>> I first go around and plow my relatives out
a couple aunties
and cousins.
Then I have my, I call them, brothers, you know.
That's the way we say it in our language.
Nematok are friends, close friends.
We do things in a good mind
and a good heart and a good way.
When we need that help
I guess we believe
it will come to us too.
What I'm doing is ensuring that
the language goes a generation beyond myself.
I'm gonna do that through my kids, you know.
[speaking in Menominee]
I'm teaching --
the language using natural immersion.
Natural immersion is you just talk about your day
the way you would anything else,
only it's being done in Menominee.
I decided to stay home
and teach her the language because it's
my last unique opportunity
to be able to raise
a first language fluent speaker.
I think it's hard for her to want to speak
because nobody else does, you know.
There's probably about eight people that speak it.
We'll call it ten.
You've got ten of 10,000.
What's that percent?
.0001, .0001%.
That's a reality check.
The language, it could die.
The idea that we're trying to preserve
is a living language.
Pematesemakat, it lives.
[chanting in Menominee]
Every little thing Is gonna be all right
For me and you
Don't you worry about a thing
Every little thing Is gonna be all right
[chanting in Menominee]
[talking in Menominee]
So there's words readily available
for everything in nature.
The word for falling snow is --.
The word for snow on the ground is --
crusted snow, -- we say --.
The word snowflake is even different yet
than both of them, we say --.
[conversing in Menominee]
The beautiful thing is it's not much easier in the woods
because our language is really based on
what's going on out there.
How do we make that transition into today's life too?
We're not always sugaring, we're not always ricing.
We spend a lot of days at home
in the office, on the road.
We've got to learn to express those things too, you know.
The language has to make that transition
if it's going to be relevant
and if it's going to survive, you know.
When I was young my first main teacher, Waqseciwan
she was starting to get sick and forgetful, you know.
One day we were just sitting at her house, talking
and she tells me
now I can die, she told me.
For 25 years, she said
I've tried to teach someone this language.
Now, today, I've done that.
Then she continued on in Menominee, she said
[quoting in Menominee]
She says, you know
maybe you're going to be an old man
and hear these kids talking our language.
She said, I love ya.
Don't give up.