Tuba City District adopts Hopi Lavayi Project (fwd)

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Tuba City District adopts Hopi Lavayi Project

By Rosanda Suetopka Thayer
TC District Media
http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/NAVAJOHOPIOBSERVER/sites/NAVAJOHOPIOBSERVER/0189edition/myarticles864443.asp?P=864443&S=392&PubID=11713

Wednesday, Dec. 10 was a landmark meeting for Tuba City Unified School
District #15 on several levels.

It was the first time that any Hopi Tribal Chairman formally made a
presentation before a TCUSD Governing Board. It was also the first time
that the Hopi Tribe has formally partnered with a school board outside
of the Hopi reservation to bring the Hopi language into school
curriculum— a move that is targeted to address the extremely critical
Hopi language loss for Hopi people, which includes Hopi students.

It was the first time that both Upper and Lower Mungapi Villages have
agreed to support a TC District school language program by formal
village resolution with Upper Mungapi considering a pilot project
within their Hopi community for their own village member use.

Finally, in a first time effort, a petition was presented containing,
not only Hopi student signatures who attend Tuba City High School
requesting the Hopi language program for themselves, but the signatures
of fellow TC High Navajo students who recognize and support this Hopi
language effort.

In fact, the petition is an important part of this now 10 entity effort
that include the following groups: TCUSD, Tuba City Junior High and
High School Language Committee; the Hopi Lavayi Project/the Hopi Tribe;
Dr. Emory Sekaquaptewa, Orthography Specialist at the University of
Arizona; Sheila Nicolas, Immersion Specialist at U of A; Dr. Noreen
Sakiestewa, Director of Education of the Hopi Tribe; the Villages of
Upper and Lower Mungapi; the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office; and the
Office of the Hopi Tribal Chairman, the Hopi Footprints Project.

The student petition stated that Tuba City High School students of both
Hopi and Navajo tribes recognized, not only the importance of their
individual Hopi and Navajo languages and cultures, but that these
students supported each other as members of Native American tribes
living alongside and working with each other at the TC School District
in an effort to revitalize an extremely important part of their
heritage through their individual tribal cultures and tongues.

“Although we recognize that the Hopi language should be taught in the
home and in the village, we also recognize that this is not a real or
practical approach,” Chairman Taylor said in his opening statement. “It
is through our language, and our culture that we learn about our
values, our heritage and our responsibilities in this world.

“Students are a large part of this world responsibility and they will
need to be able to speak Hopi to understand and carry out those
obligations.”

Program benefits

Some of the facts, presented by Chairman Taylor and the members of the
Hopi Lavayi Project, Marvin Lalo-Director and Dawa Taylor, with support
administrative work done by Chairman’s assistant, Reanna Albert,
included statistics from a TC High School and TC Junior High School
student survey taken in the spring of 2003 such as the following:

• Eighty-four percent of students surveyed said that they saw a need for
a Hopi language class at the TC High School level.

• Ninety-six percent said they saw that speaking Hopi was very
important.

• Seventy-nine percent said they saw reading and writing Hopi as
important.

Many of the benefits presented by the survey with the support of the
Hopi Tribe, after talking with staff members of TC District Hopi
Language Committee and its Junior High and High School students who
will be the prime beneficiaries of the new Hopi language classes
included:

• Students becoming proficient in the Hopi and English languages.

• Improving and enhancing academic performance.

• Increased community and parental involvement.

• Meeting state foreign language requirements.

• Reversing the trend in language loss.

• Continue and resuming “Kyaptsi” (respect), “Nami’nangwa” (communal
spirit), “Sumi’nangwa” (togetherness) and “Hita’nangwa” (unselfishness,
generosity and cooperation).

An additional benefit for students to study their own native primary
language is continued development of a medium in which humans think and
express their thoughts. Also based on studies, a second language
increases intellectual growth and enhances mental development with
positive effects on student performance academically.

The infusion of language and culture will create natural links to other
disciplines, fostering a better understanding of all people in the
world.

The new Hopi language classes also will build self-confidence in
understanding and using Hopi language in everyday life as well as
developing students’ positive self image by building self-esteem when
speaking Hopi among their own age group.

The initial course description in the Hopi Chairman’s and Hopi Lavayi
Project proposal stated the focus will primarily be on conversational
Hopi, hands-on learning, listening activities, community interaction
and Hopi language guest presenters, including Hopi elders and local
Hopi community resource members.

Tuba City District Governing Board, which has stated it believes in, not
just the highest and most well-rounded quality education for its
students, has said it recognizes that “educational equity access” is
also a must for its almost 3,000-plus student population.

Board approval

The TC District Governing Board formally voted to accept the new Hopi
Language program for its student population.

The positive yes vote was met with much approval from the packed meeting
room, which included community members, teachers, other administrators
and students there to hear the presentation from Chairman Taylor and
the Hopi Lavayi Project Team.

Implementation of the Hopi language classes are proposed for this coming
spring semester in both the Tuba City High School and Junior High
School levels.

Chairman Taylor and the Hopi Lavayi Team also presented members of the
TCUSD Governing Board with copies of the Hopi Dictionary, which
currently contains 33,000 Hopi words and is not yet complete.

The Hopi Dictionary is in the Third Mesa Hopi dialect and was a project
directed by Emory Sekaquaptewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe and a
linguistics professor at U of A.

For more information on the new Hopi Language classes at Tuba City
District, call Marvin Lalo or Dawa Taylor at the Hopi Tribe at
928-734-3000 or Principal Adelbert Goldtooth, Tuba City High School at
928-283-1047.

(Rosanda Suetopka Thayer is Public Relations Director for Tuba City
Unified School District.)