Keeping Salish Alive (fwd)

Wed Apr 5 20:28:13 UTC 2006

KEEPING SALISH ALIVE

	 Photo credit: Adam Sings In The Timber Writing in the Salish language, Maii
Pete, 10, makes a list of what she was thankful for this past year as elder
Sophie Mays works with other children at Nkwsum school.		  

  By Jasa Santos 

   ARLEE, Mont.—More than a dozen children are crammed into the small entryway
of a school on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana. An
elderly man with salt and pepper braids is ushering coats and backpacks to each
one, speaking quietly in Salish. 

   The children answer confidently and chatter excitedly with each other,
alternating between English and Salish. Soon, the entryway is quiet, and
another day has ended at Nkwsum, the Salish immersion school on the
reservation. 

    “It’s just like any other school,” said Director Tachini Pete, “except
for the focus on language and culture.” 

   Nkwsum was started four years ago, with the idea of bringing the Salish
language back to the people. At the time, nearly 100 people spoke fluent Salish
on the reservation, but only 58 speakers remain. 

   Nkswum (pronounced in-KOO-sum) means “family” in Salish and is derived
from the Salish word meaning “one fire.”  

	 Photo credit: Adam Sings In The Timber Tana Stevens, 5, writes Salish words
during a class.		  

  Pete said the school enrolled only four students its first year. Now, nearly
30 students are enrolled in preschool through second grade. 

   The lone classroom contains only two rows of desks, all of which were
donated by other schools. An English alphabet poster tops the marker board with
the Salish alphabet underneath. 

   “We made everything in here just about,” Pete said, looking around the
room. 

  Nkwsum is only one of two Native language immersion schools in Montana.
Browning is home to the other, which focuses on the Blackfeet language. No
Salish curriculum is available to Pete and the teachers at Nkwsum. 

   “We’ve proposed to the tribe to create a curriculum department,” Pete
said. “We’re at the point where we can’t keep up. The kids are learning so
fast.” 

   THE MAIN DIFFERENCE 

   That is the main difference between a public school and Nkswum, Pete said. A
public school can buy everything needed to teach students math or science.
Nkwsum can’t. 

   “Everything has to be translated and redone, so it fits our language and
our culture,” Pete said. “We want our kids to get all the education they can,
if not more than a public school can [give].”  

	 Photo credit: Adam Sings In The Timber D'anja Charlo, 4, and Dorissa Garza,
7, listen  to elder Stephen Small Salmon as he instructs them in Salish.		  

  As newly appointed curriculum director, Arleen Adams knows that Nkwsum faces
more hard work. 

   “We have no McGraw-Hill,” Adams said with a laugh. “We are McGraw-Hill.”
Adams said the Nkswum’s goal is create a curriculum and to “make it Indian, to
make it Salish.” 

   “That’s what needs to be expressed to our children,” she said. “They
don’t get that from a public school.” 

  The current curriculum isn’t based on lesson plans, Adams said. The group
works in a casual manner, tracking months and seasons important to Salish
culture. 

   The result is what Adams calls a “seasonal curriculum.” For example,
October is “hunting month” in the Salish culture, Adams said. The teachers
focus on the traditional animals, weapons and locations important to the
culture. 

   “We rely wholly on our three teachers here to help us,” Adams said.
“It’s about teaching the kids who they are and where they came from.” 

   Adams also consults a culture committee and elders to make sure that
students are learning the full Salish language. With the dialect changing from
places such as Arlee to Polson—everyone on the reservation knows a different
way of speaking Salish—Adams wants to ensure that students are not learning
“half-words.” 

   “We rely on our elders to be that foundation for us,” she said. “In a
week’s time, [the students] are spitting out all kinds of Salish.” 

  Often, Salish elders visit for have storytelling time with students. Everyone
works to reinforce the elder’s story and how it is important to the Salish
culture. 

  “It would be nice to call up McGraw-Hill and say, ‘Hey, could we have a
Salish curriculum for the fifth grade?’ ” Adams said. “But we create the
curriculum as we go. It’s the only way.” 

  Reporter Jasa Santos, Salish, and photographer Adam Sings In The Timber,
Crow, attend the University of Montana in Missoula. They are both graduates of
the Freedom Forum's 2005 American Indian Journalism Institute. 

               ARTICLE LINK:
http://www.reznetnews.org/student/060202_language/[1]                          
-------------------------

  Copyright © 2006 Reznet.
            Reznet is a project of The University of Montana School of
Journalism
            and the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.      

Links:
------
[1] http://www.reznetnews.org/student/060202_language/
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