<div>Ashood, ahiye'e (thank you) to Haley & those who provided info in response to my request for info---it has been very helpful.</div>
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<div>Bernadette SantaMaria<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 7:07 PM, Haley De Korne <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hal1403@yahoo.com">hal1403@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<td valign="top">Hi Bernadette,<br>I'm attaching a few articles that describe the importance & benefits of Native language education.<br><br>Also, I don't know if it will be useful, but there are several states that have laws that argue that teaching native languages is crucial. The strongest one is probably Washington. <br>
<br>Here's a link to their policy statement:<br><a href="http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28A.410.045" target="_blank">http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28A.410.045</a><br><br>Here's the part of the text that I'm thinking about. They cite their own reasons, and the national law promoting Native language education (Native American Languages Act):<br>
<br><b>Findings -- 2007 c 319:</b> "The legislature finds that:<br><br> (1) Teaching first peoples' languages, cultures, and oral tribal traditions is a critical factor in fostering successful educational experiences and promoting cultural sensitivity for all students. Experience shows that such teaching dramatically raises student achievement and that the effect is particularly strong for Native American students;<br>
<br> (2) Native American students have the highest high school dropout rate among all groups of students. Less than one-fourth of Native American students in the class of 2008 are on track to graduate based on the results of the Washington assessment of student learning. Positive and supportive educational experiences are critical for the success of Native American students;<br>
<br> (3) The sole expertise of sovereign tribal governments whose traditional lands and territories lie within the borders of the state of Washington in the transmission of their indigenous languages, heritage, cultural knowledge, histories, customs, and traditions should be honored;<br>
<br> (4) Government-to-government collaboration between the state and the sovereign tribal governments whose traditional lands and territories lie within the borders of the state of Washington serves to implement the spirit of the 1989 centennial accord and other similar government-to-government agreements, including the 2004 accord between the federally recognized Indian tribes with treaty reserved rights in the state of Washington;<br>
<br> (5) Establishing a first peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal traditions teacher certification program both achieves educational objectives and models effective government-to-government relationships;<br>
<br> (6) Establishing a first peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal traditions certification program implements the following policy objectives of the federal Native American languages act of 1990 (P.L. 101-477) in a tangible way:<br>
<br> (a) To preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native American languages;<br><br> (b) To allow exceptions to teacher certification requirements for federal programs and programs funded in whole or in part by the federal government, for instruction in Native American languages when such teacher certification requirements hinder the employment of qualified teachers who teach in Native American languages, and to encourage state and territorial governments to make similar exceptions;<br>
<br> (c) To encourage and support the use of Native American languages as a medium of instruction in order to encourage and support Native American language survival, educational opportunity, increased student success and performance, increased student awareness and knowledge of their culture and history, and increased student and community pride;<br>
<br> (d) To encourage state and local education programs to work with Native American parents, educators, Indian tribes, and other Native American governing bodies in the implementation of programs to put this policy into effect; and<br>
<br> (e) To encourage all institutions of elementary, secondary, and higher education, where appropriate, to include Native American languages in the curriculum in the same manner as foreign languages and to grant proficiency in Native American languages the same full academic credit as proficiency in foreign languages;<br>
<br> (7) Establishing a first peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal traditions certification program is consistent with the intent of presidential executive order number 13336 from 2004, entitled "American Indian and Alaska native education," to assist students in meeting the challenging student academic standards of the no child left behind act of 2001 (P.L. 107-110) in a manner that is consistent with tribal traditions, languages, and cultures." [2007 c 319 § 1.]
<p> <b>Short title -- 2007 c 319:</b> "This act may be known and cited as the "First peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal traditions teacher certification act: Honoring our ancestors."" [2007 c 319 § 4.]</p>
<br>I hope some of this is helpful. Best wishes to you!!<br><br>Haley<br><br>"Language is not merely a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. It is a flash of the human spirit, the means by which the soul of each particular culture reaches into the material world. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an entire ecosystem of spiritual possibilities."<br>
Wade Davis<br><br>--- On <b>Wed, 9/15/10, Bernadette Santamaria <i><<a href="mailto:bernisantamaria@GMAIL.COM" target="_blank">bernisantamaria@GMAIL.COM</a>></i></b> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><br>From: Bernadette Santamaria <<a href="mailto:bernisantamaria@GMAIL.COM" target="_blank">bernisantamaria@GMAIL.COM</a>><br>
Subject: [ILAT] Request
<div class="im"><br>To: <a href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU" target="_blank">ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</a><br></div>Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 12:39 PM
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<div>All:</div>
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<div>For a community-level language committee, a goal is to get the local school board to support Apache language teaching in the schools here in addition to the educational outreach we are attempting to get the older generations to re-learn and make decisions to once again teach the younger generation our language. One issue is that due to administrative staff changes (school supt, principals, etc), there has not been continuation in these efforts by local language teachers at schools and the new administrators (gathered from recent presentations they did to the Tribal Council) seem to not exclude local language/culture teaching from the school curriculae.</div>
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<div>In order to present this committee's recommendations to include these courses and to strengthen support of local language teachers in the school system, it was deemed that we need to convince these newer school administrators of the importance of providing this teachings for our children in local schools who comprise over 90% enrollment of native children in them. We request names of books, articles, authors, etc. that you can provide us that emphasize the reasons why and how native children benefit from inclusion of their native language/cultural knowledge in school curriculae, need examples of tribes/schools that are successful, etc.</div>
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<div>Thanks for any info provided on this topic.</div>
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<div>Bernadette A. SantaMaria</div>
<div>WM Apache Language Committee</div></div></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table><br></blockquote></div><br>