Go Tlinglit (language)

[Andre Cramblit]

Sealaska Heritage offers immersion retreats
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/073004/sta_nwdigest.shtml

JUNEAU - Sealaska Heritage Institute is offering Tlingit immersion
retreats in Hoonah and near Sitka this summer in an effort to
revitalize the endangered language.

Tlingit speakers and serious students of the language will live in a
Tlingit-speaking world 24 hours a day from Aug. 9-19 during an
immersion retreat at Icy Strait Lodge in Hoonah.

A second retreat is scheduled for Aug. 11-21 near Sitka at Dog Point
Fish Camp, called in Tlingit Waashdaanx'.

"The program gives both speakers and learners a habitat where Tlingit
can flourish," said SHI President Rosita Worl. "The immersion approach
appears to accelerate the rate at which learners acquire the Tlingit
language."

Daily activities will include gathering and processing Native foods
while fluent speakers give directions in Tlingit. Participants also
will sing, drum, dance and tell stories in Tlingit.

A grant from the Administration for Native Americans is funding two
language immersion retreats per year in 2003, 2004 and 2005 in Sitka
and the Glacier Bay-Hoonah area. About 74 percent of the project, or
$148,000, will be funded through federal dollars, and 26 percent will
be funded through non-government sources this year.

Call 463-4844 for more information.