MENOMINEE RESERVATION, Wis. — Started in the early days of the pandemic to connect Menominee Tribal members, native language courses continue to grow, bringing the community together.
Inside the Menomini yoU building, team members listen to the recording of an elder telling a story. They think it’s from the 1980s. The audio contains a lot of background noise and the elder speaks in the Menominee language.
The nonprofit Menomini yoU recently hired six new members to help spread the language in the community.
“These guys are all speakers of the language,” said Ron Corn Jr., Menomini yoU Director of Revitalization. “They have their own degree of comfortability with it. What we’re trying to do is take them from proficient speakers to fluent speakers.”
Corn Jr. said generations of policies including, "No Indian Talk" at boarding schools, had many negative effects on the tribe. Over the years, the number of native speakers dwindled.
But now he and others are looking to use their language as a positive force in the community.
“What we want to do is enrich the audience that’s involved and invite new people to the table that haven’t traditionally had good options to learn the language,” Corn Jr. said.
Menomini yoU aims to use language to connect the community. They offer free virtual classes over Zoom to those wanting to learn.
“As we can help others learn their language and find out who they are, we can help take care of some other community problems like drug problems, or even homelessness, depression,” explained Tyson Webster, who joined the team in January.
They now offer two levels of online classes, based on experience. Over 230 people recently signed up for the Language 1 course.
“We owe it to our ancestors. It’s because of them that we’re here today. Why wouldn’t I at least try to learn my language?" said Michelle Gauthier, who signed up with her nine-year-old daughter Isabella Lopez.
Gauthier now lives in Colorado and went to high school with Corn Jr. and lost touch with the language after moving away. But, one simple word her grandmother taught her years ago brought back emotional memories.
“We learned how to say table. It crushed my heart a little because we just lost my grandma in December, but I remember the summer that she had taught me how to speak,” said Gauthier. “I just remember that exact moment she taught me how to say table.”
That’s one way this program keeps the community connected and the language alive.