Saving the Potawatomi Language
Nancy Camden brings us a story about efforts in Southwest Michigan to save the Potawatomi language. Members of the three area branches of the tribe are trying to keep their language from becoming extinct:
[Donald Perrot speaking in Potawatomi]
[Nancy Camden] Beginning in the 1880’s, the U. S. government separated Native American children from their families, sent them to boarding schools and set about eradicating their culture and language. Donald Perrot travels regularly from Wisconsin to the Pine Creek Reservation south of Battle Creek to help people of all ages reclaim the ancient Potawatomi language.
[Perrot] I am working here for the Nottawaseppiniyek Huron Band of the Potawatomi Indians. We’re teaching the Potawatomi language—somewhat of an immersion style of language, so that they get to hear the language a lot, with proper tranlation, of course. Our motivation is to save our language, save it from extinction.
[Donald Perrot speaking in Potawatomi]
[Toni Medawis] My name is Tony Medawis. When my grandmother and grandfather were speaking the language, they were about the time when people were going into the reservations, taking children out of their homes and putting them in boarding schools. Mt. Pleasant was famous for that. And, they took away the language, And, then my mother was born, and my dad, and they didn’t speak it after that.
[Donald Perrot speaking in Potawatomi]
[Camden] Mon-ee Zapata is a tribal member employed as the language coordinator. She is also a language student.
[Mon-ee Zapata] Our band was greatly affected by the boarding school era. My dad’s mother, she was actually sent down to Kansas boarding school there, from here in Michigan. There is a lot of horror stories that went on during those times and at those places. What that did to people was to make them afraid to speak their language.
[Perrot] I’ve been coming here now since about 2004, off and on. I taught here on a grant that they had for a while, working with three tribes, the Pokagon Tribe, the Gun Lake Tribe and then, the Huron Tribe here—which are all Potawatomi and they’re all interrelated. And, then after that grant came to an end, I went to work in Shawnee, Oklahoma with the Citizen Potawatomi. I was actually born in Arpin, Wisconsin. And, uh, my grandpa, my great, great grandpa, John Young, was one of those that fled the removal and decided he was not going to go to the land where the government told him to go to in Kansas, But, he went back and forth instead and made sure that there were people that could still do the ceremonies and still speak the language. To quote some statistics for you there are some 32,000 to possibly 34,000 Potawatomies that are registered in not only the United States but also parts of Canada where they fled during the removal in 1830. Out of those, there are approximately seven of us who still speak this language—the ancient dialect. And out of that seven there are only three of us that are actively teaching it because the other four are too old to be teaching any more. My mother is 93. And out of those three, I’m 72 and I’m the youngest one. It’s been a sad fate but every time we see a young person who’s trying to learn this language, to us that’s, that’s a big plus. And, it’s happening all over—young people are starting to learn their language and to learn their culture and their songs as well.
[Lonnie Marshall II] My name is Lonnie Marshall and I am 21 years old.
[Camden] How do you think you’re doing with the language?
[Marshall] At first when I started taking language classes, I just had all of these words just flying at me. I couldn’t tell the difference from the beginning of one word or the end of another word. Eventually, it starts to stick.
[Camden] Is there something spiritual that happens when you learn these words?
[Marshall] Yes. For an example, my mother’s name is Mandoka. Mandoka is in the language as “mandokaswen”. That means spiritual ceremonies, which gives that Mandoka last name a higher meaning and a higher purpose.
[Perrot] I have had many people come up and apologize to us and I’ve told them, you don’t need to apologize to me. These are things that have happened. We have to forgive each other and move on and live in this world together and figure out how we are going to make a future for our own children. And, that’s what we’re trying to do with our language and our culture, we don’t want to lose it.
[Zapata] Our ancestors are always around us. And, they say that when we’re speaking our language, they can hear us. When we speak our language on our lands here, it makes them happy.
[Donald Perott teaching the class with Toni Medawis repeating the words]
[Camden] For WMUK, I’m Nancy Camden
The Michigan Poem
Commissioned and inspired by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation “The Michigan Poem,” from Kalamazoo poetry and performance artists Kinetic Affect, is an homage to our state. It is being unveiled with a live performance November 6 at 4 p.m. at a K-Wings game at Wings Stadium. Kinetic Affect’s Gabriel Giron and Kirk Latimer recited the poem for WMUK’s Arts & More.
Other Events
Students from several Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency programs will display artwork during the November 4 Art Hop in downtown Kalamazoo. Jewelry items and woven fabric rugs will be shown at the Park Trades Center and videos will be shown in the lobby of the Epic Center.
Writer Loreen Niewenhuis, author of “A 1000 Mile Walk on the Beach,” will discuss her work and introduce her new novella “Atlanta” November 4 at 7 p.m. at Kazoo Books on Parkview Avenue in Kalamazoo.
The Metropolitan Kalamazoo Branch of the NAACP holds its’ annual Freedom Fund Banquet November 5 at 5 p.m. in the Bernhard Center at Western Michigan University.
Gilmore Young Artist Ivan Moshchuk performs works by Brahms, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Chopin November 6 at 4 p.m. in the Wellspring Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo.
Artist Julie Devers will host her “14th Annual Open Studio and Sale” at Newgrange Pottery, 34722 County Road 390 in Gobles. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 5 and 6. The phone number is (269) 628-1024.
Simultaneous performances of “Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays” are planned at theatres around the world on November 7. WMU’s Department of Theatre will participate with a free performance in the D. Terry Williams Theatre that night at 8.
