We were lucky enough to have at least two weeks of culture week all day learning how to sew. Sew and bead and storytelling, obviously. I don't know if that still happens today but definitely believe having those classes are important to our community. In other villages, other than where I'm from their students speak their language fluently because my generation when I was in school, spoke very fluently in other villages. Where I'm from it was so beaten out of our parents that, you know, English became our first language, unfortunately. Cup'ig is our language, so having our Cup'ig class is pretty important. I'll remember words from um, our Cup'ig class that I don't know the meaning of. So I'll text my mom and a lot of times she will tell me what it is or I'll ask her what is this word in Cugtun and she'll tell me. She's very fluent. I believe only because my grandparents were very fluent, fortunately. So her and my dad are able to speak our language very well. I only understand bits and pieces of what they're saying or what they're wanting to tell us.

Your language is you.

If we really want our language to survive, language immersion is the only way we're gonna get it to happen. It's not gonna happen in our Copper River School District. And this, um, school would be just targeting K-3 right now. Because those, that's the time when you learn their language the best, they'll be the ones who will retain that language learning. Yeah. You know, like myself, I've tried to learn my language for years, and you just don't retain, it's so hard when you don't have anybody to talk to with it.

I was visiting just recently in Hawaii. There's a public school that is all, they only speak native Hawaiian from zero to fifth grade. They don't even teach and instruct in English until after the fifth grade. They get the English at home.

The base foundation of the language is exactly what we are having to do at the adult level. You know, because a lot of my peers don't understand the language. They don't speak the language. And so what we are doing with the youth is what we're having to do with the adults too. So it's almost like full circle because when I was teaching my students, they would go home speaking an Iñupiaq and the parents would call and they're like, what is my child saying? I have no idea what they're saying. Can you help me? The kid would get really frustrated because in their mind they were saying it in Iñupiaq and they're like, why does my mom and dad not understand me? And to see the parent be motivated enough to learn because their kids are learning was huge.

I'm learning a language and teaching language at the same time. Right now my son's a year and a half. He speaks as many in English words as he does Koyukon. And he also only speaks four words.

Iñupiaq would be spoken in our schools. And at home. I just think it would be our first language.

We would probably tell more stories.

To teach everyone in school, a language, not just while they're in kindergarten or just a little bit here and there, and then they have to wait till they're in high school or adult to, to get in a wonderful class that's offered, but to teach it throughout.

They're at home learning together and it's so awesome because she's never attended school, but she can count to 10 in Iñupiaq. And I'm so proud...then we really reinforce it at home. So along with that because we're proposing this immersion, you know, the K3, K4 or we have these immersion classes where sometimes the students will learn more than parents may know. And so we've talked about doing a language nest to support parents so that they can reinforce that at home…I'll volunteer, I'll be there every day as long as the kids are there. And so one thing that I've done, I've been with Ilisagvik since 2020. I love what I do and I love who I work with and I love everything about being at the college. But because my kids are so young, and this is prime like language acquisition time, I recently made a really difficult decision to depart from the college so that I could be home to do that, to teach my kids at home...and to coordinate with…the school system or volunteer however I can so that hopefully my kids can, will be able to speak Iñupiaq.

When we moved to Rampart, we started a dance group...

Since 2015, we've been focused a lot on our partnership with Transparent Language. When I started, I received a lot of calls or emails, people, “I wanna learn my language,” and I didn't really have someplace I could direct them, like, “Go take this class,” or “Here's an opportunity over here.” And there just wasn't a whole lot of access for people. Some of them live outside of Alaska too. And so just given that situation, we thought this online partnership could be a way to go. We were rewarded an ANA grant in 2016 and then a Department of Education grant in 2017. And both of those were focused on creating online courses for each of the languages. We're still in the process of publishing. We have nine so far. We're working on the 10th, which is Iñupiaq. There's nine Athabascan languages, and then Iñupiaq in our region. And so it's been building this online platform. And now that most of those courses are published, we want to continue building on that foundation to provide instructional material for learners. We'd love to see this platform being utilized in the school districts in our region. So that learners, students can take their own language to graduate.

When I first heard it, I heard it from someone in Nenana. She was like, we're relatives. I went to meet her and she was sitting on the floor. She always sat on the floor and she's like, you need to learn this song. But I was such a nuisance kid that I just didn't care and realize the importance of the song, that it teaches you how to grieve and let things out. And so I still cry sometimes when I sing it, and I could, you could feel it, the grief.

It can happen in schools, but it could also happen in the communities. It shouldn't be entirely the school's obligation or role to teach the language. It needs to also be community based, but we have to look at those. How does anyone learn a second language? Cause nobody's learning it as their first language currently. And when you say second language acquisition, it could mean a third, fourth, a fifth language. But we're really talking about these Alaska Native languages specifically. And you know, there's just strategies, different approaches. But I think immersion is the best one for teaching.

...Then we also need to cooperate with the others in our community and in our state who are speaking and dreaming and thinking in their own languages. So you'd know more than just the local language. We'd be able to maybe know, start to learn languages of other communities, other dialects.

I think one of the biggest hurdles for people who even wanted to apply for the program is they think they have to be fluent. They think they already have to be like masters of the language in order to teach others. And I think it's important to kind of step away from this idea that the teacher knows everything and deposits the information one way to the student and then the student receives it and that's how learning takes place…. I think teachers just might be hesitant because they lack confidence or they're not sure that their proficiency is enough. But I think restructuring language programs so that it's not seen as, you have to be a master to be a teacher and you can learn from the students just as much as they learn from you. Especially when you're working in an environment where we have not only multiple languages, but multiple dialects within that language. I think it just has to be open to learning from one another instead of the learning happening one way.

