Today we’d like to introduce you to Anton Treuer.
Hi Anton, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I didn’t really set out with a master plan to become an author, professor, speaker, or business owner. Most of what I’ve done grew out of a much simpler question: What can I do that is useful?
I grew up in Minnesota and became deeply interested in Ojibwe language, history, and culture. That eventually led me through college and graduate school and into a career as a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University. Along the way, I became increasingly involved in language revitalization, historical research, education, and community work. I started writing books because I saw gaps in what was available—stories that had not been told, histories that had been misunderstood, and questions about Native people that many Americans seemed genuinely curious about but often did not know how to ask.
One book led to another, and over time I’ve written more than twenty books for adults, young people, educators, and language learners. My work has taken me into schools, tribal communities, universities, corporations, government agencies, and conferences around the country and beyond. A lot of my speaking and training now focuses on Indigenous history and culture, language revitalization, leadership, racial equity, and healing.
Eventually, the volume and variety of that work led me to build Indigenous Enterprise LLC. It gave me a way to organize the speaking, consulting, training, publishing, and educational work that had grown organically over the years. What began mostly as individual projects has become a much broader effort to help people and institutions build healthier relationships, stronger communities, and better systems.
One of the things I value most is that the different parts of my life still feed one another. Teaching keeps me connected to students and to the daily work of language revitalization. Writing gives me space to think deeply and tell stories. Speaking lets me bring those ideas into conversation with people all over the country. And the business allows me to build projects that don’t always fit neatly inside a university or publishing house.
I’ve been fortunate to have some success, but I still think of the work in essentially the same way I did at the beginning. I try to notice what is needed, figure out what I might have to contribute, and then do the work as well as I can.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but some of the greatest challenges and greatest gifts have been intertwined.
One of the most important things that happened to me when I was young was connecting with Archie Mosay, an Ojibwe elder who was born in 1901. Archie spoke beautiful Ojibwe and very little English. He took me under his wing, and something about that relationship lit a fire in me. I became passionate about our tribal language, Ojibwe, and about understanding our culture, history, and ways of seeing the world.
That passion shaped the course of my life. Over the years, I had the privilege of working closely with more than fifty elder Ojibwe speakers. They taught me language, stories, history, humor, values, and ways of understanding things that I never could have learned from books. Every one of those elders has now passed away.
So there has been a lot of loss on this journey. I’ve watched an entire generation of remarkable people leave us, and I’ve seen firsthand how fragile a language can become when the number of fluent speakers grows smaller. Language loss is not abstract when you have loved the people who carried that language so beautifully.
But there has also been tremendous gain. I’ve watched Ojibwe language revitalization grow from something relatively few people were working on into a much larger movement. There are immersion schools, college programs, new teachers and learners, books, videos, social media, and families bringing the language back into their homes.
That has become especially personal for me. Along the way, I became a father to nine children and, so far, a grandfather to five. Seeing their rising passion for our language and culture has been one of the most gratifying parts of my life. My daughter and I now produce an Ojibwe Word of the Day together, reaching people far beyond anything Archie or I could have imagined when I first sat listening to him speak.
There have been plenty of other struggles—professional setbacks, criticism, projects that didn’t work, and the constant challenge of balancing family, teaching, writing, speaking, business, and community responsibilities. But those things have also helped clarify what matters to me.
I think a lot about the people who invested in me when I was young, especially elders like Archie. They gave me something precious, but they also gave me a responsibility. Much of my life’s work has been about trying to carry that gift forward. Seeing another generation begin to pick it up reminds me that although there have been real losses along the way, there is also tremendous reason for hope.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work has a few different dimensions, but the thread connecting most of them is strengthening Indigenous language, culture, knowledge, and people.
I’m a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, an author, speaker, trainer, and language activist. I’ve written more than twenty books spanning Ojibwe language, history, culture, contemporary Native life, and fiction. Probably my best-known book is Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, which has reached a very broad audience, but some of the work closest to my heart has been written primarily for our own communities—Ojibwe-language books, teaching materials, dictionaries, and other tools designed to help our language live.
I think what sets my work apart is that I move between several different worlds. I’m an academic and researcher, but I’m also a language learner and teacher. I publish books in English, but I also work to create literature entirely in Ojibwe. I speak to corporations, universities, schools, and national organizations, but I also serve in Ojibwe ceremonial spaces. Those aren’t separate parts of my identity or work. They inform one another.
