Preserving Ojibwe hymns

Preserving Ojibwe hymns means more than religious devotion

By Dan GundersonMusic is a time honored part of worship in most religions. For many Ojibwe people in northern Minnesota, hymns are much more than an expression of religious devotion. They represent a unique piece of Ojibwe culture tribal that members are trying to preserve.

White Earth Tribal Chair Erma Vizenor, one of the singers at the service, said it's critical to keep the Ojibwe language alive.

"This is one way we can keep it," she said. "We can use it, we can share it, we can build community with it."

Vizenor grew up with Ojibwe hymn singing and traditional spiritual practices. She remembers neighbors gathering in her grandparents' tiny two-room home to sing, and her grandparents explaining traditional ceremonies.

Although Christian clergy tried to end traditional Indian spiritual practices, Vizenor said, the native-language hymns the church brought the reservation have become part of the complex Ojibwe culture.Below:  "Parishioners gather for a service at St. Columba Episcopal Church in White Earth, Minn. on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013." (MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson)

Lakota Song and Dance Project

Revitalizing the Lakota language through danceWith the Lakota-speaking population rapidly aging and decreasing, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota is trying to encourage young children to take an interest in a language that is, in many ways, secondary to English.

The tribe's Child Care Service's Song and Dance Project aims to teach families how to make colorful, detailed dancing regalia and teaches the intricate dances to the children so they can perform in the annual wacipi, or powwow.

The hope is that the song and dance will help re-energize both parents' and children's excitement about their culture. It also encourages parents to take an active role in their kids' lives.

"It's putting identity and pride back into the people," said Gale Spotted Tail, director of the Child Care Services.

Yup'ik language rock

Bethel's Frozen Whitefish to release full-length rock album next year

By Kyle HopkinsFrozen Whitefish is a Bethel based Alaskan Native Yupik Rock band formed in 2010 and all lyrics are written in the Yupik Eskimo language. Frontman Mike McIntyre was raised in the small village of Eek and spoke Yupik as his first language before moving to Bethel as a young child.

Frozen Whitefish was first a project started by Mike after he returned from a trip to Greenland where he played drums for the Kuskokwim Fiddle Band in the Inuit Circumpolar Conference in 2010. He was inspired by the influence of their Native language in their own music and wanted to do the same here in Alaska. Soon after he started recording his music in his home studio, he got a request from a Native radio station in Washington to send his songs over to a TV producer with the Discovery Channel, which was gathering Native music for the "Flying Wild Alaska" TV show.

We Are Family in Cherokee

Sisters Cree and Cheyenne Drowningbear (Cherokee), of Tahlequah, Oklahoma performed “We Are Family” in Cherokee at the Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair held recently at the Sam Noble Museum.

Jiwonihesdi

Student performs Cherokee song at NSU symposium

By Tesina JacksonThroughout the Northeastern State University Annual Symposium on the American Indian, new ideas are presented and discussed by guests, instructors and students. This year was the first year a student presented a song she had written in Cherokee.

“The song is called ‘Jiwonihesdi’ and it’s about me learning my language,” Danielle Culp, NSU junior and former Miss Cherokee, said. “My mom is a speaker, it was her first language and when she married my dad, I didn’t have the opportunity to hear Cherokee in my home. And so I came to college and it was really important to me and so I wrote this song as showing the legacy that she’s passing on to me with the Cherokee language.”

Preserving Inuktitut with pop music

Popular music a way to preserve InuktitutA conference on northern languages in Iqaluit has ended with some participants urging territorial governments to use popular music as a way of promoting and preserving Inuktitut.

The Nunavut Language Summit examined ways in which music—and not the traditional throat singing or other ancient forms of entertainment—can help younger Inuit connect with their culture.

"Definitely, I think Inuktitut can be preserved through poetry, through songwriting, through every kind of writing there is," Juno award-winning performer Susan Aglukark, who sings in both English and Inuktitut, told CBC News.Nearby Greenland proves this approach can work:Canadian delegates have cast an eye towards their neighbours in Greenland where young Inuk dance in clubs to lyrics in Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic language.

There are two major music labels on the island which boast music in the Greenlandic language from many genres: rock, hip hop and soul.

Local performers such as Chilly Friday and Nanook are treated like celebrities.