Spilyty Tyrnoo, Wgrrn Springs, Oregon November 1, 2001
Page 7
THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES LANGUAGE LESSON-
Language Update
submitted by Myra Shawaway
Dear People:
The Education summit was put to
gether well. With the involvement of School
district Administrators and outside present
ers, a wealth of information was shared. The
conference was well attended by community
people.
We have great appreciation for the
words that were shared regarding the impor
tance of our languages and culture being
considered an integral part of our childrens'
education. We feel that cultural curriculum is
not a complete project if it does not include
our languages. Both of those subjects are
one in the same. And we believe that our
children will benefit socially and academically
with the teaching of languagecultural cur
riculum. Culture and Heritage believes that,
with the endangered status our languages
are in, we need to focus on programs to
strengthen our culture and languages here at
Warm Springs. Our children are an important
part of the process.
If one read the last Spilyay article, you
would see the percentage of speakers we
have left is clearly an issue to be concerned
about. If we work harder on our develop
ment of fluent speakers in our children, we
will have done our job to address our loss of
languages. We feel that with the working
relationship that has been developed with our
local Elementary School we are moving to
wards that goal of student success within
the public school system. As our children
learn languageculture they also gain a
greater sense of pride and will know that the
survival of languages and cultural identity will
be attributed to their carrying of the lan
guages in the future.
j. v Immersion projects is one of those .-.
programs we would like to move towards. 'So
following is some information that supports
what we are currently doing and how we feel
about language and cultural education within
our school systems: Language of learning;
Indigenous language immersion enhances
native education
Brian Stockes; c. Indian Country Today; Sep
tember 3, 2000
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Fluency in
American Indian or indigenous languages
may improve the general academic success
of Indian youth, witnesses told the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. How
ever, they said, such fluency is in decline.
"Over half of our languages are still with us
after all these years of adversity," said
Michael Krauss, director of the Alaska Native
Language Center. "But unless there is radical
change and success at the reversal of lan
guage shift, the next 60 years will see the
extinction of 1 55 languages, with but 20 of
the 1 75 remaining."
Many within Indian education and the
federal government have said they believe
this decline is tied not only to current prob
lems facing Indian students, but to their
future success. Overall, Native American
students lag significantly behind their peers
in educational performance. They rank lowest
in many important categories, such as read
ing and dropout rates.
The Department of Education reports
that 48 percent of American Indian
fourth-graders scored "at or above the basic
level" on a 1994 national reading assessment
test, compared with 60 percent of all fourth
graders nationwide. In 1997, the annual
dropout rate for American Indian teenagers
was 5.9 percent, nearly twice the national
average.
"There is strong cross-cultural evi
dence supporting the effectiveness of second-language
immersion schooling," said Dr.
Teresa McCarthy of the University of
Arizona's American Indian Language Develop
ment Institute. "Indigenous students are
heavily over represented in special education
programs, and experience the highest school
failure and dropout rates in the nation. Thus,
despite the transition to English, indigenous
students are not, on the whole, doing better
in school. This situation has motivated cre
ative new approaches to indigenous education
which emphasizes immersion in Native Ameri
can language."
Throughout the early part of the 20th
century, the federal government promoted a
policy which aimed to wipe out native lan
guages and its use by Indian youth. It was
common for Indian children to be sent to
boarding schools and punished for speaking
their language. After years of ignoring the
problem the U.S. government finally began to
address native language loss through new
federal policies at the close of the century.
In 1 990, the Native American Lan
guages Act was passed, declaring it "the
official policy of the United States govern
ment to preserve, protect, and promote the
rights and freedom of Native Americans to
use, practice, and develop native languages."
The Senate is considering legislation (S.
2688) that would amend the law by establish
ing Native American language "survival
I schools" and "language nests." These schools
would provide complete education using both
Native American and English languages. The
bill would support Native American "language
nests," immersion programs for children aged
6 and younger. It would further provide au
thority for curriculum, teacher, staff and
community resource development, rental,
lease, purchase, construction, maintenance or
repair of educational facilities and establish
ment of two Native American Language
School support centers. They would be at the
Native Language College in the University of
Hawaii at Hilo and the Alaska Native Language
Center of the University of Alaska.
