Minneapolis American Indian Center-Dakota and Ojibwe Language Programming
To expand on the weekly language classes already offered at the Indian center by providing an immersion language class where only the targeted language is spoken. This will provide participants with the opportunity to, not only become proficient in the targeted language, but also to gain a deep understanding of its culture, values, spirituality. and tradition.The long term goal of this project is to build on existing language immersion program and to expand the American Indian Culture and traditional arts programming at the Minneapolis American Indian Center and be recognized as a cultural organization in the Twin Cities and beyond. The objectives of this project are to (1) Provide a weekly immersion language table in both Ojibwe and Dakota languages at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, supporting language acquisition of all participants and (2) to foster and expand inter generational relationships among youth, families, and elders through participation in the language immersion tables.
We contracted with language instructors for Dakota and Ojibwe language sessions, once per week. Between November 1, 2015 and January 31, 2016 nine Dakota classes and nine Ojibwe classes were held, as documented by sign in sheets at each session. Across the 18 classes held in Quarter 1, there were 115 class slots used. Of these, 64 were for Dakota language and 51 were for Ojibwe. The attendance at the Ojibwe classes have increased. The important outcome is that the urban population had and used the opportunity to learn their language free of charge.