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. 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. Origins and early history The founding of Michigamua in 1901 stemmed in part from a sharp rise in the number of students at Michigan, from some 1,500 in the 1880s to 4,500 by 1910. With the dilution of close relations between students and faculty, students sought community in organizations of their own, including fraternities and sororities, dramatic and musical societies, publications and athletic teams. Honorary societies arose to recognize the leaders of these groups. In the academic year 1900-1901, 15 students in a philosophy course taught by Professor Robert Mark Wenley formed the Hot Air Club, a social group that soon declared itself a formal society of seniors that would take, as a founder put it, "an Indian tribe as the means of expression and the name Michigamua." Members believed "Michigamua" was the name of an actual indigenous tribe of the Great Lakes region and the state's namesake. In fact, there was no such tribe, though the state's name is indeed a variant of the Ojibwe word gichigami or michigami, meaning "large water." The founders were inspired by novels featuring senior societies at eastern colleges. The best known included three