Immersion (language)

[Andre Cramblit]

Public School Teaches Cherokee to Kindergarteners

 By Jenny Burns, Associated Press Writer

Lost City, Okla. (AP) _ The kindergarten teacher speaks to her class in
Cherokee, telling the children to pull out their mats for nap time.

She calls our their names in Cherokee, telling "Yo-na," or Bear, to place
his mat away from "A-wi," or Deer. Soft Cherokee music lulls them to sleep.

Their parents were mocked for speaking Cherokee. Their grandparents
punished. But Cherokee is the only language these children will speak in
their public school classroom.

Lost City is the first public school class to immerse students in the
American Indian language in Oklahoma. Another public school class is being
planned by the Eastern band of Cherokees in North Carolina at Swain County
High School.

Cherokee Nation Chief Chad Smith spoke to educators at a meeting last year
and told them the language is dying.

Fewer than 8,000 of the 100,000 Cherokees in Oklahoma can speak the
language fluently and most of those who can are over 45.

Smith's father was punished for speaking Cherokee in Sequoyah High School,
located at the seat of Cherokee government in Tahlequah.

"If you spoke the language, your mouth was washed out with soap," Smith
said. "It was an effort to destroy the language and it was fairly
successful."

Assimilation policies once discouraged the use of the native language in
schools, he said. Harry Oosahwee, the tribe's language projects supervisor,
said he was mocked and ridiculed for speaking his first language in his
public school.

Annette Millard, the school superintendent, spoke to Smith at the meeting
and was determined to do her part to preserve the language.

She runs a school that sits on 40 acres off a winding country road outside
the small town of Hulbert. Sixty-five of the 100 students are members of
the Cherokee tribe.

"It is important to them that they are able to learn about their culture
and language and speak as much of it as possible," she said.

"The language is going to be gone if we don't do something and the best
people to learn are kids in the developmental stage of kindergarten."

She offered a classroom for the immersion class and started learning the
language along with her staff.

The Cherokee Nation has paid the salaries of the teacher and an assistant
in hopes that the younger generation will renew the culture of their
ancestors by learning the disappearing tongue.

"My grandma speaks Cherokee to old people," said kindergartner Matthew
Keener, who goes by "Yo-na" at school.

Those students not in the immersion class are exposed to Cherokee as well.

The school has a weekly "Rise and Shine" assembly where all grades begin
with the greeting, "o-si-yo," and discuss the word for the week. One recent
week, the word was truthfulness, or "du-yu-go-dv."

Millard calls students by their Cherokee names and remembers to encourage
them by saying "o-sta" with a smile. All the students from the
pre-kindergarten to eighth grade level know that means "good."

Her office is adorned with Cherokee words and pronunciations posted on
objects like the telephone and her desk chair. She bought software to print
the Cherokee alphabet, which was codified into 85 symbols, each
representing a syllable, by Sequoyah in 1821.

Millard says she has learned to appreciate the gentle rhythm of the
language and its earthy roots.

She finds the word "cattle" harsh sounding in English. When she stands out
in her cow pasture and calls them "wa-ga," she said, "it's like they'll
almost turn and look at me."

The Cherokee Nation would cease to exist without its language, Oosahwee
said.

"We have our medicine, our plant life, our universe and the language the
Creator has given us," he said. "Our medicine doesn't understand other
languages but Cherokee. All this is interconnected."

Ten children are currently enrolled in the class. Their Cherokee language
instruction will continue. Next year, the immersion class will be held for
first grade, and the students will continue with these classes as they move
through the school.

The hope is that they will speak Cherokee at home to their parents.

After three weeks of school, Lane Smith, or "A-wi," told his mother that he
was going outside to play.

Since he spoke in Cherokee, she wasn't quite sure what he was saying, but
she is now starting to relearn the language she knew at age five.

"My family has asked Lane what he has learned today and they are learning
right along with him," she said. "I plan to have him keep going with the
language."

Chief Smith hopes the Cherokee Nation has acted in time.

"The vessel that holds the culture," he said, "is the language."

___

On the Net:

Cherokee Nation: http://www.cherokee.org/