Bayfield School District, Red Cliff move forward with language immersion program

Marvin Defoe believes diversity helps students excel.

One way of doing that is embracing the culture that the school district is in.

Since many students attending the Bayfield School District are from the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation, he believes it’s important for the school district to teach Ojibwemowin.

The tribe’s historical preservation officer and several others voiced their support for an Ojibwemowin immersion language program during the school district’s board meeting. The district and the tribe want to implement the program later this fall in the kindergarten classroom and at the Red Cliff Early Childhood Center.

“This is our community school. I believe it’s our obligation to look at diversifying the community and have common interests so that students can excel. One interest is our language,” he said. “We’re ready to do it. If there’s a will, there’s a way.”

While he wanted to get it started right away, others wanted to take more time doing so.

Business Education and Spanish Teacher Cathy Smith said she supports language immersion programs and has taken part in immersion summer camps for about three decades now. While Smith said she is excited that the district is doing this, she said the district would do a better job by waiting a year to further develop the program.

“Can we do it? Yes, but it would be at the expense of other things. We want to do it well and want to do it right,” she said.

But if the district waits to do this, Joe Montano, Sr., worries it would never happen.

“If we think about starting it in 2025, that will be pushed back and pushed back because it will never be the right time,” he said.

The board voted unanimously voted to move forward with the program.

This has been something the community has been asking for repeatedly, said Nicole Boyd, Redcliff chairwoman and Bayfield School District Board president.

“Launching this immersion program is a milestone in history and the next step is truly revitalizing our language, healing some of the trauma and growing a healthy and thriving community,” she said.

The school district will provide an option for parents of kindergarteners to enroll. All communication in the program between students and teachers will be in Ojibwemowin, according to a news release from Red Cliff. Over at the ECC, officials plan to launch the Ojibwemowin program in the fall within the Waabooz Early Head Start Center classroom for up to eight infants ages 0-1. The ECC already embeds Ojibwemowin into its daily curriculum and family events, according to the release.

Deciding to start the program at the kindergarten level is based on research and strong community support, said Bayfield School District Administrator Beth Manidoo Makwa Paap.

“Research shows our youngest students are the best candidates for learning languages,” she said. “Children have the ability to cognitively absorb information in multiple languages that helps them develop into curious and skilled learners.”

The program is part of Red Cliff’s efforts to steadily implement language and culture into the community, according to the release. In April 2020, the tribal council passed a resolution declaring Ojibwemowin the reservation’s official language, followed by the approval one month later of the tribe’s five-year language and culture comprehensive plan. In 2021, Red Cliff received a $900,000 grant from the Administration for Native Americans to create the 3-year Ojibwemowin Teaching and Training Program in partnership with the Bayfield School District, Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network and the Bad River Band. The goal of the program is to develop fluent language teachers and the tribe is now on its second cohort of six full-time language trainees funded by the Department of Education’s STEP and BIA Language grants totaling $3.4 million.

“Immersion classrooms are proven to support academic and linguistic development, but they also foster students’ appreciation of Indigenous culture and values,” said Edye Binesiikwe Washington, Red Cliff education division administrator and founder of the Ojibwe Immersion Program in Duluth Public Schools.

Programs like this will also ensure the Ojibwe culture is preserved for years to come, Boyd said.

“Reviving our language is key to the survival of our culture,” she said. “It feels good to see our years of hard work and planning come to fruition.”