Spilyay tymoo., May 17, 2023, Page 5, Image 5

Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
May 17, 2023
Page 5
Vendor opportunity for ‘In A Landscape’ concert
The Warm Springs Commu-
nity Action Team is looking for
food, arts and crafts vendors
for the upcoming In A Land-
scape concert on Saturday
evening, June 3.
The concert will feature Classi-
cal pianist Hunter Noack playing a
nine-foot Steinway grand piano for
Hunter Noack
performed last
year at Smith
Rocks in
Central Oregon.
courtesy photo
the outdoor concert.
“We anticipate around 500
people to attend the concert this
year,” said Dustin Seyler, Commu-
nity Action Team business advisor.
The WSCAT will provide the
Languages: Inspiring spring conference
(from page 4)
The 8:30 keynote speaker was
Jeri Brunoe, who gave a ‘Teacher-
to-Teacher’ presentation, and would
later lead much of the Youth Track
at the conference.
For the remainder of the day
the attendees had their choice of
classes ranging from: ‘Teaching
Culture as well as Language’ by
Warm Springs Academy Ichishkiin
Language Teacher Lorraine
Suppah; and ‘The Ichishkiin Dic-
tionary,’ a presentation by North-
west Indian Language Institute,
youth presentations by Jefferson
Greene and many more.
“I also wanted to tell you I heard
so many good reviews about the lan-
guage summit. Awesome job to you
all.” - Jolene Greene
One class was about ‘Embrac-
ing Technology,’ where those who
attended were given some insight
into how computer technology, Ar-
tificial Intelligence and social me-
dia can help to teach and make
learning more enticing to the mod-
ern student.
With existing programs, we can
colorize old photos and ‘take the
image out of the ancient past.’ By
doing this we give those elders and
ancestors, long gone, a new life, in-
troducing them to our young
people in a way that makes them
just as relevant and alive as their
own parents and elders in their life.
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, can
even make those same images and
give them motion, which is a total
game changer as an introduction to
our Native American histories.
Teachers also learned how so-
cial media such as TikTok and
Instagram can make everywhere
you go into a language lesson chal-
lenge. One video showed a Lakota
family reciting their Lakota names,
while another had a Native woman
from the Northern people of the
arctic teaching words on times of
the day; and another, my favorite,
was a young Lakota woman who
was at a place with many taxidermy
animals: She used her phone to
record the animal while she spoke
in her Native language the animal
names.
A modern student can use his
or her phone for homework; that
is, he or she can record the lan-
guage assignment, then turn it in to
be graded for accuracy. I can’t think
of a better way to get them disin-
terested in their device than by
making it a school-related item.
There were Ichishkiin presenta-
tions by Dallas Winishut, Jermayne
Tuckta and Ange Anguiano; Archi-
val materials for ‘Language Recla-
mation’ by Dr. Tim Thornes, Boise
State and Duck Valley Reservation,
and Brent Florendo ‘Speaking with
a Sovereign Voice.’
In this class he spoke of how
the collegiate world has changed in
its approach to Native American
studies by utilizing Native people,
such as himself, to build those pro-
grams rather than sending non-In-
The Warm
Springs drum
Quartz Creek
provided the
drumming for
the Healing
Through Our
Native
Languages
Conference.
Dancers at
the spring
Languages
conference;
and the Tiny
Dancers
ready to
perform.
Photos courtesy
Rain Circle/CTWS
dians out into the world and bring-
ing that information back to the
college, and teaching with the non-
Indian perspective. He told of how,
when he collected the knowledge
from the people, he took their sto-
ries to his college as it was told to
him, removing himself so that it
stayed in the original Native voice
and remained their property.
Another class was on how tech-
nology is being adapted to our
teaching of Native language. This
class was presented by three Uni-
versity of Oregon students from
Northwest Indian Language Insti-
tute, NILI. The first presenter was
a Dine man who is learning
Ichishkiin. Another was a non-
NDN learning Ichishkiin; and the
third, a woman speaker from the
Yakama Indian Reservation, all in
their 20s. They demonstrated, to a
packed house, a tech/teaching pre-
sentation on a method they devised
using images and recordings to be-
ginners from grade school and up.
“Great job—Loved it! I hope
yo u g e t g r e a t f e e d b a c k . We a l l
would’ve loved to stay another day
o r t w o t o b e w i t h e v e r yo n e . ” -
Jefferson Greene.