Language revitalization has probably been the deepest and most sustained focus of my career. I’ve spent decades working with elder first-language Ojibwe speakers, documenting their stories and knowledge and trying to build ways for future generations to learn from them. One major project has been helping develop Rosetta Stone for Ojibwe with the Mille Lacs Band. The idea was to capture not only the voices of our elders but their thought patterns and ways of using the language, and then use modern technology to make that knowledge available to learners anywhere. Technology will never replace our elders or human relationships, but it can help their voices teach people long after they are gone.
Increasingly, I’ve become focused on building systems that can carry this work forward. At Bemidji State, we are building an Ojibwe teacher training program designed to create a pipeline of fluent, culturally grounded, professionally licensed Ojibwe teachers. If we want immersion schools and tribal language programs to flourish, we need more than enthusiasm. We need trained teachers, curriculum, books, technology, institutions, and sustainable career paths for the next generation of language warriors.
I’m proud of the books and awards and of being able to reach large audiences through speaking, writing, and increasingly through video and social media. But I’m probably proudest of helping move Ojibwe language revitalization from preservation toward regeneration. I don’t want Ojibwe simply archived so people can study how our ancestors once spoke. I want babies hearing it, young people joking in it, teachers teaching through it, families using it at home, authors writing new books in it, and spiritual leaders carrying our ceremonies forward in it.
That work has also shaped how I think about success. For me, success isn’t primarily about individual accomplishment. It is about whether something is stronger because you were here. If the next generation has more speakers, more teachers, more books, more cultural knowledge, more confidence in who they are, and more tools than my generation inherited, then I will feel like I did something worthwhile.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
There are a lot of ways people can connect with and support the work.
I travel extensively for speaking, training, and educational work, and I keep an event calendar on my website, antontreuer.com. Many of those events are open to the public. I work with schools, universities, tribal nations, nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations on everything from Ojibwe language and culture to Native history, leadership, education, racial equity, healing, and building stronger relationships with Indigenous communities.
I especially enjoy working with educators. There is tremendous interest in teaching about Native people, but many teachers were never given the background or resources to do that confidently. I try to help people move beyond stereotypes and the tendency to teach Native people only in the past tense. My website has free educator guides, teaching tools, Ojibwe language resources, recommended readings, presentations, and other materials that teachers and community members can use.
People can also engage through my books. I’ve published more than twenty of them, ranging from Ojibwe language and history to contemporary Native issues, cultural teachings, and fiction. I love seeing those books used not only by individual readers but in classrooms, book clubs, libraries, professional development, and community conversations.
Some of the most important work in my life, though, isn’t public-facing at all. My family and I maintain an active Ojibwe ceremonial life, and I continue to learn from and serve our communities in those spaces. I think it is important that my professional work remain connected to living Indigenous communities, relationships, language, and cultural practice rather than treating Native culture simply as a subject to study.
I’m also always interested in meaningful collaborations. Some of the projects I’m most excited about have come from people asking, “What could we build together?” That has led to new Ojibwe-language books, technology projects, educational programs, teacher training, curriculum, and partnerships with tribal communities and institutions. Our new Ojibwe Teacher Training Program at Bemidji State is a good example—it is designed not simply to teach the language, but to build a sustainable pipeline of culturally grounded Ojibwe educators who can carry it forward.
And people can support Indigenous work even if we never meet. Read Native authors. Buy their books. Invite Native voices into classrooms and institutions. Support Indigenous language revitalization. Learn whose homeland you live on and build real relationships with the Native nations around you. Most importantly, approach Indigenous people not simply as communities with problems to solve, but as people with knowledge, creativity, humor, strength, and a great deal to contribute.
For anyone who wants to connect with my particular work, antontreuer.com is probably the best starting point. It brings together my books, upcoming events, educational resources, speaking and training work, and other projects.
Pricing:
- My books are widely available through independent bookstores, including Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, as well as Amazon and other major booksellers.
- Organizations interested in booking me for a keynote, professional development, consultation, or other event can reach out through the contact form at antontreuer.com. Pricing varies depending on the type and length of engagement, location, travel requirements, and scope of the work.
- I also provide a number of free educational resources, including educator guides and Ojibwe language and teaching materials, through antontreuer.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://antontreuer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treuera
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AntonTreuer
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anton-treuer-9a5a239
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@antontreuer
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@anton.treuer
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/antontreuer.bsky.social
