MPR: Few speak Ojibwe as a first language. This 'nest' is teaching kids to in Cloquet

[geardaddy]

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/02/27/few-speak-ojibwe-as-a-first-language-this-nest-is-teaching-kids-to-in-cloquet?fbclid=IwAR2cZr4zEPVq6Df2EIr6nnWK0fu_urqgh593R3COs92lXgvwUOm-6qndyRQ
Persia Erdrich’s son had just turned 2 years old when he spoke his first sentence in Ojibwe.

The pair were visiting the Minnesota Zoo as part of a group of babies, toddlers, parents and elders in a program to teach Ojibwe to young children and their parents. Erdrich, whose Ojibwe name is Netaa-niimid, said it happened when her son Patrick Linehan, whose Ojibwe name is Ogimaagaabaw, pointed at a bear in an enclosure.

“Mokwa nibaa,” he said. The bear is sleeping.

This was possible for Erdrich’s son because they attend a language nest in Cloquet, Minn., on the Fond du Lac Reservation called Gookonaanig Endaawaad, or “Grandma’s House.” The program started in 2020, and now seven families learn Ojibwe traditions and language from elders who speak it as their first language.

[Stargazer99]

1. Wow! am I happy to know this!

I think it is important to one's sense of origins, especially Native Americans, as they have been denied their history and a sense of who they are. The white man knows his ancestry and history of his ancestors culture and who they are. The Native American has a right to his/her sense of who their people were.

[geardaddy]

2. Thanks!

I am happy too. As a learner of another minority language that has had strong efforts to see its eradication (Welsh), I'm a huge supporter of Indigenous language revival here in this hemisphere.

[Tetrachloride]

3. Wiki. The map is enlightening

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwe

[dflprincess]

4. I took Ojibwe for my foreign language when I was at the U

I did reasonably well with it though I've forgotten most of what I knew. I tried learning my own ancestral language (Irish) as well - I did better with Ojibwe.