Schools need to preserve Indian language and culture (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Schools need to preserve Indian language and culture
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/04/27/news/regional/2dd2725312d4ec7287256e83006021dc.txt

OACOMA, S.D. (AP) -- Incorporating native language and culture into
South Dakota's curriculum will help Indian students achieve more
success in school, a Todd County educator says.

"Losing the language means losing the culture," says Dottie LeBeau, Todd
County's school improvement coordinator and curriculum director. "We
need to know who we are because it makes a difference in who our
children are."

Studies suggest that 90 percent of Lakota people will be unable to speak
their language within a decade, LeBeau says. She wants to revive the
Lakota, Dakota and Nakota languages, both in schools and among adult
Indians, as a way to connect a people with their culture.

LeBeau last week headed a language advocacy committee that recommended
weaving Lakota language and culture throughout tribal, public and
private schools. She and other committee members made several
recommendations during the Oacoma summit hosted by state Education
Secretary Rick Melmer:

-- Make sure language policies and practices in school are consistent
with the desires of parents and community.

-- Provide follow-through support for local language curriculum advisory
committees and incentives for students to participate in language
programs.

-- Set aside times and places where students can practice language
skills in an immersion environment.

-- Incorporate appropriate traditional cultural values and beliefs in
all teaching.

-- Provide an in-depth culture and language orientation program for all
new teachers and administrators, including participation in an
immersion camp with local elders.

-- Provide Nakota, Dakota and Lakota language courses for students in
every high school in South Dakota, especially those with native
students enrolled.

"Children who are most proficient in their native language are also most
proficient in another language and other courses," LeBeau told
participants. "When we're talking of achievement, when we're talking of
No Child Left Behind, we need to have the language. We need to have the
culture for our children to succeed."

Some officials at schools with a high percentage of Indian students
agree.

The Smee School District near Wakpala last year added an instructor to
teach the Lakota language in each classroom and planned to integrate
Lakota and culture at all grade levels.

For the first time this year, Marty Indian School hired a Lakota
language teacher, Redwing Thomas, says Russell Leonard, elementary
principal and acting superintendent.

"Each day, he goes into each of the classrooms, kindergarten through
fourth grade, and spends time on the language," Leonard said. "In
addition to that, once a week he does an Indian studies program for
each class, going in and talking about the culture, history, the things
these students should know."

Native language and culture has been stressed at tribal colleges and
universities for several years, says the head of graduate studies at
Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

But Stephanie Charging Eagle says the effort can't be limited to
schools.

"The schools can't do it alone," Charging Eagle says. "The whole
community has to get involved."