The Order of Angell, known for decades as Michigamua, was a senior honorary society recognizing student leaders and outstanding athletes at the University of Michigan. For most of its history, its practices reflected images of Native Americans drawn from Euro-American popular culture. From Michigamua's founding in 1901 until the 1970s, membership was a badge of distinction. From the 1970s on, the society drew rising criticism for admitting only men; for the form of cultural appropriation known as "playing Indian;" and for possessing Native American artifacts.
By 1999, when women were first admitted, the organization had discarded many of its faux-Native American references and practices. But in 2000, protesters took over the group's headquarters and demanded its ouster from the campus. Soon afterward, Michigamua lost its official recognition and its meeting room. In 2006-07 it reorganized as the Order of Angell with a vow to foster diversity and draw its members from the broadest possible array of candidates. But critics continued to denounce the Order on the grounds of its secrecy, elitism, and origins in Michigamua. In February 2021, after several current and former BIPOC members of the organization urged that the Order of Angell be dissolved, the active members disbanded the society and declared that it should never be reconstituted.
History
Founding and early years The founding of Michigamua in 1901 stemmed in part from a sharp rise in the number of students at Michigan, from some 1,500 in the 1880s to 4,500 by 1910. With the dilution of close relations between students and faculty, students sought community in organizations of their own, including fraternities and sororities, dramatic and musical societies, publications, and athletic teams. Honorary societies arose to recognize the leaders of these groups.
In the academic year 1900-1901, 15 students in a philosophy course taught by Professor Robert Mark Wenley formed the Hot Air Club, a social group that soon declared itself a formal society of seniors that would take, as a founder put it, "an Indian tribe as the means of expression and the name Michigamua." Members believed "Michigamua" was the name of an actual indigenous tribe of the Great Lakes region and the state's namesake. There was no such tribe, though the state's name is indeed a variant of the Ojibwe word gichigami or michigami, meaning "large water".
The founders were inspired by novels featuring senior societies at Eastern colleges. The best known included three at Yale (Skull and Bones, founded 1832; Scroll and Key, founded 1842; and Wolf's Head, founded 1884). Other such groups had emerged at Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others.
Members defined the group's mission as to "fight like hell for Michigan and Michigamua," which meant simply that Michigamua regarded itself as an embodiment of "school spirit", to use the expression then coming into vogue. As on other campuses, allegiance to one's university or college as a whole was promoted as a corrective to the rancorous loyalties to one's class or academic unit that often provoked rowdy and violent "rushes". Promoting school spirit also partook of the boosterism common to U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and early 20th centuries.Daniel Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience (New York: Random House, 1973), 120.
Michigamua maintained its prestige and remained largely free of controversy through the 1960s. Several factors helped it to thrive in the long term. One was the practice of recruiting honorary "sachems" from among the university's administrators, prominent faculty and athletic directors, and coaches. These included members of the governing board of regents; four presidents of the university (Harry Burns Hutchins, Alexander Grant Ruthven, Harlan Hatcher and Robben W. Fleming); and the varsity football coaches Fielding H. Yost, Fritz Crisler and Bo Schembechler. Connections to the university's upper echelons helped to cement Michigamua's place in campus culture.1997 Michigamua Directory Close contacts also were maintained with upper-level administrators, especially T. Hawley Tapping, head of the university's alumni association from the 1930s through the 1950s, and John Feldkamp, "sachem" of Michigamua in 1960-61 and director of the university's housing office from 1966 to 1977.
Michigamua's longevity also was supported by an alumni body, the "Old Braves Council," which was founded shortly after World War II. With so many male students in the armed forces, the group's wartime rosters dwindled. Then the campus was swamped with military veterans, older on average than students of pre-war years and less interested in undergraduate traditions. So Frederick C. Matthaei, a member of the university's governing board and an honorary sachem, worked with his son, Frederick C. Matthaei Jr., a member of the "tribe", to recruit a full complement of "fighting braves" for 1946-47 and to start a board of alumni to advise new members on traditions, plan alumni gatherings and raise money for the upkeep of the "wigwam". (Michigamua began to hold some of its activities on Matthaei property a few miles from the university's campus. A totem pole dedicated to Michigamua was erected on the property. In 1957 and 1961, Matthaei donated the acreage to the university; it became the site of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and the Radrick Farm golf course.)"Matthaei makes gift," Michigan Alumnus, February 1962.
Challenges and responses, 1970s-1999 In the 1970s, critics began to challenge Michigamua's privileged status. Women argued that the university's support violated federal rules against sex discrimination. Native Americans cited state and federal protections against racial bias. The complaints prompted Michigamua to make concessions that changed elements of the organization but preserved its recognition as a sanctioned student body through the 1990s.
