Two New Books in Menominee Language

Thanks to the NFLS News newsletter January 2024 for the heads up on these two new books published for children in the Menominee language. What a great resource for our WI libraries!

Have you Heard About the Frybread Man?

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin received a $149,889 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to create and self-publish a series of books to encourage fluency in and preserve the Menominee language. Library staff worked with a trained immersion teacher to create several children’s books with phonetic pronunciation and English translation for juvenile readers. The goal of these books is to create a series of books for young readers and their families to learn Menominee vocabulary words together.

The first two books (shown below) are available on Amazon and will be provided to families with infants attending the immersion rooms at the Menominee Tribal daycare, elementary children attending reservation schools, and those visiting the library.

Count with Me in Menominee: Read with Me in Menominee Series
by S. Verna Fowler Academic Library (Author), Janice Rabideaux (Illustrator) 

Learn to count in Menominee with hand drawn images of local animals and their babies. A great book for counting, language learning, and early literacy.

This book was developed as part of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The goal of these books is to create a series of books for pre/early readers and their families to enjoy together. Each book features Menominee vocabulary words to help the readers learn together. Waewaenen/thank you.

The Frybread Man
by Carlotta Perez (Author), Mona Lyons (Author)

If you love the Gingerbread Man you are going to love the Frybread Man. In this book the Frybread Man takes off on the old woman and her husband and runs from animals he meets in the forest in this woodland version of the classic Gingerbread Man.This book is designed to teach young readers and their families Menominee language words and how to say them with a pronuncian key at the beginning of the book and phonetics by each word.

The College of Menominee Nation Library also posted a Zoom video featuring a reading of The Frybread Man by Cedar Fernandez and songs sung by Wade Fernandez on its Facebook page on October 1, 2020.

The Menominee Public Library is located on the College of Menominee Nation campus in Keshena, Wisconsin, now called the S. Verna Fowler Academic Library/Menominee Public Library. In late 2012, the Menominee Tribal/County Public Library created a joint library with CMN’s academic library to serve the Menominee community. The Library plans to publish more books in the Menominee language in the near future to continue to teach and preserve the language.

Wisconsin First Nations Booklists

There are a number of booklists for children and teens that are available for free on the Wisconsin First Nations American Indian Studies in WI website. These recently updated booklists are divided into books for Grades K-2; 3-5; 6-8 and 9-12. These booklists are authored and made available collaboratively between DPI, PBS Wisconsin, UW-Madison School on Information with the CCBC and Teachingbooks.

You can find them here.

"Discover books for teaching and learning about the American Indian Nations of Wisconsin. Consult the Tribal Lands Map to explore whose tribal lands and which nations are located closest to your school. Contact your school or local public library to check out any of the books. For more information, book titles are linked to either the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education examination, study, and research library; or TeachingBooks, a resource provided to Wisconsin educators through Badgerlink, Wisconsin’s online library."

There are additional great resources on this website including informational books for educators, teaching about WI First Nations, tribal maps, tribal histories, print and media on First Nation customs and biographies and much more.

Thanks to PBS Wisconsin for alerting us to these resources.

Late-breaking News: Ojibwe Storytelling Series

As seen in the January 4,2024  Keeping Up with Kids blog:

Free and virtual Ojibwe storytelling series

In Ojibwe culture, winter is storytelling season!  In celebration, the Wisconsin Historical Society is again bringing four traditional Ojibwe storytellers virtually via Zoom, to people around Wisconsin. This series is free and open to the public, but registration is required. The sessions will be held Tuesday evenings, January 9-30, 2024 from 7:00 – 8:00 pm. 

Our storytellers include:

• Sirella Ford from Lac Courte Oreilles on January 9
• Tina Van Zile from Sokaogon (Mole Lake) on January 16
• Tinker Schuman from Lac du Flambeau on January 23
• Liz Arbuckle from Bad River on January 30. 

You can learn more about the storytellers and register via our webpage at: https://wihist.org/OjibweStorytelling  This is our third year of hosting an Ojibwe Storytelling Series. All of the previous storytelling events have been recorded and can be accessed via the Storytelling webpage. These are also free and available to the public.  (from Reb, Here’s a flyer pdf to download.)

Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope you can join us this month.

Miigwech,
Liz Arbuckle
Northern Outreach Coordinator, Wisconsin Historical Society
Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, 29270 County Highway G, Ashland, Wisconsin 54806
(715) 685-2667    liz.arbuckle@wisconsinhistory.org

American Indian 2023 Youth Titles

Scholar and blogger Debbie Reese has released her year-end review of recommended titles on her blog American Indians in Children's Literature.

Dr. Reese writes: "American Indians in Children's Literature is pleased to share our annual year-end list of books we want you to know about. We'd like multiple copies of them to be in every classroom, school, and public library. 

Our emphasis is books by Native writers and illustrators whose Nations are on the continent we know as North America. Most are ones that came out in 2023. In some way, they've touched our hearts as parents of Native children or as former school teachers who want children to have accurate and honest books about Native peoples."

Click here to access the blog post, the complete list of titles and a downloadable pdf. [AICL'S Year in Review 2023. Reese, Debbie. American Indians in Children's Literature blog. November 28, 2023.]

New Resource Manual - American Indian Studies in WI

Robin Amado, part of the FB group Wisconsin Librarians and Teachers Supporting Act 31, recently shared an advanced printing of amazing resource for all of Wisconsin staff working with children: American Indian Studies in Wisconsin (Act 31) Resource Manual compiled and written by Caryl Pfaff, librarian at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College Library in Hayward WI.

The need to educate WI residents by sharing accurate information about tribal histories and culture led in 1989/91 "to the creation of Wisconsin Act 31 that requires all students and teachers within the state of Wisconsin receive instruction on the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of the American Indian nations and tribal communities in Wisconsin. This instruction is required for students at least twice in the elementary and once in the high school grades. This resource manual has been developed to help teachers, students, librarians, and parents identify quality materials that will help support Act 31 endeavors."

This resource guide, funded by an IMLS grant, shares information, curriculum and booklists for elementary and secondary age youth on both WI tribes and those outside of WI. There are acquisition sources for materials listed in the 66 page manual as well as a wide array of information of use to libraries of all types throughout WI. This resource is a treasure trove for collection development for all ages in libraries!