Thursday evenings, David “Memegwesi” Sutherland teaches beginner Objibwe at the center. From a linguistic standpoint, the endangered language’s complex conjugation system makes fluency difficult to attain without years of practice, he said. But learning even basic vocabulary helps peel back the history of language loss, religious persecution, boarding schools and land confiscation.
At some point, a certain spark ignites in the student, Sutherland said, and it starts to make sense.
On Tuesday afternoons, the world-class hoop dancer Lumhe “Micco” Sampson leads fitness in the gym. Wednesday evenings, he teaches drum and dance.
Watching the grandparents watch their grandchildren pick up these practices makes his heart melt, said Sampson.
“They say for us … you dance for those that are there, those that aren’t there, those that are healthy, those that are unhealthy, those that need healing,” Sampson said. “We’re getting kids to learn to dance, but then also providing them with these items that help give them that power [the ribbon shirts and regalia], that confidence to carry this on throughout their lives, because it’s a way of balancing their mental health.”
Throughout the month of February, the milled trunk of a giant cottonwood tree lay on a bed of wood shavings in the lobby of the American Indian Center.
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