Native Voices Endowment Recipients - 2009
Cleve Davis and Caroline Teton-Racehorse - Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Idaho
Bannock Language Master-Apprentice Program
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of southeastern Idaho have an enrolled membership of approximately 5,200, centered around the town of Fort Hall, Idaho. The two tribes, Shoshone and Bannock, share similar cultural characteristics but speak distinct languages. This program is dedicated to Bannock, a dialect of Northern Paiute. Bannock is primarily spoken in Fort Hall as opposed to Shoshone, which is more prevalent on the Reservation. Approximately thirty-four speakers of Bannock remain, the majority of whom are over seventy years old, rendering it on the verge of extinction. The award will fund ten hours per week of Cleve Davis's Master-Apprentice Immersion Program, with his grandmother serving as language mentor and conversation partner. This technique is one of the most successful for adult learners of a language.
Mike Carlow - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota
Annual Lakota Dakota Nakota Language Summit
Tusweca Tiospaye is a non-profit organization on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation which promotes and strengthens Lakota language and culture among children and families. Every November, the organization hosts the three-day Annual Lakota Dakota Nakota Language Summit in Rapid City, SD. Presentations and keynote talks address language preservation efforts, and the Oceti Sakowin Wacipi powwow that coincides with the summit offers participants the opportunity to learn about the history of different dances and ceremonial symbolism and regalia. The summit invites a diverse group of participants, and last year over thirty tribes from the United States and Canada were represented, as well as college and K-12 students from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This Native Voices Endowment award will fund the documentation of the summit's educational activities. Recordings of summit sessions and elders' teachings will be made available online and provided on a DVD to numerous tribal colleges, language preservation programs, and public universities.
Tammy DeCoteau - Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, South Dakota
Dakotah Language Learning CDs
This program focuses on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota (Sioux) Oyate community on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeast South Dakota and southeast North Dakota. 4,000 of the tribe's 13,000 members live on the reservation. Approximately one hundred fluent speakers remain, their average age being 74. Younger tribe members have limited knowledge of the language. This project seeks to build upon the success of a previous CD project that intended to teach daycare staff at the tribal college Dakota phrases used to communicate with children. The CD was also distributed to the children's parents so that the same phrases could be used at home as well. This award will fund the creation of three additional CDs, containing everyday language used among adults. A team of four elders will determine which phrases are to be recorded. The phrases will then be recorded, emphasizing the importance of word order and sentence structure.
Jace Decory and Rosalie Little Thunder - Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota
Wicoiye - An Institute in Native Language: Teaching Methods for South Dakota Instructors of Lakota
The two guiding principles of this project are to preserve the values that the Lakota language expresses and to ensure that Lakota is taught in an effective and lasting manner. South Dakota has established two kindergarten through high school Indian Studies and Lakota endorsement programs. This award will fund a week-long summer training institute for Lakota teachers to be certified by the State. The program aims to provide a foundation in culturally-sensitive teaching methods, to establish standards for grade level competencies, and to familiarize teachers with South Dakota's K-12 Indian Studies Education endorsement. The course will be conducted at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD and taught by Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies Jace Decory and Adjunct Instructor of Lakota Rosalie LittleThunder. Topics and activities to be covered during the six-day institute include an introduction to and demonstrations of Deep Cultural Language and cultural mapping as a methodology; introduction to the Total Physical Response method; field experience at the sacred site of Bear Butte (Mato Paha) or Devil's Tower (Mato Tipila); and developing word lists in natural cultural settings (sacred sites).
Gary Antoine and Lavina Milk - Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota
Translating the Lakota Language Tapes of Don Moccasin
This project is dedicated to the language, culture, and history of the Lakota people from the Rosebud Reservation in southern South Dakota, where the Sicangu variety of Lakota is spoken. It is the western dialect of Sioux, which is spoken in northern Nebraska, southern Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and northeastern Montana. The majority of the remaining fluent speakers of Lakota are over the age of fifty. Don Moccasin, an elder Lakota speaker who passed away last year, had been instrumental in documenting Lakota language and culture. He left a collection of video recordings that will be the focus of this Mentor- Apprentice project. From the mid 1990s until his death in 2009, Moccasin recorded interviews, speeches, and community events on the Rosebud Reservation, producing more than 200 video tapes. Speakers discuss family histories, genealogies, and personal and community stories of the Sicangu people. This award will fund Mr. Antoine's Lakota studies, which will include transcribing and translating Moccasin's Lakota video recordings in collaboration with his mother, a native speaker of Lakota and Dakota, working with a Lakota male speaker on translations and conversation skills related to male-specific language use (Lakota men and women use slightly different versions of the language), reviewing materials with a linguist from the Lakota Documentaries Project, Great Plains Art Institute in Mission, SD, and field trips for the purpose of documenting.
