The first time Angela Fernandez heard words in Menominee, they came from the mouth of her teacher, Rose Wayka, in her Menominee language class at Keshena Primary School.
“The first word I remember in my mind was māmenīqkwan, which was that little bit of mucus in your eyes when you wake up in the morning,” Fernandez recounted in an interview. “I don’t remember where I learned this word, but my brother and I thought it was funny.”
As Fernandez grew up, new words entered her life. Her two favorites to share with family and loved ones became ketāpānen and ketāpānenemuaw, meaning ‘I love you,’ in singular and in plural forms.
Now, as Fernandez works at the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing, she continues her love of words as she leads research, teaches, volunteers and works across the health sciences. Over several years, through several degrees, over many jobs, Angela’s language stayed with her at her side — part of her culture and part of herself.
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As of fall 2022, the Menominee Nation began a new effort that could help protect the connection young children have with their native language — the same one Angela Fernandez had been able to foster as a child.
This year, the Menominee Indian School District opened up a new immersive pre-K and kindergarten charter school called Kaehkēnawapatāēq, which means “We learn by observing.”
According to the Nation’s language and culture coordinator Waqnahwew Ben Grignon, the charter school aims to combat the increasingly concerning problem of language erasure — which plagues all Indigenous communities — by helping children in Wisconsin practice the Menominee language.
“We’re continuing their education process,” Grignon told WPR. “A lot of our kids have been immersed in the language since birth. So we’re trying to move along with their immersion experience and their language learning.”
The opening of this charter school provides an incredible opportunity for young children to learn and consistently speak Menominee, a critical step in protecting the survival of their nation’s language.
Menominee is one of hundreds of languages that European settlers tried to eradicate in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Through unjust land appropriation and forced assimilation through sexually, verbally and emotionally abusive boarding schools, Native languages across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico started to readily disappear.
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Colonizers wanted to eradicate any Indigenous culture left in their stolen territory and to this day, they almost succeeded.
In a report from 2018, the United Nations commented on the larger problem of Indigenous communities losing their languages more and more with time.
“Increasingly, languages are no longer transmitted by parents to their children,” the report wrote. “It is estimated that one Indigenous language dies every two weeks.”
Now, in the 21st century, immersion schools like Kaehkēnawapatāēq are necessary for the advancement of Indigenous communities. Not only are they powerful conduits for language absorption and education, but they serve as safe spaces where young Indigenous children can be surrounded by people from their culture.
Immersion programs in general significantly support the conservation of different cultures by giving designated places to celebrate and uphold minority languages in the United States.
From my own experience as a Chinese-American adoptee, taking immersive dance lessons in Mandarin allowed me to not only hear my native tongue but also be surrounded by my culture as a whole.
Having this culturally immersive experience in a white-dominated population can be crucial to the person of color’s lived experience — especially in Indigenous populations which have experienced cultural erasure throughout our country’s history.
According to Fernandez, learning a culture’s native language is vital to securing one’s identity, a necessary action for living out a healthy life.
“Having a strong identity connects us to family, friends, community members and the land,” Fernandez explained. “[This] is essential for both risk prevention, [such as] suicide, substance misuse, other health risks and health promotion, [such as] harvesting and eating traditional foods, social network surrounding cultural and spiritual practices.”
It is clear the new Menominee charter school opening this fall represents a much larger picture of progress in the fight to protect Indigenous culture.
From Fernandez’s point of view, none of that meaning is lost on the Menominee people, as well as other Tribal Nations. While success should be celebrated, work still needs to be done so the fight can continue.
“Wisconsinites and all Americans can play a crucial role in supporting our nations’ ability to protect our language by supporting local, state and national policies and voting for elected officials who support Indigenous peoples’ sovereign rights to land and lifeways,” Fernandez said.
Ultimately, sharing communication with others will always diversify perspectives and allow people to transcend history and inter-relational divisions.
Kaehkēnawapatāēq is an example of a step in the right direction for preserving Indigenous culture in our society, and it encourages the ideal that language will always be something beautiful and fundamental to the human experience — something that we should always fight to protect.
Katie Hardie ([email protected]) is a senior studying nursing.
