Wiiyaakiteeheelo weehki-kihkatwe ‘happy new year’! Well almost, as the Myaamia New Year will actually begin February 22, 2023, on the Gregorian calendar.

As we approach the Myaamia New Year we look forward to wrapping up our celebratory events for the 50th anniversary with a final gathering at our mid-winter stomp dance and storytelling events in Miami, Oklahoma. We have quite a contingent coming from campus this year and look forward to seeing so many of you at our community gathering. Reflecting back on all the events this year I am humbled by the support and engagement from both the Tribe and university community throughout our celebratory year. This relationship is truly unique and special and we look forward to advancing our work in the new year.

As I put a lens on the new year, I see a few things emerging that will be important in our development. First is the growing use of technology in our work. One major development is our new myaamia šaapohkaayoni ‘Myaamia online Portal’ supported by a grant from the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. This will be in development for the next few years but has great potential in providing our community and stakeholders with access to materials we create and a growing list of educational programs. Stay tuned for updates on this exciting project.

Additionally, we are moving forward with advancing our outreach efforts on campus. The goal of this new initiative is to increase our capacity to share content and information from the Myaamia Center to faculty and classes across campus. With gracious support from the Provost’s Office and the College of Education, Health and Society, we have launched some initiatives including the Indigenizing the Curriculum Community of Learning, and this summer will be supporting a ‘study away’ course to visit the tribe in Oklahoma. These are new areas of development for us and we are excited to increase our impact on campus.

And Lastly, our National Breath of Life program recently launched a new apprenticeship program with 10 tribal communities from across the United States. The apprenticeship program is designed to provide intensive training over the course of two years to help communities establish and implement the Indigenous Languages Digital Archive. The need for archive development in Indian Country has only increased in the last few years and National Breath of Life is specifically designed to assist tribes in developing their own community-curated language archive to support their revitalization efforts.

I am excited to get this year going and want to thank all our staff in the Myaamia Center, our wonderful support team at the Miami Tribe’s Cultural Resources Office, the generous support from tribal leaders, our many partners at Miami University, and our growing base of stakeholders who believe in all that we do. Mihši-neewe ‘big thanks’!

Kikwehsitoole ‘respectfully’

Daryl Baldwin
Executive Director, Myaamia Center at Miami University