Program immerses students in Cherokee

[Hishinlai']

This is fantastic news! Wish this were the mentality of all school
administrators, parents, and politicians. Hishinlai'

>===== Original Message From Indigenous Languages and Technology
<ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> =====
>Program immerses students in Cherokee
>
>Tulsa World
>8/23/2003
>
>LOST CITY (AP) -- The kindergarten teacher speaks to her class in
>Cherokee, telling the children to pull out their mats for nap time.
>
>She calls out 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 older than 45.
>
>Smith said his father was punished for speaking Cherokee at Sequoyah
>High School in Tahlequah, the seat of Cherokee government.
>
>"If you spoke the language, your mouth was washed out with soap," he
>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 started learning the language along with her staff.
>
>The Cherokee Nation has paid the salaries of the teacher and an
>assistant in the hope that the younger generation will renew the
>culture of their ancestors by learning the disappearing tongue.
>
>Ten children are currently enrolled in the class. 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.
>
>Chief Smith hopes the Cherokee Nation has acted in time.
>
>"The vessel that holds the culture," he said, "is the language."

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Hishinlai'
"Kathy R. Sikorski", Gwich'in Instructor
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Alaska Native Language Center
P. O. Box 757680
Fairbanks, AK  99775-7680
P (907) 474-7875
F (907) 474-7876
E fnkrs at uaf.edu
ANLC-L at www.uaf.edu/anlc/

Hah! Nakhweet'ihthan t'ihch'yaa!