schwartz to the Washtenaw County Road Commission – they took that action at their Dec. 1, 2010 meeting.]
• Jenny Bivens of Belleville was appointed to the joint county/city of Ann Arbor community corrections advisory board for a three-year term that expires Dec. 31, 2013. She is a workforce development program manager and deputy director of the county’s Employment Training & Community Services (ETCS) department.

A resolution that would have made an appointment to the county’s human services board was pulled from the agenda during the meeting, without comment.

Public Commentary

Several people spoke during the four opportunities for public commentary, touching on a range of topics.

Public Commentary: Small Business

Michael Koutsogiannis, owner of Mr. Mike’s Lounge on Ecorse Road in Ypsilanti Township, told commissioners he’d been in business for 43 years. He said he was speaking on behalf of small business owners, who were being treated unfairly by government regulations. His business pays as much to county health inspectors as the McDonald’s down the street, even though the fast food restaurant makes over $1 million a year – much more than his business, which doesn’t sell much food. He was appealing to the board for relief, and urged them to consider basing the public health department’s inspection fees on gross sales, not square footage. “You’re killing the small businesses,” he said, “not only in Washtenaw, but across the country.”

Some commissioners responded to his comments. Barbara Bergman said that the Washtenaw Community Health Organization (WCHO) encountered a similar situation. A small agency was having difficulty meeting WCHO requirements, she said, so they asked how the WCHO could change its requirements to fit the agency’s abilities. This won’t work for everything, she noted, but it’s worth asking staff to explore possible modifications for small businesses, rather than taking a pre-packaged approach.

Wes Prater said he was familiar with the business, though he hadn’t been there in years. It’s large in terms of square footage, he said, but does little food preparation. He recalled that Koutsogiannis had spoken to commissioners a few years ago as well. [Minutes from the board's March 17, 2004 meeting state that Koutsogiannis expressed concern during public commentary about the cost of getting a food license.] Prater hoped the county could look into the situation.

Yousef Rabhi also voiced support for small businesses, saying the county should be encouraging them, not treating them unfairly.

County administrator Verna McDaniel said she’d talk with Dick Fleece, head of the public health department, then report back to the board.

Public Commentary: Social Safety Net

Patricia Schock of Ann Arbor thanked the board for supporting the county’s social safety net. She said she worked for several organizations that provide food to those in need, and mentioned in particular Brown Chapel, which she urged the county to continue supporting.

Thomas Partridge spoke during three of the four opportunities for public commentary. During this month in particular, in which Easter falls, it’s paramount to ask what Christ would do if he were among us, Partridge said. He asked the board to adopt an agenda for every meeting that addressed the basic needs of the most vulnerable, providing help to find affordable housing, jobs, health care, transportation, and education.

Partridge also said that too many people have become callous about civil rights, and he criticized the county for disbanding a law enforcement citizens review board. [For background on that decision, see Chronicle coverage of the board's Jan. 20, 2010 meeting.] The only way to reverse this is for the public to protest, he said, and harken back to the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr.

In responding to Partridge’s remarks, Barbara Bergman took issue with his reference to Christ, saying that she served by the laws of men and women. This county includes people of all faiths, races and economic status, she said – residents aren’t just looking to one religious figure. She said asking what Christ would do is not a charge she’s willing to accept.

Public Commentary: Medical Examiner

Douglas Smith told the board that he’s a retired University of Michigan pathologist, and that his comments related to the county medical examiner‘s autopsy report on Stanley Jackson Jr., who died hours after being Tasered during an August 2010 drug raid in Superior Township. [Smith previously had spoken to commissioners about Jackson's case at their Jan. 5, 2011 meeting.] Smith said it was a “really poor” autopsy, and that the five minutes allotted for public commentary was too brief to describe all of its problems – he hoped commissioners would allow him to go into greater depth at another time.

The autopsy stated that Jackson died of sudden stoppage of the heart. However, Smith said the lungs contained a quart of excess fluid, which he said was almost certainly caused by congestive heart failure. A memo from the county prosecutor’s office stated that Jackson was given a sedative, then developed breathing difficulties about two minutes later, Smith said. But the autopsy found no sedative in the blood, he said – so what did they give him? The autopsy also indicated that there were two Taser marks, in the lower back and on the abdomen. But the prosecutor’s memo doesn’t indicate that Jackson was Tasered twice, Smith said.