In Hawaii, the opportunity for an educa
tion in and through Hawaiianextepds from
preschool to graduate school Recent reports
indicate approximately 1 ,800 children have
learned to speak Hawaiian through immersion
schooling.
In another long-range study of Hawaiian
immersion, student achievement equaled or
surpassed that of native Hawaiian children
enrolled in English-only school.
"The University of Hawaii at Hilo began
teaching Hawaiian in the 1 970s and in 1 982
developed a (bachelor of arts) program in the
language," said Dr. Kalena Silva, director of
the Ke'elik'lani College of Hawaiian Language.
"At around the same time, a group of Hawai
ian language teachers and speakers formed
the NAha P'nana Leo organization to re-establish
Hawaiian as a language of the family and
of schools. There are now 2,000 children
enrolled in such schools in Hawaii.
Another well-documented program in
language immersion is at Fort Defiance, Ariz.
When it began in 1 987, fewer than a tenth of
the 5-year-olds at the school were considered
reasonable Navajo speakers. Fort Defiance
established a voluntary Navajo immersion
program that included initial literacy in Navajo,
then English and math in both languages. The
program also set a heavy emphasis on lan
guage and critical thinking.
By the fourth grade, Navajo immersion
Students were performing as well on tests of
English as Navajo students in non-immersion
classes. Immersion students did better on
assessments of English writing, and were
substantially ahead on standardized tests on
English writing, and were well ahead on stan
dardized tests of mathematics. Tested on
Navajo language measures, they outper
formed Navajo peers.in non-immersion
classes.
Immersion programs have also been
documented for the Mohawk, Mississippi band
of Choctaw, Northern Arapaho, Blackfeet,
Cochiti Pueblo, Yup'ik and some California
tribes.
Most language experts believe that
immersion programs could not only reverse
the poor academic rating of indigenous stu
dents, but also turn the tide on the extinction
of native languages.
The Senate is expected to consider the
new bill before the end of the session.
CONNECTION: In the schools
A coalition of Washington state tribal
educators is pushing the need for tribal lan
guages in their children's schools. The First
Peoples Language Committee meets regularly
to put together a list of recommendations for
the state school system. Participants include
Colville and Spokane tribal members. Besides
trying to get native languages taught in public
schools, the committee is looking to establish
standards for how those languages are aught.
In the past, much of the burden has fallen
upon tribal elders, and not every fluent
speaker makes for a skilled teacher, the group
says.
On the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene
Indian reservations, fluent-speaking elders are
at the core of tribal language programs. In the
Coeur d'Alene Tribe, employees have access
to college-level language courses on their
reservation. The language is also taught in the
public schools there, said Bob Bostwick, tribal
press secretary. "The tribe's put a tremen
dous effort into keeping the language
healthy," Bostwick said. Tribal employees
often compete with other departments in
good-natured games of saying words and
phrases correctly. Elders act as judges. In
Spokane, tribal elders can use computer pro
grams that speak and help new students
pronounce Salish words.
High school students in Wellpinit on the
reservation also have the option of attending
college language classes at a tribal college
near their school.
Rob McDonald
THANK YOU
VETERANS
FOR OUR
FREEDOM.
Watch for employment
opportunities with Culture and
Heritage Language Program.
Agency Language Classes
the Language Trailer
behind the Old Boys Dorm
Paiute Language
will start again October 24
Wed. 3:30-4:30 PM
Sahaptin Language
will start again October 22
Tues. & Thurs. 3:30-4:30 PM
Wasco Language
Thurs. 5:00-6:30 PM
Simnasho Language Classes
Sahaptin Language
Simnasho Longhouse
Sahaptin Language
still going strong
Tues. & Thurs.
6:00 to 7:30
V
i