New summer program
seeks to preserve, revitalize Native language
|
Lynda Grover-D'Wolf
teaches the Ute language to Ignacio High School junior Antony
Suina, center, and sophomore Hunter Frost in March 2015. The
Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Fort Lewis College are developing
a 10-week certificate program that will increase the number
of Ute language teachers available in K-12 schools. (Durango
Herald file)
|
In an effort to spread Ute language fluency to younger generations,
the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Fort Lewis College are working
on a program to certify more instructors who can teach the Ute language
both on the reservation and in K-12 schools.
The 10-course certification will be held over three years with
the first four courses offered from June 1 to July 20 at Ignacio
High School. Classes are also expected to be available online.
The course will teach about educational linguistics, media in teaching,
classroom management, syntax, morphology, Ute sound systems and
Native American linguistics. Those foundation classes will be followed
by Ute language immersion classes.
Classes are designed to provide students the skills needed to thrive
leading a classroom.
Lindsay Box, spokeswoman with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, said
the certificate program is key to sustaining the Ute language.
"The biggest threat to Ute language preservation is time,
without the assistance of our Tribal Elders, this massive and necessary
undertaking becomes immensely more difficult," she said in
an email to The Durango Herald. "The Tribe currently has approximately
32 fluent Ute speakers, most over the age of 70 years old. The success
of this grant is contingent on our elders' time and health,
especially when respectfully asking for their assistance."
Those who receive the certification will be able to teach Ute in
the Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy, Ignacio School District
and within the Southern Ute Cultural Preservation Department.
"All three entities currently provide limited classes and
with the success of this collaboration the Southern Ute Indian
Tribe will be able to expand on these offerings," Box said.
Classes are open to Ute tribal members from the Southern Ute, Ute
Mountain and Ute Indian tribes; descendants; community members;
and Fort Lewis College students.
"The grant is not only assisting with language preservation,
but also language revitalization," Box said.
Classes were funded through a three-year grant from Administration
for Native Americans Preservation and Maintenance program of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Besides creation of the Ute language certificate classes, the grant
will also fund the creation of the Southwest Indigenous Language
Development Institute and create an online audio and video Ute language
dictionary app.
The certificate for teaching the Ute language will come from the
Southwest Indigenous Language Development Institute. The goal is
to certify at least 15 Ute tribal members to teach the language
over the three-year funding provided by the grant.
|
Fort Lewis College School
of Education Dean Jenni Trujillo said a certificate program
created in partnership with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe
aims to increase the number of Ute language teachers in K-12
schools. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald file)
|
FLC School of Education Dean Jenni Trujillo said guidance and involvement
from Southern Ute elders is the key element.
"The elders are going to be participating throughout. In a
sense, they are the professors, and I think that should be noted,"
she said. "The elders will be the leaders because they're
the ones with the cultural and linguistic knowledge."
Ignacio School District Superintendent Rocco Fuschetto said the
district has taught the Ute language every other year at the high
school, and one of the problems has been finding an instructor for
the class.
He said the certificate program should help ensure a broader supply
of Ute language teachers.
"I support this program 100%," he said.
Fuschetto would like to begin offering a Ute language class in
elementary school as soon as next school year.
"Speaking as a former foreign language teacher, I think the
earlier you begin the better," he said. "The younger kids
catch on a lot faster."
|