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Sealaska Heritage Institute sponsors annual summer camps focused on integrating Native language instruction with an activity familiar to and popular with Native youth in every rural community: basketball.

Sports are a popular activity with Native youth, provide physical and health benefits to them, and are consistent with the holistic concept of Latseen – strength of mind, body, and spirit. The camps are an effort to provide a program integrating physical fitness and Native culture into the lives of our young people and to create a core of youth who will gain confidence to take leadership roles in their communities, both in terms of athletics, and in a more-lasting way, by serving as catalysts for language revitalization.

This innovative program is a fun and safe environment for Native youth to be physically active, develop basketball fundamentals, learn Tlingit and gain the confidence to use it on and off the court. The language section of camp is taught using a combination of Total Physical Response (TPR) in the group setting and ASLA in a one on one classroom setting.  The goal is to be able to fully integrate Native languages into a full day of basketball camp.

Recent Donors
Alaska USA Foundation
Association on American Indian Affairs
City and Borough of Juneau
Wings of Alaska

News Stories
Sealaska Heritage puts new spin on summer basketball camp

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