Janet Hansen - Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Shawnee Language Enhancement
The goal of the two-year Shawnee Language Enhancement program is to increase the number and fluency of Shawnee speakers. It is estimated that approximately 200 speakers of Shawnee remain; it is a Central Algonquian language spoken by tribe members in Shawnee, Miami, and Ottawa County, all in Oklahoma. The Eastern Shawnee Tribe has already begun offering basic Shawnee classes, taught by Janet Hansen. This award will fund Ms. Hansen's continuing pedagogical training with Dr. Marcellino Berardo, a lecturer at the University of Kansas. Dr. Berardo is experienced in training second-language teachers and designing course materials and has worked with the Shawnee Tribe, among others, for the past fifteen years. Additional Shawnee teachers will be invited to join the classes, which will meet twenty times over a two-year period and take place at the Eastern Shawnee Annex on the Oklahoma side of Seneca, MO. The classes will cover the latest and most effective teaching techniques and methodologies. The award will also fund two fluent guest speakers in Ms. Hansen's own classes; they will introduce her students to cultural materials and offer them the opportunity to hear fluent speakers other than their teacher.
Melissa Campobasso and Ted Moomaw - Colville Tribes, Washington
Elder Speaker Project at Waterfalls School
The creation of the skwant sƏnm̍aʔm̍ayatƏ (Waterfalls School) and language immersion programs is the primary project of the ʔaluspuʔús (Hearts Gathered) organization, whose mission is to revitalize the native languages of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, WA. The organization’s efforts are currently focused on nsƏlxcín, an Interior Salish language commonly known as Okanogan and spoken by members of the Colville Tribes, WA and Okanagan Nation Alliance in Canada. During the first year of the program, students from preschool through kindergarten at Waterfalls School will attend the immersion program daily from 8:00 a.m. until noon. The Elder Speaker Project will invite tribe members whose first language is nsƏlxcín to share their cultural and linguistic knowledge with the students and staff of the school. The students will be able to observe Okanogan conversations between the teacher and the elders, who will also tell stories and teach the students directly. The program will include field trips for cultural study and collection of native plants, medicine, and food, and students will make baskets, hunting and fishing tools, flutes, clothes, and other native implements. Key program activities will be recorded and documented with dictionary making software, and audio, video, and other materials will be made available to future students of Okanogan.
Justin T. McBride and Dr. Linda Cumberland - Kaw Nation, Oklahoma
Producing Materials to Teach Kanza Literacy through Historical Texts
Kanza, also known as Kaw and Kansa, is the heritage language of the Kaw Nation, a tribe centered around Kaw City, OK; the tribe has a membership of approximately 3,000. The tribe is currently in the process of designing a reader and accompanying audio CD containing oral histories and traditions narrated in the 19th and 20th centuries by the tribe's ancestors who were fluent Kanza speakers. Currently, these materials are inaccessible to virtually all tribe members due to a lack of literacy in the language. The reader will contain a total of twenty texts, including folk tales, migration narratives, descriptions of war customs, a lullaby, and a personal letter. English translations as well as grammatical exercises will also be provided, and selected recordings will be included on the accompanying audio CD.
Angel Sobotta - Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho
Niimiipuu Language Documentation & Software Programming for the Nintendo DSi
Nimipuutimt, the language of the Nez Perce Tribe, is spoken in parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. A recent survey found that only seven Nez Perce elders with high fluency in the language remain. Thirty-three more have some knowledge of the tribe's language. In 2009, the tribe purchased twenty-six Nintendo DSi units to be utilized in its language program. These handheld game systems, familiar to many of the tribe's youth, are being used to teach Nimipuutimt to tribe members. The devices were loaded with language learning materials on dancing, drumming, and Nez Perce regalia and accessories, and the tribe's youth enthusiastically used them during a 2009 culture summer camp. Users are able interactively to view a photo of a tribal item, learn the word for it in Nimipuutimt, and hear it pronounced by an elder. The tribe's language program has been working on making more materials available, including commonly used phrases and vocabulary relating to food, colors, numbers, clothing, body parts, animals, plants, and place names. This award will fund programming additional materials onto the game systems, including recorded stories, a mini-dictionary, hymns, and instructional materials currently used in preschool through college language courses.
