Professor Jesse Bruchac comes from a Jiu Jitsu family who founded and lead Alliance Saratoga Jiu Jitsu, as well Saratoga Academy of Elite Martial Arts. Jesse, his father and his brother are all Alliance Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts. He began martial arts training as a toddler with his father. In 2004 he co-founded Western New York Mixed Martial Arts.
In addition to training and teaching martial arts, for over three decades Jesse has been immersed in Algonquian language reclamation efforts. He is the founder and director of the School of Abenaki at Middlebury College. He first gained fluency in the western Abenaki language – learning his first words and phrases from his father as a toddler, and then directly from the last generation of first language speakers in the 1990s. He sees great similarities in the martial and linguistic arts, and works to teach them in a highly simplified and gamified way, as he was first introduced to them by his father.
Jesse has worked in language reclamation efforts with several Eastern Algonquian languages, including western Abenaki, Penobscot, Lenni Lenape, Delaware (Munsee and Unami), Mohican (Mahican), Mohegan-Pequot, and Quiripi-Unquachog. He is currently involved in the reawakening of previously dormant Virginia Algonquian languages.
In Budapest with Jamestown cast members, including Moses Brings Plenty (Yellowstone), Kalani Queypo (Slow West), Gene BraveRock (Wonder Woman 1984)
Jesse has lectured at Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, the LSA (Linguistic Society of America) Algonquian Conference, SAIL (Symposium for American Indian Languages), and CALICO (Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium).
Jesse most recently worked on the 2024 feature film Lost Nation, in theaters now. He has also worked with PBS (Monadnock), AMC (Turn), Carnival Films, NBC/Universal (Jamestown), National Geographic (Saints and Strangers/Barkskins), the BBC (Springwatch), BBC Radio 3 (In Tune/Autumnwatch), The Science Channel (America’s Lost Vikings), and others as an Eastern Algonquian translator, a language coach, and composer.
On the set in South Africa between takes with actor Tatanka Means (Killers of the Flower Moon).
As a musician his music had been a primary driver in language reclamation efforts, and has been featured in television, film, and radio. He’s performed at the Clearwater Festival, Old Songs, the Dance Flurry, and many other folk festivals over the last three decades. He has shared the stage with Joanne Shenandoah, Bill Miller, and Kevin Locke, performed at Woodstock ’94, and as a member of the Dawnland Singers opened for The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan. In 1996 he toured Belgium as a member of Awasos Sigwan, a drum group from the Abenaki reserve of Odanak, PQ. To hear his music, visit Jesse’s Spotify Artist Page.
Jesse Bowman with his son Jacob Bowman at the 2022 Boston Film Festival world premier of The Wind & the Reckoning.
While projects promoting and revitalizing the Indigenous languages of the American Northeast are his passion, Jesse considers his greatest accomplishment raising his children Carolyn Rose and Jacob Bowman to speak the Abenaki language fluently.
