Language Ladies Share Wisdom and Humor
By Brett Larson
Shirley Boyd and Bette Sam have been working with Samantha Peet and James Clark this summer to help with the Aanjibimaadizing language revitalization efforts.
The four have met via Zoom on a weekly basis to record language samples and discuss the meanings of various words and phrases.
The Zoom connection was essential, especially during the pandemic. They were able to continue working while keeping the ladies as safe as possible.
Shirley and Bette have both adapted to Zoom well, but Shirley says Bette is the “whiz.“
“I’m an old whiz that forgets!“ Bette replied.
James sits in his car at Eddy’s during meetings — halfway between Shirley’s and Bette’s. If either of them has a problem with their technology, James can be there quickly.
At times, the ladies have worked on language projects where people say things incorrectly. “If you don’t say anything, it’ll keep going on,“ said Shirley. “No matter how much college they have, we still know the language from baby on without going to college for Ojibwe, yet now, we have to do it their way.“
That’s not the case when they work with Sam and James. Shirley and Bette are the experts, and the authorities on correct language use.
“We did pretty good with Sam,“ said Bette. “It was fun.“
“It’s something to look forward to, besides just sitting at home,“ Shirley added.
Samantha often brings questions from her study of Baraga’s Ojibwe dictionary. Baraga was a Catholic priest who wrote the first Ojibwe-English dictionary in 1853. The updated version from 1878 is still available and includes many uncommon words that Samantha asks about.
“We would go word by word and see what they meant or how I would use them,“ said Samantha. “I just wanted to compile a list for people to have access to grow their vocabulary.“
James has set up Zoom recording devices to get good sound quality. The recorded words will be cataloged and used to build a repository. “Eventually, once we’re done, we would like to get them each a copy of the recordings we have to share with their families.“
Sam types up notes from their conversations each week and sends copies to Shirley and Bette, which often leads to follow-up discussions.
“It’s interesting, some of the words she brings up, and we tell her what they mean,“ said Shirley.
One fun word that came up in their conversations was “gii-inishkitaage,“ which means something like “mad about gambling.“ It combines “nishki“ — the root word meaning “to get angry“ — with “ataage,“ meaning “to gamble.“
“One word I don’t care for is ’Boozhoo,’“ said Bette. It was not a common greeting at Mille Lacs during their youth, but some teachers from other regions use it more often than “Aaniin,“ which is the local greeting.
Shirley agrees. “’Aaniin’ is the best word to use.“
The common greeting when the ladies were young was “Aaanin gonaa giin?“ or “How are you?“
Some of the sessions have focused on ceremonies or traditions like rites of passage into adulthood, death, dream catchers, and fire building.
“They kind of were guiding me while we were in session, correcting me if I was wrong, kind of mentoring me,“ said Samantha.
“We’re bridging that intergenerational gap in knowledge that we didn’t grow up with,“ James added.
Bette and Shirley see great value in what they’re doing to keep the language alive and thriving. “Once the older people are gone, there will be no Ojibwe unless the young people learn,“ said Bette.
What stands to be lost are traditional ceremonies, which take place only in Ojibwe. But not only that. “There’s a lot of humor in our language,“ said Bette. “When you see people speaking Ojibwe, they’re always laughing. You have to know what they’re saying to know where we belong, where we came from, how different we are.“
Samantha and James also teach youth in the Ge-niigaanizijig program, and Shirley and Bette have written stories for the Aanjibimaadizing book project. Shirley is also one of the lead actors in the Rosetta Stone Ojibwe language learning program.
They really enjoyed getting together with other Elders during the book project. A lot of laughter was shared.
“That was a lot of fun, when we all met together,“ said Shirley.
Bette agreed. “We had fun. We laughed.“
“We did it all weekend long, all day!“ said Shirley. “We didn’t even go gamble! We just went right to bed! And I love to gamble!“
Seeing their smiles and hearing their fond memories of speaking Ojibwe with other Elders drives home the importance of keeping the language alive. As Samantha and James smiled and laughed along, it looked and sounded like hope.
