NATIVEAM 222: Elementary Ojibwe I, cross listed as AMCULT 222, introduces University of Michigan students to the Ojibwe language. The course is the prerequisite to NATIVEAM 322 — Intermediate Ojibwe — and can be taken to fulfill the LSA language requirement.
The word “Ojibwe” refers to both a language and tribe, and falls under the Anishinaabe group who are indigenous to the land the University was built on. The Ojibwe language is spoken by tribes in the upper-Midwestern regions such as Michigan and Wisconsin, and in southern parts of Canada including Ontario and Manitoba. The language is also known as Anishinaabemowin and Chippewa, or may have minor spelling variations such as Ojibway and Ojibwa.
Ojibwe as a language is spoken more than written, according to Kayla Gonyon, lecturer in Native American Studies and the course instructor. Gonyon explained in an interview with The Michigan Daily that these differences in pedagogy are what sets Objiwe apart from other languages.
“That’s something about this language, the dialect we teach drops vowels, and then there are other dialects that have more vowels,” Gonyon said. “Relatively speaking, it hasn’t been written for very long. So there aren’t standardized spellings. There is an orthography that we use, but there’s variations in spellings, and that’s just something you have to get used to.”
Gonyon said she and another lecturer of the course, Alphonse Pitawanakwat, are working to create more advanced levels to help students ease into the language.
“I’m not gonna lie, the grammar is very complicated,” Gonyon said. “It’s a complicated language to learn, which is again why we’re trying to add an advanced level, take it piece by piece and try it. It’s hard because every other aspect of language is connected, so you start introducing grammar or something, then there’s a whole lot more going on.”
Pitawanakwat, who has been teaching this course for 14 years, told The Daily he agrees with the need to add courses driven towards the advancements of Ojibwe.
“I’m amazed at how well they do,” Pitawanakwat said. “But what (Gonyon) and I discovered is that we need more time for writing so they can actually write like they do in English. It’s not that we don’t teach it, they can do it, but we don’t do enough of it.”
To help students grow in the current course, Gonyon assigns journals for students to complete, which allows them to give feedback about the class.
“The main point of the journals is (we) want to get them to know the students a little bit and then to also see what they think about how we’re doing in the class,” Gonyon said.
Students in the class are also given the opportunity to attend Anishinaabemowin Teg, an annual conference held in Sault Ste. Marie, which lies on the U.S.-Canada border.
Kinesiology sophomore William Snow, who grew up on a reservation in the Upper Peninsula, told The Daily that taking NATIVEAM 222 has given him the opportunity to connect with his culture within the classroom.
“Coming here and being able to take this class is very empowering,” Snow said. “It’s also one of those classes that makes me feel very comfortable with myself because sometimes the issue of being away from home is that I’m missing out on my cultural things. … But taking this class gives me that belonging and makes me feel like I’m still doing my part to be involved in my culture because the language is something that we hold very deeply.”
Daily Staff Reporter Chiara Dettin can be reached at chiarald@umich.edu.