Smith said the case raised some red flags. He urged commissioners to Google Jeff Jentzen, the county’s deputy medical examiner, saying that there were a number of controversial cases in Milwaukee when Jentzen was medical examiner there.

Public Commentary: University of Michigan and China

Bill Kauffman, a Webster Township resident and retired University of Michigan engineering professor, told commissioners that when he came to the university in 1965, it was a truly great institution. It’s not now, he said.

Bill Kauffman, a retired University of Michigan professor, spoke to the board of commissioners during public commentary. He criticized UM's relationship with China, charging that the university is undermining national security.

Among many concerns he cited, Kauffman said the university is threatening national security by giving away this country’s technology to China. He recounted how he’d been asked by his UM department chair, a Chinese man, to meet with a Chinese delegation from Harbin and share his research with them. He refused and started writing memos about it, and eventually got into trouble with the administration, he said.

Kauffman provided handouts to the board, including a copy of an email describing a presentation he and others gave recently to the attorney general’s staff, as well as links to a four-part video on the allegations. “I literally have file cabinets full of information,” Kauffman told the board. Even though they’re not the UM board of regents, he said, it’s in their interest to pay attention. [Kauffman has previously addressed the regents on this same issue.]

Commissioner Communications

Several commissioners made comments during the time set aside for liaison reports.

Kristin Judge reported that the Community Action Board met recently – there are some great new members, she said, and that board will be making changes and be more active in the future. The CAB is one of two advisory groups for the county’s Employment Training and Community Services (ETCS) department. Wes Prater mentioned the other advisory group – the Workforce Development Board – by noting that the minutes from their meetings were habitually late. Commissioners were just now receiving minutes from the WDB’s Nov. 4, 2010 meeting, he noted. “I think those are a bit tardy in coming before the board,” he said.

Yousef Rabhi said he had attended the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) general assembly meeting, along with Judge. Some of the discussion there related to regional cooperation and collaboration, which he noted had been the subject of the board’s March 17 working session.

Barbara Bergman reported from a recent meeting of the Area Agency on Aging 1-B – she serves on the nonprofit’s board of directors. She said they’re working hard to preserve programs for seniors, but it does not look promising. She hoped she was just being prematurely pessimistic.

Present: Barbara Levin Bergman, Kristin Judge, Ronnie Peterson, Alicia Ping, Wes Prater, Yousef Rabhi, Dan Smith.

Absent: Leah Gunn, Rolland Sizemore Jr., Conan Smith, Rob Turner.

Next regular board meeting: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. at the county administration building, 220 N. Main St. The Ways & Means Committee meets first, followed immediately by the regular board meeting. [confirm date] (Though the agenda states that the regular board meeting begins at 6:45 p.m., it usually starts much later – times vary depending on what’s on the agenda.) Public comment sessions are held at the beginning and end of each meeting.

John U. Bacon

In the late ’90s, Eastern Michigan University assembled some its best basketball teams. The Eagles were so good they stunned the Duke Blue Devils in the first round of the 1996 NCAA tournament, 75-60. They were led by the nation’s second-leading scorer in 1998 – a guy named Earl Boykins – who the program said stood just 5-foot-8-inches tall. This, I had to see.

I watched Boykins torch Western, Central and Ball State. He could handle the ball, shoot it and pass it better than anyone on the court – even though he was shorter than everyone on the court. Yep, this was a story.

When I interviewed him, the story just got better. He told me he was so small growing up that he learned to dribble by using a tennis ball. When he was three, his dad could sneak him into games by stuffing him in a gym bag – but, Boykins told me, “Man, that’s back when I was small.”

Then he stood up, and I quickly realized the program listing was very generous. 5-foot-8? I’m 5-foot-8 – and I towered over him. I said, “Duuuuuude! You ain’t 5-8!”

He laughed and confessed he was actually 5-5 – and that’s how I broke the “Earl Boykins’ actual height” story nationwide. Just another example of good, hard-hitting, investigative journalism.

