Rock Greendeer (Ho-Chunk Nation) remembers what his parents taught him in his youth. Centuries-old traditions and the Ho-Chunk language are just a few of the lessons he carries with him.
For generations, Wisconsin’s Native American children were shipped to one of eleven boarding schools in the state where children were not allowed to speak Ho-Chunk, the root language of what is now one of the 11 federally recognized tribes in the state.
Language is at the core of what it means to be Ho-Chunk. With fewer than 30 first-language speakers left, Ho-Chunk is now considered an endangered language.
The passage of the Native American Language Act in 1990 repudiated past government policies of eradicating Indigenous languages, but by then, the damage was done.
“I am worried about our Ho-Chunk way of life dying out from under us,” Greendeer told Native News Online while walking around his family’s 150-year-old homestead.
Greendeer hosts Ho-Chunk language feast classes, one of several efforts to save the language and culture of the tribe. Greendeer has put together different teachings intertwined with Ho-Chunk, English, and phonetic Ho-Chunk words and phrases spoken in traditional ceremonies.