I really like the idea of like, languages will be like reawakened. So one phrase I hear a lot is like, oh, the languages are like, they were like put to sleep just to avoid being like the language is dead or the language is dying. So I really like the thought of reawakening it. And I also picture that as more of a process that when you wake someone up, it can happen slowly. It's not like, “Okay, wake up now,” and they're like jumping out of bed and going, “Okay, I'm awake.” It's sort of that reminder that it is long slow work that happens over time. It's not an instant gratification like, “Okay, we made the website and we made the software and now we're done.” It's that slow reawakening process where you, you get up and you yawn and you stretch and you have to warm it back up again.

I think another motivator for learning is allowing space for people to choose what they wanna learn, which is part of what the Mentor Apprentice Program does because they don't get a curriculum. So, you're working with your mentor and the apprentice chooses what they want to learn. And the intention is that you will have a holistic understanding of the language, but you can build that from a variety of angles. So if you're someone who really does not enjoy cooking, don't force them to learn about cooking. Like that's not going to be interesting or applicable. So you know, starting with something else that's actually, either a cultural activity or otherwise that's actually, additionally outside of language, a passion of the person. Then you're doubling up on passionate interest and that goes a lot farther. So I think that that's something that I like about the MAP program. Where it's difficult because it puts a lot of onus on the apprentice to create that, but at the same time a lot of freedom. And it also means that we have X number of teams. They're not all regurgitating the same information. They each have different experiences and different topics that they've covered throughout their learning journey, which together as a community creates a very complete and rich picture of the language.

10,000 hours for someone to learn a language fluently, they say. That's how long they say it takes to master something too. So how many years is that? If a kid wanted to spend 10,000 hours with a speaker, they could learn. My kids gotta have like a speaker to be with. Okay, we've got 'em on the list for Denaakk'e classroom in Headstart. So how many hours is he placed in Headstart? Are you guys doing the math? What if they did it for like, say, five hours a day, which is about what our kids spent at school. That's five and a half years. So if they start in kindergarten in a language immersion program, by the time they're in sixth grade, they would be, it's really cool.

We made a decision as a staff [at FAI], we're going to use our Indigenous names. And so it was really interesting to watch that journey within our little team because right away there were some individuals that were like going home and studying and trying to remember and practicing with them, you know, to themselves how to say each other's names. There was others that were a little hesitant, eh, maybe they would mumble it a little bit here and there but it became an expectation in the office. And so I still have people, “Oh hi, Gatgyedm Hana’ax!” And then we started to incorporate more of the thank yous from throughout the state and the greetings. And even in our little group texts and stuff, when we say, good morning,"Ama G̱anłaak". And you hear all the different good mornings and good evenings. So it becomes an expectation and it becomes a new norm. And you build that confidence… But it is a journey, right? It is a journey. And expecting, having high expectations for people too, I think is helpful, at times. I get it. Sometimes challenge by choice is good too, but you're on our trip. This is how we do it here, if you don't have an Indigenous name, that's okay too. We'll get you one somewhere. When the time is right, one will emerge.

Our languages will show up on things we use every day.

I think adapting the language can also help and spread it and make it easier to learn as well. Keep the knowledge that we have now and as Elders grow old they'll...you know, pass away and all that language they have will be wasted. So if that happens, what's gonna happen is that we have to adapt upon what we know already. If we just somehow adapted with the help of the Elders and make it possible to adapt the language itself, it could work and it could preserve the language even further because it's difficult and hard to do. With all these Elders passing away and stuff like that - those are problems that we have a time limit and what we do now helps later down the line…that's how I kind of want this idea to spread that - couldn't we or can we adapt it? That's the what if: can we adapt our languages, to more modern era setting?

To me it would be one world. We wouldn't have to feel we're walking between two.

Our lands and our waters would have their traditional names. It wouldn't be Meade River, it would be, you know, a Native name or...Barrow wouldn't have had to fight so hard to be Utqiaġvik...

They’d have an aġġi.

…There's always learning happening. You're mentored by somebody, someone in your family, in your big community. So I was fortunate enough to be raised in that kind of a family. And then school was completely separated in the community where I was raised at East End of Nome. I didn't hear any English until I went to school at age five and I had no idea what was being said. And trying to learn and sing that song “I'm a little teapot…” When I started learning some English - “Yuuquŋilaŋa - I'm not a teapot.” That was my thinking in my little brain, my Inupiaq brain. So, we had to learn to adjust…I didn't accept that I was a teapot. But it’s somebody else’s song. And it’s in English. Inupiaq is very literal. We’re so literal. We say what we mean.

I thought I had all the time in the world and then your kids grow up. So your children make their brain maps zero to five forever. And I have a four year old and I was like, I had two more years. I have two more years. And then she turns four and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have one more year. So I'm in panic mode to get my daughter fluent.

I would love it if all of our kids could just introduce themselves in Iñupiaq…that would be an amazing first step. Right? Well, the kids should learn their Iñupiaq name, or their Eskimo name. Or get one. Some families (like my family) aren’t able to give names because all of them are gone and colonization had impact. I mean, I was in college when I got my name…Finding ways to fold in people who have been disconnected for sure. Cause there are a lot of people that for some reason don't have a Native name.

The first step in learning begins at home…learning to talk in your language is better than learning in someone else’s language.

One of the things that, in working in some of our communities, trying to get some of our Elders and some of our community members, in the classroom is they would say things like, I'm not a teacher, I'm not an educator. And so that was ingrained so much to the fact that we're telling ourselves that we're not teachers. When in fact we are the first teacher and it's just not defined to us that way. And so I'm always like a huge advocate for having us define ourselves in our own language, in our own words, because there's so much just ingrained in just one word and it's gotten so diluted.