If you’re a 5-foot-8 sports writer, you get used to being towered over by your subjects. The only time I can ever look down at an athlete is when I interview jockeys … which I’ve never done. So this was it. Heck, this guy wasn’t just shorter than the sports writers. He was shorter than the referees, the cheerleaders and the ballboys – and probably you, too.

So, how did he get so good?

When Boykins was 13, his father started bringing him to his adult Saturday morning pick-up games. It improved his skills – and particularly his thinking. He said, “I can’t tell you how much more advanced I was mentally than other guys my age.”

His court sense is incredible. A full day after one of his games, I asked him about a dozen or so plays, and on each one he had an almost photographic memory of where everyone stood on the court, who was moving where, and who should get the ball. Plus, the dude can dunk!

I still figured there had to be more to it, so I asked to play him in a little one-on-one game up to five.

I didn’t fear getting burned – I knew that was coming – but I was afraid I might injure Boykins through some dumb play. But that would have required getting within five feet of him, which I never did. So, he was safe.

I learned one thing right off: Earl Boykin’s isn’t quick. He’s gone. Where most guards rattle off three sudden steps to get around their opponents, Boykins’s first surging stride launches him four or five feet, bringing him even with his defender, and every step thereafter is just gone, gone, gone.

After he did that to me twice, I started back-peddling. That’s when I discovered Boykins can jam his size 9 1/2 right foot into the hardwood and spring up and back from the bucket – almost like a pole vaulter – for an uncontested jump shot. So he’s 5-foot-5, and I’m 5-foot-8 – and there was no way I could stop him: 5-0, game over.

Okay, I stink. But far better and bigger players have not stopped him, either. I’m in good company.

For Boykins, playing basketball is the easy part. The hard part is getting the chance.

Iowa offered him a scholarship – then took it back. In college, Boykins finished second in scoring nationwide – and not one NBA team drafted him.

But here he is, already in his second decade in the NBA, a multimillionaire who probably can’t take all the rides at Cedar Point. On Sunday, Eastern retired his jersey, only the fourth player so honored.

Oh, and all the guys Iowa spent scholarships on? Earl Boykins has played more years of pro basketball than all of them – combined. The little guy has outlasted them all.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the Wall Street Journal, and ESPN Magazine, among others. He is the author of “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller, and “Third and Long: Three Years with Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines,” due out this fall through FSG. Bacon teaches at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.

Navajo student Tom Torlino at his arrival to Carlisle Indian School and three years later.

Eighteen-year-old George Moore boarded the eastbound train on a chill November day in 1898. Several of his schoolmates climbed on. The boys sat near Mrs. Lizzie McDonald, their guardian.

It would be a long journey.

Four days and three nights over the clacketing steel rails lay between his Idaho birthplace and a Pennsylvania boarding school.

Built in 1879, the Carlisle school was led by its founder Richard Henry Pratt, a former Civil War volunteer who after the war served as an officer in the 10th Cavalry. Its members included Buffalo Soldiers and Native American scouts. In western Indian Territory, Pratt’s group was in charge of enforcing reservation borders to protect settlers’ lands; Indians left the reservation to seek food.

Pratt was also put in charge of a group of Native American prisoners whom he treated humanely, comparatively speaking, even giving them sketch pads in which to draw their experiences. Years later in his book “Battlefield and Classroom,” Pratt wrote, “Talking with the Indians, I learned that most had received English education in home schools conducted by their tribal government. Their intelligence, civilization, and common sense was a revelation because I had concluded that as an Army officer I was there to deal with atrocious aborigines.”

However, in his later role as schoolmaster, he also said, “In Indian civilization I am a Baptist, because I believe in immersing the Indians in our civilization and when we get them under holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked.” Pratt had firm beliefs about how and why to educate his Carlisle students. In his era, Pratt’s assimilationist ideas were progressive.

George Moore, who had taken the train and attended the Carlisle School, eventually returned part-way back west – to Ypsilanti.

