Stoney schools work to preserve language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Stoney schools work to preserve language

[Maxine Achurch - photo  Stoney-Nakoda language teacher Kim Fox helps Darris
Bearspaw and Lane Hunter with their Grade 4 Nakoda lesson]

By Rob Alexanader - Reporter
Apr 11 2007
http://www.rockymountainoutlook.ca/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=128&cat=23&id=961684&more=

Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries, Canada was
home to at least 60 aboriginal languages, but in the roughly 400 years
following colonization, the majority of Canada’s aboriginal languages are
now either at risk or on the verge of disappearing.

Currently, Canada’s aboriginal languages are among the most endangered
languages in the world, according to the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization. In the past century alone, 10
once-thriving languages have vanished with another dozen, such as Haida
with 240 speakers, and Kutenai at 120, at risk.

In fact, only three of Canada’s 50 still-surviving aboriginal languages –
Inukitut, Cree and Ojibway – are expected to survive into the future as
each has more than 20,000 speakers.

On the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation reserve, the challenge is keeping the
language alive when the number of people in the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation,
while growing, is still relatively small at roughly 4,000.

Add to that the predominance of English in this region and in the media;
music, movies, television and magazines, and it is a mix that Kim Fox, one
of three language teachers at Morley, believes could lead to the demise of
the Nakoda language in the next 50 to 70 years.

The 2002 Indian and Northern Affairs report From Generation to Generation:
Survival and Maintenance of Canada’s Aboriginal Languages Within Families,
Communities and Cities indicates that one of the major threats to any
aboriginal language is the off-reserve environment.

“Our language survived residential schools, but I feel that will change in
50 years,” Fox said recently.

Fox added that at Morley, roughly a third of the 600 students are fluent,
one-third are able to understand it, but can’t speak it and one-third
cannot understand or speak Nakoda at all. She added that most elementary
students speak in English to one another, rather than Stoney.

“They all play in English. When I was a kid I played in Stoney,” she said.

A member of the Siouian Family of languages that are part of the Greater
Sioux Nation, Nakoda has been spoken in the Rocky Mountains since at least
the late 1600s when the Mountain Stoneys arrived in this region, following
a roughly 50-year, 4,800 kilometre journey that began in the Great Lakes
Region.

French and British explorers and fur traders began to introduce their trade
goods, culture and languages in the Rocky Mountain region in the mid- to
late-1700s.

Following that period, especially after the signing of Treaty 7 in 1877 and
the introduction of residential schools, the Nakoda language — like
numerous aboriginal languages and cultures — came under considerable
pressure from mainstream society.

But today, Nakoda is a living language still being taught to children in
their homes and, of course, championed in the schools by people such as
Fox, Helmer Twoyoungman, her counterpart at the Eden Valley school and Dr.
Gordon Breen, Morley school principal. The Big Horn School, on the Big Horn
reserve located near Nordegg, also teaches Stoney as part of the regular
curriculum.

Originally an oral language, Stoney-Nakoda became a written language in the
1970s. The three schools offer classes in Stoney, beginning with the
youngest students through to senior high, which offers Stoney 15, 25 and
35, each worth three credits.

The younger grades work with simple concepts such as animals, numbers and
common prayers, for example. High school students take an hour a day, which
Fox said helps with their retention.

But teaching the language is only part of the equation — like anything, it
has to be relevant.

As a result, the Morley school includes a strong cultural component in its
curriculum, of which Nakoda is an integral element, that Breen said
attempts to “honour and facilitate cultural aspirations.

“Our intention is – our programming is to reinforce the aboriginal identity

(Nakoda) – identify and create a solid foundation of personal and academic
growth. We see the native culture as an asset to the student’s education or
schooling,” he said.

Without helping students develop their identity as aboriginal people, the
school will have failed, Breen said, as aboriginal schools across Canada
failed their charges by not embracing the unique identity of each group.

“For years, Aboriginal schools were part of the reason for the failures: it
worked against or negated the students’ identity. If they get through the
school, many graduate without refinement of their identity as individuals,”
he said.

“You don’t run against who your community is. A portion is dictated, but
another portion is what the community wants.”

At the same time, the school has to reach the goals Alberta Learning has for
all schools across the province to allow graduates get jobs and go on to
university or college.

The Nakoda cultural component has its own classroom where students learn
about their own culture, their history, even nature, all in their own their
language, making the school a richer, more meaningful experience for
students and educators alike.

Twoyoungman likens the work that happens in this classroom to balancing a
drumstick – essentially the idea of promoting harmony through
understanding.

“Say you have understood your culture, and are more accepting of others,” he
said, adding balancing a drumstick allows Nakoda people to function in the
white world.

“It’s the only way you can live in harmony.”

Preserving their language is also a celebration of their culture and an
affirmation that they are survivors and that they are not, as once
believed, mere charges of the government, but instead, in control of their
future and their identity.

“That’s the other thing we have to focus on; the positive. Why it’s
important. Why it is important to preserve our language,” Fox said.

Fox said to help facilitate the preservation of Nakoda, she hopes one day a
language centre will be built on the reserve, a building solely dedicated
to preserving and teaching their language.

© Copyright 2007 Rocky Mountain Outlook