Inside this issue: Introduction About IAIE UNM Summer Language Classes Acoma Language Forum What’s Coming Up	THE INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION NATIVE LANGUAGE NEWSLETTER	IAIE Native Language News Staff: Editor: Andrea Ramon (Tohono O’odham) aramon1@unm.edu Technical Assistant: Florian Johnson (Dine) florianj@unm.edu Faculty Advisor: Christine Sims, Ph.D. (Acoma) csims@unm.edu
	Published by the Institute for American Indian Education ©2007 IAIE
IAIE Home	click here for a pdf version

A New Beginning

WELCOME to IAIE’s first electronic newsletter for Native Language communities in New Mexico!

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide information to tribal communities, native language teachers, and tribal community members involved in language initiatives or who are interested in learning more about native language revitalization and maintenance issues. We will be providing information about upcoming professional development trainings, conferences, meetings, and events, as well as highlights of various community language efforts. We hope to periodically include information about current language issues that may also affect language teachers, language programs, and other relevant topics as they arise.

We would especially like to hear from language teachers and tribal community members regarding information that may of interest to you and other communities. If you would like to announce a special event happening in your community regarding language related activities please email us or call with specific information regarding the event and we will do our best to include that in our next issue.

This newsletter will be emailed quarterly in pdf form for you to print at your convenience. If you know of anyone who may be interested in receiving this newsletter please forward their email address to the editor.

the Institute for American Indian Education

by Leola Tsinnajinnie

The Institute for American Indian Education (IAIE) was created in 2004 by Native education faculty in the College of Education in response to the overwhelming need to improve American Indian education. Passage of the Indian Education Act by the New Mexico State Legislature in 2003 identified a number of key areas for improvement including the need for Native language maintenance among youth and support of language initiatives in communities and schools. One of the goals established by the IAIE is to provide professional development, training support, and technical assistance to tribal communities and Native language instructors in support of their efforts to plan appropriate programs for teaching Native languages. The Institute is committed to helping tribal communities through the expertise of faculty who are from Native language communities themselves and who are knowledgeable about language issues at the local, state, and national levels.

 The Institute will help facilitate dialogue among educators, scholars, and tribal leaders to:

· Examine the critical education issues facing American Indian communities

· Explore new ideas and appropriate instructional approaches to meet the learning needs of American Indian students

· Provide educational service to American Indian communities

The Institute seeks to address current needs in New Mexico Indian Education, in light of the diversity of educational administrative authorities that have responsibility for educating American Indian students, as well as the current gap in the number of American Indian Teachers who are available to teach in public and BIA schools. The Institute is enhanced by the experiences and firsthand knowledge of the eight Native American faculty members in the College of Education.  

2006 UNM Summer Language teacher Classes

by John P. Silcox

A two-week UNM course LLSS 300 Bilingual Methods and Materials was taught by Dr. Christine Sims for speakers of Native languages. Teachers of Keres, Tiwa, Navajo, and Zuni spent their summer learning about immersion methods and strategies for teaching their Native languages. The course provided speakers the opportunity to carry native language teaching into the future through hands-on practice in language teaching and materials development. Teachers had the opportunity to conduct web based searches for materials that were then utilized in various photo-editing programs and printed as posters, game cards, and other instructional materials. The class culminated with an immersion language lesson demonstrated by each of the different language teachers. The fact that not all members of the class spoke the same native language put the instructors in the position of having to use techniques learned and props produced from the class to teach their peers. From plastic birds to bouncing beach balls, each group had their own unique way of conveying their lessons in their own languages. It is classes such as this that enable language teachers to stay true to the purpose of teaching languages—speaking them! This class will be offered again in summer 2007 during June 4-8th.

A second class also taught by Dr. Christine Sims’ focused on Instructional Trends in Social Studies (LLSS 540). This class provided teachers the opportunity to visit Chaco Canyon and spend an entire afternoon there. There was an excavation active at the site and the class was treated to a detailed tour of the dig. The archaeologists explained that many assumption about Chaco have recently been challenged due to new archeological research. To balance the traditional scientific viewpoint of the archeological world, an associate of Dr. Sims, Mr. William Estevan, from the Pueblo of Acoma joined the class on the outing. He described Chaco from a much more traditional perspective and presented his own theories about the purposes and significance of places like Chaco to Native people and why these continue to be special places in the early and present day experiences of indigenous peoples of the southwest. This class will be taught again in summer, 2007.

“Successes and Challenges from Acoma to Zuni” by Theresa Pasqual

This was the theme for a community presentation held by the Acoma Language Retention Program (ALRP) on October 24, 2006. Ms. Vina Leno, Program Director, invited representatives from various Pueblos to give their perspectives on the successes and challenges they face in their respective language programs and in their own communities. In addition, Ms. Leno invited the Acoma Tribal Administration, Grants Cibola County School District Superintendent and staff, as well as representatives at other community levels to give their thoughts on language presentation; these included Brian Vallo, Haak’u Museum Director, Maureen Juanico, 2005 Laguna-Acoma High School Salutatorian, Christine Sims, Asst. Professor-UNM, and Lloyd Tortalita, Traditional Leader.

The evening’ presentation began with dinner provided by Geri Ortiz of Pueblo Sisters Enterprise. Presenters from various surrounding communities shared with the Acoma people their own language and cultural initiatives, experiences at a community, state and district level, especially where language is being taught in the schools. Representatives from the different programs all agreed that the most rewarding part of working in a language preservation program was hearing the children speak the language and seeing a renewed interest and participation in cultural activities in the community. The emotional testimony provided by some members when sharing personal perspectives, reminded all participants of the responsibility that we all have towards protecting our native languages and the work that has yet to be done.

What’s Coming Up

· Spring 2007:

• LLSS 449: Teaching the Native Language to the Native Speaker—1st day of class! Bernalillo High School: 9:00am—3:00pm. CLASSES NOW CLOSED

· January—March 2007

• New Mexico State Legislature in Session: Senate Bill 719: Making an appropriation for a Native American Language Scholarship program at the University of New Mexico in Honor of Esther Martinez of Ohkay Owingeh. Sponsored by Senator Richard Martinez . Please call your legislative representatives to support passage of this bill and relay the message that we need IAIE training support for Native speakers teaching Native languages in New Mexico.

· February 7-10, 2007:

• National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Conference: ONE NATION: Many Languages, Many Cultures in a Changing World. San Jose Mcenery Convention Center, San Jose, CA. Call 1-888-241-8407 or visit: <www.nabe.org>

· April 26-28, 2007

• New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education (NMABE) Conference in Albuquerque. For registration information contact: Www.nmabe.net

Published by the Institute for American Indian Education

University of New Mexico

College of Education

MSC 3040

Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

Phone: 505-277-3175

Fax: 505-277-8362

The Institute for American Indian Education (IAIE) was created in response to New Mexico’s overwhelming need to improve American Indian student retention and achievement in schools. IAIE will attempt to increase the number of Indian teachers and to better train all teachers who work with Indian students and their communities. The various needs of the growing Native language teachers in the schools and communities will be attended to. 

For more information about IAIE contact:

Colleen Keane, Program Manager, IAIE.