Native Voices Endowment Recipients - 2007
Joyce McFarland - Nez Perce Tribe
Nez Perce Language Preservation Project: Bridging the Gap Between Elders and Youth
Nimipuutímt, the Nez Perce Language, is a Sahaptian language spoken on the tribal lands in Idaho and neighboring areas. There has been a steep decline in the number of speakers over the past decade; the ranks of the most fluent speakers, in particular, are dwindling. In just a six year span (1999-2005), almost half of the speakers with "fair" to "very high" fluency passed away. With assistance from the Endangered Language Fund, Joyce McFarland and her colleagues from the tribal Education Department will make the language more accessible to younger speakers. The Students for Success program is already fighting drug and alcohol abuse by strengthening the understanding and appreciation for traditional Nez Perce culture. Using the Nez Perce Cultural Camp as a springboard, McFarland and her team will extend that program into an after school club for 7th-12th graders. A youth-oriented curriculum will help bring greater fluency to these students, who have been using the language in some ways for years. The four month program will occur after basketball season, when schedules free up. Students and their parents will make a commitment to finish the program. Younger students will also participate in a Youth Culture Fair, to be held at the end of the program. Included in that venue will be a "Nez Perce Language Bowl," with teams from the language program competing to see which group made the most progress. As part of this effort, new material will be recorded and made available on DVDs. Fluent elders will be recorded discussing such cultural issues as art forms, fishing, string storytelling, and the relevance of various historical sites to tribal history. Modern media are important to the youth and will be important tools in helping them maintain their traditions.
Archie Beauvais - Rosebud Sioux Tribe
Lakota Language Preservation Project
Lakota, like most of the languages encountered by the Expedition, is currently being spoken by a small percentage of tribal members, with especially few at the younger ages. In this project, teachers of the language will be trained both in speaking and teaching the language. Dr. Beauvais, project director, has secured the commitment of four expert teachers of the Lakota language who will serve as advisory board members and initial language teachers. They will recruit 20 tribal members, ideally from the 20 communities, who will then teach members of their household. This "ripple effect" is geared toward increasing the number of speakers. The goal of increasing that number by 10% per year can be met with the sustained effort of these language learners and teachers.
Justin T. McBride - Kaw Nation
Wajíphanyin Material Support Project
In the Kaw language, Wajíphanyin is the Camp Crier, and the Kaw Nation hopes that there can be new ones. The last native speakers passed away in the 1970's, but their descendants, who now live in Oklahoma, have begun reviving their language. They recently made use of an Administration for Native Americans grant to produce an interactive CD for language learning. Included in this package is a language-learning game. The present project will make that tool more accessible to the tribe by creating a board game version. The 500 copies of this game will be distributed to interested tribal members and sold through the tribal gift shop, with proceeds going to the Language Department.
Debbie Martin - Quinault Indian Nation
Quinault Language Community Immersion Project
This three-year plan will further immerse the Native peoples of the Quinault Indian Nation in the culture, language and history of their elders. The Quinault language is a language within the Tsamosan branch of the Salishan Family of the Northwest Coastal Native American Languages. A significant feature of this project is the participation of native speakers in the execution of material development, community mobilization and linguistic instruction. The intention is to focus Quinault language revitalization efforts on the native community at large within the reservation boundaries of the Quinault Indian Nation. This project will be based in the village of Taholah, the center of the Quinault peoples, tribe and culture. This project's outcomes will be many. For the Quinault Community: 1. An enhanced collection of literacy materials both for children and adults to be used in the schools, by community literacy and immersion programs, and cultural programming as appropriate. 2. The exercise of trained Quinault speakers in the development of literacy materials, and facilitation of native-language literacy classes for community members For the Language Community: Access to a complete set of English to Quinault Adult Basic Education materials, including alphabet, phonetic guide, grammar, vocabulary, and traditional stories of cultural significance to the native community in a format conducive to research and analysis. This plan highlights the intrinsic wisdom of the elder population and affirms the Quinault core value of stewardship practices.
LaRae Wiley - Lakes band of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington State
Scholarship to study Nselxcin with fluent Elder
The Native Voices Endowment supports not only systematic language projects like the ones just described, but also scholarships for those tribal members who want to extend their knowledge of their language. Scholarships can be for work in language or linguistics at universities or, as with the present case, for Master-Apprentice programs. In these, an elder and a younger learner meet regularly to engage in everyday activities, with the condition that only the Native language is spoken. Such programs have proven to be quite effective in improving the speaking skills of those with a basic understanding of the language, in this case, Nselxcin (Colville-Okanagan Salish). Wiley has been teaching Nselxcin at Eastern Washington University since 2005, and she plans to use some of her time improving the curriculum that she uses in those classes. The materials include not just print but videos and computer programs. She has also been training other teachers, allowing a greater spread of knowledge of the language and the culture. Wiley hopes "that someday soon, Nselxcin will be a living, dynamic language that is once again passed naturally from parents to children."
