Smak’ i’ ya is a contracted language teacher from the Lummi Tribe with the Ferndale School District.
In Ferndale, teachers have been bringing the Lummi language to classrooms since the 1990s. I think about the art, the culture and the language that’s going to be something that sustains us.” “What I was taught was to tell our story, and, you know, keep building our people up,” Frank said, “and that’s what we’re doing with all this great work in here. “You’re seeing everything kind of come together for the tribes, and it all weaves together.”įrank said he thinks it’s a perfect time to focus again on the tribe’s cultural traditions. “You’re starting to see everything kind of awakening right now here in Nisqually,” said Willie Frank III, chairman of the Nisqually Tribe. The language work being undertaken by the tribe is part of broader efforts to expand and uplift culture and identity for the tribe. So I’m proud of us for finally getting our own program in our schools and in our community.” “It’s just something new that we’ve always needed in our community. “It makes - it chokes me up,” said Catalina Sanchez, research coordinator for the center. The tribe’s partnership with the Bethel schools is part of the Nisqually Language Resource Center which started two years ago. Together with the tribe, Barger said she hopes the district can expand the program beyond Title VI, perhaps as an after-school program offered to older students. “So that’s been really neat to see them build confidence in that.” “It’s something almost like they feel like celebrity status, because it’s now just something that they own,” Barger said. Bethel School District had 461 qualifying students this last school year, which is around 2% of its student population.īarger said those students were excited to learn the language because it felt unique to them. The tribe and district have partnered, so far, to bring the language classes to two elementary schools for students who qualify for Title VI. Title VI is a federal program that aims to meet the specific needs of Native American students. Barger serves over 200 Title VI Indian Education Program students for the district. Rachael Barger is a teacher on special assignment with Bethel School District, one of the districts partnering with the Nisqually Tribe to bring its Southern Lushootseed language into the classroom for a small subset of students.įive percent of Bethel’s student population identifies as American Indian, Alaskan Native, two or more races or Hispanic and Native. A number of Washington state public schools are partnering with tribes to bring Indigenous languages into classrooms in an effort to rectify the marred history of Native American boarding schools.
0 kommentar(er)
