Order of Angell

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.^[1] 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.^[2]