The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians is encouraging local businesses in Michigan to use the Odawa language.

Out to Lunch, an eatery in Harbor Springs, is the first to adopt the language. A few words appear on the signs at the restaurant.

"This being the first business in town, on my part, I think this is the beginning of something that should be recognized -- being in the reservation boundaries," Chairman Dexter McNamara told The Petoskey News-Review. McNamara said the tribe plans to ask the city to use the language.

The tribe's Gijigowi Anishinaabemowin Language Department offers several language classes.

Get the Story:
Harbor Springs restaurant becomes first to embrace Odawa tribal language (The Petoskey News-Review 6/12)
Speaking a culture: How efforts to revitalize a language can have a ripple effect (The Petoskey News-Review 6/12)