Pennsylvania: Carlisle School

Carlisle’s main building was a tumbledown abandoned army barracks. The year it opened, students spent much of their time cleaning and repairing the buildings. The curriculum consisted of industrial arts training for the boys, domestic arts training for the girls, academic classes, and language classes – not all of the students could speak English. It was the nation’s first off-reservation boarding school. One scholar called Carlisle “the flagship of the American Assimilation Era’s education program.”

Top: Three students upon arrival to Carlisle Indian School. Bottom: The same students three years later.

George Moore arrived at Carlisle on November 21, 1898 and was placed in a boys’ dormitory. George was a full-blooded Nez Perce. The other students came from the Lakota, Oneida, Pueblo, Menominee, Shoshone, and numerous other Native American nations. The nation with the greatest number of representative students was the Iroquois; with the fewest, Klamath.

George could already read, write, and speak English. He’d previously studied at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. “George Moore” was not his real name, but likely the English name Chemawa had given him, as the school’s first enforced step to assimilation.

At Carlisle, the process of assimilation was enforced without accommodating the students’ diverse customs, beliefs, and cultures. As one small example, male students who had not previously attended a school such as Chemawa upon arrival received haircuts. This act deeply distressed those students for whom hair was cut only when a relative died.

Carlisle taught students ranging from grade school to high school age. George was placed at the high school freshman level. He made it to sophomore year and in addition to his academic subjects and industrial arts classes, began to learn how to play the oboe. The May 5, 1899 Indian Helper school newspaper said of one concert, “Thomas Morgan and Ralph King gave Saxophone solos, in a manner that pleased all, and Geo. Moore who plays the Oboe, made some merriment with tones on his new and peculiar instrument.”

As a junior, George attended two summer “Outings.” Carlisle’s “outing” program consisted of placing students in local homes to work and become more Americanized. The school deposited their earnings, however meager, in individual student accounts. George worked for a week in early June in Rushland, Pennsylvania, and then switched for a two-month stint in Langhorne.

George was slated for a five-year program at Carlisle and scheduled to graduate in late spring of 1902. He did not graduate. Most Carlisle students did not; historians estimate that only about one in eight students did.

Ypsilanti: Normal College News

However by October, George was a student at Ypsilanti’s State Normal School, taking a business course. He occasionally may have read the school’s newspaper.

Around this time the Normal College News ran an article written by Normal alum and former Ingham County resident Mary Fanson Lawrence. Mary graduated in 1887 and taught Latin and German in Aurelius, a town just south of Lansing. She married Glen Lawrence and the two traveled West, to a small day school at the base of one of the three mesas in the Moqui (Hopi) Reservation in Arizona. Glen taught a class of about 45 Hopi per day in Polacca school.

Though some women worked at two larger schools elsewhere on the reservation, Mary worked as a housekeeper. In 1901, Glen earned 72 dollars a month [$1,830 today] and she earned $30 [$763]. Their combined salaries had the modern-day value of $31,000 per year. Mary composed an essay about her life in Arizona, “Life Among the Indians of the Southwest.” She sent it to her alma mater.

“Friends have written, ‘In what part of Arizona is your town? We cannot find it on any map!’” reported her May 28, 1904 Normal College News article. “ . . . The traveler leaves the Santa Fe R. R. for the Moki Reservation . . . the villages are from 65 to 75 miles north, and about 100 miles from the Utah line. The journey takes one across the Painted Desert and seemingly endless stretches of sand, past great buttes, and around or over mesas, until the weary traveler is awed by the vastness of the desert . . .”

Mary continued, “The towns are seven in number, three of the villages being built upon an almost perpendicular rocky mesa, 6000 feet above the plain. It is known as the First Mesa . . . The villages were built on the high mesas so the Hopi could protect themselves when attacked by the Navajos. The houses are built side by side, like modern flats, of stone; and are from one to three stories high, built in terrace fashion, and entered by ladders on the outside; the roof of one room on the ground will be the front steps or yards of the next story, and so on. The rooms are low and we have to stoop to get around in them. The streets are narrow alleys, and the tourist has to pick his way among burros, chickens, dogs, and turkeys.”

