How it Began: The Story of Bi-Lingual Signage in Bemidji (June 2009)

Bemidji State University produced posters with common Ojibwe words and phrases suitable for the North Woods

I have been wanting to tell a story about a project I've been working on. What follows is a press release I wrote when it first started and how it came to pass. 

Today, what started out as a goal of 20 business sites that would post bilingual (Ojibwe/English) signage, has grown to over 120 sites. This includes much permanent signage with Bemidji State University, Bemidji State Park, North Country Health Services, the City of Bemidji and many others lending credibility to the effort. 

Noemi Aylesworth is interviewed by a Duluth TV station, the story wound up on the NBC Morning News

The project has caught the eye of not only the local press, but state and national press as well. Duluth television did a story that wound up on the NBC Morning News, the Associated Press picked up the story at one point, as did the Minnesota News Network a feed for state-wide radio. 

Most recently, the national magazine Indian Country Today featured the effort as it's cover story in the April 6th 2011 issue. I'll post that story within the next month. 

The Headwaters Science Center is "Closed" as seen through a dinosaur rib.

I am excited at the prospect of the exposure that Indian Country Today Media Network will lend to the credibility of the project. I believe it will help it to succeed. In fact I dare dream that the story may help to promote this type of thing across country. 

The more people across the country who see this article on-line and in the magazine, the greater the chance that other communities may be willing to try a similar thing. I can’t help but dreaming big, to see Indian culture play a greater role in American culture.  (I have received a few inquires from places in the US and Canada)  Why not Hopi/English in Arizona?  Or Choctaw/English in Mississippi? Dakota in Dakota?

The Boys and Girls Club of Bemidji took advantage of my offer to buy the first twenty restroom signs. Here, myself, Boys & Girls Club Directory Lenore Potter, and signage committee co-chair Rachelle Houle pose in front of the new Girls restroom sign.

This Spring and Summer, we (my co-committee member partner Rachelle Houle and I) will work to really make the idea stick. We will encourage more permanent signage, and take photos of that signage. We will seek partners to help us solicit organizations conspicuous in their absence such as Beltrami County, the Airport, Visitors Bureau, and the Chamber of Commerce. We want to see Bemidji's Ojibwe Language Project promoted outside the First City on the Mississippi to the same degree as Paul and Babe.

Here's the back story: 

Cabin Coffeehouse adds Ojibwe/English Signage 

The Cabin Coffeehouse and Café has recently added the Ojibwe greetings “aaniin” and “boozhoo” in addition to the English “welcome” on the front door of it’s business in downtown Bemidji.

According to owner Noemi Aylesworth, the idea came when a member of the group Shared Vision, Michael Meuers, visited with her daughter April several weeks ago. Meuers wanted to know what the owners thought about adding the words for “Men” and “Women” in Ojibwe to their rest room doors, or a welcome or thank you on the front door. “I pondered that idea for awhile,” said Aylesworth, “and then I was watching ‘We Shall Remain’, (a five-part program about American Indian history on PBS) and it was like a wake-up call” she said. “Why aren’t there more Ojibwe words in the community? They were here first!” It was then that Ayleswoth had a friend paint the greetings Aaniin, Boozhoo, and Welcome on the front door.

How to count to ten in Ojibwe. Table tent at the Cabin

Meuers gave Aylesworth a sheet on which several Ojibwe words were printed in case she wanted to add more signage. Aylesworth immediately had the idea to put those word sheets in “table tents” as a fun way to educate her customers a bit more about the area’s first residents. She also intends to add the Ojibwe words for Men and Women (Ininiwag and Ikwewag respectively) on restroom doors.

Permanent Signage at Bemidji State University

According to Meuers, other Bemidji businesses who have committed to adding Ojibwe/English signage thus far include; Ken and Kari Howe of Dunn Bros. Coffee, Sandy Jo Pilgrim of SJ & Co. Hair Salon, and the Boys and Girls Club of Bemidji. “I hope to encourage the Chamber of Commerce, it’s members, and others to embrace this idea as well, a recognition if you, will that we live in Indian Country”, said Meuers.

  

The Shared Vision Initiative
Shared Vision was created with the support of Bemidji Area Race Relations Council, the Leech Lake, Red Lake and White Earth Nations, Bemidji Leads, City of Bemidji, Beltrami County, ISD #31, BSU, Blandin, Chamber of Commerce, Northwest Minnesota Foundation, the Nielson Foundation, and others. It is staffed by Cliff Tweedale of the Headwaters Regional Development Commission (HRDC).

