Minnesota's Lakota & Ojibwe Language Report

The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, along with language experts from across Minnesota, is proud to release the 2011 Volunteer Working Group on Dakota and Ojibwe Language revitalization and Preservation Report. As a result of its effort, the work group has been able to address all ten directives set by the Legislature, resulting in: a reliable picture of the status of Dakota and Ojibwe languages and of current efforts to revitalize Minnesota's Indigenous languages, the identification of best practices for addressing language revitalization, the identification of barriers to successful language revitalization, and recommendations for action that can be taken by Tribal Governments, the Minnesota Legislature and the State Department of Education to remove obstacles and advance the cause of language revitalization.

Several key findings in the report include:

• Dakota and Ojibwe languages are in critical conditions.
• The population of fluent and first speakers of these languages is small, and only a few first speakers live in Minnesota.
• Virtually nobody who speaks Ojibwe or Dakota as a first language has standard teaching credentials.
• Successful models do exist for bringing Indigenous languages from the brink of extinction.
• More than 100 programs and activities in Minnesota provide exposure to and/or instruction in Dakota and Ojibwe languages,   reflecting the importance placed on this effort by language activists, educators, tribal governments and the Minnesota   Department of Education. Few of these programs, however, recognize the essential pedagogic requirements for language   revitalization, which include a role for strong immersion programming and the leadership roles for fluent speakers.
  Language immersion programs are crippled by a lack of trained teachers; a dearth of curriculum materials; policies that   adversely affect the licensure, training and availability of required personnel; and limited funding. Currently, only the University   of Minnesota campuses in the Twin Cities and Duluth offer preparation for licensure for teaching across the curriculum in   Ojibwe and Dakota languages; neither of these operates for teachers in grades 9-12 and subsequently languages are seldom   taught formally at that level. (for continued info)