Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

Learn Mandan: Nu’eta vocabulary word-audio post #1

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Dear Language Advocate:

Thanks for joining the Nu’eta (Mandan) language revitalization project. I’m working with my relatives back on the Fort Berthold Reservation to revitalize the Mandan, or Nu’eta language. As part of that process, I’ve agreed to make several posts a day featuring a word in the Nu’eta language. I also have audio clips, which I will plan to attach soon.

Here is the first Nu’eta word of the day: (good) shi’sh

I am working on a longer post explaining this project.

Here is a story I wrote for the Bismarck Tribune on Edwin Benson, the last man alive who learned Nu’eta as a first language.

This is not a sad as some non-Natives might think,. This is a time to take action. We have hope. It’s a new beginning. .

Jodi Rave

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.