What's Happening

July 26, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – Rose Johnson, a Native American woman who spent most of her life in Adrian, Michigan, shared with Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and the general public about her early life of being rejected by her mother, adopted by an older white couple, and finally reconnecting with her roots in the Native community.

Rose’s presentation, Growing Up Me: A Native American’s Experience, was part of a series of presentations by people of diverse races and cultures offered by the Adrian Dominican Sisters Office of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion. Kevin Hofmann, director of the office, interviewed Rose throughout the presentation, held July 13, 2023, at the Weber Retreat and Conference Center Auditorium.

After speaking about her early life and childhood with her foster family in Adrian, Rose recounted her eventual reconnection with the local Native community. “They brought me in and they told me I needed to be in the circle,” she said. “They taught me that I belonged somewhere, and that was an awesome feeling.” Rose said she and her husband became part of the Odawa people in Adrian, although her original heritage is Comanche and Aztec.

During the presentation, Rose gave her perspective as a Native American woman on four of the five Enactments approved by delegates at the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ 2022 General Chapter.

• Diversity: “We have the medicine wheel, and the medicine wheel has all colors: the red, the yellow, the black, and the white,” Rose explained. She said the medicine wheel stands for all of the children God created. “We need each other to survive,” she said. 
• Sustainability: Rose described Earth as the mother, and acting sustainably is “just like protecting our own mothers.” Earth is “part of us,” giving us life. “Her blood is in the rivers and the waters. Without that, we have no life.”
• Women: Rose described most Native American communities as matriarchal. “Nothing is done without the woman’s permission,” she said. Men are the protectors of women. “Women are supposed to be the ones to raise the children,” she said, adding that women will fight to save the children.
• Spirituality: “I can’t spend a day or take a breath without having God’s breath on me or saying anything that God hasn’t inspired in my thoughts,” Rose explained. She cited the Scriptural teaching that humans are made in God’s image. “So if we love ourselves, we’re going to love all of creation and everybody else,” she said. 

Watch the entire video to learn more about Native American traditions, including the Ghost Supper, pow-wows, and dance. 

August 8, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – With the delivery of an electric lawn mower, the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Motherhouse Campus took the first step in using more sustainable, electric vehicles in its work on facilities and grounds. 

“This really marks the first step in our sustainability efforts on moving away from gas vehicles and gas engines and gas mowers to something that’s more sustainable, something that’s electric that we can charge off of, eventually, our solar grid,” said Joel Henricks, Director of Facilities and Grounds. 

The electric mower is part of a long-time effort by the Adrian Dominican Sisters to live sustainably on their Motherhouse Campus in Adrian. Other efforts over the years include a field of solar arrays; a solar panel carport; a Permaculture garden; and the installation of brighter and more efficient LED lighting in the campus buildings. These initiatives are an effort to live out the Congregation’s 2016 Enactment on Sustainability.

Watch the video of the arrival of the electric lawn mower below.
 

Featured photo: R.J. Hauenstein, a Co-worker in Campus Facilities and Grounds, tests out the new electric mower.