"Ojibwe Program Big Success"

NEW CREDIT - Native leaders have heard a familiar sound, and they are listening eagerly for more.

The sound is Ojibwe, the native language of the Mississaugas of the New Credit. It is barely audible because no one on the reserve is fluent in it.

But that is changing. The language, once threatened with oblivion, is experiencing a remarkable return.

The band's native language program, a community effort to recover Ojibwe, began in 1983, Now 110 of the 736 band members, including whole families, are enrolled in day care, elementary school and adult courses.

"I can see the difference," says Rhonda Doxtator, the teacher. "There is more interest in the language, more progress in learning it and, most important, more optimism that it will be rescued.

Miss Doxtator credits the New Credit Native Language Committee, which co-ordinates the program, for much of the success. She said the eight members of the committee, including a band councillor, a representative from the Woodland Indian Cultural Educational Centre, a representative from the education field and parents, are dedicated to their task.

The band is fortunate because it is dealing with only one language. Some bands, like Six Nations, speak more than one language.

Six Nations currently employs three full-time and three part-time teachers to teach Mohawk and Cayuga to students in kindergarten through Grade 6.