FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Friday, March 14, 2025
Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians chairman recognized for local history preservation
GVSU award celebrates giving voice to diverse communities
GRAND RAPIDS – The Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians is proud to announce Chairman Ron Yob is receiving an award for outstanding contributions to local history.
Yob is receiving the Gordon Olson Award from the Kutsche Office of Local History at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), which recognizes individuals whose work embodies the Kutsche Office’s mission of “using history to give voice to diverse communities.”
“I am proud to use my voice to spread awareness of and honor our local Indigenous communities,” Yob said. “It’s an honor to receive this recognition and stand as a representative of the rich history of the Grand River Bands. This award belongs not to me alone, but to our ancestors and entire Native community that advocates for justice and remembrance.”
Yob will receive the award at the 16th Annual Local History Roundtable event, which takes place at 1 p.m. on March 19 at the Loosemore Auditorium within the DeVos Building on GVSU’s Pew Campus.
The award recognizes Yob’s consistent efforts to help facilitate our understanding of the past and the documentation of history as it happens in the present. The Kutsche Office highlighted Yob’s commitment to forming partnerships with historical and educational institutions to share history through many mediums, including museum exhibitions, historical markers, lectures, tours and heritage.
Yob was also recognized for his efforts to create awareness of the 19th-century treaties signed between the U.S. government and Indigenous nations, including working with the National Archives and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum to bring the 1855 Treaty of Detroit to Grand Rapids for display in 2006.
He has been a partner of the Grand Rapids Public Museum for decades and wrote text for the Ba-Wa-Ting historical marker on GVSU’s Pew Campus. The marker honors the history of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians. Yob has written multiple plaques that commemorate significant sites of local Native history. He also oversees the Norton Indian Mounds where Indigenous ancestors are buried and continues to bring students and community members there to honor their cultural significance.
Earning his degree in education from GVSU, Yob has dedicated his life to making a positive impact on Native youth. Working with Grand Rapids Public Schools, he has inspired students to delve into their heritage, engage with their tribes and uplift their communities.
After retiring from his teaching career, Yob became an adjunct professor at Aquinas College, focusing on the Indigenous People of the Great Lakes. He served six years on the Grand Rapids Historical Commission. As the chairman of the Grand River Bands, Yob has spent many years advocating for acknowledgment of the tribe by the federal government.
The March 19 event kicks off the Kutsche Office’s Annual Local History Roundtable, which includes panel discussions and a keynote address by Dr. Anna-Lisa Cox, an award-winning historian and fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Anyone is welcome to attend any of the events and can RSVP online.
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The Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians is a native sovereign nation with agreements with the federal government dating back to 1795. The Grand River Bands originally included 19 bands of Ottawa people who lived along the Grand River and other waterways in southwest Michigan. Most of the Grand River Bands’ current membership resides in Kent, Muskegon and Oceana counties.