Florida: Brighton Seminole Reservation: Faint hope for dying language

[Harold Schiffman]

Forwarded From edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


Palm Beach Post

Faint hope for dying language

Jade Braswell scans her teachers guide and turns to a boy waiting
silently at the whiteboard.
"A pencil in a cup," she reads slowly. The Seminole boy pauses for a
moment, then scrawls the translation in small, messy handwriting.
"Eshotcickv halo ohfv," he reads.



"Good," Braswell commends the boy, turning to the other seven students
in the fifth grade. "Could I say halo eshotcickv ohfv? What did I just
say?" "A cup in a pencil," the students shout. "If I had a cup, could
I put it in a pencil?" "Nooooo," they giggle. The lesson is an attempt
to stop the slow but steady demise of Seminole language and culture by
"Teaching Our Way." That's the English translation for Pemayetv
Emahakv, the name of the charter school that opened in August on the
Brighton Seminole Reservation just northwest of Lake Okeechobee in
Glades County.

In its first year, the $10 million, 45,000-square-foot school has
become a source of pride among the 600 people living on the
reservation. There is a waiting list to enroll, and parents and staff
are talking about expanding the school beyond its kindergarten through
fifth grades.



Full story:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/12/09/m1a_SEMINOLE_MAIN_1209.html


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