The Native Voices Endowment 2008 Awards (fwd)

[Susan Penfield]

Excellent projects!  Great to know the focus and impact of these awards!
Congratulations to everyone!

Susan

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 11:37 AM, phil cash cash <cashcash at email.arizona.edu>
wrote:

> The Native Voices Endowment:
> A Lewis & Clark Expedition Bicentennial Legacy
> Endangered Language Fund
>
> 5 June 2008
> For Immediate Release:
>
> Endangered Language Fund supports languages of the Lewis and Clark
> Expedition When Lewis and Clark explored the territory from the Mississippi
> to the Pacific two hundred years ago, they encountered speakers of dozens of
> languages. Now, those tribes are fighting to keep their languages alive. The
> Endangered Language Fund, thanks to an endowment created by the National
> Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, has made five awards to help
> with those efforts.
>
> The Native Voices Endowment: A Lewis & Clark Expedition Bicentennial Legacy
> provides support for tribal members or tribal colleges to work to maintain
> their languages. 2008 marks the first year of these awards, and the
> following five projects were selected to share the $80,000 available:
>
> Debbie Martin, Quinault Indian Nation: Quinault Language Community
> Immersion Project.
>
> This three-year plan will further immerse the Native peoples of the
> Quinault Indian Nation in the culture, language and history of their elders.
> Quinault is a language within the Tsamosan branch of the Salishan Family of
> the Northwest Coastal Native American Languages. This project's outcomes
> will include an enhanced collection of literacy materials both for children
> and adults, with the production of the material serving as training for
> tribal members. This project recognizes the intrinsic wisdom of the elder
> population and affirms the Quinault core value of stewardship practices in
> the effort to protect human, natural and cultural resources for the present
> and future of the Quinault Nation.
>
> Justin T. McBride, Kaw Nation: Wajíphanyin Material Support Project.
>
> In the Kaw language, Wajíphanyin is the Camp Crier, and the Kaw Nation
> hopes that there can be new ones. The last native speakers passed away in
> the 1970's, but their descendants, who now live in Oklahoma, have begun
> reviving their language. They recently made use of an Administration for
> Native Americans grant to produce an interactive CD for language learning.
> Included in this package is a language-learning game. The present project
> will make that tool more accessible to the tribe by creating a board game
> version. The 500 copies of this game will be distributed to interested
> tribal members and sold through the tribal gift shop, with proceeds going to
> the Language Department.
>
> Archie Beauvais, Rosebud Sioux Tribe: Lakota Language Preservation Project.
>
>
> Lakota, like most of the languages encountered by the Expedition, is
> currently being spoken by smaller percentages of tribal members, especially
> at the younger ages. In this project, teachers of the language will be
> trained in the language as well as a way of teaching it. Archie Beauvais,
> project director, has secured the commitment of four expert teachers of the
> Lakota language who will serve as advisory board members and initial
> language teachers. They will recruit 20 tribal members, ideally from the 20
> communities, who will then teach members of their household. This "ripple
> effect" is hoped to ensure that the goal of increasing the number of
> speakers by 10% per year can be met.
>
> Joyce McFarland, Nez Perce Tribe: Nez Perce Language Preservation Project:
> Bridging the Gap Between Elders and Youth.
>
> Nimipuutímt, the Nez Perce Language, is a Sahaptian language spoken on the
> tribal lands in Idaho and neighboring areas. There has been a steep decline
> in the number of speakers over the past decade, especially among the most
> fluent. With assistance from the Endangered Language Fund, Joyce McFarland
> and her team from the tribal Education Department will make the language
> more accessible to younger speakers. Using the Nez Perce Cultural Camp as a
> springboard, they will extend that program into an after school club. New
> material will be recorded and made available on DVDs. Modern media are
> important to the youth and will be an important tool in helping them
> maintain their traditions.
>
> LaRae Wiley, (Lakes band of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington
> State): Scholarship to study Nselxcin with fluent Elder.
>
> The Native Voices Endowment supports not only systematic language projects
> like the ones just described, but also scholarships for those tribal members
> who want to extend their knowledge of their language. Scholarships can be
> for work in language or linguistics at universities or, like the present
> case, for Master-Apprentice programs. In these, an elder and a younger
> learner meet regularly to engage in everyday activities, with the condition
> that only the Native language is spoken. Such programs have proven to be
> quite effective in improving the speaking skills of those with a basic
> understanding of the language, in this case, Nselxcin (Colville-Okanagan
> Salish). Wiley hopes "that someday soon, Nselxcin will be a living, dynamic
> language that is once again passed naturally from parents to children."
>
> Contact:
> Bobby Winston
> Endangered Language Fund
> 300 George St., Suite 900 New Haven, CT 06511
> 510-903-1061
>
> [ISO 639 language codes: qun; ksk; lak; nez; oka]
>
> the endangered language fund
> http://www.endangeredlanguagefund.org/index.html
>
>


-- 
____________________________________________________________
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.

Department of English (Primary)
American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI)
Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Ph.D. Program (SLAT)
Department of Language,Reading and Culture(LRC)
Department of Linguistics
The Southwest Center (Research)
Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836


"Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought,
an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities."

Wade Davis...(on a Starbucks cup...)
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