Keeping Salish Alive

Thu Apr 6 05:34:01 UTC 2006

Keeping Salish Alive

Photo credit: Adam Sings In The Timber
Writing in the Salish language, Maii Pete, 10, makes a list of what  
she was thankful for this past year as elder Sophie Mays works with  
other children at Nkwsum school.
By Jasa Santos

ARLEE, Mont.—More than a dozen children are crammed into the small  
entryway of a school on the Flathead Indian Reservation in  
northwestern Montana. An elderly man with salt and pepper braids is  
ushering coats and backpacks to each one, speaking quietly in Salish.

The children answer confidently and chatter excitedly with each  
other, alternating between English and Salish. Soon, the entryway is  
quiet, and another day has ended at Nkwsum, the Salish immersion  
school on the reservation.

“It’s just like any other school,” said Director Tachini Pete,  
“except for the focus on language and culture.”

Nkwsum was started four years ago, with the idea of bringing the  
Salish language back to the people. At the time, nearly 100 people  
spoke fluent Salish on the reservation, but only 58 speakers remain.

Nkswum (pronounced in-KOO-sum) means “family” in Salish and is  
derived from the Salish word meaning “one fire.”

Photo credit: Adam Sings In The Timber
Tana Stevens, 5, writes Salish words during a class.
Pete said the school enrolled only four students its first year. Now,  
nearly 30 students are enrolled in preschool through second grade.

The lone classroom contains only two rows of desks, all of which were  
donated by other schools. An English alphabet poster tops the marker  
board with the Salish alphabet underneath.

“We made everything in here just about,” Pete said, looking around  
the room.

Nkwsum is only one of two Native language immersion schools in  
Montana. Browning is home to the other, which focuses on the  
Blackfeet language. No Salish curriculum is available to Pete and the  
teachers at Nkwsum.

“We’ve proposed to the tribe to create a curriculum department,”  
Pete said. “We’re at the point where we can’t keep up. The kids  
are learning so fast.”

The Main Difference

That is the main difference between a public school and Nkswum, Pete  
said. A public school can buy everything needed to teach students  
math or science. Nkwsum can’t.

“Everything has to be translated and redone, so it fits our language  
and our culture,” Pete said. “We want our kids to get all the  
education they can, if not more than a public school can [give].”

Photo credit: Adam Sings In The Timber
D'anja Charlo, 4, and Dorissa Garza, 7, listen to elder Stephen Small  
Salmon as he instructs them in Salish.
As newly appointed curriculum director, Arleen Adams knows that  
Nkwsum faces more hard work.

“We have no McGraw-Hill,” Adams said with a laugh. “We are  
McGraw-Hill.” Adams said the Nkswum’s goal is create a curriculum  
and to “make it Indian, to make it Salish.”

“That’s what needs to be expressed to our children,” she said.  
“They don’t get that from a public school.”

The current curriculum isn’t based on lesson plans, Adams said. The  
group works in a casual manner, tracking months and seasons important  
to Salish culture.

The result is what Adams calls a “seasonal curriculum.” For  
example, October is “hunting month” in the Salish culture, Adams  
said. The teachers focus on the traditional animals, weapons and  
locations important to the culture.

“We rely wholly on our three teachers here to help us,” Adams  
said. “It’s about teaching the kids who they are and where they  
came from.”

Adams also consults a culture committee and elders to make sure that  
students are learning the full Salish language. With the dialect  
changing from places such as Arlee to Polson—everyone on the  
reservation knows a different way of speaking Salish—Adams wants to  
ensure that students are not learning “half-words.”

“We rely on our elders to be that foundation for us,” she said.  
“In a week’s time, [the students] are spitting out all kinds of  
Salish.”

Often, Salish elders visit for have storytelling time with students.  
Everyone works to reinforce the elder’s story and how it is  
important to the Salish culture.

“It would be nice to call up McGraw-Hill and say, ‘Hey, could we  
have a Salish curriculum for the fifth grade?’ ” Adams said.  
“But we create the curriculum as we go. It’s the only way.”

Reporter Jasa Santos, Salish, and photographer Adam Sings In The  
Timber, Crow, attend the University of Montana in Missoula. They are  
both graduates of the Freedom Forum's 2005 American Indian Journalism  
Institute.

Article Link: http://www.reznetnews.org/student/060202_language/

.:.

André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the  
Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council  
NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the  
development needs of American Indians

To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email  
to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http:// 
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