Last year, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) launched Animikii Mazina’iganan: Thunderbird Press, 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 and Anishinaabemowin. The press’s first publication, Fur Trade Nation, by renowned artist Carl Gawboy, is a groundbreaking, tribally centered history.

“After more than a decade of publishing the Thunderbird Review, our annual literary journal, it’s time to see what more we can do for our community in Northern Minnesota,” stated Kelly McCalla, FDLTCC’s vice president of academic affairs. “The Thunderbird Press is another way of teaching the people who are here now and keeping knowledge alive for future generations.”

As part of FDLTCC’s Land Grant status, the Thunderbird Press will publish manuscripts that contain information useful to the various communities served by the college. The press aims to publish manuscripts that generate a greater understanding of the region’s past, help develop and promote the work of Anishinaabeg and other regional writers, and create innovative curriculum, educational materials, and student research. Perhaps most significantly, the press seeks to bring communities together to address the concerns and problems of the present and ensure that generations can live a good life in the region.

“It is the perfect time to say yes to this faculty-led project,” shared FDLTCC president, Anita Hanson. “We are celebrating our core value of stewardship this spring. Starting Animikii Mazina’iganan will help protect and promote the rich cultural, intellectual, and literary history of our region.”

The press’s first publication, Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe’s Graphic History, fulfills this mission. Using pen and ink drawings, author and artist Carl Gawboy (Bois Forte) explores the fur trade from an Ojibwe perspective, offering insights into Ojibwe life, kinship and clan systems, and technologies. The book puts Ojibwe women back at the heart of this remarkable era. Gawboy shows that the fur trade was one of the first global trading systems and the Ojibwe people were key players in a historical period that has shaped the geography, social structures, and history of Minnesota, as well as the entire Great Lakes region. 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.

“This book is brilliant!” wrote 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.”

Fur Trade Nation embodies Thunderbird Press’s mission and will help educate and prepare FDLTCC students. “I’ve loved Carl’s book since I saw the first set of drawings. In fact, I loved it so much I agreed to help found a college press,” shared Thunderbird Press editor and FDLTCC English faculty member Rain Newcomb. “We have the opportunity to publish books that are unique in what they say and how they say it.”.