:: Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

That means "Hello" in Anishinaabe (also called Ojibwe), the native language of the Ojibwe Tribes. You might be more familiar with hearing "Chippewa" which is an anglicized version of Ojibwe. Over 50,000 people in the Northern United States and Southern Cananda speak Ojibwe, which is an Algonquian language. Although there are several dialects of Ojibwe, the main ones are: Western, Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Ottowa. Speakers of all five dialects can understand each other, though there are clear distinctions between them.

Ojibwe in Red Cliff
Currently, Red Cliff has only one remaining tribal member who is a native speaker of Ojibwe. We are currently holding language classes to teach both our children and adults the language so it does not die out within our community. Other language preservation programs are in the process of being developed.

Books/Resources
If you are interested in learning more about the Ojibwe language, the following are good sources of information:

A Dictionary of the Ojibway Language, Friedrich Baraga, Frederic Baraga, John D. Nichols, Freidrich Baraga
A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe, by Earl Nyholm, John D. Nichols

Ojibwemowin Zagaswe'idiwin - Ojibwe Language Society

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