Lucie Skjefte is a big advocate of language immersion for native students.

“Historically, we’ve been taught to not speak our language,” she explains. “Like my grandmother, her experience at boarding school was pretty horrific, she wasn’t allowed to speak her language. She was reprimanded and disciplined.”  

Skjefte, a Red Lake Tribal member, now has a seat on the Minneapolis School Board.

She won that seat in November during a coin toss after a live board vote resulted in a tie with Fatimah Hussein.

As the chair of the school district’s American Indian Parent Advisory Committee, much of Skjefte’s focus has been on Anishinabe Academy in Minneapolis.

She says about 200 Native students attended classes there, taking pre-K language immersion — with the option to continue in later grades.  

“The language is more than the language; it’s our way of life,” declares Jaeden King, a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and a descendent of the Red Lake Nation. “Right now, there’s a gap between our young generation… There’s the elders that are fluent and the bridge between the English-speaking generations now. I think immersion schools would be a great way to connect the older generation and the new generation.”

King graduated from the University of Minnesota, majoring in American Indian studies and the Ojibwe language.

Right now, she’s working toward a Master of Business Administration degree, with a plan to open an Ojibwe immersion daycare.

“It helps them develop the language quicker,” King says. “The younger they are when they’re exposed to the language, the more likely they are to develop those language abilities, first language speaker abilities.”  

Skjefte’s hope is that the academy will eventually be transformed into a language immersion hub — that would include Native immersion — and would have its own separate facility in South Minneapolis.  

A district spokesperson says a faculty advisory committee is now working on a report about possible sites.

Skjefte says when her 15-year-old son, Animikii, took immersion classes as a young academy student, he learned Ojibwe songs and language exercises like counting from one to ten.

“It really was empowering for him to, like, strengthen his own sense of native identity at such an early age,” she recalls. “It was so powerful to see how much it shined for him.”

The goal for the academy is to make the move for the 2025-2026 school year.

King and Skjefte both say they’re excited for the Native students.  

“It’s a beautiful way to help maintain our identity, as well as continuing to thrive in a modern society,” King declares.

“It like trickles through for each of our generations,” Skjefte adds. “It’s a pivotal moment for me, and so however that comes, I can’t wait to see what that looks like.”