There were more classes by
Shayleen Eaglespeaker on ‘Kiksht
Language’ and ‘Numu’ by Salena
Cooper.
Some presenters had double
duty: ‘Youth Storytelling’ was pre-
sented by Brent Florendo and
Modesta Minthorn. Shayleen and
Jermayne were on a Native Ameri-
can Language Panel, where they an-
swered questions from the attend-
ees about language or other aspects
of their relationship to their respec-
tive Native Languages.
The evening meal had the treat
of Renee Roman Nose in her alter
ego ‘Auntie Benae,’ who entertained
us with her Native Humor act.
“It was a lot to take in, but my
perspective is that we are doing okay
with our language teaching , the main
objective is that we are preserving
our language by working with our
youth and we need to share as much
as we can to others, and sharing
through technology then that would
get the language out there easier for
learners. It was a fun conference,
just wish it was all in one place.” -
Alexandria
‘Ange’
Anguiano, Warm Springs
Ichishkiin Language In-
structor, Culture and Heri-
tage Department.
The remainder of the confer-
ence was just as exciting as the first
day. Some people were able to at-
tend Radine Johnson’s class ‘The
Race Against Time,’ which
chronicled her part in the struggle
and challenge to record as much
of the Kiksht language from the
tribal Elders who grew up speak-
ing that language.
She spoke of the stress and ex-
citement of the journey, record-
ing and interviewing her grand-
mother and trying to extract the
language knowledge from her be-
fore her time in this world was
completed. I can tell you from lis-
tening to the recordings and utiliz-
ing the lesson plans created from
those interviews, it was time well
spent and we all should be grate-
ful for the dedication and care the
Culture and Heritage Department
spends in their duties.
Jeri Brunoe led our young
people in a ‘Leadership for Youth’
class. The 509-J school district pre-
sented ‘Hosting and Implementing
Senate Bill 13,’ the Oregon law that
makes a priority of teaching Na-
tive American History from the
Native perspective. This perspec-
tive had always been lacking
throughout the state. Phil Duncan
familiarized his attendees with ‘The
Language and Linguistics of Indig-
enous North America.’ The Office
of Indian Education gave a pre-
sentation on ‘Bringing Educational
Sovereignty Back.’
The youngest presenter, Del
Ray Johnson, presented a class on
his own methods of instructing
Kiksht Language at the Confeder-
ated Tribes Early Childhood Edu-
cation Center and the War m
Springs Academy.
He demonstrated his method
of naming an animal in Kiksht,
minus the English translation, with
a stuffed animal example to en-
hance the visual auditory associa-
tion with the animal. This means
he would take the stuffed animal—
tables, chairs and canopies at the
event for the vendors, and will help
them set up.
This is only for Warm Springs
tribal member vendors, and there
is no fee. Application forms are
available at the Action Team office
on campus.
Vendors must register by filling
a beaver in this case—and hold it
close to his mouth while saying the
name ‘Iganuk,’ then extend the
Iganuk to the group, repeating the
name. This prompted the group
to repeat Iganuk. He repeated the
process two more times, and by
then he and the group have re-
peated Iganuk at least three times:
Repeating a name three times in
the first minute of a new word’s
introduction enhances the
learner’s likelihood of remember-
ing it.
The next phase was then pass-
ing that stuffed animal from stu-
dent to student, having the students
on their own repeat Iganuk until
each student had a chance to hold
and name the animal. By the end
of the class the attendees had
learned Ichq’chq (bald eagle),
Iganuk, Iduiha (bull/cow) and Ilalik
(rabbit).
Del also showed the complexity
of the Kiksht language with a con-
jugation flow chart. This language
has a pattern of changing the word
modifier/verb depending on the
spelling of the noun: This really
showed his proficiency and versa-
tility in his teaching skills.
“The conference was ver y inter-
esting—Seeing all the people who
were interested in what we do and
all the different cultural teachings
and lessons they had to teach and
talk about. One of the presenters
went to Theater in college, and told
the legend of how Raccoon got his
stripes. All the people were interested,
very nice to see.
“I have gone to two different con-
ferences beforehand but I never was
actually a part of a conference like
I was at OSU Cascades. I was the
leader of the dance group, had to
dance then introduced myself to ev-
eryone at the conference. Then hav-
ing to teach a class all on my own
was scary but also a nice experience.
