Towards a Cultural Rhetorics Methodology: Making Research Matter With Multi-Generational Women from the Little Traverse Bay Band

Almost five years ago, I started working on two oral history projects with a group of multi-generational, urban Odawa women from Lansing, Michigan. I met these women while working with one of the community elders on developing her life history into a book for publication. About four weeks into the project, the elder, Geri, suggested that we do another oral history with more Odawa women from the area. Together, we developed and organized three talking circles where the women shared stories about their lived experiences and their roles and responsibilities at work, in the community, and while pursuing a formal education. I hear the stories these women tell about their lived experiences as rhetorical theories on how to do intercultural research, negotiate institutional (re: dominate) discourses, and make visible the roles and responsibilities of American Indian women in their language and on their terms