~ Student lessons for the classroom ~
Numu ~ Paiute
by Rain Circle
From the Madras High
School Kiksht Class, It’ukdi
wigwa! Ichachachaq aktmin
is done and ‘the shoulder
month’ is happening.
As it was… so it is that
your
White
Buffalo
Ichishkiin, Kiksht and Numu
students are still hard at work
in the Native Language
room at MHS. The Native
Language learning group at
the high school is still doing
great things and they con-
tinue to make long strides.
These kids are still balanc-
ing essential required classes
with their newest sports
changes. They are still jug-
gling their social, home lives
and whatever challenges in
their daily routine, new and
old, on top of learning one
of the hardest languages
there is to learn, and we
haven’t lost any learners to
dropping the class, expulsion
or academic issues, they
make me proud. It is impor-
tant to note that we were
only able to utilize 15 of 21
learning days because of the
weather last month.
As we are... Over the
hump in this school year,
you should know that in the
beginning we had about 16
days of learning in the edu-
cation year, we are now
down to about 10. See, if
you add up the minutes we
have in class then divide the
answer for hours, your
Wasco White Buffalos have
16 eight-hour days to get as
much learning done as they
can.
It might not seem like a
lot but it is concentrated
learning and we get a lot
done in three quarters of an
hour. I try not to give them
much time of inactivity un-
til the end of the session.
They get about 5-10 minutes
to recover the classroom—
put it back how they found
it—depending on the work
load and subject matter. For
example if the day was vo-
cabulary building: memoriz-
ing-spelling-using new
words, then I try to use a
memory game for recalling
the words already covered,
and give the new stuff time
to settle in to long term
memory to repeat the pro-
cess the following week.
If the learning day is
more technical—for ex-
ample, prefix use and com-
binations or word conjuga-
tion—I give them more re-
covery time at the end of
the period to start the long
term memory storage ear-
lier, before they have a new
school district subject that
might push what they just
learned in Native Language
out and replaced with what-
ever the next class material,
and we can’t have that.
Longer sentences, more
vocab and review, review,
review is where we are in the
Kiksht group. I am sure that
it would be a much differ-
ent class if we had new ad-
ditions to the class this new
semester but I am sure that
we will adopt a Montessori
aspect of learning when that
happens.
This method of teaching
is vast and the part I am re-
ferring to is the ‘senior stu-
dent teaching and tutoring
the junior student’ aspect.
Most of us learn some-
thing from our contempo-
raries, such as you start a
new job and you get shown
the ropes by somebody who
has been there longer. In a
structured education envi-
ronment, this can be more
helpful than just a teacher
teaching everyone some-
thing. I am the class of 1993.
I am from a very different
time in learning than they are,
and it helps the process if
one’s contemporaries assist in
the learning.
The environment in which
they are coming to age is re-
moved enough from mine
that our methods of commu-
nicating can be a hindrance
vs a benefit. I am over 40 and
I think like that. They are in
their teens, and they think as
such… so who better to teach
them in a way they can un-
derstand than a peer in age
and experience: another teen-
ager (besides, it’s how you
learned most of the stuff
that rules your life and per-
sonality anyway, right?).
Why do we look so fondly
upon our ‘formative years’?
Because everything was new
and you soaked it up, you had
the ability to choose, to some
extent, and you chose. You
found new friends and inter-
ests and they forged your life
from then on and you hold
them dear… I want Kiksht
to be part of these students
lives in that way. Their love
for the Awawat will lie in the
little society they had for four
years and their fellow stu-
dents, senior classes to jun-
ior, pass the knowledge they
are given with each other and
all I have to do is introduce
new stuff and ensure that
what they teach each other is
correct. That is too easy! We
aren’t there yet but we are
definitely OTW there.
With that idea… I believe
that Madras High School has
the largest Kiksht speaking
community in the Pacific
Northwest, in any classroom,
and quite likely the entire
counrty. Being eight students,
they are the only regularly
held class of Kiksht speak-
ers I have ever heard of, ever.
I know that our cuzzins
north of the Wimat have a
Wishram program, I’ve met
one of them, but I’m pretty
sure they don’t have a pres-
ence in their high school like
we do but I don’t know ev-
erything and I am primarily
focused on this program so,
can’t say for sure but I’m
pretty damn sure.