These supporters began by forming a partnership, developed a survey, created a Mission, Vision, and branding logo for this effort, contracted with Wilder Research to conduct a study, and completed the Bemidji Area Study on Race Relations.

Jan and Mary at the Beaver Bookstore

Mission 
Be a catalyst that encourages the Bemidji community to work together to expand social, economic, educational and leadership opportunity for people of all races.

Restroom signs at the Cabin Coffeehouse

Vision 
The Bemidji community will be a model for race relations in our state. We will embrace cultural understanding and respect between the Indian and non-Indian community, and promote strong participation of Indian people in every aspect of Bemidji community life. Bemidji will be known as a community that works together to expand opportunities for people of all races.

In order to achieve the “vision”, the group broke into four area/groups to work under the banner of Community Success through Working Together. The four areas identified are: Economic Opportunities; Civic Participation and Leadership; Educational Attainment and Skill Development; and Cultural Understanding and Respect.

One of the ideas to come out of the signage committee (Meuers & Houle along with Aylesworth & Treuer) and passed to others, was a forum entitled "Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask". Shown is Dr. Anton Treuer, Professor of Ojibwe at BSU and Dr. Don Day, Director of the American Indian Resource Center.

The “Cultural Understanding and Respect” group’s hope is that within several years, cultural literacy about Native American culture will have increased in the Bemidji community for all races and discrimination will have decreased in all aspects of community life.

One of the several initiatives identified by the Cultural Understanding and Respect group to achieve the “Vision” was defined: “Within a year twenty institutions in Bemidji will have Ojibwe and English signs at their business”. Meuers is spearheading this initiative and has offered to pay for the first twenty signs up to a certain dollar amount.

Dunn Bros. Coffee was the second business to commit to bilingual signage.  Below welcome on the far door is the Ojibwe word for "Come In".

The Idea/Concept 
Meuers, a member of the Cultural Understanding group and a public relations person for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, came up with the idea of Ojibwe/English signage in the community. “Some of the ideas the group was coming up with seemed rather daunting to me”, said Meuers. “I was trying to think of something simple, but meaningful, and able to be put into action quickly to show that Shared Vision, just might be different”.

“It is my experience that Indian people are a bit skeptical when it comes to ideas of working together for a better community” said Meuers, “and lets face it, Indians have a history of experiencing good intentions not quite lived up to.”

Greg Gasman of Harmony Natural Foods Coop has posted food in the store in both Ojibwe and English.

“Although Tribal Governments will support efforts such as Shared Vision”, he said, “it is my view that many tribal members feel they’ve heard it before and have a wait and see attitude. Not all, but some of our American Indian neighbors have gotten to a point where they just shrug these kind of things off, thinking it is more of the same”.

Parking Lot Markers at Bemidji's Sanford Center are marked with animals in Ojibwe/English

Keeping all this in mind, Meuers said that his mind wandered back to that terrible day, March 21, 2005, the day of the Red Lake tragedy. “I was visiting with former Bemidji City Manager David Minke and discussing the horrible events at Red Lake”, he said. As they were talking, Meuers noticed a Red Lake flag that Minke had been given as a gift. “I suggested that the city fly the Red Lake banner to express our deep sympathy for our brothers and sisters at Red Lake”, said Meuers. Minke loved the idea, and had the flag flown at half mast for a week.

“I heard more positive comments from Red Lake members about that simple symbolic gesture of respect than any other single act before or since. It was a symbol of camaraderie, that we shared their tears for their babies. Symbolism is profound in it's simplicity”, he said.

In addition, Meuers said he was told by his brother, who had recently visited Ireland, that many signs are now printed in Gaelic as well as English, an initiative to revitalize the native tongue after years of English domination. He thought “why not celebrate the diversity that is Bemidji with Ojibwe/English signage”.

“I felt that this idea could have a three-fold effect”, Meuers said.  “It could be interpreted as a huge symbol of friendship and respect to Indian people, it might help the non-Indian learn something about the area’s first residents, and tourists would just eat it up. Hopefully the idea then would snow-ball,” he said.

Polly Scotland gave her husband, a Dentist, this sign for his birthday.

"Our hope is that Bemidji will become well known for its dual-language signs. We want "boozhoo" to be synonymous with Bemidji in the same way "aloha" is with Hawaii", Meuers concluded.

Although it would be a more expensive project, Meuers also suggested that in addition to flying the U.S and Canadian flags, that the County, Sanford Center, and the Bemidji Chamber Tourist Information Center, fly the flags of it’s three Indian Nation neighbors.