Spring Performance Demonstrates Success of Language Programs
By Cova St. Onge
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Cultural I mu ^'
L a "8U a S e P r ° je C t S‘ aff P annered W i ' h S de 'Z V al ' ey S ch O°' “ nd S ile 'Z T nh ;" H ead S la "
** first annua! Spring Performance: -Language
The songs and skits shared with the community were as follows:
Head Start singing
Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes (Dee-Ni lyrics)
Kindergarten singing
The Counting Song (Dee-Ni song)
First and Second Grade perform a Dee-Ni skit
I am a Flower
Third Grade Sign Language Songs
ABC Song
We are the World ~ Michael Jackson
Celebrate Earth Day ~ John Denver
Third and Forth Grade perform a Dee-Ni skit
The Salmon Cycle
Fifth and Sixth Grade perform
Vocabulary Charades (Dee-Ni version)
Ninth Grade performs an Arabic skit
Animals
Sree Hvsh Singers
Happy Birthday to You (Dee-Ni lyrics)
Paddle, Paddle, Paddle Your Canoe (Dee-Ni lyrics)
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (Dee-Ni lyrics)
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Round Dance Style- SanPoil
Whitehead (Dee-Ni and English lyrics)
Red Lipstick - Little Island Cree sang by San Poil Whitehead
and Logan Butler
The Siletz Dee-Ni performances highlighted the curriculum
development and song translations of the Siletz Tribal Language
Project staff. The staff has worked as a team to develop Siletz
Dee-Ni curriculum for Head Start through the fifth grade.
The performances were a direct result of a year and a
half of efforts by Alfred "Bud Lane 111 as the language spe
cialist and director, Joe Scott as the curriculum developer
and teacher and my efforts as the Dee-Ni music teacher and
project coordinator.
The Arabic skit Animals, composed by Abir Hassan, is an
activity of the Egyptian teacher who has been part of Siletz Valley
School and Early College Academy for the 2009-10 academic
year. She was placed with the school through a Teachers of
Critical Languages Program grant.
Abir Hassan has brought the verbal and written Arabic lan
guage to students through the sharing of language and culture.
The Animals skit was a demonstration of her achievements.
The Spring Performance was brought to the community
through a partnership of efforts and funding from the Admin
istration for Native Americans, TCLP U.S. Department of
State through the American Councils for International
Education, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and Siletz
Valley School.
The event was extremely successful, involving 367 attend
ees, 162 kids and 20 staff. In addition to the staff, a special thanks
to the volunteers who assisted in the success of the event; Cheryl
Schriver and Linda Luckini for the beautiful painting on the stage
backdrop; Kelli Brugh and Patty Socha-Paul for staging students
and general assistance; Bonnie and Morgan Crawford for greet
ing and general assistance; Darod Cheek for video recording;
and numerous students who assisted in the setup.
Thank you to Siletz Valley School and Siletz Tribal Head
Start staff for your support and participation in bringing this
outstanding event to the community.
Nuu-wvn srxii-xe xuu-srxii-xe hii-chu xuu-srxii-xe hii-chu
xaa-ma
(For our children, their children and their children)
Hvm'-chi’
Joe Scott (top
photo, right) leads
third- and fourth
graders through
The Salmon Cycle.
Bud Lane and
Cova St.Onge
(middle photo,
left) help the
kindergarten class
through The
Counting Song.
Ninth-grade
students (bottom
photo) perform
a skit in Arabic
called Animals.
Photos by Natasha
Kavanaugh
A Poem by Sequoia Breck
Creation, is a song that only the creator knows how to sing
Treading our ancestor's paths, we make new roads, both following and leading
We are the ancestors of our children's futures
Fires, destroying and cleansing, healing the broken bones of our forests
We dance to the song, not needing to know the steps or the beat, just living aloud
The creator has designed a dance for us ... we all play our parts, the creator
all the time knowing
we will change our parts
June 2010
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Siletz News
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