Convocation: Leslie Harper (Audio)

Leslie Harper is keeping the Ojibwe culture alive and well in northern Minnesota. On the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, it has been decades since anyone has heard Ojibwe children routinely speaking their native tongue. Harper is one of the founders of an elementary school program there designed to revive the language. Its young students hear only Ojibwe in the classroom – all day, every day. Proponents say total immersion in the language is the best way to ensure its survival. That's what's happening every day at the tribally-run Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School east of Cass Lake. Ojibwe language is not the subject in this classroom. It's the vehicle for teaching everything – reading, writing and arithmetic. The four-year-old language immersion program is called Niigaane, which in Ojibwe means "the ones who lead." Harper, who is Ojibwe, learned her native language in a university setting and through self-directed instruction. Her passion for ensuring others learned the native language came partly from the realization that she had no one to talk to outside of a few senior citizens. But, primarily, Harper believes firmly that important cultural knowledge is embedded in the language, and that knowing it helps give children a stronger sense of their own identity. Harper speaks about the importance of indigenous languages and language revitalization in contemporary times, including aspects of inclusion, re-creation of space for indigenous languages, and some new policy initiatives being undertaken in Minnesota to support indigenous language revitalization. This Native American Heritage Convocation is sponsored by the Office of Intercultural and International Life.