Bemidji State University's Dr. Anton Treuer discusses how to learn an Indigenous language. Part of the 2015-2016 Weweni Indigenous Scholars Speaker Series presented by the Indigenous Affairs Office. From December 2, 2015.
I'm Nishnabe (Citizen Potawatomi) and I just finish my BA in Political Science. Luckily, I have had a couple Native teachs (Yurok/Wiyot) but I went to Humboldt State and they make a point of that. But one thing I did notice is that, for a Foreign Relations degree, a student is expected to learn the language of the area they are studying. The same is not expected of Native Americans Studies students.
He is my instructor/mentor at BSU. Looking forward to being honored to be in his presence soon, again. A great man doing great things for Anishinaabeg. Miigwech 'Zhooniyaa Waagosh' 😂😭
Grew up next to a reservation, half my school was native. All time favorite teacher was my Native biology teacher. Growing up there was always that background tension of them/us on both sides. But through that I made some of my best friends through those years, and they just happened to be indigenous. I look back at it now and wish I attempted to learn more. But that’s being a dumb kid I guess. But I wouldnt trade any of the friendships and experiences I did have for anything.
This video should be viral to educate the dominant culture. Wab and Sara -My tribal enrolled son (Koyukon Athabascan) from bush Alaska this May finishes in 4 years on time a BA in history at Wells and I will tell him about that pin you give Indigenous students. He deserves something like that for overcoming many obstacles and receiving national Native scholarships, serving Native youth, being a excellent role model who grew up in a wood heated log cabin in isolated village of 150. I find news and videos to keep him connected so he will be receiving this.
When I was 8 years old back in the 1980s my father decided to move whole family north of city of Toronto to small town here in Canada.When I go to school was only two other so called minorities. While the rest was white kids who many of them was racist. There was Cree boy who taught me the importance of nature which part of us.
Thankyou for your teachings. I'm sorta "native", DNA says 1.something. my grandma married a man, my 3 rd grandpa that told me I was his granddaughter. He told me stories. I think he was raised in Michigan, as I. I went to my first pow wow in my 20. I've read a few books on local tribes in mich. Fell in love with " Indian" culture since. My dad always said there was native, Cherokee. But thankyou for the teachings your projecting on my grandchildren I appreciate. Bless you & those that help put these together. Yes their entertaining.
A very useful lecture, and some problems and solutions are similar to my country. Our natives do the same as Dr. Treuer - they teach their children everything they can do themselves (hunting, gardening, cattle breeding...). But... why is everything so complicated in the US? In Russia we study the prevailing indigenous language and culture of the area we live. It's taught officially at school as any other subject. We can hardly imagine that the situation can be different. We have a lot of s**t in our country, but not marginalization of languages and cultures, not racial hatred. Languages were never forbidden. We began adjoining Siberia 400 years ago, Europeans began colonization of America at that time. We both had clashes with the Natives. But the results are completely different. I'm ethnical Russian living near Moscow, this territory is historically ethnical Russian, that's why I didn't study an indigenous language at school. But other ethnical Russians living among natives (in Komi, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Altai, Yakutia, Buryatiya, etc.) do study one local language. Different languages can be studied in different parts of one region, because the same ethnical group may live in different neighbouring regions. Now our educational authorities are developing a program of online language classes, if native children live in areas where their people are minority. Most languages are written, with their own literature. Every region with indigenous population has newspapers, TV and radio with programmes in indigenous languages. Native languages are spoken in the regional governments, 'cause mostly natives run the region. In local cultural centres there are classes in traditional dance, music and singing, clothing, archery, crafts; sometimes traditional sports like wrestling are taught at sports schools. Every region has its own orchestra of traditional music consisting mostly of natives. Festivals of modern songs in indigenous languages are held every year. Nomadic peoples still have their traditional way of life, but it doesn't affect education. Their children (usually they have more than 3) live in villages with grandparents, or in boarding schools. But there is nothing bad about boarding schools, as language and culture are taught there, the majority of teachers are natives, siblings are nearby, parents can come any time (and visit any lesson, which is scary :))) ). Holidays are spent with the family and the cattle, so by the end of school 18-year-olds are experienced cattle breeders. The majority of them stay in this industry and roam across the tundra or steppes. All of them have free medical insurance, as all citizens of the country; free motor sled and petrol are given by the government for tundra nomads. 18 to 25% of natives in every region have degrees. All the rest usually get professional education allowing them to study at the uni, but they have little motivation, I think. Living among breath-taking views, eating self-grown food and practicing your culture is probably more comfortable and than anything else :)
@@nuevevientos8332 sure, and Natives do say that, 'cause "our" is state of mind. If I learn how to put up a yurt, people for whom it's traditional house (Kalmyks, Tuvans, Buriats...) can call me "our girl", cause I share their culture. Also, "our" can mean people from your village/town, we have many multi-ethnic villages, towns are always multi-ethnic.
@@nuevevientos8332 Ethnic Russia is really just the European part of the country extending from St. Petersburg to about the Volga river (there's a lot of diversity even in the west). The rest of Russia can be considered a gradual colonization effort over a few hundred years, so the indigenous people of the Urals, Siberia, Manchuria, etc. are not ethnically Russian. They have Russian nationality, as do indigenous citizens of the U.S. and Canada, but they may also have special status as an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation. That's my understanding anyway, never been to Russia, but I do admire their federal organization.