Bannock Language Master-Apprentice Program
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of southeastern Idaho have an enrolled membership of approximately 5,200, centered around the town of Fort Hall, Idaho. The two tribes, Shoshone and Bannock, share similar cultural characteristics but speak distinct languages. This program is dedicated to Bannock, a dialect of Northern Paiute. Bannock is primarily spoken in Fort Hall as opposed to Shoshone, which is more prevalent on the Reservation. Approximately thirty-four speakers of Bannock remain, the majority of whom are over seventy years old, rendering it on the verge of extinction. The award will fund ten hours per week of Cleve Davis's Master-Apprentice Immersion Program, with his grandmother serving as language mentor and conversation partner. This technique is one of the most successful for adult learners of a language.
Mike Carlow - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota
Annual Lakota Dakota Nakota Language Summit
Tusweca Tiospaye is a non-profit organization on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation which promotes and strengthens Lakota language and culture among children and families. Every November, the organization hosts the three-day Annual Lakota Dakota Nakota Language Summit in Rapid City, SD. Presentations and keynote talks address language preservation efforts, and the Oceti Sakowin Wacipi powwow that coincides with the summit offers participants the opportunity to learn about the history of different dances and ceremonial symbolism and regalia. The summit invites a diverse group of participants, and last year over thirty tribes from the United States and Canada were represented, as well as college and K-12 students from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This Native Voices Endowment award will fund the documentation of the summit's educational activities. Recordings of summit sessions and elders' teachings will be made available online and provided on a DVD to numerous tribal colleges, language preservation programs, and public universities.
Tammy DeCoteau - Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, South Dakota
Dakotah Language Learning CDs
This program focuses on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota (Sioux) Oyate community on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeast South Dakota and southeast North Dakota. 4,000 of the tribe's 13,000 members live on the reservation. Approximately one hundred fluent speakers remain, their average age being 74. Younger tribe members have limited knowledge of the language. This project seeks to build upon the success of a previous CD project that intended to teach daycare staff at the tribal college Dakota phrases used to communicate with children. The CD was also distributed to the children's parents so that the same phrases could be used at home as well. This award will fund the creation of three additional CDs, containing everyday language used among adults. A team of four elders will determine which phrases are to be recorded. The phrases will then be recorded, emphasizing the importance of word order and sentence structure.
Jace Decory and Rosalie Little Thunder - Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota
Wicoiye - An Institute in Native Language: Teaching Methods for South Dakota Instructors of Lakota
The two guiding principles of this project are to preserve the values that the Lakota language expresses and to ensure that Lakota is taught in an effective and lasting manner. South Dakota has established two kindergarten through high school Indian Studies and Lakota endorsement programs. This award will fund a week-long summer training institute for Lakota teachers to be certified by the State. The program aims to provide a foundation in culturally-sensitive teaching methods, to establish standards for grade level competencies, and to familiarize teachers with South Dakota's K-12 Indian Studies Education endorsement. The course will be conducted at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD and taught by Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies Jace Decory and Adjunct Instructor of Lakota Rosalie LittleThunder. Topics and activities to be covered during the six-day institute include an introduction to and demonstrations of Deep Cultural Language and cultural mapping as a methodology; introduction to the Total Physical Response method; field experience at the sacred site of Bear Butte (Mato Paha) or Devil's Tower (Mato Tipila); and developing word lists in natural cultural settings (sacred sites).
Gary Antoine and Lavina Milk - Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota
Translating the Lakota Language Tapes of Don Moccasin
This project is dedicated to the language, culture, and history of the Lakota people from the Rosebud Reservation in southern South Dakota, where the Sicangu variety of Lakota is spoken. It is the western dialect of Sioux, which is spoken in northern Nebraska, southern Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and northeastern Montana. The majority of the remaining fluent speakers of Lakota are over the age of fifty. Don Moccasin, an elder Lakota speaker who passed away last year, had been instrumental in documenting Lakota language and culture. He left a collection of video recordings that will be the focus of this Mentor- Apprentice project. From the mid 1990s until his death in 2009, Moccasin recorded interviews, speeches, and community events on the Rosebud Reservation, producing more than 200 video tapes. Speakers discuss family histories, genealogies, and personal and community stories of the Sicangu people. This award will fund Mr. Antoine's Lakota studies, which will include transcribing and translating Moccasin's Lakota video recordings in collaboration with his mother, a native speaker of Lakota and Dakota, working with a Lakota male speaker on translations and conversation skills related to male-specific language use (Lakota men and women use slightly different versions of the language), reviewing materials with a linguist from the Lakota Documentaries Project, Great Plains Art Institute in Mission, SD, and field trips for the purpose of documenting.
