Ojibwe quiz bowl team has the answers

The Cloquet High School Ojibwe Quiz Bowl team recently took first place at the Minnesota Indian Education Association's 2024 Ojibwe Quiz Bowl.

Next up is the 2024 Lester "Jack" Briggs Regional Quiz Bowl Championship on May 10 at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. Although it's not technically a "state" quiz bowl competition, "it might as well be," said Ojibwe teacher and quiz bowl coach Julian Kitto. "All the teams will be there."

This school year marked the third year for Cloquet's most recent Ojibwe Quiz Bowl effort. Kitto, who graduated from Cloquet in 2006, was on the Ojibwe Quiz Bowl team when he was a student. Students practice once a week during the school year, he said. Kitto expects to field two teams at FDLTCC, which will be the final tournament of the year.

Kitto said all the students are given a list of resources, and questions about language and culture are taken from those.

"We will write our questions out and send them in, other teams send their questions in, then the questions are divided into different games," he said. "Each team has a table and a buzzer they hit."

Students answer questions about how to translate certain phrases, either from Ojibwe to English or vice versa. There are also culture questions, based on information in the resources.

"It's fun, if you want to give it a go, try it out," was his message to any prospective team members.