The Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) and Indigenous Language Partnership has funded several projects on Anishinaabemowin across the Great Lakes Region. Project descriptions and progress updates for a few successful proposals can be found below. A map of the different partners can be found further below on the page.
Completed Projects
Bay Mills Community College – Bay Mills Anishinaabemowin Instructional Videos and Educational Materials Project
Bay Mills Community College (BMCC) developed a series of instructional videos and audio-visual teaching tools for Anishinaabemowin learners in the form of interviews between an instructor and a student. Once the interviews were completed, handouts and other written materials were developed for use alongside these videos for high school learners and teachers. Additionally, the Boys and Girls Club of Bay Mills worked alongside the BMCC Nishnaabemwin Pane Language Immersion Program to develop a coloring book for young learners.
Bodwéwadmimwen Ėthë Ték, Inc. – Bilingual Books
Of the three language groups that make up the Three Fires Confederacy, the Potawatomi language is the most endangered. Bodwéwadmimwen Ėthë ték (The Center for Potawatomi Language) sought to help preserve the language by publishing a bilingual book for learners of Potawatomi Yathmownen ga widmagoyan: Stories that I was told, which is only the 4th Potawatomi-English bilingual book in existence. The book was based on interviews with Jim Thunder, one of the last remaining speakers of Potawatomi, prior to his death. In addition, three Potawatomi language Zoom classes led by Mr. Thunder were edited and posted to the group’s Facebook page. The Language Department at the Hannahville Indian Community school plans to use the videos in their monthly language teacher professionalization course, as they no longer have access to a first-language speaker.
College of St. Scholastica – Virtual Language Tables
College of St. Scholastica (CSS) held 20 online language tables and 5 in-person tables with an Ojibwe elder first-speaker from beginner to intermediate levels. Additionally, 365 participants registered for a month-long symposium focused on storytelling. The symposium allowed participants to hear traditional stories in both English and Ojibwe. Finally, CSS and Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) also hosted the Biboon retreat, which focused on bird observation. Participants hiked with a Traditional Ecological Knowledge Keeper and a biologist from the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife commission, learning in Anishinaabemowin about local birds. Two drum feasts were also held in both October and December 2021.
East Jordan Public Schools – Let’s read! Let’s play! Let’s eat!
The East Jordan Public School District put on a language and culture immersion program at the LTBB Trival Headquarters for elementary, middle, and high school students. Students engaged in hands-on art activities while learning about Native American artists. Most importantly, older students served as mentors to the younger students to help create a community of language learners in East Jordan who are excited about language revitalization. One of the activities was playing the card game “Giigoonhken” (“Go Fish”) – as an added twist, table talk was allowed but only if done in Anishinaabemowin! As a surprise gift, all students got to take two bilingual books with them to practice. One of the teachers shared how excited her second graders were when they first saw the bilingual books: “Right away, they asked me if they got to keep a copy of the book. I was going to surprise them with it on another day, but couldn’t resist saying yes at that moment!”
Gaganoozh – Digital Hand Puppets for Interactive Language Videos
The Gaganoozh team developed, translated, and created audio recordings of the book “Rabbit and Bear Paws: North” by Chad Solomon that form the basis of the augmented reality puppets. “We wanted to create something that would inspire Indigenous people of all ages to embrace the traditions of our ancestors in a modern way,” says Solomon, the designer of Gaganoozh the app and a proud member of the Henvey Inlet First Nation in Ontario, Canada. The story has been animated and transformed into an interactive video for young learners to use as a language resource. The app is free online and on mobile devices for general use. An estimated 15,000 students and teachers participated in the virtual event associated with the project.
Update: Gaganoozh is now live in the App Store! To read more about the app click here.
Gun Lake Tribe – Wigwamêk Neshnabémwen Tė: Potawatomi Language Around the House
A compilation of four Study Guides were developed based on work in the Tribal Tribune monthly newsletter as well as from weekly language classes. The material is being sent out to 320 Citizens via a paper newsletter and another 329 via email. In addition, a Family Potawatomi Language Camp was held with 25 Gun Lake Potawatomi citizens in attendance, along with a number of household members.
Indigenous Enterprise, LLC. – Ojibwe resources online
Indigenous Enterprise, LLC. produced 700 short-form posts that were published on a daily basis beginning in 2022. The posts were shared via YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and are now archived and easily accessible for future use. Their overarching goal is to build a virtual community of Anishinaabemowin learners by connecting them with high-quality materials.
Ojibwe.net
The aim of this project was to develop the website www.ojibwe.net, ensuring that a wide variety of resources are available in one place for Anishinaabemowin speakers and language learners. The work focused on developing pages within the website, including a page with hyperlinks to a large variety of language resources, including dictionaries, books, videos, and language learning and certification opportunities. Some of the webpages have had over 10,000 views. The qualitative feedback indicates that many people have found the site to be quite useful in connecting to language materials and resources.
Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma – Language Camp at the Powwow
The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma held a three-day Anishinaabemowin language camp in conjunction with their annual powwow. Through dances and cultural programming, attendees of all ages gained knowledge and language about ceremonies, prayer, Medicine Wheel teachings, and traditional foods for decolonizing diets. The event connected Oklahoma Ottawas with their Great Lakes relatives by highlighting their shared cultures and traditions, with the broader goal of providing students with the skills and resources to incorporate Anishinaabemowin into their daily lives. Participants reported that they loved learning about their history and traditions while be surrounded by people speaking their language.