Janet Hansen - Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Shawnee Language Enhancement
The goal of the two-year Shawnee Language Enhancement program is to increase the number and fluency of Shawnee speakers. It is estimated that approximately 200 speakers of Shawnee remain; it is a Central Algonquian language spoken by tribe members in Shawnee, Miami, and Ottawa County, all in Oklahoma. The Eastern Shawnee Tribe has already begun offering basic Shawnee classes, taught by Janet Hansen. This award will fund Ms. Hansen's continuing pedagogical training with Dr. Marcellino Berardo, a lecturer at the University of Kansas. Dr. Berardo is experienced in training second-language teachers and designing course materials and has worked with the Shawnee Tribe, among others, for the past fifteen years. Additional Shawnee teachers will be invited to join the classes, which will meet twenty times over a two-year period and take place at the Eastern Shawnee Annex on the Oklahoma side of Seneca, MO. The classes will cover the latest and most effective teaching techniques and methodologies. The award will also fund two fluent guest speakers in Ms. Hansen's own classes; they will introduce her students to cultural materials and offer them the opportunity to hear fluent speakers other than their teacher.
Melissa Campobasso and Ted Moomaw - Colville Tribes, Washington
Elder Speaker Project at Waterfalls School
The creation of the skwant sƏnm̍aʔm̍ayatƏ (Waterfalls School) and language immersion programs is the primary project of the ʔaluspuʔús (Hearts Gathered) organization, whose mission is to revitalize the native languages of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, WA. The organization’s efforts are currently focused on nsƏlxcín, an Interior Salish language commonly known as Okanogan and spoken by members of the Colville Tribes, WA and Okanagan Nation Alliance in Canada. During the first year of the program, students from preschool through kindergarten at Waterfalls School will attend the immersion program daily from 8:00 a.m. until noon. The Elder Speaker Project will invite tribe members whose first language is nsƏlxcín to share their cultural and linguistic knowledge with the students and staff of the school. The students will be able to observe Okanogan conversations between the teacher and the elders, who will also tell stories and teach the students directly. The program will include field trips for cultural study and collection of native plants, medicine, and food, and students will make baskets, hunting and fishing tools, flutes, clothes, and other native implements. Key program activities will be recorded and documented with dictionary making software, and audio, video, and other materials will be made available to future students of Okanogan.
Justin T. McBride and Dr. Linda Cumberland - Kaw Nation, Oklahoma
Producing Materials to Teach Kanza Literacy through Historical Texts
Kanza, also known as Kaw and Kansa, is the heritage language of the Kaw Nation, a tribe centered around Kaw City, OK; the tribe has a membership of approximately 3,000. The tribe is currently in the process of designing a reader and accompanying audio CD containing oral histories and traditions narrated in the 19th and 20th centuries by the tribe's ancestors who were fluent Kanza speakers. Currently, these materials are inaccessible to virtually all tribe members due to a lack of literacy in the language. The reader will contain a total of twenty texts, including folk tales, migration narratives, descriptions of war customs, a lullaby, and a personal letter. English translations as well as grammatical exercises will also be provided, and selected recordings will be included on the accompanying audio CD.
Angel Sobotta - Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho
Niimiipuu Language Documentation & Software Programming for the Nintendo DSi
Nimipuutimt, the language of the Nez Perce Tribe, is spoken in parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. A recent survey found that only seven Nez Perce elders with high fluency in the language remain. Thirty-three more have some knowledge of the tribe's language. In 2009, the tribe purchased twenty-six Nintendo DSi units to be utilized in its language program. These handheld game systems, familiar to many of the tribe's youth, are being used to teach Nimipuutimt to tribe members. The devices were loaded with language learning materials on dancing, drumming, and Nez Perce regalia and accessories, and the tribe's youth enthusiastically used them during a 2009 culture summer camp. Users are able interactively to view a photo of a tribal item, learn the word for it in Nimipuutimt, and hear it pronounced by an elder. The tribe's language program has been working on making more materials available, including commonly used phrases and vocabulary relating to food, colors, numbers, clothing, body parts, animals, plants, and place names. This award will fund programming additional materials onto the game systems, including recorded stories, a mini-dictionary, hymns, and instructional materials currently used in preschool through college language courses.
