Descended from Miami tribal members who resisted removal, Baldwin provides meaning and context to the language revitalization and preservation efforts.
“The loss of language has placed the Miami tribe face to face with the loss of their culture. Language loss is a social loss,” says Baldwin.
The history of the Miami tribe’s forced removal from ancestral homelands is essential in telling the story of the Myaamia Project, says Baldwin.
“Our tribe’s cultural and language efforts are in direct response to this oppressive history,” he says.
Tribal member Scott Shoemaker recalls sensing the hurt among elders who grew up around the language but were told they didn’t need to speak it.
“That hurt and shame gets passed along,” he says. Learning the language now is part of the healing process, according to Shoemaker. “The hole in our hearts is now filled by the language.”
Although the tribe secured some small grants after the passage of the Native American Languages Act of 1990, it lacked sufficient resources to develop teaching materials, Baldwin says. Tribal leaders decided to turn to their old friends at Miami University for help.
“This whole relationship between the university and tribe is remarkable; it is not a common sort of project. Having a state-supported university working with a sovereign Indian nation in which the nation gets to direct (the project) is unprecedented,” says Dr. Wesley Leonard, a member of the Miami Tribes’ Language Committee.
