Welcome Page

Boozhoo
Thank you for visiting Ojibwe Language and More. We hope you enjoy the site and learn a lot.

Our original intention was to create a place that our kids could go to learn and hear the language online. It's turned into a family project that we hope everyone interested in the language can come and learn something from it.

The Wagner family at the 2012 S-Lake powwow.
If you are new to this site, start with the first entry on the right of this page, under "Blog Archive" by clicking on 2009 and then January. You should start with the first post and then move forward to get the most from this.

There are clickable links on the various pages. Some of these links are to outside sources. To get the most out of each page, you should click on everything that is clickable. Some are Ojibwe language audio, and others are lessons.

At the end of each Ojibwe language lesson, there are games you can play with each word list. Click on those and have fun.

At the end of each week, there is a quiz and a test. We suggest you do not move on to the next week until you have mastered the previous week. They are just labeled "weeks." One "week" may take you a week, but you may be able to move through it quicker or it may it take longer.

This is still very much a project in progress.  The first two months are close to being completed and we've just adjusted them a little bit.  We've added more audio links, videos, games, and pictures.  Please be patient.  It's coming along. :) 


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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Blog Archive

• 2009 
  • January 
    • Week 1: Boozhoo and Welcome
    • Week 1: Pronunciation Guide for the Double Vowel S...
    • Week 1: Free Online Ojibwe Language Dictionary
    • Week 1: Anton Treuer on Tobacco and Language Learn...
    • Week 1: A Few Basic Words
    • Week 1: Match Game
    • Week 1: Speaking Every Day
    • Week 1 Quiz and Exam
    • Week 2 - More Basic Vocabulary
    • Week 2: Ojibwe Language Revitilization
    • Week 2 - The Elders Speak: Tobacco
    • Week 2 Ojibwe Jeopardy
    • Week 2: Quiz and Test
    • Week 3: Ojibwe Numbers
    • Week 3: Ojibwe Numbers 11-100
    • Week 3: Ojibwe Number Activities
    • Week 3: Keller Paap's Story
    • Week 3: Ojibwe Numbers Jeopardy
    • Week 3: Quiz and Test
    • Week 4: Introducing Yourself
    • Week 4: Nookwezigan
    • Week 4: First Month Ojibwe Jeopardy Review
    • Week 4: Quiz and Test
    • 
      
  • February 
    • Week 5 - More Words/phrases to Help Get Started
    • Week 5: The Elders Speak: Pointing with your Lips
    • Week 5: Quiz and Test
    • Week 6: Labeling the House - Bathroom
    • Week 6: Quiz and Test
    • Week 7: Labeling the House - Kitchen
    • Week 7: Quiz and Test
    • Week 8: Labeling the House - Living Room
    • Week 8: Quiz and Test
    • 
      
  • March
    • Week 9: Labeling the House - Bedroom
    • Week 9: Quiz and Test
    • Week 10: Feelings
    • Week 10: Personal Indicators - I am feeling a cert...
    • Week 10: Personal Indicators - You and You All
    • Week 10: We Are Feeling a Certain Way
    • Week 10: They Are Feeling a Certain Way
    • Week 10: Quiz and Test
    • Week 11: Everyday Actions and Tenses
    • Week 11: The Past and Future Tenses
    • Week 11: Personal Indicators and the Tenses
    • Week 12: More Actions and Negation
    • 
      
  • April
    • Week 13: More Actions and Commands
    • Week 14: More Actions and Don't
    • Week 15: Questions and Actions
    • Week 16: People and Pointers
    • 
      
  • May
    • Week 17: Relatives
    • Week 17: Your and His/Her Relatives
    • Week 18: Descriptions
    • Week 19: What Time is it?
    • Week 19: Ojibwe Clock Project
    • Week 20: Seasons and Weather
    • 
      
  • June
    • Week 21: Buildings
    • Week 21: Town Map
    • Week 22: Ojibwe Animals
    • Week 22: Bears Article
    • Week 22: Quiz and Test
    • Week 23: Ojibwe Birds
    • Week 24: Ojibwe Fish
    • Week 24: River Life and Fishing
    • 
      
  • July
    • Week 25: Ojibwe Bugs
    • Week 26: Occupations and Pointers
    • Week 27: Body Parts
    • Week 28: Places
    • 
      
  • August
    • Week 29: When?
    • Week 30: Food
    • Week 30: Nodinens' Story
    • Week 31: Drinks
    • Week 32: Baking and Eating
    • 
      
  • September
    • Week 33: Fruits and Vegetables
    • Week 33: Blueberry Time
    • Week 34: Clothing
    • Week 35: Particles
    • Week 35: Quiz and Test
    • Week 36: Days and Months
    • Week 36: Days of the Month
    • 
      
  • October
    • Week 37: Colors

Niijii Radio

Listen to Niijii Radio.

