Brighton Seminole Reservation: Faint hope for dying language

[Francis Hult]

Palm Beach Post

 

Faint hope for dying language

 

 

Jade Braswell scans her teachers guide and turns to a boy waiting silently at the whiteboard.

 

"A pencil in a cup," she reads slowly.

 

The Seminole boy pauses for a moment, then scrawls the translation in small, messy handwriting.

 

"Eshotcickv halo ohfv," he reads.

 

"Good," Braswell commends the boy, turning to the other seven students in the fifth grade. "Could I say halo eshotcickv ohfv? What did I just say?"

 

"A cup in a pencil," the students shout.

 

"If I had a cup, could I put it in a pencil?"

 

"Nooooo," they giggle.

 

The lesson is an attempt to stop the slow but steady demise of Seminole language and culture by "Teaching Our Way."

 

That's the English translation for Pemayetv Emahakv, the name of the charter school that opened in August on the Brighton Seminole Reservation just northwest of Lake Okeechobee in Glades County.

 

In its first year, the $10 million, 45,000-square-foot school has become a source of pride among the 600 people living on the reservation. There is a waiting list to enroll, and parents and staff are talking about expanding the school beyond its kindergarten through fifth grades.

 

Full story: 

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/12/09/m1a_SEMINOLE_MAIN_1209.html
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