Maude Kegg

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Maude Kegg (Ojibwa name Naawakamigookwe, meaning "Centered upon the Ground Woman") was an Ojibwa writer, folk artist, and cultural interpreter. She was a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, located in east-central Minnesota.

Maude Ellen Mitchell was born during the Manoominike-giizis ("Ricing Moon", i.e. August) of 1904 in Crow Wing County, Minnesota. She was born to Charles Mitchell, a member of the non-Removable Mille Lacs Indians of the Adik-doodem, and his wife Nancy Pine. However, due to the death of her mother either in childbirth or soon afterwards, Maude was raised by her father and her maternal grandmother, Margaret Pine, also known in Ojibwe as Aakogwan. Maude chose her own birthdate as August 26 since the exact date of her birth was not known. She married Martin Kegg in 1920 in a traditional Indian manner and in 1922 in a Church wedding ceremony.

Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich honored Maude by declaring August 26, 1986, as "Maude Kegg Day" for the State of Minnesota. In 1990, she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of her work. She died in January of 1996.

[edit] Bibliography

Gabekanaansing = At the end of the trail: memories of Chippewa childhood in Minnesota with texts in Ojibwe and English. University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, CO: 1978).
Nookomis Gaa-Inaajimotawid: What My Grandmother Told Me with texts in Ojibwe (Chippewa) and English. Bemidji State University (Bemidji, MN: 1990).
Ojibwewi-Ikidowinan: An Ojibwe Word Resource Book. Minnesota Archaeological Society (St. Paul, MN: 1979). With Earl Nyholm and Selam Ross. Edited by John Nichols and Earl Nyholm.
Portage Lake: memories of an Ojibwe childhood. University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis: 1993).