A $920,000 grant from the (MIIN) is helping ÐßÐßÂþ» address a growing need for licensed Ojibwe language teachers in Minnesota.
Under the leadership of , professor of Ojibwe, Bemidji State is developing the curriculum and establishing a framework for the new bachelor’s degree program, which aims to begin enrolling students in the fall of 2026. The MIIN grant will support BSU’s program through the 2028–29 academic year.
Gimiwan Dustin Burnette, the network’s executive director, said the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network is “excited to be in partnership” with BSU.
“This partnership and programming have the opportunity to make a sustainable change in American Indian teacher representation and American Indian language instruction in Minnesota public schools,” he said.
Building upon BSU’s existing certificate in Ojibwe language instruction and its minor in Ojibwe language, the new bachelor’s degree will also offer a pathway to a Minnesota teaching license in Ojibwe language instruction.
While curriculum is still in development, Treuer says initial plans include sequenced language courses to build language fluency, as well as courses delivered in Ojibwe that emphasize instructional techniques and other nuanced pedagogical practices.
“This has been a dream that I’ve had for a long time,” Treuer said. “We have wanted to have a full-fledged Ojibwe major and train a new generation of teachers.”
Above: Dr. Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe, ÐßÐßÂþ». Photo by Nedahness Greene.
Ojibwe has recently been in the spotlight through high-profile projects such as a theatrical release for an Ojibwe dub of “Star Wars: A New Hope” in 2024 and an Ojibwe-language broadcast of an NHL hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche in November 2025. Treuer says BSU’s work to train teachers is filling another gap in the broader effort to revitalize the language.
“If you look broadly at the Ojibwe language revitalization universe, there are about 600,000 Ojibwe people on the planet spread across 141 First Nations in Canada and the U.S.,” Treuer said. “But no one is effectively training certified Ojibwe language educators. We are well-positioned, for a variety of reasons, to be one of the major contributors in that area.”
Among those reasons, Treuer said, are Bemidji’s geography — in the midst of Minnesota’s three largest American Indian nations and with 25% of Bemidji’s population being Native — and the university’s long history of strong professional education programs and Ojibwe language instruction.
“We should be well-positioned to recruit students,” he said, “And with our existing professional education programs, we can deliver.”
Minnesota began offering full teacher licensure in Ojibwe language — along with Dakota language and American Indian language — in January of 2024. But without teacher preparation programs, Treuer said, the state’s pathway for teachers is through a direct resolution or letter of support from a tribal nation.
“It’s enabled us to get elders in front of kids in some immersion schools,” Treuer said. “But with a full degree program, we can make sure our Ojibwe language teachers understand pedagogy, lesson planning, scope and sequence of objectives and outcome assessments — the kinds of things that trained teachers understand.”
In 2023, Minnesota passed legislation to offer American Indian culture and language classes if at least five percent of their students are American Indian, or if the school enrolls at least 100 American Indian students.
As a result, jobs for licensed Ojibwe language teachers are already appearing.
“There’s a huge workplace demand for people with these kinds of credentials,” Treuer said. “There is no doubt that everybody we can get into this program will be eminently employable.”
History of Ojibwe Language Instruction at BSU
ÐßÐßÂþ» is home to the nation’s oldest Ojibwe language program, founded along with an Indian studies degree in 1969. BSU began publishing the Oshkaabewis Native Journal, the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language, 10 years later, in 1979.
About Dr. Anton Treuer
Dr. Anton Treuer (pronounced TROY-er), professor of Ojibwe at ÐßÐßÂþ», is an internationally renowned expert in Indigenous language revitalization. He has written a library of books, including “Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask,” “The Language Warrior’s Manifesto,” “The Assassination of Hole in the Day,” “Warrior Nation: A History of the Red Lake Ojibwe” and “The Indian Wars: Battles, Bloodshed and the Fight for Freedom on the American Frontier.” His debut novel, “Where Wolves Don’t Die,” won the Minnesota Book Award for Young Adult Literature in 2025.
His equity, education and cultural work have put him on a path of service, earning him more than 40 awards and fellowships. He regularly speaks to audiences across the nation and around the world on issues related to Indigenous culture, language preservation and history; inclusive education practices; and the power of community.
About the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network
The Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network is an American Indian-led, Minnesota-based nonprofit supporting Ojibwe language revitalization programs through communication and collaboration. The network organizes and facilitates professional development opportunities, creates and distributes learning material, collects educational data and provides resources to recruit and retain staff and students. The network was founded in 2020 and currently supports nearly a dozen Ojibwe language programs across the Midwest and Canada.
In addition to ÐßÐßÂþ», the network partners with Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University in Chief Lake, Wisconsin, for Ojibwe language training with teacher licensure.
The network is supporting BSU’s Ojibwe teacher training program as part of an $8.23 million project funded by the Bush Foundation’s Community Innovation Program in 2024. That project supports Ojibwe language revitalization beyond local immersion programs by increasing opportunities for students to learn Ojibwe in public schools, building a pool of qualified teachers and addressing existing gaps in Indigenous language instruction. The project promotes Ojibwe cultural sovereignty through organized, sustained language revitalization efforts.