Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Institute | |
---|---|
Address | |
![]() | |
8575 W Trepania Rd, Hayward, WI 54843 United States | |
Coordinates | 45°56′38″N91°21′25″W / 45.944°N 91.357°W |
Information | |
Type | Charter elementary/middle |
Established | 2001 |
Principal | Brooke Niiyogaabawiikwe Ammann |
Grades | K–8 |
Number of students | 415 (2023-24) [1] |
Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Institute (Waadookodaading) is an Ojibwe-language immersion school located on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation in Hayward, Wisconsin. [2]
The immersion program was started during the 2000–2001 academic school year by the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. [3]
The school was primarily conceived to preserve the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe)-language in Wisconsin, where only a few dozen elderly native speakers were estimated to remain in 2019. [4] The name of the school roughly translates to “helping one another.” [5]
Waadookodaading is physically connected to the English-language Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School, but functions autonomously. [6]
In addition to state and federally-mandated academic requirements, Waadookodaading provides cultural activities such as harvesting wild rice and syrup, as well as snowshoeing. [7] [8] The school currently offers kindergarten through eighth grade education. [6]
Waadookodaading is an independent charter institution. [9] In 2024, it received $5 million in federal funding aimed at expanding its operations to K-12. [10] The Administration for Native Americans also granted the school $300,000 in 2024. [11] In December 2024, the school announced that it received a $1.5 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. [12]