Woman from Cote First Nation relearns Saulteaux in hopes of revitalizing the language
Three years ago, Natalie Langan decided to relearn the Saulteaux language she knew as a child. Now she wants to make the language more accessible for everyone.
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CBC
13-03-2025
- CBC
Woman from Cote First Nation relearns Saulteaux in hopes of revitalizing the language
Three years ago, Natalie Langan decided to relearn the Saulteaux language she knew as a child. Now she wants to make the language more accessible for everyone.
CBC
09-03-2025
- CBC
Sask. woman working to reclaim Saulteaux language and pass it along to others
Natalie Langan hopes sharing what she knows will help with language revitalization Natalie Langan grew up speaking Saulteaux, but after the death of her grandmother close to 20 years ago, she stopped speaking her language. Now, she's on a journey to reclaim it. Langan, who is from from Cote First Nation, about 230 kilometres northeast of Regina, was raised on Fishing Lake First Nation by her late grandmother, and was a fluent speaker of Saulteaux — also known as Anihšināpēmowin or Nahkawêwin — before her grandmother's death. "I feel like my language went along with her, because I had nobody to speak the language with anymore," said Langan. The two would speak the language to each other, and it was their first language at home. "She was the one that I spoke Saulteaux to," said Langan. "So when she passed away, I felt like I had no one to speak to, so I didn't speak." But three years ago, Langan decided to relearn her language. She took classes at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina from Lorena Lynn Cote, a faculty member with the university's department of Indigenous languages, arts and cultures. "When I started relearning my language, it was not only rewarding, challenging and exciting, but also really eye-opening," said Langan. "It really makes me aware of how important it was that I restarted this journey." As she continued, "I also really wanted to teach what I was relearning, what I was learning," she said. "I wanted to pass that on." Now, she's teaching a weekly online class, and sharing the language in her own way. "I consider myself a mentor, and everybody that joins the class, they are my apprentice students," she said. Langan said it's important to her to keep people engaged and learning. "Every one of these students that are taking my class has a story," she said. "They're just trying to be like me and get their language back." San Francisco Bay area sisters learning Saulteaux Padme James and her sister, Beru James, are learning to speak Saulteaux through Langan's weekly online classes. They're also from the Cote First Nation in Saskatchewan, are but currently living in the San Francisco Bay area. "I've always had that urge to reconnect and learn my culture, and connect with the people who live on my reservation," said Padme. Beru said she loves her First Nations heritage. "I want to be able to speak with other people," she said. "I want to be able to say 'kisāwēnimin, I love you,' to my sister, or to my grandfather also." Since starting Langan's class, both sisters are excelling at learning the language. "I love speaking my language," said Padme. "I feel grateful that I get to, because I know for a long time people were not allowed to." Beru also said she's proud to be able to speak the language now. "I think it's beautiful," she said. "I can say 'ānīn nimihšomihš' — 'hi, my grandfather,' and I can talk to my father, like, 'nipāpā kisāwēnimin, I love you, my dad.'" Beru said there's a learning curve to learning any new language, but Langan has been a great teacher. "She makes learning this language so easy and so accessible."
CBC
18-11-2024
- CBC
Hudson Bay, Sask., school brings kokum's teachings into reconciliation efforts
Social Sharing When Corinne Severight is asked to come to speak at the school in Hudson Bay, Sask., she always has a batch of fresh bannock with her. Severight, who is from Cote First Nation, helps teach about residential schools, First Nations history and her Saulteaux language because she wants a better future for her grandchildren. "I've been invited to the school quite often — I'm quite a fixture there, all of the kids call me grandma or kokum," she said. Severight raises her two of her grandsons in the community about 300 kilometres east of Saskatoon and they attend the school. She attended a federal Indian day school then public schools but her older siblings and parents went to residential school. "I was raised in that mentality that came with it," she said. Severight said the first time she told her story was when she was invited to speak at the school to a group of small children. "I tried to talk and I couldn't, the emotions just came," she said. Now Severight helps with a program for the schools called A Loss of Language. "It covers the whole story of the residential schools, what happened to the children and then we tried to get the people to imagine this happening in this town," she said. Severight said the history she was taught in school was nothing like what she heard or saw growing up, but she couldn't say that to her teachers. "I always tell them this — you can't have a reconciliation unless you know the whole story," said Severight. Severight also goes out on the land with students to show them foraging, the impact of climate change and the importance of clean water. "I want a better understanding between the people in our community," said Severight, adding that starts with helping children get along "because older people are already pretty much set in their ways." Louise Gel, the principal of Hudson Bay Community School, said it was after they invited a residential school survivor to speak to the high school students in 2019 for Orange Shirt Day that they realized this needed to be more than just one day. The pre-K to 12 school has about 350 students and Gel said there are 30 who identify as Métis and 31 who Identify as First Nations. "I saw the work [Severight] was doing in our community to lead the Truth and Reconciliation movement and I could just see her value and that's what we needed, was somebody who could guide us in our work," said Gel. Gel said students had a lot of questions for Severight about Indigenous knowledge and history and showed "a real level of politeness." "I believe that when we're doing any of the First Nations teachings, it doesn't matter what your background is, if you're learning about respect, that's good for all kids," said Gel. Cattail lessons Saskatchewan's Ministry of Education said in a statement that there are both mandatory and elective curricula that includes opportunities for students to learn about residential schools, treaties and historical and contemporary contributions and issues impacting Canada's Indigenous people. Madison McLeod, 14, is from Nelson House First Nation in Manitoba and is in Grade 9 at the Hudson Bay school. She said she enjoys having Severight teach about residential schools and her First Nations culture. McLeod said she learned about residential schools before, as her dad went to one. "It's cool we had to learn more about it and like understand it more," said McLeod. McLeod's favourite things are the teepee teachings and going foraging, where she learned a lesson about cattails. "We saw these cattails and we decided to eat them — I was coughing a lot because it kind of like just exploded," laughed McLeod. McLeod learned she ate the wrong end and Severight taught her they were also used for medicine.
