This online learning module on Endangered Languages provides information about language diversity, geographic distribution and how to prevent language loss. There are two lessons, each covering multiple themes, along with worksheets, tests and teacher guides for use in classrooms. The module includes lots of audio and video footage of endangered languages worldwide.

Minnesota Indigenous Language Symposium will be held May 18-19th at the Northland Inn, Brooklyn Park, MN. For more information about the Symposium contact Jennifer Niemi of the University of Minnesota at 218-726-8419 or visit the symposium website.

Among the featured presentation will be the New Lakota-Dakota Dictionary, recently completed by the Lakota Language Consortium, the dictionary contains more than 20,000 words. Read more about it here. The Lakota Language Consortium website also provides a detailed look at indigenous language loss in the United States and the status of the Lakota language in particular, as well as strategies for language revitalization.

In a lead up to Native American month in May, there have been numerous articles focusing on Indigenous issues.

Indian Country Today featured an article last week on Native language loss and the desparate measures needed to correct the situation.

The Observer reported an interesting merger of popular culture and language, Walpole Island First Nation kids will have an opportunity to go to a hockey camp in Ojibwe. (The Observer, Sarnia, ON)

Cultural Survival and the National Alliance to Save Native Languages are organizing the National Native Language Revitalization Summit in Washington D.C. May 11-13. Cultural Survival is a non-profit helping indigenous groups around the world fight for their rights to be indigenous on their own term and their own land.

The conference language revitalization conference includes a training session on finding tribal language materials in the National Anthropological Archives, a workshop on developing grant proposals to sustain grassroots language programs, and a chance to lobby lawmakers for increasing support for Native language programs through the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act.

Linguist K. David Harrison discusses the importance of language diversity and language revitalization in the face of globalization. He warns against the false choice of globalization that says people must give up their languages.

You can watch it below; The video was orignally posted  at DotSub.com – w website where you can create subtitles for any video in your own language.

There are two language conferences coming up in October, both held in Minneapolis. The CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition) Immersion conference will be held Oct. 16-18 with school tours and workshops on the 15th. This year the CARLA conference will have a conference stream specifically for indigenous languages, and will feature speakers from Maori, Hawai’ian and Ojibwe communities.

CARLA Immersion Conference website

The 40th Algonquian conference will be held at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus on Oct. 24-26. This is an international meeting for researchers working in the area of Algonquian studies — which includes the Ojibwe language. While the conference website doesn’t yet have the schedule posted, organizer John Nichols showed me a preliminary line up of topics, and they will include:

• Problems and strategies in the analysis, redaction and presentation of native texts,
• Currents in contemporary Ojibwe art, and
• Ojibwe language teaching, curriculum development and research

among others.

This last theme on Ojibwe language teaching, curriculum development and research will be of interest to those working in the language revitalization field. Presenters in this theme include: Keller Paap (Waadookodaading Immersion School), Henry Flocken (Bemidji State U), Adrian Liberty (Niigaane Immersion School), Margaret Noori (University of Michigan), and J. Randolph Valentine (U of WI - Madison).

40th Algonquian Conference website

The Wisconsin State Journal reported yesterday that legislators are considering a move to revive funding for American Indian language development, which ended in 2003. The proposal by Libby Burmaster, state school superintendent, would set aside a yearly amount of $260,000 to be given out in grants of $10,000-$50,000 for language materials development or hiring teachers. The funds would come from the revenue paid to the state by tribes through tribal gaming revenues.

Materials development continues to be an issue for immersion schools and classroom native language programs throughout Indian Country. In Minnesota, a task-force of educators are meeting with the state to dicuss material development needs, and the possibility of a textbook.

Brush up your language skills. There’s a 7-Day Ojibwe Language Immersion Camp at Lac Seul First Nation, 30 kms north of Sioux Lookout, Ontario, August 1st – August 8th, 2008.  Held in an outdoor setting at Lac Seul by the lake.  The teachers will be Lola Goodwin and Pat Ningewance Nadeau (author of Talking Gookom’s Language). Three Lac Seul Elders will also be on site every day.

The purpose of the course is to have students hold simple Ojibwe dialogues with each other and with elders, and to follow ordinary conversations amongst fluent speakers. Fluent fishing guides will take students out for fishing excursions for pickerel and northern pike  as well as boat trips to the main community and beautiful surrounding area.

SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK

• Aug. 1st  Friday  Day of Arrival and Orientation Period. Survival phrases introduced.
• Aug. 2nd  Saturday  Reviiew of phrases. Weather, Getting to know each other. Kinship.
• Aug. 3rd   Sunday  Getting to know others. Excursion. Commands. At Home. Animals.
• Aug. 4th   Monday  In the Workplace. Occupations, Feelings. Senses. Appearances.
• Aug. 5th   Tuesday  Going to town, store, office, restaurant.  Food. Table talk. Cooking.
• Aug. 6th   Wednesday  Visiting in a hospital. Being at a Conference. Placenames.
• Aug. 7th  Thursday  Camping, Geography. Preparing fish and other natural food.
• Aug. 8th    Friday  Packing up, saying goodbye. Self-assessment. Debriefing in English.

Tuition fee: $350.00 per person covers meals, and materials for 7days. Travel and camping gear are your responsibiility. Please advise us on dietary restrictions and whether you will need a ride from Sioux Lookout and the Kejick Bay landing.

For information, email books@patningewance.ca or p_nadeau@canada.com. Call (204) 774-8007. Fax (204) 489-3869. Also inquire at Frenchman’s Head (Lac Seul First Nation): (807) 582-3499.

Miigwech Teresa Reed for passing this information on to us.

I wanted to add to Monique’s post about Brendan Fairbanks blog and myspace page. Brendan teaches the third-year Ojibwe language classes at the University of MN, Twin Cities campus, and also runs a weekly language table in Minneapolis. He’s an incredibly observant person when listening to elders, often picking up on subtle differences in speech that many people miss.

His blog posts contain many of his insightful observations of the nuances of Ojibwe speech. I also enjoy the pragmatic aspect of his posts which lend themselves to use in language practice drills. He’s very good at breaking the various parts of speech down into digestible chunks and gives good examples of everyday usage.

We encourage you to check the posts out and use them in your everyday practice of Ojibwemowin.

Awanigaabaw (Brendan Fairbanks) has started a new Ojibwemowin blog on MySpace. He has posted reviews of topics/drills covered at the language table he runs in St. Paul. Check it out for yourself! Don’t worry you don’t have to have a MySpace page to view his blog.

When I flipped on the radio Sunday morning it took a few moments to realize the chuckle I heard belonged to David Treuer and not to some commonly heard radio host.

As he was recently interviewed on Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett, what David had to say might be well known to the language revitalization faithful. He talked much about our language being intrinsic and absolute to our ceremonies. As familiar as it all may be it’s still a great deal of fun to recognize voices on the radio – it feels a little bit famous.

But what really struck me is how lucky we are as Ojibwe people. And that might be a strange thought, how could we, as Ojibwe people with abundant culture and language loss be lucky- and as I write it now it does seem a bit perverse, but I still hold to it. We have our language. We have our ceremonies and we have our faith. We have to work at it for sure. We have lost a lot, but as an elder has reminded me, we focus a lot on the past, on what we have lost. But what we have is in the future, now and in the future, that’s where we live.

Additionally captured in this radio show is something that radio can do that print media simply cannot, it brings the voices of our kids into our homes from our friends at Nigaane and Waadookodaading. Those voices shine a light on some of our first steps we are taking into the future.

Check it out: Sustaining Language, Sustaining Meaning — an Ojibwe Story