With a new grant from MIAC, CWOO will focus on expanding Dakota language teaching capacities for Lower Sioux. In the 2020 Lower Sioux Annual Community Survey, the Community reported that 27% of the membership are learning Dakota, up from 20% in 2019 but not yet at our target of 33% by 2022. Respondents (representing half of the enrolled adult members of the tribe) revealed that only 13% of members speak Dakota daily. This is not adequate to revitalize our mother tongue. To achieve more consistent speaking of Dakota, Lower Sioux must expand its efforts.
By the end of the FY22 grant programming period, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe will have hired and worked with Contractors in Editing and Production in order to edit, design, and produce a physical Bilingual Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (MLBO) History Book which will be used with the Nay Ah Shing Schools as an Ojibwe Language and History tool while also satisfying all relevant Minnesota and Federal education standards.
To research and share knowledge among diverse partners around Anishnaabe cultural practices and their ecological legacies in fire-dependent pine forests.