All the different backgrounds of the
people was cool, like the Linguistics
college students...” Del Ray
J o h n s o n , Wa r m Sp r i n g s
Academy Kiksht Language
I n s t r u c t o r, C o n f e d e r a t e d
Tribes Culture and Heritage
Department.
The last day of the Healing
Through Our Native Languages
Conference was rounded out with
hands-on classes with Anita Davis,
a premier local bead artist; Kelli
Palmer, who taught Wapas weav-
ing; and Allison Mitchell, who
taught Dent earring making. There
were almost 40 participants in each
of these classes.
Regrettably, the weather brought
the conference to an earlier close
than expected. The snow came in
hard and deep the morning of the
last full day, so this affected the
Salmon Bake but, as only Indians
can do, that last evening meal was
still just as full of happy people
making due.
By now we all knew each other
much better. Rather than 150-plus
strangers, we looked more like old
friends parting ways in smiles and
laughter. Jackie and Del Ray led the
abridged Farewell Dance for every-
one.
The tiny Indians from the first
day were not able to make it be-
cause of the snow, but the four
skins that began the line-up turned
into almost Everyone! What began
as four dressed-in-street-clothes
NDNs turned into a continuous line
of Natives celebrating each other.
Our differences, similarities, what
we learned from each other and
shared between tribes… Healing
out the vendor application form
and emailing it to Dustin at:
dustin.seyler@wscat.org
Or drop off the completed form
at the WSCAT office on campus,
1135 Paiute Ave., Warm Springs.
Tribal members will also get into
the concert free. Send an email to
Dustin with how many tribal mem-
ber tickets you would like, and he
will add your names to the list. “June
3 is just around the corner, so let’s
get ready for some fun!” he says.
was done and our youth weres there
to witness and then take that sto-
ries with them.
It was a good feeling to see our
first generation of language protec-
tors inspiring the new. Tribal mem-
bers such as Shayleen, Del, the
youth in attendance and others were
able to get a glimpse of what it must
have been like on the shores of the
Columbia, across the Great Basin
and throughout the Pacific North-
west before the days of The Ameri-
can. I know that the non-Indians in
and around the dining area were able
to hear us and even if they didn’t
understand what was happening
they felt the love when, after Valerie
Switzler finished her closing com-
ments, the room was filled with an
uproar of War Hoops and crys of
Native People! It was loud and sunk
into your bones and soul to live with
you forever. It lasted for several
minutes and its effects were not lost
on the bystanders or those within
earshot… It is astonishing to think
that the same sounds that celebrate
us and show approval of others are
the same sounds our enemies hear
while we are engaged in battle with
them. It is a sound meant for those
we respect.
The Healing Through Our Na-
tive Languages Conference, as spon-
sored by the Confederated Tribes
of Warm Springs Culture and Heri-
tage Department, did exactly what
it was meant to do, and a huge part
of that is due to two people. It takes
hours upon hours, days, weeks and
months to make four days of learn-
ing, vendors ceremony and food
happen, and the conference was a
success due to, this in no small part,
to the actions and dedication of
Gina Ricketts of the Hoopa People
and our very own Lori Switzler.
There were calls to be made, co-
ordination to be had, emails to be
sent, shirts produced, beading con-
tracts, presenters to book, and item
after item on a very long list of
items. And these two women are
owed a very heart-felt Thank You…
So Thank You Gina, and Thank
You Lori for all that you did for us,
the attendees of the conference and
the people of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs. There are
programs the two of you are part
of that our tribal members may
never realize, but your commitment
will have an effect on their educa-
tion and their children and
grandchildren’s education, for de-
cades to come. We admire how you
still made the time to coordinate this,
Thank you.
Many of us came away from it
feeling closer to our people and our
languages after being reminded we
are not alone in our fight to re-vi-
talize them. Across our tribe we can
undo what the Americans did in the
last century by forcing our voices
silent.
We determined that we can heal
from the stripping of our Native
voice by leaving English speak be-
hind and take responsibility for its
survival by raising Indian babies that
need ESL Classes, because they’ve
never known the language of the
colonies.
Speaking words of the ancient
people you are descended from
heals your English-speaking soul.
There is a feeling Natives can-
not find anywhere else but in hav-
ing the oldest words of this land pass
from your heart through your lips
and out into the world to remind
them that ‘We are here, as we have
always been here, and here we will
remain.’
Rain Circle, CTWS