Chad Avery

Aanii, boozhoo. Gbegiizhig n'dzhinikaaz, mishiikeN n'dodem. Shiibaagaaning-ziibiiNs n'doonjibaa.  Saginaa-ziibiw, Waabinese-ziibiiNs, miinawa Mkadewaa-ziibiw Ojibwa aawi maaba.

On my eighteenth birthday my mother, WaawaasgoneNs, gave me two binders full of documents pertaining to our Anishinaabe lineage. There had to be more than 500 pages all in plastic sleeves, highlighted, labeled and nicely organized by the head of household. What the did not have were source citations. As I asked my mom where she had gotten each record, she would relate a story about where she traveled to get it, how they found it, or who had shared it with her, but she did not always know the origin of the document precisely. So I decided that I would relocate each of the documents and properly cite them. That gift from my mother lead me to a lifelong love of family long gone, genealogy in general, and the Ojibwa Language.  

My educational background has been primarily focused on Native Studies, Ojibwa Language, and Indian Law & Policy.  I am a certified Genealogist and have  been admitted as an Expert Witness in the areas of Genealogy and Ojibwa Language in tribal forums. I have also worked for two tribal groups in Michigan that were involved in litigation involving land claims.

I have always worked, in one form or another, in the field of education. I absolutely loved being in a classroom and having the opportunity to share in the growth of so many young children over the course of the past thirty years. It was truly my greatest honor and privilege to share in that portion of their lives. 

When I was not in a classroom, I was usually in a library, records office, or an archive transcribing records or entering them into the genealogical database that I have been working on since 1990.  Today that database has more than 50,000 people primarily of 3-Fires descent and has two million text records with source citations. 

Over the years I have had the chance to conduct research in hundreds of county, state, federal and religious repositories, including archives in the United States, Canada, England, France and Italy.