Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

Mandan language: Word posts #13, 14 and 15

JT Shining Oneside shared stories about her Ojibwe and Anishinaabe inheritance during the Native American Heritage Month Celebration on Nov. 15. She spoke about the coming-of-age and traditional birth ceremonies. (Photo credit/ Adrianna Adame)
Edwin Benson and Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Marcus Levings
Edwin Benson and Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Marcus Levings

Mandan, or Nu’eta, is one of the endangered languages of the world. Edwin Benson has been working with Twin Buttes community members on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota to revitalize the language.  I’m honored to share the information they’ve shared with me.

Words of the day:   ~doo (here)                                nemak (this)                          nat (that)
Thanks for being a part of the Twin Buttes community language revitalization project. And thanks to Cory Spotted Bear and Lanny Real Bird for all their work to revitalize the Mandan language. In this video, Benson is pictured with Tribal Chairman Marcus Levings of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.

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.

2 Comments

  • SergeyNikolaev

    Your blog was of course amazing again even though it was terrifying for me to read what happened to you.You turned what could have been a very bad thing into something funny and positive. Do take care. Also your live radio news broadcast was also amazing.I love you xoxox

  • babafisa

    Really Good Work…. You Helping People A lot

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