Nez Perce Language Preservation Project: Bridging the Gap Between Elders and Youth
Nimipuutímt, the Nez Perce Language, is a Sahaptian language spoken on the tribal lands in Idaho and neighboring areas. There has been a steep decline in the number of speakers over the past decade; the ranks of the most fluent speakers, in particular, are dwindling. In just a six year span (1999-2005), almost half of the speakers with "fair" to "very high" fluency passed away. With assistance from the Endangered Language Fund, Joyce McFarland and her colleagues from the tribal Education Department will make the language more accessible to younger speakers. The Students for Success program is already fighting drug and alcohol abuse by strengthening the understanding and appreciation for traditional Nez Perce culture. Using the Nez Perce Cultural Camp as a springboard, McFarland and her team will extend that program into an after school club for 7th-12th graders. A youth-oriented curriculum will help bring greater fluency to these students, who have been using the language in some ways for years. The four month program will occur after basketball season, when schedules free up. Students and their parents will make a commitment to finish the program. Younger students will also participate in a Youth Culture Fair, to be held at the end of the program. Included in that venue will be a "Nez Perce Language Bowl," with teams from the language program competing to see which group made the most progress. As part of this effort, new material will be recorded and made available on DVDs. Fluent elders will be recorded discussing such cultural issues as art forms, fishing, string storytelling, and the relevance of various historical sites to tribal history. Modern media are important to the youth and will be important tools in helping them maintain their traditions.
Archie Beauvais - Rosebud Sioux Tribe
Lakota Language Preservation Project
Lakota, like most of the languages encountered by the Expedition, is currently being spoken by a small percentage of tribal members, with especially few at the younger ages. In this project, teachers of the language will be trained both in speaking and teaching the language. Dr. Beauvais, project director, has secured the commitment of four expert teachers of the Lakota language who will serve as advisory board members and initial language teachers. They will recruit 20 tribal members, ideally from the 20 communities, who will then teach members of their household. This "ripple effect" is geared toward increasing the number of speakers. The goal of increasing that number by 10% per year can be met with the sustained effort of these language learners and teachers.
Justin T. McBride - Kaw Nation
Wajíphanyin Material Support Project
In the Kaw language, Wajíphanyin is the Camp Crier, and the Kaw Nation hopes that there can be new ones. The last native speakers passed away in the 1970's, but their descendants, who now live in Oklahoma, have begun reviving their language. They recently made use of an Administration for Native Americans grant to produce an interactive CD for language learning. Included in this package is a language-learning game. The present project will make that tool more accessible to the tribe by creating a board game version. The 500 copies of this game will be distributed to interested tribal members and sold through the tribal gift shop, with proceeds going to the Language Department.
Debbie Martin - Quinault Indian Nation
Quinault Language Community Immersion Project
This three-year plan will further immerse the Native peoples of the Quinault Indian Nation in the culture, language and history of their elders. The Quinault language is a language within the Tsamosan branch of the Salishan Family of the Northwest Coastal Native American Languages. A significant feature of this project is the participation of native speakers in the execution of material development, community mobilization and linguistic instruction. The intention is to focus Quinault language revitalization efforts on the native community at large within the reservation boundaries of the Quinault Indian Nation. This project will be based in the village of Taholah, the center of the Quinault peoples, tribe and culture. This project's outcomes will be many. For the Quinault Community: 1. An enhanced collection of literacy materials both for children and adults to be used in the schools, by community literacy and immersion programs, and cultural programming as appropriate. 2. The exercise of trained Quinault speakers in the development of literacy materials, and facilitation of native-language literacy classes for community members For the Language Community: Access to a complete set of English to Quinault Adult Basic Education materials, including alphabet, phonetic guide, grammar, vocabulary, and traditional stories of cultural significance to the native community in a format conducive to research and analysis. This plan highlights the intrinsic wisdom of the elder population and affirms the Quinault core value of stewardship practices.
LaRae Wiley - Lakes band of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington State
Scholarship to study Nselxcin with fluent Elder
The Native Voices Endowment supports not only systematic language projects like the ones just described, but also scholarships for those tribal members who want to extend their knowledge of their language. Scholarships can be for work in language or linguistics at universities or, as with the present case, for Master-Apprentice programs. In these, an elder and a younger learner meet regularly to engage in everyday activities, with the condition that only the Native language is spoken. Such programs have proven to be quite effective in improving the speaking skills of those with a basic understanding of the language, in this case, Nselxcin (Colville-Okanagan Salish). Wiley has been teaching Nselxcin at Eastern Washington University since 2005, and she plans to use some of her time improving the curriculum that she uses in those classes. The materials include not just print but videos and computer programs. She has also been training other teachers, allowing a greater spread of knowledge of the language and the culture. Wiley hopes "that someday soon, Nselxcin will be a living, dynamic language that is once again passed naturally from parents to children."