Mary went on to say that some of the students had never attended school. “Of course, as they do not know a word of English when they enter school, and in looks and attainments are mere animals, the progress is necessarily very slow. When a child comes to us we give it an English name, as life is too short to spend in learning and pronouncing such names as Tuvayhongeva, Inowanghoeonsa, or Musaquaptewa.”

The curriculum included Christian instruction. “At Christmas time,” said Mary, “one of our large boys was helping to carry some pies which were being made for their dinner. He began singing, ‘In the Sweet Pie and Pie,’ entirely unconscious of any parody.”

Mary’s essay did not describe the Hopi perspective or belief system. It described such outward appearances as clothing styles and marriage customs. She likely did not know that the reservation’s village of Oraibi was and is one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements on the North American continent, founded before the year 1100.

Mary expressed irritation with other non-Native visitors who disagreed with the school’s mission. “There are many interesting things about these people, and they are visited frequently by sight-seers, ethnologists, and tourists, who are often a hindrance to us in our work, because they want this region to remain a show ground for the future, and talk or use their influence against any change or progress.”

Mary concluded her essay with the remark, “The Hopis are good-natured, light-hearted children, easily led in the wrong way by presents of candy and tobacco. Like children they need disciplining, and do not always regard those whose duty it is as their best friends.”

Coda

The fate of George Moore after his study in Ypsilanti is unknown to the writer. According to Barbara Landis, the Carlisle Indian School biographer for the Cumberland County Historical Society, a note in his onetime school file says that he died sometime before 1918, in his late 30s.

Mary Lawrence died in 1935 around age 72. She and Glen are buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Ingham County.

On the Hopi reservation, Polacca Day School, the onetime home of Normal graduate Mary Lawrence and her husband Glen, was replaced in 2004 by a new K-6 elementary named First Mesa Elementary School.

The $20 million project, funded mostly with monies from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was managed by the Hopi Tribe. The building was designed to reflect Hopi culture. Plans were drawn by Dyron Murphy Architects, a Native American-owned architectural firm.

Natural light fills the school, plumbing is super-efficient, no potable water is used for the xeriscaped grounds’ drip-irrigation system, and the structure is designed to minimize heat absorption.

The school reflects Hopi culture and ecological values, which survived the age of assimilation, in a high-tech modern manner: First Mesa Elementary is the first LEED-certified school in Arizona.

Mystery item (image links to higher resolution file)

This biweekly column features a Mystery Artifact contest. You are invited to take a look at the artifact and try to deduce its function.

Last column’s Mystery Artifact elicited some guesses that included sandwich toaster, ashes shovel, and catfish scoop. Here’s what the museum tag says:

Brick baking oven shovel used in the family of George W. Kishlar’s father in 1820 and brought to Michigan by George W. Kishlar of Ypsilanti, who presented it for this collection.

This week’s artifact is an item from deep within a certain file within the Ypsilanti Archives. Can you guess its function? Good luck!

Laura Bien is the author of “Tales from the Ypsilanti Archives.” Contact her at ypsidixit@gmail.com.

John U. Bacon

Mascots are supposed to inspire those who play for the team, but just as often they provide amusement for those who don’t.

On college campuses nationwide there are no fewer than 107 teams named for Lions, Tigers and Bears – oh my – but only the University of Idaho dares calls its teams the Vandals. I only wish the Vandals of Idaho could engage in macho combat with, say, the Ne’er Do Wells of Nevada.

With some teams, it’s hard to tell just whom they’re trying to scare. Take the Centenary College Ladies and Gentleman – the actual mascots. Are they intended to intimidate the ill-mannered? Or, how about the Brandeis University Judges, named after Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. Who’s afraid of the big bad Judges – the Parolees of Penn State?

And what are we to make of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons? What are they, Demons or Deacons? I think they should pick one, and stick to it. Their oxymoronic mascot reminds me of a chant I once heard at a Friends School in Pennsylvania, where the seemingly oblivious cheerleaders broke into the classic mantra: “Fight, Quakers, Fight!”

This otherwise silly subject takes a serious turn when we start talking about Native American nicknames. Some 600 high school and college teams have dropped such names, but over 2,400 still use them.

It seems pretty obvious to me such pejoratives as Braves, Blackhawks and Redskins need to be replaced – and hundreds have been. But that shouldn’t mean all team names should automatically be changed.