BRAVO!! ACCOLADES for this gentleman!! I am a white man who had ancestors on the Mayflower. I grew up in Minnesota and moved with my parents and two sisters to southern California in 1999 when I was 20. I’m really on the outs with my family, as they are conservative and subscribe to some pretty radical Trump supporters.I received my bachelor’s in Spanish, and I have remained stubbornly complacent and without motivation ever since. I do nothing all day almost every day, and I have rendered myself so crippled with stresses and doubts. I fear that I will never find some reason to want to live. I love and respect all things Anishinaabe and especially the language. If I thought I could do something that could help to ease the nerves of anyone facing stresses in life consequential to cultural difference and indifference, I would be proud to make it my life’s goal. I can follow suggestions and I can take advise. Please let me know how I should go about learning more of the language and the lore of Anishnaabe? Should I move back to Minnesota to study, or maybe try to teach myself where I am in California? Any thoughts or ideas I would be most thankful for. . THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING ABOUT YOUR WORK, CONGRATULATIONS!!
Is there a an Ojibwe spoken online radio or tv channel for ppl. who live far away (like Europe)? And what about a MOOC for second language learners of the Ojibwe language?
Thank you,... and it makes for a good "feel good" lecture but what happens when your own people don't even want you around, when they say things like you are not "Indian enough" to be Indian...etc.
Really wonderful talk but the points about 'English' being just a few hundred years old, and the Stonehenge creators being lineally the same culture as modern Anglo-Saxon Britain are way off 😬 (~ 16:45)
16:46 Geoffrey Chaucer lived during the period of 'Middle English' and died at around the beginnings of the 'Modern English' period. There's also 'Old English' which came before Middle English, so English has actually developed over the course of more than 1,400 years, not just in 600.
@@ndjubilant8391 It's not practically a variant of Old German. Old High German and Old English are related in the same way that cousins are related as they are both Germanic languages that share the same linguistic common ancestral language called Proto-Indo-European. It's just like humans and chimpanzees are cousins in that they both share the same biological common ancestor that lived between 6 and 8 million years ago. And it doesn't matter that we require dictionaries to understand Old English today as Modern English evolved from Old English and Middle English, not the other way around.
Seriously. I got 40 minutes into the video without learning any indigenous language. Just politics and social justice and equity and white man bad etc. The title of the video is completely misleading.
@@thedeadscientist Good guess, actually Cornish, a close sister to Welsh along with Breton. I forget now what I was commenting on, but it says "Very useful ... but ... the name is not correct ... a bit misleading I think?" Thanks for your interest, no need to be sorry at all :-)
@@marconatrix Wow, cool! Thank you. I recognised some similarities to Breton and then guessed by the "y"... (I do not speak any of them but I would love to learn at least one of them one day).
Is bigger meaning in the Ojibwa language and I guess other Native American languages have greater meaning of the life and the environment of the people which is why have racist try very hard to destroy Indigenous languages. We as black people lost it during slavery as for Africa has devalue own African language because of colonialism in favor of English and other Western European languages.
Boozhoo Wagoosh….You talk a lot about teaching anishinaab…. Where do i find learning modules? I went to an Ojibwe middle school and lived our culture about a 1/4 of my life. I’d like to find resources. I am Chickasaw and Ute buffalo clan. Was raised in greater Kansas City with my Grandparents, I was partially raised with my mother around Sac n Fox, Winnebago, Potawatomi. I do not know my own tribe’s culture only anishinaab. I need to reconnect linguistically with our culture, im not lacking in walking and living our way of walking the Redroad…however, I am disabled so unable to attend ceremony any longer. I am hungry still. Chi miigwech. In honor of Fred Wahpepah who influenced my mother’s lifestyle the most. Sincerely, Linda Gillespie.
Dios lesbiga mi jente bella del mundo entero me facina ho hirlos hablar su lenguaje nunca holbiden de hablarlos en senarles ha sus hijos porque heso es el haidi de cada uno de ustedes heso es la representación de cada uno de todos ustedes lo bello que son su bella cultura su espíritu que buela hatrabes de las praderas del las montañas su lenguaje se une con todos los sonidos de los hanimales por que solo untedes entiende el secreto de hellos love ❤️ peace todos ustedes familia del mundo entero Amén 🙏 Dios nos bendiga nuestros hogares hijos familia hique nos una como una familia haci como mader here Amén 🙏🌍❤️❤️🙏🙏🕊🕊🕊❤️
Aanii. I'm only 1/8th indigenous (LRBOI) and I'm trying to reconnect with Odawa culture that I remember bits and pieces of from my childhood. But in all my research I constantly hear a "victim" narrative that's disheartening enough to make me (a mostly white guy who did not grow up on the reserve) reconsider going down this path. I can only wonder how such a narrative drains all those young people on the reserve of any hope and drive they might have to achieve success. Maybe it's time to find a new way to inspire the youth? "You already possess everything necessary to become great." -proverb
He mentions an elder, Archie Mosay, immersing him in the language around 52:00. Though he was around the language to a lesser extent while growing up in his family.
About those gold pins...that's a pretty damn colonial way of recognizing someones achievements. In reality, the mining of gold contaminates rivers and ground waters with arsenic and mercury. Does the University REALLY want to thank First Nations people with THAT??
