Native-language program wins state endorsement (fwd)

[Phil Cash Cash]

Native-language program wins state endorsement

By Cathy Grimes
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/135051181_firstpeoples22m.html

FIFE, Pierce County — The state Board of Education has approved
procedures associated with a pilot program to teach native languages
and culture in public-school classrooms.

The board approved procedures associated with a three-year Washington
pilot program launched last February. They provide the framework by
which each tribal government can appoint and certify individuals to
teach language and culture classes in the schools. Any tribe in the
state can participate.

After the vote, representatives from nine tribes signed agreements with
the board cementing their partnerships. State Board President Bobbie
May and Hank Gobin, cultural-resources manager for the Tulalip Tribes,
called the occasion historic.

"It is historic that the state Board of Education is willing to work
with the tribes to perpetuate their cultures and language," Gobin said.

Tribal leaders said the program will help stem the loss of indigenous
language and culture, reversing a centuries-old trend. Language experts
estimate that of the more than 175 indigenous languages once spoken in
the United States, only 20 remain in active use.

In Washington, native-language fluency rests with a handful of tribal
elders. Several tribes have worked to recover their language, but they
wanted more than archival evidence of its existence.

They wanted it to live, according to Gobin and S'Klallam cultural
specialists Elaine Grinnell and Jamie Valadez.

"They say if you lose your language, you lose your culture," Grinnell
said as she received her teaching certification Friday. The program
will help prevent that loss, said Grinnell, a Jamestown S'Klallam
tribal elder and language teacher.

State board Executive Director Larry Davis said the board's action
provides legal recognition of courses in tribal languages and culture
as core world-curriculum courses for credit. Students taking such
classes at the high-school level can satisfy world-language or elective
requirements for graduation or admission to college.

But Davis said the most important element was recognizing the importance
of culture and language for the Native American students. He said the
pilot program aligns with federal and state education-reform efforts,
which target every child.

Davis said the state board will not require districts to offer native
language and culture courses, but the pilot program "will leverage the
importance of cultures that are part of our state history. That's what
makes them unique among all cultures."

Currently, the Bellingham and Port Angeles school districts offer such
language and culture courses. Representatives of the Lower Elwha Tribe,
which teaches the Port Angeles classes, said they are seeing success as
students realize sometimes unintended benefits.

Valadez, a specialist with the Lower Elwha tribe who teaches in the
district and received her special teaching certificate from the state
Friday, said students in elementary and secondary programs write notes
to each other in the Klallam language.