There is no better example of good intentions gone awry than the mascot mess Eastern Michigan University stirred up a few years ago. The athletes there called themselves, at various times, the Normalites, the Men from Ypsi and, from 1929 to 1991, the Hurons.

Despite the fact that the Hurons are an authentic tribe indigenous to the region, and that the school created no offensive logos or rituals, a movement arose to change the name. Many of the arguments for doing so were of the “How would you like it?” variety.

This position ignores the many teams named for groups such as the Hoosiers and Cornhuskers, the Sooners and Aggies, not to mention the Midshipmen, the Mountaineers and the Minutemen. Believe it or not, Notre Dame’s teams used to be called the Vagabonds, but school officials felt that name would only reinforce negative stereotypes, so they changed it to the Fightin’ Irish, adopting a logo depicting a leprechaun with his dukes up. Problem solved.

In the professional ranks you have the Celtics and the Knickerbockers, the Canucks and the Yankees. Atlanta’s former minor league team was called – get this – the Crackers. That’s right: the Crackers. And don’t get me started on the Minnesota Vikings – named after my people – whose sideline mascot walks around wearing that silly horned helmet, which comes not from Nordic custom but a Wagner symphony.

Well, whatever.

I realize there is a fundamental difference between a bunch of white students deciding to call their squad the Minutemen, and a group of, say, African-Americans deciding to call their team the Crackers. Something tells me that wouldn’t go over so well.

But it’s also true that when we eradicate all group names – no matter how respectful or accepted they may be, we lose something. If we are to get rid of the Hurons, should we also rename Lake Huron, Port Huron, the Huron River and Huron High School? The vast majority of states adopted their Native American names, including Michigan, Mississippi and Minnesota, for starters.

Here’s another consideration – which too often seems to be an afterthought: What do the Native Americans think? Believe it or not, according to a Sports Illustrated survey, when asked if school teams should stop using Native American nicknames, 81% of Native Americans said no.

Shouldn’t that matter? It seems to me it’s almost as arrogant to assume Native Americans shouldn’t be insulted by the Redskins as it is to assume they should be by the Hurons – even if they’re not.

The officials of the University of Utah Utes did something almost revolutionary: They actually asked the members of the Ute tribe what they should do. The Utes said, please keep the name. And then, more incredibly, the university listened.

Eastern Michigan officials could find only two actual members of the Huron tribe, one in Oklahoma and the other in Quebec. When asked, they urged the school not to change its name because they felt it reflected well on their tribal heritage.

So the school changed it anyway. Worse, in my opinion, they didn’t change it to the whimsical (and obvious) Emus, but to the utterly bland Eagles – the single most common nickname in college sports – a mascot picked mainly for its inability to file a class-action lawsuit.

Go Hurons.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami of Ohio, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.

Susan Martin, president of Eastern Michigan University.

It turns out that at least two high-profile women in this area  got their educational start in a one-room schoolhouse – both were at Tuesday’s Washtenaw Community College Foundation Women’s Council Lunch. One we’ve written about before, and one – Susan Martin, president of Eastern Michigan University – gave the luncheon’s keynote speech.

As we summarize below, that speech ranged from slaughtering chickens to kicking down doors.

But before that, three women – Lisa Hesse, Ann Mattson and Ellie Serras – were honored for their leadership roles in the community. Hesse is founder of the nonprofit Girls on the Run of Southeastern Michigan, which works with preteen girls to develop healthy lifestyles through running. Mattson recently retired as 15th District Court Judge, a position she held for 15 years. Serras serves on several nonprofit boards, and was the longtime executive director of the Main Street Area Association.

The 275 people attending Tuesday’s lunch also heard from Vanessa Ray, a student in WCC’s culinary arts program who received a $1,600 Women’s Council scholarship for the past academic year. She spoke of her struggles as a single mother, working a minimum wage job and fighting the drain of poverty. Her grandmother had been a caterer as well as a role model, Ray said, and when she decided that she needed to return to school to make a better life for her and her son, she followed in her grandmother’s footsteps.

