The September 2024 Language Update recounts the department’s attendance and presentation at the Potawatomi Language Conference and Gathering, highlights fall class offerings and more.
The July 2024 Language Update looks back on the progress of the Master Apprentice program and forward to the Potawatomi Language Conference at the end of July.
The June 2024 Language Update provides several words and phrases to try out at this year’s Family Reunion Festival, as well as information about Festival programming and the ongoing master apprentice program.
The May 2024 Language Update features several awards won by Potawatomi students at the recent Oklahoma Native Youth Language Fair, the beginning of a summer immersion course, translation efforts, and several spring words.
The April Language Update highlights improvements to the online dictionary, online learning opportunities, a new skit series, and a traditional story about why the rabbit has a short tail.
Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Plains Sign Talk and Hand Talk, has been used for centuries, and Peltier and Vieux family member Charles Scott hopes to bring it back to the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Author and artist Minisa Crumbo Halsey recently published Going to CPN Family Reunion, a book created for young readers. Crumbo Halsey collaborated with the CPN Language Department to publish the book.
The September update from the CPN Language Department highlights the first-of-its-kind master apprentice program that took place during the summer of 2023, as well as fall semester offerings in schools and online.
CPN was one of four Native Voices Endowment grant recipients in 2022, which the language department used to fund a summer master apprentice project in 2023. The grant helped pay for three students to study Bodéwadmimwen for eight hours, five days a week for eight weeks. One language department staff member also joined the group as well as a graduate student and two Tribal members eager to audit the class, making a total of seven students.
The August 2023 Language Department update from Director Justin Neely reflects on the first Master Apprentice program and the admirable work students of Bodéwadmimwen to learn and carry on the language.