Testimony Begins (language)

[Andre Cramblit]

Senate bill called vital to Native language survival   FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2003

 A bill to expand the education of Native languages drew so much support at
a Senate hearing on  Thursday that just about everyone asked to be a part
of it.

 Amendments to the Native American Languages Act, first passed in 1990,
will authorize the  creation of three "survival schools" in Alaska, Hawaii
and Montana. Modeled after a successful  Native Hawaiian program, the
schools will provide comprehensive education in an all-Native  environment.

 "Language is important," said Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the bill's
sponsor. "It's a link to the  past and I think it's an anchor to the
future."

 The idea was warmly embraced by more than a dozen witnesses who documented
their own  successes in teaching Native languages. During the hearing,
which was interrupted several times  due to frequent Senate votes on the
tax cut, they asked to be included in the survival school  initiative.

 "Given our unique circumstances the Southwest, we hope this committee will
entertain a  recommendation that a fourth center be established that will
serve Native people in the  Southwest," said Dr. Christine Sims, chairwoman
of the Linguistic Institute for Native Americans  and an Acoma Pueblo
tribal member. Sims said Pueblo, Apache, Navajo and other tribes will
benefit.

 Speakers also asked the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to address the
impacts of the No Child  Left Behind Act, which mandates federal standards
in public education. They said a teacher  certification requirement will
hurt Native instructors, some of whom are tribal elders who were  forbidden
to speak their own languages.

 "It doesn't take into account our Native language that are endangered and
[it] will endanger all  Native American children," said Geneva Navarro, 77,
who teaches Comanche at the Comanche  Nation College in Oklahoma.

 "These Native languages helped save our country in World War I and World
War II," she added.

 Rita Coosewon, 71, is the only Comanche language instructor in her area's
public school system  but has to work with a certified teacher. She was
taken to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding  school at a young age and
marveled at the changes federal law and policy have brought about in  her
lifetime.

 "What a twist for them to ask me to come and teach this language that they
wanted so hard for  me not to know," she said.

 Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Education Secretary Rod Paige had an
"eye-opening  experience" when he visited rural Alaska Native schools last
week. "Keeping the languages alive  -- we recognize that it is a challenge
in the state," she said. "It ought not to be so."

 Witnesses testified about the benefits of Native language instruction.
They said it boosts boosts  academic performance, preserves tribal culture
and lowers drop out rates.

 Jocelyn DesRosier started off as a volunteer at the Piegan Institute /
Nizipuhwahsin School on  the Blackfeet Nation in Montana and is now a
teacher. She said graduates of the school, which  serves up to grades 8,
receive praise when they enter high school.

 "The principal keeps phoning us and asking us what we did to these
children," she said, "because  they are so brilliant."

 Dr. Kalena Silva, director of the Ka Haka~QUla O Ke~Qelikolani College at
the University of Hawai'i,  said 80 percent of students in the Native
Hawaiian immersion program enter college.

 Aside from the survival school, the bill authorizes "language nests."
Tribes, tribal colleges, Native  language educational organizations and
other organizations can receive funds from the  Department of Education for
instructional programs.

 Inouye acknowledged the changes suggested by the witnesses and said he
hopes the bill will be  approved by the Senate committee by the end of
July.