"The Language Called Me": Robert Collins and Learning Potawatomi Language

At age 40, Robert Collins realized that the Potawatomi language was still alive, which changed the course of his life. Now a dedicated language instructor for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and various universities across Oklahoma, Collins shares his journey from machinist to language protector. In this episode, he emphasizes the sacredness of Bodwéwadmimwen (Potawatomi language), innovative teaching methods, and his dream of creating future generations of Potawatomi speakers and educators. This episode is a part of the special series on Native Language Protectors and Carriers, tracing how one man’s calling ignites a community’s hope.

Dr. Farina King narrates this episode, and special thanks to Brian D. King for editing the Language Protectors and Carriers series.

Robert Collins is a Citizen Potawatomi Nation member of the Delonais family and Thunder Clan. He serves as the Interdepartmental Potawatomi Language Lead at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center and teaches Potawatomi at the University of Oklahoma and other institutions. Collins designs curriculum for early childhood, college-level, and community language programs. He is a lifelong student of Bodwéwadmimwen that he now helps others reclaim.

Learn more about the efforts to protect and support the study of Native American languages (and all languages) at the University of Oklahoma through the following petitions:

Oppose the Removal of Foreign Language Gen Ed requirements at the University of Oklahoma

Keep Indigenous Languages Alive at OU

For more information about the Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair, see the hyperlink.

Learn more about Native American Languages at the University of Oklahoma.

Additional Resources:

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Language Department- https://www.potawatomiheritage.com/language/

"Collins Speaks on Learning Potawatomi Language" (December 2024)

Tina Bridenstine, "Program helps build Potawatomi language resources," Native Oklahoma (May 2025)

Transcript

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At 40 years old, Robert Collins had no idea the Potawatomi language existed in its spoken form. Now, he's one of its most dedicated teachers.

“I thought it had been extinct or had gone away,” Collins recalled. 

Collins, a Citizen Potawatomi Nation employee and member of the Delonais family and Thunder Clan, said he grew up hearing Bodwéwadmimwen (Potawatomi) words like bozho (hello) and migwéch (thank you), but he never had a chance to learn the language, himself. 

“The language called me,” he said.

Today, Collins is a Potawatomi language instructor at the University of Oklahoma and five other universities. He serves as the Interdepartmental Potawatomi Language Lead at the Cultural Heritage Center where he designs and implements language-learning curricula for the Child Development Centers, online college courses, and community programs. 

But above all, he values learning his language and culture. 

“I'm a student first before an instructor, because I do study a lot more than I teach,” Collins said. 

His journey began while attending technical school to become a machinist. Participating in ceremonies led him to want to pray in the language of his ancestors. His desire to connect with his culture escalated into a lifelong journey to learning and teaching Potawatomi language.

In 2019, Collins decided to learn the language full time, and a year later, he was offered a job from his tribal nation. 

“It so happened a job opening had come up at the previous language department I worked in,” Collins said. “After speaking with our elders, they said go for it. So I went for it — and I got hired on.”

Collins said he would have loved to have learned the language earlier in his life, but he didn’t even know that the language existed in present form until he was 40 years old. He said he felt shocked when he learned that first-language Potawatomi speakers lived even as late as 1998. 

“I grew up right here in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  I didn't realize it was still used. I was doing some research to find out about the last first-language speaker, and we found them in 1998 so it's like, it's not that long ago, and the whole span of time, and so it's, it's connected to us that close,” he said. “The language is alive and modern. We don’t live in wigwams to practice our language or culture. We can live in today’s society and still be proper.”

Since then, he said his worldview has opened to him, like the igniting of a flame, and he says he sees that light in the children he teaches. 

“Their eyes open to the language and that life that opens up in them. It gives me hope,” Collins said. “My main goal is to create second language learners, second language teachers — to carry this into the future.”

Collins’s work spans age groups and institutions. He adapts to multiple online platforms and learning styles, designing content that resonates with young learners and college students alike. Each semester, his college students create books for the tribe’s child development centers. These projects benefit both the college students, as well as the younger learners. 

“They're so happy to receive a book. I don't think they really know or can acknowledge the importance of it… but it is important,” he reflected. “I’m on the fence — should they know that struggle, or should they just accept life for the way it is?”

As a student of the language, he used older methods to learn to speak, but those methods don’t necessarily connect with younger language learners. To make language learning more engaging, Collins ditched flashcards in favor of interactive Canva slides.

“These slides, they move, and these kids are really intrigued with it,” he said. 

“They have their favorites… they're able to say, ‘…, let’s do this one’”

His teaching method emphasizes expression and storytelling rather than direct translation. 

“You're just speaking English when you do that,” he said. “Let’s create our story from what words we have in our Potawatomi language.”

The language, Collins stresses, is sacred. 

“Our language is a gift from a creator. That’s what we truly believe. It’s important for us to know it and to share it.”

Collins said one of his favorite Potawatomi words is migwéch, which means “thank you.”

“Migwéch -- it translates to thank you, but it means a lot more. It's more like, ‘suffice with whatever is transpired.’” 

Igwien, he said, also means “thank you,” in Potawatomi, but there is a subtle nuance between the two words. 

“Igwien is more of a sincere thank you, but it is more correct or proper whatever has transpired. So, we say like igwien, or I’m thankful for it, or I’m grateful for it in that sense,” Collins said. 

Potawatomi is spoken across various bands in North America, from Canada to Mexico, and shares deep linguistic ties with other Algonquian languages like Ojibwe and Kickapoo. Collins regularly meets online with speakers from other Potawatomi bands, including the Huron and Pokagon, to learn from one another and keep the language dynamic.

“We’re fixing to open the language site to the public in June,” Collins shared. “Just for people to open it up and use it with their kids.”

The website, potawatomiheritage.com/language/, already offers stories and books children can swipe through and hear in Potawatomi. 

Collins’s three-year-old nephew is one such user. 

“He can swipe away and hear those words. It’s about making time in their life to acquire the language.”

But Collins acknowledges the challenge in recruiting qualified instructors: 

“I had a job opening, and it was up for a year before we pulled it down. There was just nobody coming at it,” he said. 

In time, he hopes that recruiting instructors will be easier. It is now up to him to train the next generation of Potawatomi speakers and educators. 

For those interested in learning, Collins offers a free online, self-paced course open to anyone — no tribal enrollment is required. Participants meet weekly to review lessons.

“You can learn it,” he encouraged. “Don’t take yourself too seriously. It is difficult, but it’s worth it.”

“It's a healing – of people and having that connection and seeing their connection to not just the Earth, but to the world around them, and it's still here. And to know that it's still here is very important to learn it and to share it again with our community …. because then the community can kind of see that it's not just one worldview,” he said.

To learn more or enroll in the language course, Collins can be reached at robert.collins@potawatomi.org.