Becoming a student wasn’t easy, she said, and issues of transportation, Internet access and childcare meant that every day could be a struggle. But she kept her focus and relied on the help of her family, the WCC Foundation and Women’s Council, the Women’s Center of Southeastern Michigan and others. With a 3.88 GPA, Ray has landed a job with Simply Scrumptious Catering, a Dexter business owned by Lori Shepard. Ray said she spends her days in a bustling kitchen full of obstinate women, “and loving it.”

Ann Mattson, when accepting her award later in the program, had some encouraging words for Ray. Mattson said that like Ray, she got her start attending community college – in Mattson’s case, she studied at what’s now called Mott Community College in Flint. Two years there helped her get accepted into the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and eventually go on to law school. “I’ve lived that experience and I know there’s a great life ahead of you, Vanessa,” Mattson said.

During her keynote speech, Martin told her own stories about an unlikely background leading to her current role as EMU’s first female president. But she started by acknowledging the challenges as leader at Eastern, saying “Boy, have I got myself into a job!” She said she does have a “nice little house,” referring to the controversial University House, a building that includes the president’s residence. (It was constructed during former president Samuel Kirkpatrick’s tenure, and its cost overruns in part led to his resignation.) “Drop by sometime,” Martin joked. “They change the sheets and everything – it’s great.”

Martin said she grew up on a farm in Croswell, Mich., where her mother was hooking sugar beets in the field when she went into labor. Among the anecdotes she shared: They killed their own chickens for dinner  – “and yes, they do run around with their heads cut off,” she said – and when her father let her drive their new pickup truck, “I rammed that baby right into the porch.”

That was her childhood. “I have no idea why I went to college,” Martin said, adding “I worked one summer packing pickles and that really convinced me.”

She graduated from Central Michigan University, and her first job out of college was as a secretary, while her husband attended school in Texas. When they returned to Michigan, she got a job as a senior secretary (she says she can still type 80-90 words per minute). She enrolled in the MBA program at Michigan State University – after graduating, she said she would have pursued a Ph.D., but they told her she needed business experience.

So through her connections in the Porsche Club – her driving had improved since the porch-bashing days – she landed an interview with the state’s auditor general. ”He said, “OK, it’s about time we hired a woman,” Martin recalled, and with that, she got the job.

Being a woman in a predominantly male field raised some issues. Her boss was reluctant to send her on business trips with male colleagues because of concerns “that sex might occur,” she said. “I assured them that with looks like theirs, there was no chance of that.”

During her first trip she and her colleagues went out to the bar at the end of the day. She managed to get stuck in a bathroom with a jammed lock, and after trying to get her out, the bar workers finally told her she needed to kick the door down. “Let me tell you,” Martin said, “that’s a lot of fun and I did – I knocked that baby off its hinges.”

Martin eventually returned to get her Ph.D. in accounting from MSU – while studying, she got a call asking her to interview for the state Commissioner of Revenue position during Gov. Bill Milliken’s administration. She got the job and held it while continuing to complete her degree. “I’ve kind of been working at that level ever since,” she said.

She spent the bulk of her academic career at Grand Valley State University, working there for 17 years as faculty and in administrative positions. After 18 years at Grand Valley, in 2006 she was named provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, which she described as her dream job.

But then the job at Eastern came along, and she figured since Michigan citizens had paid for her tenure over the years at public universities, she’d take on the challenge – even though, she said, “it seems like a really risky job. They tend to turn over presidents.”

But ultimately, “my advice is to take risks,” Martin told the crowd. “Look at me – I took the presidency of Eastern!”

Lisa Hesse, a health and wellness consultant, is founder of Girls on the Run of Southeastern Michigan.

Ann Mattson, retired 15th District Court judge, is president elect of the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor.

Ellie Serras is a community activist and former head of the Main Street Area Association. Her new venture, called Main Street BIZ, is working to create a business improvement zone along a three-block stretch downtown. (The pink button she's wearing says "Downtown Diva.")

Peg Talburtt, executive director of the James A. & Faith Knight Foundation, was emcee for Tuesday's lunch. She will be receiving an award from WCC on May 16 – the 2009 Award of Merit, which is the college's highest honor.