Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1996)
Warm Springs, Oregon SpilyayTymoo Sahaptin lessons introduces family members- Culture Camp Language Activites Sa'psikw'at Ichishkin snwit (Teaching Sahaptin Language) Monday Niimuma Family " 1 -5 ''4iV 6 July 18, 1996 J- 1 jw mm Chiashwi tfla ku kdia. This is my mother's father and mother. Chiashwa" ala ku pusha. This is my father's mother and father. Tuesday Ikush iwa snwit Conversation Chiashwa" nahitas ku na'flas. This is my father and mother. is m t Chiashwa" pacht ku pat. This is my younger brother and older sister. Palaiyfki sapl anft Making Campfire Bread Kiukfulas anft Making drums rri Lishdal anit Making shawls Thursday Samsikw'at ku Iq'lwit Culture Camp Language Activities Wap'atk'ptki Loom beading Kw'alani Happy Niix ashwa" I'm Fine. Niix maicqi Good Morning. mm Sa'psikw'at wautukt Camp of learning. Wisxawasmf w5pas anft Making twine bags P winat k'ptki Lazy Stitch beading Shalauwishaash I'm tired. Payiiwishaash I'm sick. Wednesday Samsikw'at ku Iq'fwit Culture Camp Language Activities f i j j Tunihpash ku kkdasu anft Pipshmf tauq'xsh ku Making Bows and Arrows iw&wish Choker and Breast plate. WatfqwtMuwachtna Sapsikw'atfchishkin snwit Dream Catchers Teaching Sahaptin Language Culture and Heritage staff attend American Indian Language Development Institute Five staff from the Culture and Heritage Department attended the American Indian Language Develop ment Institute, in Tucson, Arizona, which is at the University of Arizona, from June 3 to June 27. Attending were: Director Wilson Wewa, Com puter Programmer Valerie Aguilar, Paiute Language teachers Shirley Tufti and Pat Miller and Alice Harman, Curriculum Developer. The Institute has been going for 16 years. In 1995 the Sahaptin Lan guage teachers attended the Institute. Next year the Wasco Language teach ers are tentatively scheduled to at tend. There were a lot of Language teachers from all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil to name a few. Mostly Hopi and Navajo, who had the most expe rience in teaching Indian Language. Valerie, Pat and Shirley attended classes in methods and materials in bilingual education and linguistics. In these classes they learned to write, develop curriculum, do lesson plans and thematic units Alice and Wilson took sociolinguistics and studied politics and policy in native language devel opment According to Alice it was very intense and interesting. They emphasized the fact that people who spoke Indian language were the experts. It's not important that they have a piece of paper that says they know something, it's what you've known most of your life, your culture, history and the language. The experts are the ones keeping the lan guage alive. Emphasized also was the fact that in language rejuvenation and lan guage development, decisions should be made by Indian people. Non-Indians can be useful in technical as pects or provide support. They went to school at 7:45 a.m. in the morning until 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon and attended lectures in the evenings. They did a lot of homework in the evenings also. Their lectures included speakers of different cultures from Mexico, Hawaii, other Native Americans. They told the story of their language rejuvenation, the methods they used and the current status. They talked of the hurdles and bureaucracy their programs went through. Some of their lectures included presentations by poets, authors and bilingual teachers. They learned from lecturers that the key to keeping any language alive is to start teaching children at a young age. The teaching has to come from the parents, so that children can learn and at the same time use the language with someone in the home. The lectures also included lan guages that were never written and the steps that were taken to start an alphabet for that language and even tually write it. The Paiute Language teachers learned new methods of teaching and shared their own methods with other language teachers. Language teach ers were impressed by the methods used in Warm Springs. Learning how to write their lan guage was new experience for them. The sentence structure of the Paiute language is backwards compared to English. Miller said in Warm Springs she hardly has to write the language. Going back to school for Pat Miller and Shirley Tufti was "scary," they lacked confidence in them selves. They helped each other and received help from Valerie and Alice in return for help with the Paiute lan guage. After completion Miller was im Continued on page 8 T - , ii . v ' to- Language Program attends Language Development Institute in Tuscon, Arizona.