St. Paul grad works to revitalize indigenous languages through children's books

Learning numbers and colors and animals is a time-honored ritual, with children sitting on a parent's lap to recite two, or yellow, or frog.

Now, though, some can recite niizh, or ozaawiziwag, or omakakiig.

Skyler Kuczaboski, a young woman from St. Paul who is now a freshman at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., has created a children's book in the Ojibwe language. It came about through a course called Language Revitalization, offered by Dartmouth's Linguistics and Native American Studies programs.

Her instructor, linguist Hilaria Cruz, had developed a children's book in her own native language of Chatino, spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico.

"I was talking to her about how great this was and how I wish we could do this for Ojibwe, which is a passion of mine," said Kuczaboski, who is Ojibwe. "She told me I could translate her book into Ojibwe for my final grade.

"It was the first time I could have the support — that I could do what I want to do."

Kuczaboski doesn't consider herself fluent in Ojibwe, but she does have a basic knowledge of the language. "I knew these words because I went to the American Indian Magnet School at Harding [High School in St. Paul]," she said. "Conjugating them was a little challenging. And I had to find a word for 'pink.' "

Former teachers helped her with language and proofreading. She used a software illustrator program for the images, but now an actual illustrator is providing original drawings. The final touch: Cruz's mother sewed together the cloth pages, just as she did for the books in Chatino.

For Cruz, the books represent a longtime goal. As a child in the Oaxaca region, she'd grown up speaking Chatino, a tonal language with no written equivalent. But when she attended a distant school, everyone spoke Spanish.

"I couldn't understand a word," she said. "For me, it was completely shocking."

She also learned that languages could be written. Eventually, through a linguistics program at the University of Texas, Cruz and her sister developed a written system for their indigenous language. But efforts to do a book were stymied until Cruz arrived at Dartmouth, which backed her project.

"My dream was to have a book to read to my daughter," Cruz said. "This touches a core in me, and really elevates the language."

They're working with a publisher to make the books available, but expect that it will take some time.

For now, Kuczaboski's book may be most accessible through a YouTube video of her reading the book. (Visit YouTube.com and type Agindaasodaa! in the search field.)

Kuczaboski hasn't declared a major, but is studying sociology, Native American studies and linguistics.

"I have tons of ideas in mind," she said.

Kim Ode • 612-673-7185