Request

[Bernadette Santamaria]

Ashood, ahiye'e (thank you) to Haley & those who provided info in response
to my request for info---it has been very helpful.

Bernadette SantaMaria

On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 7:07 PM, Haley De Korne <hal1403 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>   Hi Bernadette,
> I'm attaching a few articles that describe the importance & benefits of
> Native language education.
>
> Also, I don't know if it will be useful, but there are several states that
> have laws that argue that teaching native languages is crucial.  The
> strongest one is probably Washington.
>
> Here's a link to their policy statement:
> http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28A.410.045
>
> Here's the part of the text that I'm thinking about.  They cite their own
> reasons, and the national law promoting Native language education (Native
> American Languages Act):
>
> *Findings -- 2007 c 319:* "The legislature finds that:
>
>      (1) Teaching first peoples' languages, cultures, and oral tribal
> traditions is a critical factor in fostering successful educational
> experiences and promoting cultural sensitivity for all students. Experience
> shows that such teaching dramatically raises student achievement and that
> the effect is particularly strong for Native American students;
>
>      (2) Native American students have the highest high school dropout rate
> among all groups of students. Less than one-fourth of Native American
> students in the class of 2008 are on track to graduate based on the results
> of the Washington assessment of student learning. Positive and supportive
> educational experiences are critical for the success of Native American
> students;
>
>      (3) The sole expertise of sovereign tribal governments whose
> traditional lands and territories lie within the borders of the state of
> Washington in the transmission of their indigenous languages, heritage,
> cultural knowledge, histories, customs, and traditions should be honored;
>
>      (4) Government-to-government collaboration between the state and the
> sovereign tribal governments whose traditional lands and territories lie
> within the borders of the state of Washington serves to implement the spirit
> of the 1989 centennial accord and other similar government-to-government
> agreements, including the 2004 accord between the federally recognized
> Indian tribes with treaty reserved rights in the state of Washington;
>
>      (5) Establishing a first peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal
> traditions teacher certification program both achieves educational
> objectives and models effective government-to-government relationships;
>
>      (6) Establishing a first peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal
> traditions certification program implements the following policy objectives
> of the federal Native American languages act of 1990 (P.L. 101-477) in a
> tangible way:
>
>      (a) To preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native
> Americans to use, practice, and develop Native American languages;
>
>      (b) To allow exceptions to teacher certification requirements for
> federal programs and programs funded in whole or in part by the federal
> government, for instruction in Native American languages when such teacher
> certification requirements hinder the employment of qualified teachers who
> teach in Native American languages, and to encourage state and territorial
> governments to make similar exceptions;
>
>      (c) To encourage and support the use of Native American languages as a
> medium of instruction in order to encourage and support Native American
> language survival, educational opportunity, increased student success and
> performance, increased student awareness and knowledge of their culture and
> history, and increased student and community pride;
>
>      (d) To encourage state and local education programs to work with
> Native American parents, educators, Indian tribes, and other Native American
> governing bodies in the implementation of programs to put this policy into
> effect; and
>
>      (e) To encourage all institutions of elementary, secondary, and higher
> education, where appropriate, to include Native American languages in the
> curriculum in the same manner as foreign languages and to grant proficiency
> in Native American languages the same full academic credit as proficiency in
> foreign languages;
>
>      (7) Establishing a first peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal
> traditions certification program is consistent with the intent of
> presidential executive order number 13336 from 2004, entitled "American
> Indian and Alaska native education," to assist students in meeting the
> challenging student academic standards of the no child left behind act of
> 2001 (P.L. 107-110) in a manner that is consistent with tribal traditions,
> languages, and cultures." [2007 c 319 § 1.]
>
>      *Short title -- 2007 c 319:* "This act may be known and cited as the
> "First peoples' language, culture, and oral tribal traditions teacher
> certification act: Honoring our ancestors."" [2007 c 319 § 4.]
>
> I hope some of this is helpful.  Best wishes to you!!
>
> Haley
>
> "Language is not merely a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules.
> It is a flash of the human spirit, the means by which the soul of each
> particular culture reaches into the material world. Every language is an
> old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an entire ecosystem
> of spiritual possibilities."
> Wade Davis
>
> --- On *Wed, 9/15/10, Bernadette Santamaria <bernisantamaria at GMAIL.COM>*wrote:
>
>
> From: Bernadette Santamaria <bernisantamaria at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: [ILAT] Request
>
> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 12:39 PM
>
>
>  All:
>
> For a community-level language committee, a goal is to get the local school
> board to support Apache language teaching in the schools here in addition to
> the educational outreach we are attempting to get the older generations to
> re-learn and make decisions to once again teach the younger generation our
> language.  One issue is that due to administrative staff changes (school
> supt, principals, etc), there has not been continuation in these efforts by
> local language teachers at schools and the new administrators (gathered from
> recent presentations they did to the Tribal Council) seem to not exclude
> local language/culture teaching from the school curriculae.
>
> In order to present this committee's recommendations to include these
> courses and to strengthen support of local language teachers in the school
> system, it was deemed that we need to convince these newer school
> administrators of the importance of providing this teachings for our
> children in local schools who comprise over 90% enrollment of native
> children in them.  We request names of books, articles, authors, etc. that
> you can provide us that emphasize the reasons why and how native children
> benefit from inclusion of their native language/cultural knowledge in school
> curriculae, need examples of tribes/schools that are successful, etc.
>
> Thanks for any info provided on this topic.
>
> Bernadette A. SantaMaria
> WM Apache Language Committee
>
>
>
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