Tribe works to ensure language's future (fwd)

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Tribe works to ensure language's future

[photo inset - Isabella Gallardo, 5, (left) and Shylee Worthington, 4,
play the drums and sing songs in the Anishinaabemowin language during a
cultural program at the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Head
Start program in Pellston. The tribe’s language department is creating
programs to pass the language on to children. (Kristina
Hughes/News-Review)]

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By Kristina Hughes News-Review Staff Writer
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2007/03/24/news/more_local/news02.txt

HARBOR SPRINGS — Howard Kimewon was punished for speaking
Anishinaabemowin when he was a child in school.

“We had to speak English. You would get a strapping for speaking the
language, that was the golden rule,” Kimewon said.

Nearly 50 years later, Kimewon remembers his grammar school experience
on Manitou Island. But today he feels welcome at Harbor Springs High
School where he informally teaches the Anishinaabemowin language during
lunch hours at the school.

“I feel good about being here and bringing the language back to the
kids. I don’t have paper, pencils or lesson plans, everything I say I
speak from the heart,” he said.

Kimewon smiles as students count or understand a word or two during the
language lunch table.

Megan Keller, a Harbor Springs sophomore stumbles over the words, but
she is encouraged when she understands the meaning.

“I want to learn how my ancestors talked,” Keller said.

Keller will have that opportunity. The Harbor Springs High School and
the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians are collaboratively
working to create a formal Anishinaabemowin language program at the
school.

The class is part of a movement to revitalize the region’s first spoken
language as its number of speakers dwindle. The effort is being made
through a multigenerational approach in area homes, schools, classes
and at community events.

The recent interest encourages fluent speakers like Ray Kiogima.
Kiogima, 77, grew up in what he calls “Indian town,” a place where
several Native American families resided in Harbor Springs.

Growing up in the 1930s, the language was spoken in the homes, on the
streets and at gatherings.

“This used to be known as the Odawa capital,” he said.

Kiogima learned to fluently speak Anishinaabemowin from his grandmother
Mary Anne.

“My grandmother couldn’t hardly talk in English ... When I slipped in an
English word she reminded me if I lived with her I had to speak the
Odawa language,” he said.

Nearly 60 years later, Kiogima is inspired to teach the language. Last
year, Kiogima finished his 20 year quest to co-author the book “Odawa
Language and Legends.”

“When I heard the two words, ‘dying language,’ it gave me the
inspiration to write the dictionary. I heard these words and it hit me
like a light bulb going off in my head.”

Kiogima is currently writing a second book teaching the language. He
hopes these books will rekindle a spirit to learn.

“The people have to have the desire to pass it on. We are counting on
them,” Kiogima said.

The story of the language is tied with the history and cultural
traditions of the tribe. When the Europeans settled, the Anglo Saxon
education system forbid Native Americans to speak their native
languages. In some cases Native Americans were physically abused for
speaking. This lead to a breakdown in the language in some tribes,
since parents wished to protect their children from ridicule or
punishment.

For years many tribe members attended boarding schools, like Holy
Childhood School in Harbor Springs, where the language was forbidden.
The nuns believed students must speak English and assimilate in order
to succeed.

As more tribal members moved, or entered the job force and schools in
the predominant culture, English became the primary language for many
families. Some families passed on a few words or did not speak the
language, while a few speakers remained fluent.

In time as the fluent speakers began to walk on, the language was dying
with them. Some tribal members worried about the future of the
language. In the last few decades there was a resurgence movement
focusing on the cultural traditions and the language. Recently the
education community has begun to embrace the language in the classroom.

Helen Roy, is a first language speaker who kept her traditional language
when many speakers conversed in English. Roy, a linguist professor at
Michigan State University, fills a duty to teach.

“It’s important because when we speak we have our whole history of why
the words are spoken a certain way,” Roy said. “It’s our cultural
identity, people talk about tradition and you hear that in the
language.”

“But, there are still people who are reluctant to learn the language
because of past experiences ... But we should look at tomorrow and what
we can do to revitalize it.”

Anishinaabemowin first

Joe Kishego spoke fluent Anishinaabemowin. But that changed when he
attended school.

The lessons, recitations and books were all in English.

“We were asked to bring all our prayer books, hymnals in Odawa, these
books were burned,” he said, with a sadness in his eyes, during an
elder’s luncheon.

But he didn’t follow the rule. He hid his books, now worn with time.

“For a while nobody spoke,” Kishego, of Harbor Sprigs said. “If we speak
it our language will carry on.”

Kishego is proud to speak.

When Veronica Medicine, 69, listens she vividly remembers her cousin who
shared stories in an animated fashion.

“When (fluent speakers) speak, it’s like music,” Medicine said.

Growing up, no one taught her the language. As she learns the words,
Medicine hopes she will someday be able to pray in her native language.

