[EDLING:1409] Keres Retention Program seeking teachers

[Francis M. Hult]

Cibola County Beacon

http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2006/04/01/news/news6.txt

Keres Retention Program seeking teachers

PUEBLO OF ACOMA - The Pueblo of Acoma Language Retention Program is looking 
for fluent and semi-fluent Keres speakers to teach and provide models for 
students in the program.

According to Vina Leno, Director of the Community Based Language Program, the 
Acoma language of Keres is one of many Native American tongues in the United 
States that is at risk of becoming extinct. Although there are still many 
speakers of Keres in the Pueblo, she explained, the language is no longer used 
universally by Pueblo community members in day-to-day activities and fewer of 
the children learn it through hearing it. Many people who spoke Keres as 
children lost their command of the language as they got older and incorporated 
non-traditional influences into their lives.

The Language Retention Program depends on native speakers to pass the language 
to the next generation because Keres is an oral language; there is no written 
literature or history to carry on the tongue.

To help the community of Acoma retain its language, Leno became involved in 
helping to develop the Language Retention Program in 1996. The program was 
initially funded with seed money from the federal government and will be 
supported by money from the Pueblo in continuing outreach. Leno said the 
program is being developed in two main areas, the school-based classes and the 
community programs offered to the tribe.

When enough Keres speakers are available, the Language Retention Program 
offers a summer language emersion camp for Acoma children, language and 
culture classes in some Cibola County schools, and cultural sessions for the 
Acoma community.

The community cultural sessions are given monthly when possible and offer 
traditional skills. In past sessions, community members have studied 
traditional cooking, ribbon shirt- and dressmaking, traditional gatherings and 
other topics.

The student part of the program includes classes in topics such as Indian 
Names and Clans, Morning Prayer, Numbers and Directions, traditional arts and 
crafts and language. These classes are given for students at Sky City 
Community School, Laguna-Acoma High School, Cubero Elementary School and St. 
Joseph’s School in San Fidel. The Language Retention Program also offers 
summer and after-school programs that teach.

Leno said the program would like to expand into the Grants schools but lacks 
the speakers to teach. Teachers are also needed to keep some of the community 
classes at the Pueblo alive.

Speakers do not need to have a teaching credential or teaching experience to 
volunteer in the program, she explained. To be a teacher, a Keres speaker must 
be fluent or semi-fluent in the language, be willing to make a commitment to 
the training provided by the program staff, and be committed to teaching in 
the venues the program has developed. Leno said the program might be able to 
pay teachers if funding is available after the training.

The language program director emphasized that retaining the Keres tongue is 
important to keep the Acoma culture, government and spiritual tradition 
intact. The Acoma constitution is considered valid in the oral tradition. 
Keeping the language alive is critical to Acoma governance and working with 
outside agencies that require a community to have a governing body to make 
contracts. “We don’t have a [written] constitution, but still our government 
is carried by our language,” Leno said.

Finally, loss of Keres would mean the loss of much of the Acoma culture. “We 
don’t want to lose our language,” she said. “Without language you don’t have 
culture. It is what you need to talk to the elders and to take part in 
traditional activities.”

Anyone who would like to teach Keres or help the Pueblo of Acoma Language 
Retention Program in other ways should contact Vino Leno at (505) 552-5114 or 
email tpasqual at puebloofacoma.org.

By Helen Davis