Treuer receives fellowship to document dialects of Ojibwe

By Michelle Ruckdaschel
Bemidji Pioneer

A Bemidji State University professor who plans to write an Ojibwe grammar book has received a boost to his research through a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.

The NEH has awarded Anton Treuer a $40,000 Documenting Endangered Languages fellowship to support his work in documenting various dialects of the Ojibwe language in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He is an associate professor of Ojibwe.

With hundreds of applicants and only 10-15 fellowships awarded annually, Treuer said he was pleasantly surprised to learn he was selected to for one of the one-year fellowships.

“I feel very honored, but I also feel very humbled because I know how important and difficult this project is,” he said.

Treuer noted that most of the fellowship money will go to BSU to release him from his teaching duties this spring so he can conduct research for the project, entitled the “Chippewa Grammar Project for Southwestern Chippewa Dialect.”

He said the fellowship is exciting and timely because Ojibwe is still a vibrant language and spoken by many.

“But it’s also endangered because the overwhelming majority of people who do speak Ojibwe are elders,” he said.

Treuer said dialects can vary among communities that are located just a few miles from each other, such as Ponemah and Red Lake. He noted that there is a need to document these variations of Ojibwe.

“We have a lot of work to do to document all that,” he said.

He said a pedagogical grammar book would not only document the dialects of Ojibwe, but serve as a tool to teach the language.

“It will be designed not for linguists, but for students and teachers of the language,” Treuer said.

And, he added, showing patterns in the language to people accelerates their understanding and usage of the language.

Working with others

On the project, Treuer is collaborating with his brother, David Treuer, who also received a $40,000 NEH Documenting Endangered Languages fellowship this year, and with linguist John Nichols. At the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, David Treuer is an associate professor of English and Nichols is a professor of American Indian studies.While Anton Treuer is working on the transcription and translation end of the project, David Treuer is working on the literary aspects and Nichols, who according to Anton Treuer is likely the most prolific and knowledgeable linguist of Ojibwe, is working on the linguistics aspects.

Already, Anton Treuer has interviewed many Ojibwe speakers around Minnesota and Wisconsin for the project.

“Everything that we need to know about Ojibwe is here with our speakers,” he said.

He noted that he sees the project very much as a people’s project. And, he said, the Ojibwe speakers he has interviewed are very knowledgeable about the language.

“I really enjoy sitting down with speakers, turning on a tape recorder and letting them go,” he said. “I love being a lifelong learner of the language.”

Revitalizing Ojibwe

Anton Treuer said he believes in the “critical importance of revitalizing Ojibwe.”

“This is our gift from the Great Spirit himself,” he said. “This was the only language we were given for ceremony.”

And to lose the language is to lose the ceremonies, he said.

“The language encapsulates our unique worldview,” he added. “It is probably the single most important attribute to our sovereignty. And it is the most effective tool to revitalizing the health of our very dysfunctional communities.”

Throughout history, American Indians have become very disconnected from their sense of self, which has led to all kinds of problems, including alcoholism, drug abuse and violence, Anton Treuer said.

“And learning and knowing one’s language is an effective remedy to that,” he said.

Anton Treuer is editor of the Oshkaabewis Native Journal, the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language, and author of the book “Living Our Language: Ojibwe Tales & Oral Histories” published by Minnesota Historical Society Press.

He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and both a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Minnesota.

Ojibwe speakers interested in participating in the project can call Anton Treuer at 755-3968