On Sunday, September 25^th, 2011, Twin Cities Public Television was awarded and Upper Midwest Emmy – having received 26 nominations in 20 categories – for Eugene Stillday’s (Ojibwe) Native language documentary “First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language, narrated by writer, Louise Erdric (Ojibwe). The project was funded through Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment and follows Anton Treuer and collaborating elders, as well as fluent speakers Eugene Stillday, Anna Gibbs, Rose Tainter, Susan Johnson, and Larry Stillday, in their struggle to revitalize Ojibwe. Specifically, it takes a look inside the full immersion schools: Niigaane Ojibwemowin Immersion School on the Leech Lake Reservation near Bena, MN and Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion Charter School on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation near Hayward, WI.

Around WWII, most Ojibwe spoke their language, but since then various conditions have contributed to its decline, and today there are only around 700 fluent speakers left in the US, the majority in Red Lake, and most of the rest in Ponemah. There are only a few hundred more speakers in neighboring states like Wisconsin, Michigan and North Dakota.

You can watch “First Speakers” online at tpt.org until DVDs become available.

Tags: Anna Gibbs, Anton Truer, documentary, Eugene Stillday, First Speakers, First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language, immersion, Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, Larry Stillday, Leech Lake Reservation, Louise Erdric, Niigaane Ojibwemowin Immersion School, Ojibwe, Ponemah, Red Lake, Rose Tainter, Susan Johnson, tpt, Twin Cities Public Television, Upper Midwest Emmy, Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion Charter School

This entry was posted by mathias on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 11:45 AM and is filed under Ojibwe (Ojibwa, Chippewa). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.