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

Minnesota is celebrating 150 years of statehood. Some Minnesotans that is; for many American Indians, the sesquicentennial is a painful reminder of language loss in the last 150 years due to European immigration and federal policies of assimilation, alottment and relocation.

In an MPR article today, Red Laker Roger DesJarlait speaks about how learning the Ojibwe language is helping in the healing process: “First the individual heals, and then you heal the family and then you heal the community.”

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Interestingly enough, a different proposal for Minnesota statehood was advocated for just 16 years before Minnesota statehood in 1858. This proposal by Wisconsin Governor Doty would have made Minnesota an all-Indian state where white settlement was forbidden. The treaty wasn’t altruistic, but promoted as way to assimilate American Indians and provide a place for other states to send their unwanted Indians. Listen to the MPR interview with a state historian on the Doty Treaty.

Ojibwe culture, language and identity are all tied up together in a complicated knot. It is difficult as you follow the thread of one, to disentangle it from the other two; perhaps impossible, as they are all part of the same thread that runs through one’s life. What left of Ojibwe culture without the language, Ojibwemowin?

“Our cultures and our languages — as unique, identifiable and
particular entities — are linked to our sovereignty. If we allow our
own wishful thinking and complacency to finish what George Armstrong
Custer began, we will lose what we’ve managed to retain: our languages,
land, laws, institutions, ceremonies and, finally, ourselves. And to
claim that Indian cultures can continue without Indian languages only
hastens our end, even if it makes us feel better about ourselves.” writes Ojibwe author David Treuer in a recent Washington Post article (If They’re Lost, Who Are We?).

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines culture as “the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time.” Dictionary.com calls it “the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.”

If Ojibwemowin ceases to become a feature of everyday existence, if the knowledge, world view and beliefs of generations which are contained within the very words of the language are lost, what then is left to distinguish Ojibwe culture from Ojibwe heritage or ethnicity? It’s a complicated and sobering question.

His brother Anton Treuer read a portion of a story from the book Living our Language during an NPR interview in April (Letter Men: Brothers Fight for Ojibwe Language). The story entitled, “Gaawiin gii-wanitoosiimin gidinwewewinaan” by Joe Auginaush speaks of how it is not the people who are losing the language, but rather the language that is losing the people.

In listening to him read that story, I saw in my mind a thread running through the twisted tangle of life, and the challenge to grab that thread and follow it back to the language, lest we become lost.

The Canadian government officially apoligized to First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples this week for a century of abuse endured at boarding schools. From the 1870s through the 1990s, an estimated 150,000 Native children were forcibly removed from their homes and communities, and taken to government funded residential schools whos purpose was to eradicate Native culture and language.

The apology is being accompanied with a Truth and Reconciliation council and compensation for the approximately 80,000 survivors still living.

• Harper ’sorry’ for native residential schools, Tronoto Star
• Natives welcome PM’s apology: Government sorry for abuses at country’s residential schools, Barrie Examiner
• Saying sorry: PM’s apology heals old wounds, Windsor Star

The sad tale of abuse and neglect suffered in Canada parallels what happened to Native children in the United States during the same time frame. In fact, the Canadian boarding schools were modeled on the U.S. system of residential schools for American Indians. The abusive treatment of children in residential schools has been responsible for the loss of indigenous languages, particularly in the U.S. where they were compounded by federal allotment and relocation policies. Sadly, an apology from the United States government seems unlikely.

Many were taught to feel shame for speaking their language, and refused to teach their children the language as a way to protect them from the same pain.

As the indigenous language revitalization movement gains momentum, one of the challenges for many in learning their language is healing the internal pain left from internalizing the oppression of generations. There are many varied strategies for language acquisition, and perhaps this healing can be thought of as an emotional strategy. Healing the past and learning language anew together can become a way to reclaim idenitity as Indian people and to take back the power and strength of Indian people that was once denied.

The LaCrosse Tribune in Wis. just published a series about indigenous language revitalization.

• Tribes work to reverse corrosive effects of boarding schools
• Tribes on their own when it comes to saving languages
• Nearly lost, Indian languages struggling to make comeback
• ‘Through love, we lost the language’
• Languages offer window into human mind

One of the challenges is funding for immersion schools. Most schools are funded through a combination of federal and private grants, tribal funding and sometimes state funding. In the second article, “Tribes on their own…”, Justin Stein writes:

“Several federal agencies together provided roughly $850,000 in
grant money this year to native groups in the state to help fund a
tribal immersion school, train tribal language teachers and digitally
record their languages. That sum, though significant, is much less than
the money the government once spent on Indian boarding schools that
sought to kill off those languages.

The state received
$168.5 million in payments from tribal gambling casinos over the two
most recent years, but spends none of that on tribal language programs.
In contrast, not counting federal money, the state is expected to spend
$2.6 million this year to protect threatened wildlife such as the
trumpeter swan and the Karner blue butterfly.”

The third article in the series, “Nearly lost, Indian languages struggling to make a comeback,” our fellow cohort member Lisa Clemens was quoted as a teacher at Waadookodaading Ojibwe immersion school. Kudos to you Lisa for all the hard work you do.