The Goals of Niijii radio are: 1. To be a resource of local, regional, and world news; 2. To bring educational information to our listeners in the form of locally created programming, other community station programming, and through airing nationally syndicated programs; 3. To assure that arts, history, and culture thrive in and throughout our listening community; 4. To bring a balanced voice to our community to foster the elements of justice.

Week 50 - The Elders Speak: Joe Chosa (Respect and Language)

Skabewis put this great video on YouTube with Joe Chosa talking about respect and the language.



We must always listen to our elders. This is very important. Listen to the elders and respect them.

MPR on the Ojibwe

A few years ago, Minnesota Public Radio did a GREAT feature on the Ojibwe people called Rekindling the Spirit: The Rebirth of American Indian Spirituality and it is in parts.

Please read it.

Rekindling the Spirit: The Rebirth of American Indian Spirituality - "They call the traditional life "walking the Red Road. "They believe old ways are bringing new hope to Indian Country."

Part 1: The Spirits Spoke to Him - "Bob Shimek believes the tobacco smoke carries prayers to the Great Spirit. The sage purifies his body and soul. Shimek fans the burning embers with an eagle feather. He cups the smoke in his hands and pulls it toward his face and body. The ceremony is called smudging. He offers a prayer in Ojibwe, and translates."

Part 2: The Seventh Fire - "The Ojibwe believe each plant has its own soul. A culture that believes plants have souls would not purposely destroy them. Plants are sacred beings. Each has an important purpose in creation."

Part 3: Christianizing the Indians - "Years of repression caused many Indian people to lose touch with traditional ways. Worship was illegal for generations of Indians."

Part 4: One Church, Two Traditions - "Acceptance and tolerance are part of Indian culture. But there are rifts among Christians and traditional Native people on Red Lake."

Part 5: Where Tradition Thrives - "The spirits might gift someone with a medicine, they might gift someone with a song. They might gift someone with, you know, the right to give names, and give them a whole bunch of Indian names to give to different people."

Part 6: Ceremony and Symbolism - "Ceremonies are the most visible part of American Indian spirituality. But there's much more to walking the Red Road than the occasional ceremony. Anishinaabe people say their spiritual beliefs influence everything they do, every decision they make."

Part 7: The Healing Spirit - "I can teach you about herbs and I can teach you a lot of different things. But what I do in that room over there, I can't teach you," says Sandman. "It has to come from a different place. Call it the spirit realm, dreams, God, the Creator, it has to come from him. To sit here and say I fully understand it -- I don't."

Part 8: Returning to the Red Road - "Some spiritual leaders call the resurgence a silent revolution. Indian people are quietly turning to the ways of their ancestors. Tribal elder Frank Dickinson is a believer in the prophecy of the seven fires. It foretold a rebirth of the Anishinaabe people. Dickinson says young people are the hope for a better future."

The Jewelry on American Culture - "Many American Indians are reclaiming their native spirituality. They are following traditional beliefs and ceremonies. Some of those ceremonies were illegal for generations of Indians. They were done in secret and carefully protected. Today, many American Indians fear their faith is once again under assault -- this time from people who want to buy spirituality."

Preserving the Language - "For more than a century, the Ojibwe language has been under assault. Generations of American Indians were forced into government or church-run boarding schools, where their native language and culture were forbidden. Today, only a few can speak Ojibwe fluently. But there are growing efforts to revive the language. Some say preserving it is essential to keeping the culture alive. The language is also a vital link to the old spiritual ways."

"Language and Meaning' Online Interview with David Treuer

I would like you to listen to a show about Ojibwe Language on Minnesota Public Radio called 'Language and Meaning' with David Treuer (52 min).

"Language is a carrier of human identity. It is a vehicle by which we understand and express our very sense of self. Novelist and translator David Treuer is helping to compile the first practical grammar of the Ojibwe language. He describes an unfolding experience of how language forms what makes us human. Some memories and realities, he has found, can only be carried forward in time by Ojibwe." -- MPR

Ojibwe Audio

Hearing Ojibwemowin spoken is very important. I encourage you to check out Ojibwe audio from different sources daily.

There are some interesting projects on Youtube by some amazing individuals who dedicate some of their time to providing words each day.

These individuals should be applauded for their efforts.

Anishinaabemowin does a word almost every day.



ndninla is informative and hilarious. :)