Ojibway Dictionary
The Clarke holds a substantial body of Ojibway language material. In the 19th century, much of this material resulted from the work of Christian missionaries. Missionaries quickly realized that in order to effectively preach to the Native Americans they needed to speak Ojibway. It was only a small step to realize the need for Ojibway language grammars and dictionaries to help in this work, and many missionaries constructed partial dictionaries or other aids to help themselves and their successors.
One milestone in this process is the dictionary of the Ojibway language produced by Frederick Baraga in 1853. Father Baraga left his native Slovenia in 1830 to undertake Catholic missionary work in the Upper Great Lakes region. Baraga both learned Ojibway and came to realize the need for a complete dictionary in order to print religious material in the Ojibway language. He worked over many years to produce phonetic spellings of Ojibway words. In 1853 the first edition of A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, Explained in English was published. He wrote in the preface, "This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first Dictionary of the Otchipwe language ever published. The compilation of it has cost me several years of assiduous labor ."
Father Baraga's dictionary, though compiled over 150 years ago, remains among the most authoritative written guides to the Ojibway language.