Minneapolis Public Schools
Grant Activities: The goal of this grant is to support students’ acquisition of the Ojibwe and Dakota language and culture which begins in early childhood immersion at Anishinabe Academy by providing a language and culture table for their families. The Mino-Bimaadiziai/Chante Luta Language and Culture Table will focus on words, place names, and serve to build a non-threatening environment where parents, community members, and schools professionals will grow and develop.
Minnesota’s most enduring languages are in danger of disappearing. Without timely intervention, the use of Dakota and Ojibwe languages – like indigenous languages throughout the globe -- will decline to a point beyond recovery.
These languages embody irreplaceable worldviews. They express, reflect, and maintain communal connections and ways of understanding the world. Deeper than the disuse of vocabulary or grammar, the loss of an indigenous language is destruction of a complex system for ordering the relationships among people and the natural world, for solving social problems, and connecting people to something beyond themselves.
$550,000 the first year and $550,000 the second year are for grants for programs that preserve Dakota and Ojibwe Indian languages and to foster educational programs in Dakota and Ojibwe languages.
The historic nature of this endeavor should be highlighted A space has been created for two different Indian nations, the Dakota and the Ojibwe, to share their teaching with each other as well as the entire American Indian community. We were able to teach our culture, history, and spirituality in a friendly and welcoming environment.