Panel highlights Ojibwe dictionary, language reclamation and requests for deeper university support
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Summary
A panel of faculty, lecturers and students told the Mission Fulfillment Committee the University of Minnesota has strong American Indian Studies programs and language resources (including the Ojibwe People's Dictionary), requested sustained funding and institutional protections, and urged support for tribal governance and criminal‑justice capacity building.
A panel convened at the University of Minnesota Mission Fulfillment Committee meeting presented the current landscape and future trajectory of Native American and American Indian studies across the system, emphasizing language preservation, community partnerships and institutional support.
Provost Gretchen Ritter introduced the panel and said the university’s strength in these fields is "extraordinary." Panelists who introduced themselves by tribal affiliation and campus role described how academic programs, community partnerships and digital resources support language reclamation and student persistence.
Lisa Brunner (White Earth Ojibwe Nation) described community‑driven public‑policy work addressing violence against Native women and asked the university to expand support—particularly through the Duluth campus’s native governance center—to help tribal nations build criminal‑justice infrastructure to exercise newly available jurisdictional authorities. Brunner tied the university’s curricular and credentialing support to real‑world outcomes for tribal communities.
Dustin Morrow, who works on the Ojibwe People's Dictionary, described it as an internationally used pedagogical tool: "With the dictionary being housed in a Big Ten institution, it sends a message to tribal communities... they kinda value us," he said. Elizabeth Sumida Waman, chair of American Indian Studies, said the dictionary averages about 50,000 unique monthly visitors and noted recent grant support, including a $535,000 National Science Foundation award to advance the work.
Panelists asked the university to protect language programs beyond symbolic commitments. They noted constrained faculty FTEs in American Indian Studies (the department reported growth in majors and minors but also said it had to cut 1.5 FTE due to minimum enrollment rules), and they urged the university to consider alternative staffing and funding models because small class sizes (from beginner to mastery language levels) do not consistently meet standard enrollment thresholds.
Panelists also discussed pedagogy and technology: while online resources help diaspora learners, faculty emphasized the irreplaceable value of in‑person instruction and cultural transmission. They cautioned that current AI tools do not yet handle Ojibwe well and that technology should augment, not replace, community‑based language work.
What happens next: Panelists requested follow‑up from the university—particularly from the action team under the strategic plan—on protecting programs, funding language work, and strengthening intercampus pathways for tribal students and language learners.
