Living Our Language

"We're not losing our language," declares elder Joe Auginaush, "our language is losing us." As fluent speakers of Ojibwe grow older, the community questions whether younger speakers know the language well enough to pass it on to the next generation. Young and old alike are making wide-spread efforts to preserve the Ojibwe language, and, as part of this campaign, Anton Treuer has collected stories from Anishinaabe [Chippewa] elders living at Leech Lake, White Earth, Mille Lacs, Red Lake, and St. Croix reservations.

Anton Treuer is a member of the Leech Lake band of Ojibwe and assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee