According to the University of Minnesota, it’s estimated that there are as few as 1,000 native speakers of Ojibwe across the United States. But thanks to funding from the Bush Foundation, a new long-term project aims to revitalize the Ojibwe language across the state.
The Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network (MIIN), a Native-led non-profit, is set to launch an ambitious eight-year, $8.2-million-dollar initiative aimed at revitalizing the Ojibwe language, and that initiative will be felt locally in the Bemidji area.
“Bemidji State University’s in partner with them, so it’ll bring about $1 million to Bemidji State University,” explained Anton Treuer, Professor of Ojibwe at BSU. “We will be developing kind of the mechanics for an Ojibwe teacher training program here. It’s gobs of paperwork, but certainly well worth the effort.”
Treuer believes Bemidji State has been struggling as of late. But he also thinks this initiative will help build the infrastructure to teach the Ojibwe language and revitalize the school as well.
“I know Bemidji State University has been going through a lot of stress,” he admitted. “We just have fewer 18-year-olds now than we did 10 years ago, and it’s caused lots of stress and rippling through the budgets and so forth. We will be hiring two people, so it’ll be another Ojibwe language professor, and there will also be a recruiter that we hire to recruit students into the cohort.”
The initiative seeks to move far beyond Ojibwe reservations.
“They will actually be in every high school in the state of Minnesota in front of Native students,” said Treuer. “There are a number of Ojibwe immersion schools going in the region, publication efforts, there’s an adult immersion program – actually, a lot of our BSU students end up going into that as well. If we are successful in recruiting people into the effort, once you light a fire in someone, they find a way.”
Treuer believes in the Ojibwe language and is very excited to bring an even bigger Ojibwe language program to Bemidji State.
“An effort like this is bigger than any one person,” added Treuer. “Generations from now, nobody’s going to know my name, but if our language lives, then all our strivings are worth it. I do believe that we are part of something that can ripple through generations and make the world a different and better place.”
Treuer says there is no timeline exactly on when the new Ojibwe language professor will be brought into the BSU but that he is very much looking forward to expanding the Ojibwe language program.