Canku Ota - A Newsletter Celebrating Native America
August 12, 2000 - Issue 16

Friends, Family Celebrate 100th Birthday
of
"Godmother of White Earth"
by Jackie Crosby Star Tribune

MAHNOMEN, MINN. -- If you didn't know better, you might have thought Winnie Jourdain wasn't enjoying all the fuss her friends and family were making over her 100th birthday.

Dressed in black slacks -- she hasn't worn a dress since she was in her 70s -- and a colorful sweater with bright pink flowers, Jourdain sat patiently as well-wishers hovered to take photos. But as soon as the cameras had clicked, Jourdain would stick out her tongue and scrunch up her face defiantly at them. Other times she'd put up a stiff arm and announce, "Oh, that's enough!"

But for the roughly 75 people who gathered Saturday at Shooting Star Casino on the White Earth Indian Reservation to honor her centennial, the 5-foot-1 Ojibwe woman known to many as "Ma" could do no wrong.

"Yes, she still has that critical spirit," said granddaughter Judy Fairbanks, who lives with Jourdain and seems to gently accept her grandmother's feistiness as one of the qualities that has shaped her into such a remarkable woman.

Jourdain was born July 31, 1900, in a log cabin where a junkyard of cars now sits on a curve going into White Earth.

"Winnie says those junk cars are a monument to her birth," grandson Andrew Favorite said wryly, "and she doesn't want anybody taking them away."


Winnie is flanked by her daughter Lois ''Andy'' Favorite, and her son Berman Fairbanks.

Jourdain has lived through 18 presidents, survived the Depression and witnessed cures for pneumonia and other diseases that once nearly wiped out the American Indian community. She has seen people travel in horse-drawn carriages and through outer space, and she has made beadwork for the pope and the king of Sweden.

But Jourdain also has seen outsiders take advantage of Indians who knew nothing about selling land or tax laws. She has seen forests disappear and crippling poverty overtake the reservation. She made it her life's work to help her people.

Jourdain moved to Minneapolis in the mid-1920s as a recent widow and mother
of a young son. Recognizing the value of education, Jourdain did whatever she could to make sure Indian children stayed in school -- whether that meant giving them a place to sleep, tutoring them or raising money so they could buy books.

Jourdain moved to Minneapolis in the mid-1920s as a recent widow and mother of a young son. Recognizing the value of education, Jourdain did whatever she could to make sure Indian children stayed in school -- whether that meant giving them a place to sleep, tutoring them or raising money so they could buy books.

Soon her home became a refuge for hundreds of American Indians who needed a place to stay.

"The city was full of prejudice," Jourdain told the Star Tribune in 1999 as part of a series on her life and the White Earth reservation. "I helped Indian people get jobs because my people needed help. Indian people were the last ones hired and the first ones fired. I wanted my people to be treated with respect."

Although sometimes brash, Jourdain became a role model. She never smoked a cigarette and never liked alcohol. Then, as today, she wasn't bashful about sharing her opinion.

Friends and family traveled from Arizona, South Dakota and throughout Minnesota to honor Jourdain as one of White Earth's oldest members. (Favorite believes a 106-year-old man is the only person on the reservation older than Jourdain.) The White House sent congratulations, as did Gov. Jesse Ventura. Willard Scott gave her a nod on Monday's "Today" show.

Winnie prepares for a photo of her great great grand children: Dakota Lindstrom, 4; Winnie Lindstrom, 9; in the front is Vanessa O'Connel, 1 week; Rachael O'Connel; and in Winnie's lap is Ixel Lindstrom, 5 months.


Winnie Jourdain celebrates with family and friends in the Wigwam room at the Shooting Star Casino.

Although she now needs a hand getting around and her hearing is failing -- compounded by her tendency to leave her hearing aid in obscure places -- Jourdain continues to learn.

Favorite said the family had to pull her away from the computer recently after realizing she'd been listening to an Ojibwe language Web site for nearly six hours.

And, according to family members, Jourdain's Scrabble game hasn't diminished in the least. In whispers, they confide about her tendency to create naughty words when it suits her game.

"I keep telling her if she doesn't let me win, I'm not going to play with her," said daughter Andy Favorite, who along with several other family members pitched in and gave Jourdain a deluxe model of Scrabble for her birthday.
For the five generations of family and the friends who came to see Jourdain, it was an opportunity not only to celebrate a benchmark birthday, but also to pay homage to a woman some have described as the "Godmother of White Earth."

"I say in my prayers every day, I thank God that I still have my mother," Andy Favorite said.

Read Winnie Jourdain's Life Story

The Spirit of White Earth
http://www.startribune.com/spirit/


 

 

Canku Ota is a free Newsletter celebrating Native America, its traditions and accomplishments . We do not provide subscriber or visitor names to anyone. Some articles presented in Canku Ota may contain copyright material. We have received appropriate permissions for republishing any articles. Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monetary gain to those who have expressed an interest. This is in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.
 

Canku Ota is a copyright of Vicki Lockard and Paul Barry.

 
The "Canku Ota - A Newsletter Celebrating Native America" web site and its design is the Copyright © 1999 of Paul C. Barry. All Rights Reserved.