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians – Birch Bark Book Collection
Harnessing the affordances of multimodal learning, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians created an audiobook of 19th century tribal patriarch Simon Pokagan’s published stories. The stories, from his birch bark collection, were read by two elders and two younger language students. The recordings were made freely available to the larger Anishinaabemowin language learning community. Future plans for this project include creating enhanced e-books which allows readers to click on words and phrases to hear pronunciation.
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College – Strengthening Community Based Language Revitalization – Children’s Books Translations
The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College (SCTC) built a multigenerational team to translate children’s books and games into Anishinaabemowin. They put all materials online, creating a virtual learning space where language learners of all levels could engage. In addition to materials development, SCTC hosted a variety of age-appropriate language immersion activities for families at the SCIT Annual Pow-Wow on July 24, 2021. “One of the biggest impacts was seeing how excited participants were to have an opportunity to experience using Anishinaabemowin,” said a representative of the project. The project has inspired future goals, including developing a certificate program for Ojibwe teachers at SCTC.
Ongoing Projects
Bad River Tribe – Interactive Language Tables
The Bad River Tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa will hold two events to promote the transmission of both linguistic and cultural knowledge within the community. The first will be a series of seasonal harvesting workshops to discuss the harvesting of plants and animals. The second will be a winter storytelling event where elders shared aadizookaanag (stories) to pass down time-honored teachings about trapping, ice fishing, and sugarbush preparation to the next generation.
Bay Mills Indian Community / Gnoozhekaaning Museum – Naudoweeguning: The Battle of Pt. Iroquois
The Bay Milles Indian Community and the Gnoozhekaaning Museum will host a public event sharing the history of the battle of Iroquois in Anishinaabemowin during the week of their “Honoring Our Veterans” pow wow. The event will be held at the Point Iroquois LIghthouse. In addition to sharing about the battle in Anishinaabemowin, there will be songs and traditional food for attendees to try. Each attendee will receive a program with the story in Anishinaabemowin, along with the names of traditional foods, and the words to the songs. The project will also allow for recorded and printed materials to be available to share with future visitors to the lighthouse (over 40,000 per year) in its exhibits, displays, and interpretive boards.
College of St. Scholastica – The ones who speak Objibwemowin together
College of St. Scholastica (CSS) along with Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) will hold 18 language tables with an Ojibwe elder first speaker, creating an informal environment in which to practice language skills, build community, and socialize. In addition, they will host a winter Ojibwe Language Symposium with over 100 language speakers / learners from around the Great Lakes in a family-friendly event. There will be sessions for new speakers, language immersion opportunities, as well as sessions for educators and families. They will also host the Fourth Biboon winter Sustainability Retreat, emphasizing culture, language, and connection to the natural environment. Finally, they will host a spring Ogidaaki-bines drum feast for CSS Ojibwe language speaking students, faculty, staff, and community members to celebrate Ojibwe springtime traditions with opportunities to communicate and interact together.
Grand Portage Band – Radio Episodes
WTIP North Shore Community Radio and Grand Portage Band are collaborating together to bring the transcripts of the past episodes of the bilingual radio program, Anishinaabe Bizindamoo-makak, and record new episodes with native Ojibwe speakers. As it is bilingual, these episodes feature an interview with Ojibwe speaker who shares stories in English and Ojibwemowin. Together, Grand Portage Band and WTIP aim to share old and new stories with the wide community of listeners and learners.
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College – Ojibwa Language Specialist
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) is a tribal community college serving the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) and surrounding communities. Their goal is to create an engaging language experience by providing an Ojibwa language specialist for tutoring, employee training, and consultation. This language specialist will tutor students who are taking the Ojibwa language course and Anishinaabe Studies based classes. In addition, the language specialist would serve as a language facilitator for staff and student workshops and teachings, as well as working with faculty and staff during employee meetings. Finally, the project would provide for the installation of signage that shows commonly used phrases and words through the Babanung campus. Accompanying the signage will be affixed buttons that can be pushed to hear the translated words displayed on the signs.
Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network – Ojibwe Lexicon Development
Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network (MIIN) is working on creating a lexicon of words for Ojibwe immersion educators. Together with MIIN members, instructors and classroom staff will identify vocabulary needs and work with native speakers to develop a set of words. Once the list is finalized, it will be available to everyone, including immersion language instructors, on MIIN website, https://www.miinojibwe.org, and ready to use.
Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center – Family Camp
The Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center, in partnership with the Indigenous Youth Empowerment Program and Saginaw Tribal Community College, is addressing the gap of intergenerational Anishnaabemwin programs in Lansing, Michigan through Anishnaabemwin Gbeshing, a language day camp. Through family-oriented programming and take-home materials, the camp seeks to encourage the use of Anishinaabemwin in the home. Finally, the Nokomis Culturla Heritage Center will create a documentary on fluent Anishinaabemwin speakers in mid-Michigan to be shared within communities and internationally through festivals and online.
The Northwest Michigan Arts and Culture Network – Quillwork art
The Northwest Michigan Arts and Culture Network is supporting research and content creation that will contribute to an exhibition on the unique art of Indigenous quillwork. Personnel will collect videos, photographs, and stories from artists. Eventually, the exhibition and the subsequent publication of different project components in both English and Anishinaabemowin will showcase the quillwork art and emphasize the importance of it in the Anishinaabek community, culture, and history.
Map of Anishinaabemowin Projects
Click here for an interactive map of our Anishinaabemowin Projects.
Interested in submitting a proposal? See the Pre-Proposal Guidelines page for more information on how to submit a project to the LCTL and Indigenous Language Partnership.