By Lynda V. Mapes
The Seattle Times
1/15/2003
Washington tribes will decide who is qualified to teach their language and culture in state public schools under a pilot program expected to be approved soon by the state Board of Education.
The policy would be a first for the state, where public-school teachers usually must gain certification through universities. A hearing on the program is scheduled for today in Olympia.
Tribes hope the policy will help keep their language and cultures alive. For some, it will also help heal a cultural wound caused by schools that once beat Indian children for speaking their own language.
"We know it is not changing things overnight. But I believe something historic is happening," said state board member Linda W. Lamb. "We worked very hard as a nation to eliminate the languages of the tribes. We can't undo the damage that has been done. But this hopefully will move foreword."
Larry Davis, executive director of the state board, also sees broader benefits.
"If it is a way for tribal kids to do better in school, who is against that?" Davis said. "And if it exposes non-native kids to different perspectives and culture, that is a good thing, too."
Instructors without certification are permitted to teach in public schools under the supervision of a state-certified teacher. But they are usually paid less, don't have the same benefits, and can't run the classroom themselves.
With certification may come increased respect for the teachers and for the importance of keeping tribal language alive, some tribal members say.
Tulalip tribal member and language teacher Rebecca Posey, 29, has been teaching Lushootseed, her native language, in public and tribal schools since 1998.
"Right now, it's hard for them to fit in Lushootseed. But if we are certified, maybe they would see we really mean business," she said.
"We want to keep our language alive."
Learning tribal languages is more than learning a subject: It conveys the world view and culture of the people who speak it, tribal members say.
"I didn't experience what it was to be Muckleshoot until I began to learn the language," said Valerie Bellack, coordinator of the tribe's language program.
"I connected with those people who are my ancestors, and there was a real breakthrough in my spirit. No longer do I just consider myself a community member. But I am a tribal ancestor, and there is a rich heritage here that I am so proud of and that I am part of.
"Our language is so picturesque, it is our mind and our spirit, our heart, and it brings back our sense of pride and identity."
Instruction would be offered under a three-year pilot program beginning next month and would run through the 2005-06 school year, when the program would be extended, modified or made permanent.
Participating tribes would train and appoint the teachers they deem qualified to teach their language and culture. Those appointed to teach would also be required to undergo a standard background check and a class on abuse prevention.
Next, the Board of Education would review the tribe's proposed program, and issue a certificate qualifying the teacher to accept a job teaching in a public school.
Tribes and local school districts would work out the details of the program for their local schools, including the number of hours of instruction, and whether the program will be paid for by the tribe, the district, grants, or a mix of all three.
The teachers would teach only tribal language and culture unless they have other certification.
Preservation of tribal languages is a race against time. Most Washington tribes have only a handful of fluent native-language speakers left.
That provided some of the urgency behind the launch of the pilot program. "We are not going to require a 70-year old basket weaver to go back to college and jump through all those hoops," Lamb said.
The pilot was born of three years of work by the First Peoples' Language Committee, a grass-roots group of tribes from around the state.
"It gives us a lot of hope," said Martina Whelshula, a former language instructor on the Colville Reservation in Eastern Washington, who helped launch the effort.
"We were told we are primitive, and substandard and backward, and you can't take care of yourselves, and we need to act in your best interests because you don't know what those are. This is an opportunity to reclaim a part of our self that was taken away, and part of that is dignity and the respect and the acknowledgement of our status as tribal nations."
Marsha Wynecoop, language-program manager for the Spokane tribe, says the program is the right thing to do. "Why can't the school system that had taken away the language be the ones to help return it?"