Making It Their Own : Severn Ojibwe Communicative Practices

The Anihshininiwak, an Algonquian people who live in the remote subarctic forests of northwestern Ontario, speak a variety of Ojibwe that represents one of the most robust indigenous languages in North America. In this book, Lisa Valentine explores the language and discourse of the people of Lynx Lake, an Anihshininiwak community where every member uses the Severn Ojibwe language.

For the most part, anthropologists translate, interpret, and report the discourse of the peoples they study. In this study, the Anihshininiwak speak for themselves. Valentine presents their voices as the focus of her research and a guide to their culture, which she finds to be unique in its integration of contemporary ideas and technology into a traditional lifestyle. In adapting radio and television to community service and in their approach to Native-language literacy, this singular group confirms that new technologies are not necessarily precursors to enculturation. Culture-external institutions, including Christianity, have also been subject to active transformation by the people of Lynx Lake, who are the central actors of Making It Their Own.

In this fascinating ethnographic study, Valentine guides the reader through the language, geography, and sociology of the Lynx Lake community, yet we never lose sight of the emotional dimensions of daily life.

LISA PHILIPS VALENTINE is associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Western Ontario.