Margaret Sayers taught Ojibwe language and culture

She also helped create teaching materials that gave shape to the language that was only spoken

By Ben Cohen
Star Tribune

Margaret Sayers, of Minneapolis, who was a teacher of the Ojibwe language in the Minneapolis schools and who is credited with helping to preserve her band's language and culture, died March 23 in St. Paul.

Sayers, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, was 89.

"Teaching Ojibwe was her passion. She kept the language and culture alive for future generations," said her niece Diana Danielson, of St. Paul.

Sayers, who for many years made her living as a nanny, became a teaching assistant for the Minneapolis schools in 1972. At first, she helped children, especially Indian students, with math and English.

Later she became a teacher of the Ojibwe language.

She taught Ojibwe at Minneapolis' Phillips Junior High School and Sanford Middle School. She later taught the language at the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Community Technical College.

Sayers was the go-to person for other teachers of the Ojibwe language, said Rick Gresczyk, who teaches Ojibwe language and Native American studies at the Minneapolis Community Technical College and Minneapolis' Augsburg College.

Gresczyk said Sayers' language skills were precious, because she grew up with the language.

"She was an elder that shared her language and knowledge with others. We need to have new speakers to take her place," Gresczyk said.

The two created Ojibwe language booklets, teaching aids and recordings for students and language teachers.

Sayers also phoneticized Ojibwe words into English, improving on the attempts of others to put Ojibwe, an oral language, down on paper.

For many decades, she served as a volunteer for the Indian Upward Bound Program, a group that helps Indian students succeed in school. In the 1970s, she also served as a board member of Minneapolis' Upper Midwest American Indian Center.

Gertrude Buckanaga, executive director of the Indian Center, said that Sayers was instrumental in creating programs to help Indians who were new to city life and that she thrived on the culture of her people.

"She loved to dance at pow wows. She loved Indian music," said Buckanaga, adding that Sayers excelled partly because she was a gentle and humorous communicator.

She attended government-run Indian boarding schools in Wahpeton, N.D., and Pipestone, Minn., as well as what is now known as Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan.

She retired from the Minneapolis School District in 1998.

She is survived by her sister, Ramona Manuel, of St. Paul, and many nieces and nephews.

Services have been held.