Minnesota Humanities Commission Native Language workshop

[Jan Tucker]

Great story, as usual, I can just picture it all, the woods and the
children, and you and your wife performing for the children. You earned that
walk in the woods it sounds like, and why can't you do it all? Another good
story...

Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]On Behalf Of Richard Smith
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 3:19 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] Minnesota Humanitites Commission Native Language
workshop


Richard LaFortune,

Great to hear about the workshop
You are working precisely in the area of my interest
Getting our languages into great books for kids
reaching towards our unknown future generations
I've honestly been discouraged by the lack of adult passion among my tribal
members to put out the effort this language work requires
And I wonder at times if it really is "too late"
It seriously makes me want to disappear, retreating into the woods where I'm
content quiet and can sing my own prayersongs and dip into the cold creek
And be free from the absurd crazy noisy mansworld that makes no sense.
Am I wasting my breath on these resuscitation efforts?
Ripping away pieces of my life on that which is already dead and gone?
But then I stop...
I picture kids bright faces in the school here in Wyandotte Okl.
Sitting in their circles waiting impatiently for my wife and I to visit
For the time of winter stories and the puppets
I see them now
Singing out an old Wyandot song I taught them,
And the new fun songs I love to create for them
And wow...listen!
they're speaking the language,sounding words
with such great pronunciation and inflection
Having no hang-ups with the nasals
or glottal stops...no problem!

The waterdrum comes out
And I thump it testing the skin
 a little girl nods smiling,
"It sounds happy today!"

So... I stay
What else can I do?

Richard Zane Smith
artist /non-linguist/Wyandot





On 7/10/06 7:45 AM, "Richard LaFortune" <anguksuar at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> We have a very good crowd (more than 80) of people
> here today in St. Paul for this historic, day-long
> workshop.  I first began working with the commission
> about 9-10 years ago when I launched the Grotto
> Foundation Native language research initiative (now a
> $5.6M fifteen year long program).
>
> As state-wide legislative co-chair for the Dakota
> Ojibwe Language Revitalization Alliance I approached
> MHC again a little over a year ago & suggested that we
> explore a Native language children's literature
> initiative -- this workshop  presents the first step
> in what we hope will generate several dozen beautiful,
> hardcover Native language children's books in Dakota &
> Ojibwe.  I created a tenative budget for about $2.25M
> over a 2-3 period so that children's books, regional
> dialect dictionaries & some master-apprentice work can
> be used as the starting point for long-term
> humanties/cultural conservation-based work with this
> state institution.  If anyone on the listserve has
> questions about how we put this together in Minnesota,
> I'm on the organizing committee & I am happy to be a
> resource --or of course you can contact the commission
> administration as well.
>
> peace!
> Anguksuar (Richard LaFortune)
> co-Chair, Dakota Ojibwe Language Revitalization
> Alliance
> 612.267.1682
>
>
>
> Dakota and Ojibwe Language and Literacy Workshop
> Monday, July 10, 2006
> 9:00 a.m. ­ 4:00 p.m.
> Humanities Education Center, St. Paul
>
> The Minnesota Humanities Commission is partnering with
> Dakota and Ojibwe language supporters to offer a
> workshop that honors these languages and cultures. The
> emphasis of this workshop will be on materials for use
> in early childhood (ages 0-8) language programs. Dr.
> Anton Treuer, Assistant Professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji
> State University, will open the workshop with a
> session on the importance of language revitalization.
> Breakout sessions will highlight various immersion
> program models; how to work together with elders in
> language programs; and how to make books for use with
> young children and their families. Exhibitors will
> display and sell children¹s books and other Dakota and
> Ojibwe language materials for use with young children
> and their families. This workshop is open to all
> educators who have an interest in preserving Native
> American languages. Registration for this seminar is
> now closed.
>
> Fee: $25, which includes lunch and a cassette
> recording of From the Sky: Stories in Song from Native
> North America.
>
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