October 13, 2022

Opinion- Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Language is culture.

Maisa Taha, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, wrote an opinion piece for NJ.com highlighting efforts to bring back traditional Indigenous languages. An excerpt can be found below and the full piece can be read here.

“It may be tempting to delve into the past when marking Indigenous Peoples’ Day. And yet, even a brief conversation with members of New Jersey’s state-recognized tribes makes clear that Native peoples and cultures are present now and working toward a vibrant future.

This fall, Montclair State University launched a new Native American and Indigenous Studies minor, the first of its kind in the state. Thanks to budding university-tribal partnerships with the leadership of the Ramapough Lunaape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, and Powhatan Renape nations, faculty and students have begun to learn about Native lifeways and the dynamic contributions that Indigenous peoples continue to make on behalf of their communities and all of us.

In particular, working with Chief Vincent Mann and Michaeline Picaro of the Ramapough Lunaape Turtle Clan, we have started to collaborate on community-driven projects focused on environmental justice, food sovereignty, and sacred ceremonial stone sites.

This work has everything to do with the history of colonial violence these communities have survived and their determination to thrive as stewards of their ancestral lands. One of the most exciting and potentially transformative efforts is bringing the Munsee language back into greater use.”