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Articles
Ketchikan Daily News
A Division of Pioneer Printing
Co., Inc.
501 Dock St./P.O. Box 7900 Ketchikan, Alaska 99901
(907) 225-3157 FAX (907) 225-1096
kdn@ketchikandailynews.com
July 22, 2002
Institute Works to Preserve Native Languages
By LEILA KHEIRY
Daily News Staff Writer
Ketchikan recently was host to an annual program that aims to preserve Native Alaska languages by increasing the number of fluent speakers.
On Friday, the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s annual Native Language Institute wrapped up two weeks of intensive classes during which students learned the basics of Haida, Tlingit and Shim-al-gyack — the Tsimshian language.
This is the third year for the language institute, Sealaska Sociolinguist Roy Iutzi-Mitchell said during the program’s closing ceremonies Friday. For the past two years, the classes took place in Juneau. The first year focused on Tlingit language, he said, and Haida was added during the second institute. This year marks the first time Shim-al-gyack has been taught through the program.
In addition to the Native language classes, the institute also included a class on teaching methods, said Iutzi-Mitchell. The institute uses a method in which no English is spoken during the three-hour class. That way, said Iutzi-Mitchell, the students are fully exposed to the language.
When introducing new words to students, the teachers use body language and hand signals to demonstrate the meaning, he said, rather than using English to explain the meaning.
Iutzi-Mitchell, who speaks two Eskimo languages and is in the process of learning several Southeast Native languages, said the teaching method recreates the way infants learn to speak. Humans never lose the ability to learn new languages, he said, and there’s no limit to the number of languages a person can learn.
The institute’s language classes are open to any interested individual, said Iutzi-Mitchell. However, most of the students are Native Alaskans who want to learn their traditional language.
The goal of the institute is to preserve what otherwise could be disappearing languages, he said.
"The underlying purpose is to encourage the continued survival of … the languages," Iutzi-Mitchell said.
The institute was co-sponsored by Ketchikan Indian Community and the University of Alaska Southeast.
Debbie White of KIC’s Johnson O’Malley youth program was one of the local organizers, and one of the students. She took the Shim-al-gyack class to learn her Tsimshian language.
White said her family didn’t speak Shim-al-gyack when she was growing up, and she picked up only a few words. Her great-grandmother and grandmother spoke the language, she said, but only to each other when they didn’t want the kids to know what they were saying.
She said it is fulfilling to learn her language, and comforting to know it won’t disappear.
"So many of our elders have passed away," she said. "With the speakers dying, you’re eventually to the point where you could lose the language."
Iutzi-Mitchell also took the Tsimshian language class. He, White and the rest of the students demonstrated their new-found skills Friday during the institute’s closing ceremony at KIC’s building on Deermount.
The Shim-al-gyack class followed some simple commands from teacher Donna Mae Roberts, such as sitting, standing, raising their hands, patting their stomachs and turning around. They also sang Shim-al-gyack versions of "We Will Rock You" and "The Hokey Pokey."
Students from the Tlingit class sang songs and identified parts of their clothing, and the Haida class sang a counting song and identified colors.
White said KIC hopes to co-sponsor the language institute annually, and to eventually offer Native Southeast Alaska languages in the Ketchikan School District as "foreign" languages.