Grand Marais, Minn. – The children repeat aloud the same word that the vast majority of kids in the United States would not be able to understand: indizhnikaaz.
“My name is.” The teacher, Margaret Noodin, writes the word on a whiteboard in a classroom in an elementary school in Grand Marais, a small town on the shore of Lake Superior.
The lesson is part of a broader effort to revitalize a language and restore a relationship with the land that generations of dispossession and assimilation policies came close to breaking. Ojibwe is the language spoken by the Indigenous people who have inhabited this area for generations, some of whom continue to live on the historic Grand Portage Reservation.
“Without the support and leadership from Grand Portage in our school, we simply would not be able to do what we are doing,” said Josh Belanger, ISD166 principal.
The language belongs to the Ojibwe, one of the largest Indigenous peoples in North America. Under a treaty signed in 1854 with the U.S. government, they ceded most of their land along the northern and western shores of Lake Superior. That same treaty established the Grand Portage Reservation and recognized their hunting and fishing rights to the area. Today, communities in the region are teaching Ojibwe to new generations in an effort to revitalize the language and strengthen connections with the indigenous community.
“It is the predominant history of this land,” Belanger said. “While the English language and European culture have been around here for the last 200 years or so, the modern Ojibwe language and culture has been in this area for the last 300-400 years. It is crucial for any group of people to know the history of the land they call home.”
The Grand Portage Reservation lies 150 miles north of Duluth. It is home to 618 people, according to the 2020 U.S. census. Most Ojibwe people, however, now live outside reservations like this one, primarily in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
For Roger James, a naturalist at the Reservation and a member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the teaching of the Ojibwe language in school gives children the continuity he lacked growing up.
“When I was a teenager we might catch a few words here and there in school, but there were no regular classes,” he recalled. “There are some concepts that I feel you can only express in Ojibwe. For example, the word gamè means lake, and the word gichi means large, so gichi-gami means “large shore”, but just by way of using it, it means Lake Superior, it’s a very different concept.”
The relationship with nature is also different, he said. Grand Portage is home to the Little Spirit Tree, a centuries-old cedar leaning over lake superior. Non-Ojibwe visitors can only visit the tree when accompanied by an Ojibwe tribal guide.
“It defies nature and science,” explained John Morrin, a Grand Portage Band member and guide. “Driving all the way to Minneapolis, it’s all sacred land for us. We call it mother, and a mother takes care of you.”
In exchange, the Ojibwe take care of their land. Years ago, they started buying back swaths of territory they had lost. This is what happened to the area where the Little Spirit Tree grows.
“The land was owned by private landowners,” James explained. “We had to raise money to buy it back, because it is a special spot. We had to save this tree.”
Bringing Ojibwe into the classroom required a significant investment, too. Belanger explained that “The major funding for this work comes from a specific language revitalization grant which funds three full-time positions,” he explained. “There’s a total of five people from both Grand Portage and the school that make up the Ojibwe language teaching team.”
The program provides Ojibwe language instruction to every student from Pre-K through 7th grade. Afterward, students can decide whether to continue taking the classes as electives. Finding qualified teachers was not easy, which is why some school staff members are being trained by two Grand Portage employees, Belanger said.
Back in the classroom, the children repeat the sounds of the language once more. Most of them may never speak Ojibwe fluently. But every word they learn helps strengthen a connection that, for generations, institutions worked to erase.
