Minnesota Wild and FanDuel Sports Network produced the NHL’s first Ojibwe-language game broadcast, linking local media rights with Indigenous language revival.
When most people switch on the television to watch sport, we barely think about the language we hear. Commentary arrives in our own words, our own idioms, our own accents. For many Indigenous fans in Minnesota, that has never been the case.
On Friday 28 November, this changed. As the Minnesota Wild hosted the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center, fans at home could tap an “In the Ojibwe language” tile on the FanDuel Sports Network app and hear the NHL game called entirely in Ojibwemowin for the first time.
The historic broadcast, now confirmed as the league’s first full game in Ojibwe, was produced by FanDuel Sports Network and tied to the Wild’s Native American Heritage Day celebrations. It brought together the club, Grand Casino, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network (MIIN), a Minnesota-based non-profit focused on Anishinaabe language revitalisation.
Rather than a one-off jersey or a pre-game ceremony, the centrepiece of the Wild’s heritage initiative was the language itself. Play-by-play and analysis were handled by respected speakers Gordon “Maajiigoneyaash” Jourdain, Chato “Ombishkebines” Gonzalez and James “Ginoonde” Buckholtz, a high-school senior and graduate of the Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language School.
Ojibwemowin, also known as Anishinaabemowin, is an Indigenous language of the Algonquian language family spoken in North America. It is characterized by numerous dialects and has historically served as a trade language in the Great Lakes region and northern Great Plains. A growing movement is working to revitalize the language, which is still spoken primarily by elders today.
Minnesota Wild’s latest initiative matters in a market where clubs are under pressure to show that “heritage nights” are more than themed merch drops. Chief executive Matt Majka framed the game as part of a longer-term commitment to Indigenous communities which have always been part of Minnesota’s fanbase, arguing that putting Ojibwe front and centre helps “celebrate the Indigenous communities who have long been part of Minnesota’s cultural fabric” and expand access to the sport in the language of local nations.
MIIN, which works on immersive language learning and policy change around Anishinaabe languages, saw the broadcast as a way of normalising Ojibwemowin in mainstream cultural spaces rather than confining it to classrooms or community events. Its leaders have stressed that Indigenous languages carry specific knowledge systems and values, and that using them in high-profile settings can strengthen identity, intergenerational connection and wellbeing.
A different kind of media deal
From a media-rights perspective, the initiative also underlines FanDuel Sports Network’s strategy of using localisation and community-focused programming to stand out in a crowded streaming environment.
The RSN operator, owned by Main Street Sports Group, already carries live coverage for multiple MLB, NBA and NHL teams across 15 regional networks and a direct-to-consumer streaming product. By carving out a dedicated Ojibwe-language feed and requiring users to actively select it within the app, the company effectively treated language as an additional layer of choice alongside team and territory.
For tribal partners such as the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Grand Casino, the broadcast sits at the intersection of cultural investment and sports marketing. Supporting an Indigenous-language feed allows them to align brand visibility with language preservation, in contrast to more traditional in-arena sponsorship inventory.
The 3–2 shootout win for the Wild provided the sporting drama that any broadcaster wants, but the bigger test will be whether this kind of content becomes a one-off heritage activation or the start of a recurring strand within FanDuel’s NHL coverage. Local media reports have already framed the night as “sports broadcasting history” and highlighted interest from Indigenous audiences across the region.
Part of a wider movement?
In Canada, APTN and Sportsnet have spent several seasons producing “Hockey Night in Canada in Cree”, and more recently adding Inuktitut broadcasts, bringing NHL games to viewers in Indigenous languages on linear TV and streaming. The first Cree-language NHL broadcast aired in 2019, and the partnership has grown into a multi-year package.
What is new here is that an American NHL club and a US regional sports network have invested in a full Ojibwe-language call as part of their primary rights offering, rather than as a separate public-service strand. For US franchises, that sets a template for how language and culture can be woven into premium game content, not just shoulder programming.
