The Frank Victor Hugo Memorial Award has been
given out to a Nishnaabemowin Language Instructors' Institute student
since 1998. Hugo was a pioneer in language preservation.
Biography: Frank Victor Hugo
A hunter, a warrior, and a fluent speaker of the Ojibwa language, Frank
Hugo was a 20th Century Ojibwe man who reconciled his traditional lifestyle
with modern living.
Frank was born in 1909 to Frank and Charlotte (Friday) Hugo. His great
grandmother was Betsy Bird, who was born in the early 1800s and died at
the age of 106 in the 1920s.
Three months before he was born, his father drowned while fishing. So,
Frank was born in his grandmother’s boarding house across the St.
Mary’s River in Canada.
While attending the old mission school in Bay Mills, Frank was spanked
for speaking his Native language. He was sent to the Mt. Pleasant Indian
School where he was not allowed to speak Ojibwa at all. He stayed through
the eighth grade, completing his schooling.
He was not bitter about his experience. He had the opportunity to travel,
competing in baseball. But he was determined to never lose his native
language or identity.
Frank went home, working in the CCC camps, lumbering up in Eckerman and
in the woods with his stepfather, Ed Oga. He was renowned as a hunter,
putting meat on relatives’ tables while his grandmother and mother
gardened and gathered food. They all spoke the language together.
His grandmother, Betsy Bird, is buried in Mission Hill Cemetery. She told
Frank a story of her great grandmother, who had to hide in the reeds, and
breathe through them. The water was all red from blood. Never could figure
out where or when that exactly was, or who was attacking. They guessed in
Wisconsin, perhaps Bad River.
In 1942, Frank joined the U.S. Army Infantry during WWII, landing at Normandy
in the second wave of the invasion force. A scout and a truck driver,
he served in N. France, Ardennes, Rhineland, Central Europe. He was decorated
with the Victory Medal, American Theater Ribbon, and European African
Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon. He had earned four bronze battle stars,
three overseas service bars, one service strip and a good conduct medal
at the time of his honorable discharge in 1949.
While serving in Germany, he met and married Lieselotte “Lisa”
Ernhardt. A Polish girl who had an American boyfriend needed Lisa to translate.
That’s how she and Frank met. A favorite family joke revolves around
the couple’s courtship: “He chased her all the way across Germany
.. And she chased him all the way back.”
They had four daughters together — Charlotte, Freida, Heidi and Lisa.
His family was a big part of his life. His nieces and nephews meant as much
to him as his own children.
His sisters were Mary Hugo Lee, Francis Cameron, and Lydia Hugo Teeple.
When his widowed mother married Ed Oga, she had five more children, Clara
Oga Thomson, Angus Oga, Helen Oga Fish, Walter Oga, and Ethel Oga Passage.
Frank and his family loved nature, continuing to gather chokecherries,
sugar plums, blueberries, and pine cones. If they came upon some ripe
berries in the woods, Frank could whip together a bark basket to gather
them. At one time, many could assemble a basket if they needed it; now,
it’s artwork.
Frank’s knees were hurt in the war. When he came home, he still
enjoyed hunting, but he couldn’t sneak up on the game the way he
used to.
He remained active in tribal affairs throughout his life and offered his
home to visitors and guests. He participated in old-style council meetings
that could last for days under the handmade arbors in the Commons, behind
the pond and Methodist Church.
As an elder, he volunteered to teach the Ojibwa language in the Bay Mills
Community. He traveled to Bay Mills from his home in the Soo on nights,
weekends, and even throughout the winters to teach the youth their native
language. While language preservation is at the forefront of today’s
concerns, back in the 70s Frank was already committed to helping our community
recover and preserve our language before it slipped away.
When Frank visited his lifelong friend Sam Waishkey in long-term care,
the nurses said Sam could no longer speak. But he spoke with Frank —
in Ojibwa.
Frank Hugo died in 1993 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.
He is sorely missed. He lived and died an Anishnabe — strong, caring
and humble. He passed down a traditional heritage from time immemorial
to his family and to our community.
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