In the past, she participated in Ray Kiogima’s classes and courses with
Kenny Pheasant. She also participates in activities held by the Odawa
Institute, a nonprofit formed to preserve the language and culture. The
group continues to promote cultural events and a weekly language class.

In the last five years the tribe has made the language a priority, Carla
McFall, the tribe’s language program coordinator said. McFall met with
interested community members and tribal leaders, nearly five years ago
to establish a proposal for the new language program. The tribal
council approved the program housed in the Archives and Records
Department in Harbor Springs.

The proposal included a narrative of the history of the language, the
need for fluent speakers and the importance of revitalizing the
language. The program was established in 2004.

The tribe’s Archives and Records Department received a $450,000 grant
from the Administration for Native Americans in 2006 for language
revitalization efforts. The funds were used to hire a curriculum
specialist and are being used to develop the high school course and
create communitywide Anishinaabemowin programs.

“Our primary goal is revitalization so it doesn’t seem archaic,” McFall
said. “We’re not doing it for a hobby or solely for fun. We’re doing it
to teach a living, breathing language.”

Passing it on

McFall passes on the words to her children and grandchildren.

Cody Bigjohn, 30, did not have much interest in the Anishinaabemowin
language as a teen. He remembers his mother Carla McFall who shared
greetings at family and tribal functions.

But when he had his own children, Aanzhenii (angel), 10 and Waabzii
(Swan), 3, the desire to learn the language took hold. As he passed on
his genes, he hopes to pass the language on.

“It gives me a sense of pride to hear them say words,” Bigjohn said.
“When I hear them I know our culture will stay alive.”

As generations past spoke Anishinaabemowin in the home, some community
members are bringing the language back to the home.

When Kathy Shomin, decided to attend language classes it became a family
affair. On a recent evening, Shomin and her children Sampson Shomin,19,
Kyle Shomin, 17, and Mehmay Guaz (butterfly) Shomin, 14, play
Anishinaabemowin Yatzhee during a language pizza party.

Kathy’s children learned words from their grand parents. Kathy takes the
advice from an elder to heart, who shared, “Language is your culture and
when your language is gone your culture is gone.”

“You need as much exposure as you can get. It’s one thing to go to
school and learn the language, but to live it and speak it will save
it,” Kathy said.

Melissa Wiatrolik, 28, can remember growing up in a household where her
mother and grandmother often conversed in the native language.

Wiatrolik participates in the immersion class experience as a way to
teach her children.

“It’s important for our generation to carry it on to our children,”
Wiatrolik said. “... Listening, it brings back memories and a feeling
inside that one can not explain.”

Crystal Greensky, 24, grew up speaking and listening to the Ojibwe
language on the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indian
Reservation near Duluth, Minnesota. Greensky, whose father was an
Ojibwe instructor hopes to follow in his footsteps by becoming an
Anishinaabemowin teacher.

“You don’t think about it as culture,” Greensky said. “Growing up, it’s
the way you lived.”

After moving to the area she enrolled in immersion courses and a
teaching program at Bay Mills Community College. She currently works as
a language assistant with the tribe.

By teaching she hopes to raise awareness about the language.

“There are so many people who don’t know we have a language,” Greensky
said. “We need to create awareness and speakers.”

Through her work she connects with the elders and fluent speakers, who
hold the key to the history of the language.

“I can’t even imagine what our community of elders went through,”
Greensky said. “Can you imagine for example, if you went to a Chinese
speaking school and could not speak your language? I feel so fortunate
to be around (the elders), to hear their stories.”

Crystal and Harriet Kishigo Booth, recently conversed in
Anishinaabemowin during a game night.

Kishigo Booth, who lived through the times when the language was
stigmatized, is watching it emerge as a point of pride.

Looking at the young people, like Greensky, she is hopeful.

“I’m encouraged that we are going to keep the language,” Kishigo Booth
said. “They are going to be our source to pass it on.”

Additional stories:

Video features

Multi-generational approach used to teach language

Language brought into classroom

Learning the Anishinaabemowin language

The Odawa Institute a non-profit organization formed by people committed
to revitalizing the use of the Anishinaabemowin and Anishinaabe culture.

http://www.institute.odawa.info.

Kenny Pheasant’s Learn the Anishinaabemowin language:
www.anishinaabemdaa.com and www.anisninaabemowin.org.

Language Immersion courses accredited by the Little Traverse Bay Bands
of Odawa Indians through Bay Mills Community College. For more
information call (888) 309-5822.

The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians archives and record
department’s language program. For more information call (231) 242-1452
or go to http://www.ltbbodawa-nsn.gov/.

North Central Michigan College offers a language class by Fred
Harrington Jr. For more information call 348-6600.

Helen Roy’s Pop Songs “Anishnaabe’amaadeg” and “Miinwaa Aanind
Anishnaabe Nagamowinan” Call (517) 282-2337 to purchase a copy.

Kristina Hughes can be reached at 439-9348, or khughes at petoskeynews.com.