Picking Up the Threads of Our Knowledge: The Revitalization of Myaamia Language and Culture

George Ironstrack, Assistant Director, Myaamia Center at Miami University

Myaamiaataweenki, or “the Miami language,” was once spoken throughout Myaamionki (“Miami homelands”), including what is now Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. After 100 years of forced removals, population fragmentation, land loss and boarding schools, the language entered a state of dormancy. In the 1990s, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma initiated a national effort to revitalize Myaamiaataweenki and created programs to help breathe new life into the language. The story of the reclamation and revitalization of Myaamiaataweenki demonstrates the restorative healing effects that language and cultural revitalization continue to have on Myaamia people.

For Faculty:

Thursday, Feb. 25 ,11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.  Webex classroom discussion