Rainy River Community College is the recipient of a Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Dakota and Ojibwe Language Revitalization Grant. The $46,000 grant will allow the RRCC Ojibwe Immersion Program to support and help meet the needs of the American Indian youth, students, parents, and community to build a stronger community and to preserve the Ojibwe Language.

The objectives of the grant are to help prevent the loss of the Ojibwe language, increase and enhance the understanding of the American Indian language, and ensure positive reinforcement of the self-image and sense of identity with the empowerment of Native American children.

Specifically the grant will: fund educational opportunities to enhance student’s Ojibwe language skills through immersion classrooms, camps, fluent speakers, and Elders in the classroom and at Language Tables; bring Elders to the campus to explain the regional changes in the dialect of the Ojibwe language and talk about the history and culture that are not taught or thought about in today’s modern world; expose youth to maple sugar and wild-rice camps, and to participate in the Seven Generations Cultural Immersion day camp.