The earliest legal complaint came in 1972 from a chapter of American Indians Unlimited (AIU) led by Victoria Barner, a Michigan graduate student and member of the Nisga'a tribe of British Columbia. Addressing the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, Barner called Rope Day "demeaning and insulting to the Indian culture and heritage." By sanctioning Michigamua, the university permitted "our culture to be distorted and ridiculed because of our race and national origin"."Indian files rights action on U honor society," Ann Arbor News, 5/31/1972. Replying to Barner, members of Michigamua said the "tribe" was "based on principles that reject any insulting or offensive actions" and promised to "eliminate all public actions of our organization"."Indians make 2 gains at U," Ann Arbor News, 1/5/1973. The commission ordered Michigamua to stop "playing Indian" in public. From then on, the "tribe" initiated new members without spectators at the university's off-campus Radrick Farm property. Meetings in the "wigwam" continued. Later cadres were reported to have "played Indian" in public, breaking the pledge to operate solely in private.One such instance was reported in 1988, another in 1989; see "MSA denies Michigamua recognition," Michigan Daily, 10/6/1988; "MAC charges civil rights infraction," Michigan Daily, 4/12/1989.
In 1976, Michigamua's males-only tradition came under fire from two women students associated with the university's student government, the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA). They were Amy Blumenthal, MSA's vice president, and Anita Tanay, a former member. Blumenthal and Tanay asserted that by providing facilities and aid to the all-male Michigamua — including its rent-free room in the Union, special privileges to use Radrick Farm, and alleged favoritism in access to football tickets — the university was violating Title IX of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972, which forbade gender discrimination by educational institutions that received federal funding."Michigamua accused of sex bias," Michigan Daily, 9/28/1976.
A stand-off ensued among Michigamua, the university, and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW, later the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), which then administered Title IX. The issue turned in part on whether Michigamua was an honorary society or a social fraternity. If the former, its single-sex nature would violate Title IX. If the latter, it could stay males-only, since Title IX specifically excluded social fraternities and sororities from its purview."Bias complaint names U society," Ann Arbor News, 9/27/1976; "4 other U-M societies probed," Ann Arbor News, 10/5/1976. While HEW considered the complaint, university administers decided Michigamua was indeed an honorary society and offered the "tribe" three options — 1) admit women; 2) abandon its status as a recognized student organization and leave the campus; or 3) declare itself a social fraternity and abide by the rules that governed other such organizations, which would likely end its exclusive use of the "wigwam". Michigamua said it would accept only some version of the third option. The university deferred action pending HEW's ruling."U-M shouts 'Help' over Michigamua dispute," Ann Arbor News, 3/1/1977.
In 1979, more than three years after Blumenthal and Tanay's complaint, HEW ruled the university had violated Title IX by recognizing Michigamua as a student group and providing a space to meet, thus rejecting the university's claim that Michigamua was independent of the university. HEW also noted that Michigamua was widely understood to be an honorary society, not a social fraternity, so it was subject to Title IX's ban on gender discrimination. The university was ordered to enforce changes in Michigamua or risk a loss of federal funding."HEW: Male Michigamua discriminates," Michigan Daily, 9/25/1979; "U tight-lipped about Michigamua," Michigan Daily, 10/17/1979.
Students and administrators worked out a compromise. They would establish the Tower Society, a new honorary organization with two parts — Michigamua for men and Adara (later renamed Phoenix) for leading women students. Michigamua would continue to meet in the "wigwam" while Adara would meet in a room one floor below, and the two groups would hold regular joint meetings."'U,' HEW close to Michigamua accord," Michigan Daily, 1/12/1980. (The Vulcans engineering honorary would later join the Tower Society, with a meeting room two floors below the "wigwam".) "Behind the Tower walls," Michigan Daily, 4/11/1996.
This arrangement satisfied HEW but not Michigamua's critics, especially Native American students. One of them, Grace Pego, had filed a separate civil-rights claim in 1976 shortly after Blumenthal and Tanay made their Title IX complaint. Pego asserted that Michigamua — and thus the university, by supporting it— was violating an amendment to the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 "by denying membership to minorities and ridiculing Native American culture." The university deflected federal action by pointing to Michigamua's induction of numerous African Americans and citing the group's assertion that it "holds the American Indian in the highest esteem."Patrick Russell LeBeau, "The Fighting Braves of Michigamua: Adopting the Visage of American Indian Warriors in the Halls of Academia," in C. Richard King and Charles F. Springwood, eds., Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy (University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 119-120. But Native American students and their non-native supporters would echo Pego's complaint in the coming years, insisting that Michigamua's traditions made a racist mockery of native cultures.