Tune in next month for a
review on what we learned
in ‘kinship’ or family relation-
ship terms. Kiksht has many
words on family relationships
and that list is extensive.
There are words for your
aunts on your father’s side,
‘my father’s sister(s)’ and
your mother’s side, ‘my
mother’s sister’s’ and the
same applies to your uncles.
There are words in this sec-
tion that describe the relation-
ship, cannot be completed
without being in a sentence
and words that would only be
used when talking directly to
that individual and the beauty
of that word structure is
that it would be hard to mis-
take who is related to who
when they are using their tra-
ditional words… simple.
At one time we had the
community of speakers on
the WSIR, the different
speaking groups knew, or at
least some of their neighbor
groups lingo but it’s not like
that anymore.
Our community hasn’t
taken the time and effort to
undo all of the damage the
Americans caused in lan-
guage erasure and we’re pay-
ing for it now. What this
means is that the majority of
our elders can’t really serve
as mentors to languages any-
more so their grandchildren
have to step-up and be those
people.
I am sure that you have
had somebody in your fam-
ily ask you questions about
something they needed an-
swers to but today that elder
can’t even say K’aya enxulxat
to them, when the question
is their traditional Native
Language.
This time I speak of
wasn’t the ‘ancient past’ ei-
ther… my grandmothers’ gen-
eration could do that, to some
extent, and I heard more
people ‘speakin’ ndn’ in the
80s (not a lot but more) than
I hear now, and so our kids
can’t even pick up bad words
by eves dropping but I am
positive with your help, par-
ticipating and finding others
to revitalize Native Language
along with you, we can change
that. It is just a question of
reducing one’s own time nurs-
ing at the electric teat, that is
the internet and all of its
forms of delivery. Just start
the ‘language turn around’ by
reading the INK (Ichishkiin,
Numu & Kiksht) Native Lan-
guage section in this newspa-
per.
As before, I want to im-
part that what I learned as a
trainer of soldiers was that
people want a challenge.
People need a challenge...
large or small they want to
succeed and they want to
have someone to be proud of
them in their accomplish-
ments and be cared for.
Please, tell our young war-
riors that you are proud of
them as often as you can. Re-
enforce it by showing up and
listening, ask them about their
day and just listen. You will
find that you have a lot in
common and most of your
differences are in your
head… They are the kids you
raised after all and you just
might learn something new.
Listen to the Kiksht words
they learn, the sentences in
our ancient language of the
Big River… learn with them.
For those of you who say
things like, ‘I don’t have the
time to learn Kiksht,’ if you
were on Facebook? You had
time to learn Kiksht…if you
were watching TV or if you
were on your phone? You
have time to learn Kiksht…
If you were casino (not if you
work there duh!) you defi-
nitely squandered your
Kiksht learning time!
There are three Language
classes at Madras High
School and a department
dedicated to teaching those
languages; so, if you haven’t
learned your language, it’s
about allotting the time and
making ‘the hard-right deci-
sion’ vs ‘the easy-wrong deci-
sion’. I have nothing but
good feelings about these stu-
dents and their future in Na-
tive Language. They are dedi-
cated, focused and smart.
They are going to have their
lives expanded and learn to
see Warm Springs, Oregon
and the greater region in a
way that non-speakers won’t
and that makes me happy for
them.
It is hard learning a new
language, the rules of
Bashtenemt are confusing
and infect all aspect of the
speaking the Language of
the Big River but doing
things that are hard is what
makes everything we do,
worth our time and these
kids make it look easy but
maybe…. I can meet you
half way (thinking face?). I
just got the suggestion from
somebody in our community
that I could try to create
casino
phrases,
like
‘Grandma needs a new pair
of shoes!’ or ‘Hit me,’ ‘Free
spins,’ ‘Big hit.’ etc.
Being an Indian is hard. It’s
hard holding on to our cul-
ture and beliefs in a country
that actively works against us,
and has for centuries. It’s
hard maintaining our collec-
tive identity as Indians in a
country that always wants us
to assimilate. Kiksht is a hard
language to learn; word pro-
nunciation, emphasis, compo-
sition, sentence structure are
all significantly different from
other languages and just simi-
lar enough to cause much con-
fusion but, as one of my sol-
dier taught me after her time
in Basic Training: “If it isn’t
hard, it isn’t worth doin’”-
PVT Erikson/ORARNG.