Language Program Directory Information
Which tribal/Indigenous community is your program/institution affiliated with?
Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
How many staff members work for your program/institution?
4
How long has your program/institution existed?
Since 2020.
What is the contact information for your program/institution (e.g. mailing address, website, Facebook Page, etc.)?
Physical Address: 125 North Main, Miami, OK 74354
Email: shawneelanguage@shawnee-tribe.com
Phone: 918-542-2441
Website
Please provide a brief description (approximately 5 sentences) about your program/institution.
In 2020, a state of emergency was declared for the Shawnee Language due to it having less than 10 known L1 speakers. As a result, the Shawnee Tribe officially declared the years 2021-2030 as the Decade of the Shawnee Language and pledged tribal resources toward a comprehensive plan to create fluent speakers from the youngest Shawnees and to deploy language curriculum to all Shawnee people. With the emergency declaration about COVID-19 shortly after, the language department implemented new teaching techniques and technology to help ensure that as many of our tribal citizens could learn their ancestral language as possible. Our goal is to bring back fluency in the younger generations so that our children can speak Shawnee again.
What are challenges your program/institution has faced?
We struggled with being everywhere at once before virtual classes were possible. Shawnees are spread throughout Oklahoma and the rest of the country, so it was difficult to reach everyone. Developing a consistent curriculum was also a challenge until 2021.
What are existing projects your program/institution is working on?
We have virtual language classes on Zoom every week and we will be having two levels as of 2022. There are multiple language classes and teachers to increase the number of community members who can participate. We are currently improving SLIPStream, our language website, as a resource for community members who are unable to attend live classes or who want more Shawnee practice. We are also recording traditional Shawnee stories and Looney Tunes episodes in Shawnee with an L1 speaker to give people modern audio in the language. Our other project is populating the Shawnee database and creating an online Shawnee dictionary, both housed by the Indigenous Languages Digital Archive (ILDA). Part of this project is a yearly summer internship program for college student Shawnees, named the 'Sherman Tiger Language Internship' after a first speaker we lost to COVID-19.
What are the short-term goals for your program institution (present-day – one month from now)?
We are in the process of training our eight Community Language Preservationists (CLPs) to teach Level 1 and Level 2 of our curriculum starting in January 2022. We want our CLPs to gain a deeper understanding of Shawnee grammar so they can use the language with more confidence and have the tools to answer questions from students. By training teachers, we are working towards higher levels of proficiency in the language.
What are the long-term goals for your program/institution (1 year – 5 years from now)?
Each year we will add another level to our curriculum. We started with Level 1 in 2021, then we will add Level 2 in 2022, then Level 3 in 2023, and finally an Immersion Level in 2024. By then, we want to have around 16 CLPs, and by result have at least 16 highly fluent speakers of the language. We will be be teaching over 100 community members a year, increasing our capacity with each level. We would also like to establish a charter school or daycare that would allow us to immerse children in the language.
From your perspective, how do you view the language activity in your tribe?
After decades of struggling to find ways to bring back community language fluency, in 2021 we have seen an inspiring amount of progress. Community members continue to express interest in our language classes and have improved in pronunciation and fluency more this past year than ever before. The tribal government is even naming departments in Shawnee, and encouraging staff to learn the language. There can always be more Shawnee spoken, but we are seeing a steady increase.