Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
The goals of this grant include the continued recording and the professional transference of existing elder stories. The purchase of a professional dictation kit will ensure that the continued recordings are of highest quality. Four certificate-eligible interns will who can transition into language instructor position at Nay AH Shing Tribal School and Mille Lacs Early Education will continue their education of the Ojibwe language. These interns will also be developing teaching materials that can be used in the future.
Language Preservation and Education. $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 total number of students served by the Ojibwe Language Program in District I - Mille Lacs is 292 (93 Early Education children, 109 K-4 students, 50 middle school and 40 high school). In adopting the ASLA method, the program is training teachers in the delivery of instruction of the method and the first language speakers are training teachers in teh Ojibwe language. The students are being taught the ASLA method within the classrooms. In addition, the community Ojibwe Language class is serving approximately 20-30 community members, which includes parents and Ojibwe Language Program teachers. This grant gave us the opportunity to purchase classroom computers so we have been researching various Ojibwe lanuage computer programs. We have chosen an immersion software program called Ojibwemodaa that comes with a unique Byki interactice vocabulary flashcard system.