This week, The Extraordinary Times is delighted to catch up with Daryl Baldwin. Daryl is a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and serves as the Executive Director of the Myaamia Center at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and Co-Director of the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages. He earned an MA in linguistics from the University of Montana and in 2001 accepted a position at Miami University of what was then called the Myaamia Project (now the Myaamia Center). He has spent the last 30 years working with his tribal community and staff at the Myaamia Center building capacity around language and cultural education. In 2016 he received a MacArthur Fellowship and more recently in 2021 President Biden nominated him to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, Daryl’s entire career has been dedicated to the preservation of indigenous languages and cultures.
* How did you realize your calling to preserve the Myaamia language and heritage? My interest in learning my native language came about with a growing interest to learn more about my heritage during my late 20s. I stumbled upon some Myaamia language materials in my grandfather's papers and began asking questions. This curiosity grew in me and I eventually left a ten year career in the trades in order to attend college, which eventually ended eight years later with a MA in linguistics. This was all happening at a time when I was starting a family and wanted to pass something on to my children. There was also a growing awareness of language loss on a global level that also motivated me to respond. Around 1991, my wife and I began homeschooling our children in order to reintroduce Myaamia language and culture to the family. The homeschooling effort lasted eighteen years and my wife did the vast majority of the work teaching and I focused on language and culture. During the mid-1990s, some of us from the tribal community began developing community based language revitalization programs due to a growing need at the community level. Our community work led to the development of the Myaamia Center at Miami University in 2001. We chose to reach out to Miami University for help because the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma already had a relationship with the institution dating back to the 1970s. It seemed like the most logical and productive place to develop something like the Myaamia Center that could focus on research and educational development for the Miami tribe. * How have relations between Miami University and the Myaamia people evolved over time? I would like to start by saying that Miami University sits within the historic homelands of not only the Myaamia people but many other tribes who occupied this region. In 1795 the Greenville Treaty was signed by the tribes of the region in Greenville, OH, which ceded all of what is now eastern and southwestern Ohio to the United States. Miami University was chartered shortly after in 1809. In 1846 the Miami Tribe was forcibly relocated west by canal boats from their homeland in Indiana. That unfortunate journey followed the Miami-Erie canal which passed just east of Miami’s campus probably at a time classes were in session. This history, coupled with the university’s name ‘Miami’, points to many historical connections between the tribe and university that predate the current relationship. One outcome of that history is incredible loss on many levels. Our work today through the Myaamia Center, and the relationship overall, attempts to repair some of the damage caused by those historic events. There is much written about the relationship between the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Miami University so I won't spend much time on those details other than to say that Miami University recognizes the sovereign status of the Miami Tribe as a self-governing entity. The university recognizes our need to rebuild our tribal nation and the tribe recognizes the need of the university to educate youth about the history and contemporary status of the Miami Tribe. It is through this commitment to ‘share’ that we created the slogan neepwaantiinki ‘learning from each other’ to represent the relationship. Our relationship continues to grow and deepen over time providing new opportunities to engage in ways that are unique for a tribe and university. * The past year has witnessed intense questioning over issues of race, identity, and equality in the United States. What, to your mind, is the value of diversity in America? I believe that all of life strives to be diverse. It's part of a natural force to fill the gaps of an ever changing and creative existence. Humans are no different. We strive ‘to be’ in our own image as individuals or as groups. From my personal perspective, the human endeavor to seek knowledge, explanation, and understanding is an exercise in freedom. When we have the ability to explore new ways of knowing and understanding diverse ideas and experiences emerge. As Myaamia people, we are largely defined by our kinship ties to each other, our unique way of knowing that is best expressed through our language and culture, our shared history stretching back before colonization, and our inherent right to govern ourselves as a distinct group. As much as we must learn to value these definable features of our human selves, we have a responsibility to share certain aspects with those who wish to respect and learn through reciprocal engagement. The preservation and maintenance of our individual and group identities are what allows for a spectrum of human experiences to be shared. What is learned or experienced from the engagement between two different groups is the value of diversity, in my opinion, and the engagement requires ‘respect for difference’ without the need or desire to change each other. If change does occur, it happens through the forces of engagement not the forces of authority or power over others. * How do you see the Myaamia Center developing in the future? The basic premise for what we do at the Myaamia Center is to make sure that our indigenous knowledge, and related ways of knowing, are passed onto the next generation. Language and cultural preservation are central to that process. This is a fluid and organic process that draws on community strengths and is flexible enough to respond to an ever changing social landscape. I see our work as interdisciplinary and constantly evolving. The Myaamia Center is well positioned to grow with the tribal nation and respond to the needs of Miami University as long as the Miami Tribe and University desire each other's engagement.
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AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
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