MN. Program aims at keeping American Indian language alive

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From: ForCERTAIN62@aol.com
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:32:28 EDT
Subject: [NativeNews] MN. Program aims at keeping American Indian language alive


Program aims at keeping American Indian language alive

Oct. 17, 2005

_http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=109352_
(http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=109352)


As a child, Emma Fairbanks was sent to an Indian boarding school, where she
was hit with a ruler if she spoke Ojibwe.

But seven decades later, her daughter, Cleone Thompson, runs a child care
center where young children are enrolled in an American=Indian language
immersion program.

"I never thought it would come back," Fairbanks, 79, said. "I was worried
they (future generations) would forget their Indian ways."

Thompson said that in about 10 years, most of the elders on the reservations
will be gone and there won't be anyone left who speaks the language. Her
child care center in her Minneapolis home, Nokomis Child Care, is part of the
first Indian language immersion program in the nation for urban preschoolers to
revitalize native languages.

About 55,000 American Indians are enrolled in tribes in Minnesota. Roughly
3,000 are fully fluent Ojibwe speakers and about 30 are fully fluent in
Dakota, according to estimates by the Grotto Foundation, which has focused much of
its philanthropy on language revitalization.

Many American Indians can say certain words and phrases, but few can carry
on a conversation, community leaders say.

It is part of the legacy of the boarding schools that American Indians were
forced to go to for decades.

"My parents didn't want me to speak Dakota; they were afraid for us," said
Jennifer Bendickson, program director at the Alliance of Early Childhood
Professionals, which was awarded the federal grant to launch the preschools this
month. "They would talk to each other in Dakota, but when we came in, they'd
stop."

Universities and tribal schools have offered language and culture classes
over the years. But now, people are finding new ways to keep native languages
alive. There is an Ojibwe immersion preschool in Leech Lake, and Indigenous
LanguageSymposiums are held annually. In the Upper Sioux community, a
specialized class teaches Dakota to entire households, rather than individuals. At
University of Minnesota, language students drive up to Canada on weekends in
the fall for an immersion experience at wild rice harvests.

Research shows that immersion programs -- from preschool to high school --
have the best results, said Margaret Boyer, executive director of the Alliance
for Early Childhood Professionals.

"If you want to learn Spanish, you can go to South America," Boyer said. "If
you want to learn French, you go to France. But there's nowhere in the U.S.
you can go and hear only Ojibwe or Dakota. So the best way to learn is
immersion -- and starting at a young age."

At All Nations Child Care Center, the students practice counting numbers and
saying animal names and colors in Dakota. They also are surrounded with
drawings of symbols in American Indian culture, such as eagles and wolves.

Similar immersion programs will be launched at Four Directions Child
Development Center, Cherish the Children Learning Center and Nokomis Child Care. The
first batch of Dakota and Ojibwe speakers are expected to graduate from
these programs in three years.

Boyer hopes for a ripple effect -- the students' parents must take a class
to learn the same materials as their children. And people playing community
bingo in the neighborhood the immersion centers are will hear numbers yelled
out in Dakota and Ojibwe, she said.

"Our project rolls a lot of different things into one," Boyer said. "So all
around the community, when people meet each other, they can use the same
words."