Wayne Pushetonequa, Director of Language Preservation, recently spoke at the University of Iowa and gave an informative lecture about his team’s on-going efforts in preserving the Meskwaki language.
In his presentation, he reiterated an overview of the importance of maintaining cultural identity. He said, “Our language carries our identity. We, the Meskwaki people, will remain strong in our culture, past, present, and future, by continuing to speak our language. The mission of the Meskwaki Language Preservation Program is to promote language use, develop language resource materials for community, develop classroom resources for school and program sponsored classes, establish a repository of language materials, develop language learning programs, develop language teachers, and provide for the establishment of Meskwaki language classes.”
One of the attendees of the presentation, Marty Boller, the author of an internet blog called “Our Iowa Heritage”, wrote an impassioned article after the presentation entitled “Preserving the Meskwaki Language of Iowa”. (Picture is from Wayne’s presentation.)
Boller, who is from Johnson County, has over 30K blog hits and writes Iowa-related stories on his site. You can read his full article clicking the link below.
