The University of Minnesota’s early childhood department is developing a degree program that aims to make an early childhood bachelor’s degree accessible for Ojibwe students.
In Ojibwe, Wezhinoo’igejig (way-shi-noo-i-gay-jig) means “the ones who show or point the way.” The Wezhinoo’igejig Ojibwe scholar in early childhood is a developing initiative within the University’s early childhood bachelor’s degree program.
Wezhinoo’igejig combines coursework in child development, early childhood teaching methods and Ojibwe immersion pedagogy, according to the program website. The program is designed for early childhood professionals who want to increase their Ojibwe language skills through work with children and hold a strong mission towards language revitalization.
The idea of Wezhinoo’igejig began after a series of conversations with education officials from Tribal Nations and Tribal Colleges in Minnesota, directors at Tribal Head Start programs and representatives from the College of Education and Human Development at the University.
Sheila Williams Ridge, director and instructor of the University’s Child Development Laboratory School, said the initiative is long overdue and is needed for Native communities to heal.
“I think it’s so important for us as the University of Minnesota, but also us as professionals in early childhood, to support especially places where things have been wrong and in Indigenous communities where, you know, people were sent or taken from their families and sent to schools,” Ridge said.
Residential schools, also called boarding schools, were systems created by Christian denominations in the early 1800s and funded by the U.S. government in an attempt to assimilate Native children. This was done by abducting the children and punishing them physically and emotionally when displaying their Native language, beliefs or values, according to PBS News.
In the U.S., there were more than 526 boarding schools in the 19th to 20th century, and nearly 83% of Native school-age children attended boarding schools by 1926.
“The people who historically did those sorts of things really set up a distrust for school systems. And, I mean, who would want to be a teacher, right?” Ridge said. “Like, if that was your experience that teachers take children away from their families, and teachers, you know, take away parts of your culture.”
The University is a land-grant university, meaning it received federal funding to support its establishment through the Morrill Act of 1862 which allowed for the acquisition of around 95,000 acres of land. A majority of the land was ceded by the Dakota people in the Treaty of 1851, making the University a participant in stealing Native land.
“I think it’s an important time for the University to say, ‘We’re going to help right some of these things that went wrong.’ And the University was part of a system that oppressed people, and so I think that stepping up and saying more than land acknowledgments,” Ridge said.
Ways to repair some of these things include giving communities tools they need to raise teachers in their community who teach the things that are important to them and share practices they may find useful, Ridge said.
The program is developed to reach beyond the University’s Twin Cities campus in order to accommodate students residing on tribal lands, offering remote learning and resources and materials to tribal colleges and universities. When students complete the program, they receive only a bachelor’s degree and not a teaching license.
“We at the University of Minnesota are teaching people how to do things,” Ridge said. “But that’s not a two-way street, we are learning as much as we’re teaching.”
Aubriella Dixon, a first-year student from the Lower Sioux Indian Community near Redwood Falls, said she is looking forward to the future that the University is creating for Indigenous students.
“It shows the importance of childhood because I feel like people don’t understand how important it is to teach kids language at that young of an age,” Dixon said. “Cause that’s when they retain it the best and when they’re more likely to continue learning it as they get older.”
Dixon works at an early childhood immersion daycare called Čhaŋšáyapi Wakháŋyeža Owáyawa Othí in Lower Sioux and said amplifying efforts surrounding children and Indigenous language is crucial for language revitalization.
“Specifically early childhood is like bettering the whole community,” Dixon said. “It’s always the mindset of bringing your education back to your people is how I was raised, you always gotta come back.”
Wezhinoo’igejig is a developing program, and is expected to launch in the 2025-26 academic year.
