The reason is simple..I am learning
Chippewa even as you are. I am a blood-enrolled
member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa
Indians, yet, until I was introduced to Coy Eklund's
language book, I was ignorant of my father's
language. I have been getting many requests for help
with Chippewa, and in general, I end up forwarding
them to the man who wrote the book. I encourage you
to e-mail Coy direct with your suggestions and
questions.
Coy and I have teamed up to make the "Chippewa Language Book" widely known, and very importantly, available, to those who may be interested in learning of the fascinating language created many centuries ago by the Chippewa Nation of American Indians. Never before has it been available in such an understandable, teachable or written form for English speakers. The single volume includes, in a very transportable form, rules of pronunciation, grammar, useful phrases, and a 5,000 word Chippewa to English and English to Chippewa dictionary. This compact book is very user-friendly, easy to take along to a Pow-Wow or pull out on a winter's eve to write a long over-due letter. (Or an E-mail!!)
Before telling about Coy's father, who made it possible for Coy to assemble this marvlous language, I have words regarding Coy which will be understood by my brothers and cousins. Coy is an Elder of his people. He is an Elder who has brought a substantial gift to the A.NISHI.NABE, a gift of life for something that was dieing, ANISHINABE-MO.WIN. I remind my brothers and cousins, if we honor the Elders, we honor the Earth. MIGI.GEWIN, MIGI.GOOWIN.
When Coy's father, Nels Eklund, came to the United States from Sweden at the age of two, he spoke only Swedish in their Minnesota family homestead, picking up Chippewa as his second language from the Chippewa kids with whom he played along the banks of the Saint Louis river at Brookston, near Duluth. Thus he spoke Chippewa fluently all his life and had many Chippewa friends who taught him how to hunt, trap and fish like a native of that country. He could even build a birch-bark canoe on his own, a feat not duplicated by many non-Indians, or might I add, many Indians of our current generation.
But Nels' knowledge of the language never impressed Coy until late 1969 when Nels was age 80 and dying with cancer. To give his dad something to occupy his mind during those diffiult days, Coy collaborated with his dad to put the language into a teachable written form. Together, they made a good start.
Soon afterward, his dad died and Coy's motivation seemed to die too. However, a few months later, an obsessive ambition came over Coy in the realization that he must finish the job as a tribute to his father.
In three succeeding years Coy had the help of Josephine Norcross who lived in Park Rapids, Minnesota. She was fully descended in both her parents from the original Chippewa of that place, who not only spoke the language fluently, but having a high school education, she had a basic knowledge of English grammar. She helped Coy with pronunciations and conversational expressions. Unfortunately, she died in early 1973, leaving Coy again with the work well started, but unfinished. Yet he kept going! He finally finished the work and published the book in 1991.
Our objective in putting this book on the market is to enable anyone with a basic knowledge of English to write and translate Chippewa with facility. It gives you a step by step guide that will enable you to write in Chippewa, and to translate from writings received from friends using the same book.
Our purpose will be served if significant numbers of those lucky young people who can boast Chippewa descent will find this book a means of recapturing awareness of their ancestral tongue, keeping it forever alive and well!