Head Start: An Avenue to Revitalize a Language

An environment of acceptance helps preserve the Cherokee culture.
by Ramona Drew and Regina Grass

In the spring, Head Start classes of the Cherokee Nation visit the kindergartens the children will attend in the fall. During one of these visits, the kindergarten teacher leads the children in circle time and asks a young girl to count to ten. She begins, “sa-gwu, tal-li, jo-i, nv-gi, his-gi, su-da-li, ga-qwo-gi, cha-ne-la, soh-ne-la, sgo-hi,” and finishes with a broad smile. She has just counted to ten in the Cherokee language.

Her emerging fluency in Cherokee is testimony to the role of the Cherokee Nation Head Start (CNHS) in keeping alive a language on the verge of being lost. Serving over 1,000 children, the CNHS is one of the largest American Indian Head Start programs in the country. Its programs are not only providing a “Head Start” to children, but also aiding in the preservation of the Cherokee language, history, and culture.

Background

In 1821, the Cherokee leader, Sequoyah, completed a Cherokee alphabet/syllabary. The syllabary consists of 84 characters which represent the 84 syllables used in speaking the language. Within a few years, over 90 percent of the Cherokee Nation was literate.

Today, the scenario is much different. It is estimated that only about 15 percent of the population has some understanding of the language and approximately 10,000 people speak it. Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, has warned, “Cherokee people may be only one or two generations from losing the language, and language defines the Cherokee culture.”

Spurred by the Principal Chief’s passion to restore the language, the Cherokee Nation has taken steps toward its revitalization. The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council passed a legislative act in 1991 that promotes “…maintaining and preserving the Cherokee language as a living language by…encourage(ing) the use of Cherokee language in both written and oral form to the fullest extent possible in public and business settings. Language is very important to preserving a culture—many words that are descriptive of cultural mannerisms, feelings, events, and ceremonies are only identifiable in the native tongue. There is no comparable word in the English language.”

The Cherokee Nation Culture Resource Center (CNCRC) was established in 1995 to perpetuate and preserve the Cherokee language, history, and culture. In 2002, the CNCRC conducted a survey to assess the fluency rate of the Cherokee language in the tribal jurisdictional area in northeastern Oklahoma. The results indicated that the language was fast disappearing and prompted the development of a ten-year language preservation plan. And some of the most important efforts have been directed at young children.

Head Start Program Highlights

From the beginning, the Cherokee Nation Head Start program has provided an environment of acceptance for culture, language, ethnicity, and family composition as required by the Head Start Program Performance Standards. Referred to as emersion, or “act of emerging” classrooms, they provide a beginning exposure to the Cherokee language. The daily classroom schedule includes learning meaningful Cherokee words, such as numbers, colors, and animals. The children also learn familiar greetings and phrases to express their needs, such as “Let’s go outside” (See Figure 1). Some classrooms learn entire songs in Cherokee. Classroom centers and materials are labeled in Cherokee and English. The syllabary is included in the writing center.

To further the goal of producing a new generation of Cherokee speakers, Head Start has collaborated with a preschool program created by the Cherokee Nation Cultural resource Center (CNCRC). In this program, the children see, hear, and speak the Cherokee language exclusively. CNCRC director Gloria Sly states, “Cherokee language classrooms have grown under the steadfast leadership of Head Start and its holistic approach to each child.” Teacher training and other resources have been shared by the CNHS and the CNCRC program.

Head Start also has served as a curriculum and language model for the Lost City, Oklahoma school system. In one public school serving a number of Head Start graduates, weekly assemblies assemblies are conducted for all grades to discuss the Cherokee word of the week.

This type of collaboration among educational entities—the CNHS, CNCRC, and the Lost City school system—offers the promise of continuity for Cherokee children and exposure to the Cherokee language for non-Cherokee students.

Figure 1: An example of Cherokee words and phrases that Head Start children are learning.

English	Cherokee (Roman alphabet)	Cherokee Syllabary
Hello	o-si-yo
Hill	ga-du-si
Paper	go-we-li
How are you?	do-hi-tsu

Successful Strategies

How did the Cherokee Nation Head Start program implement this language initiative designed to benefit the children and their families? There are many interrelated pieces.

The creation of a network of Culture and Language Specialists. Certified as master Cherokee speakers and writers, Culture and Language Specialists offer training and other language-related resources to Head Start staff. Two important products they have developed are:

• a language assessment and screening tool that is used when children enroll in Early Head Start or preschool Head Start. Although the assessment is conducted in English, it assesses children’s receptive and expressive Cherokee vocabulary. The results help teachers plan activities in the classroom.
  
  
• a Cherokee language curriculum that includes lesson plans and an audio tape for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

The support for staff training and development. Many Head Start staff have obtained their CDAs. Teachers of the Cherokee language who work in schools within the 14-county jurisdictional area of the Cherokee Nation are encouraged to go through teacher certification training and testing to assure their competency and sharpen their instructional skills. Cherokee language speakers visit and volunteer in the Head Start classrooms to expose the children to the culture and to provide teaching models for the staff. In addition, a Cherokee Language Advisory Board is made up of community members, CNHS staff, and representatives from local agencies. They are knowledgeable in the Cherokee culture, language, and traditions and provide input regarding developmentally and culturally appropriate experiences to incorporate into the Head Start program.

The investment in community assets. Community leaders, elders, and speakers of the Cherokee language are vital links to revitalizing the language. Head Start is just one part of this multi-faceted language revitalization effort throughout the community. Classroom visitors demonstrate various traditional forms of Cherokee dance and dress, marble games, and basketry. Parent education meetings include topics about traditional Cherokee customs. Exposing the parents, as well as the children, to Cherokee tradition, teaches the Cherokee culture and reinforces the importance of keeping the language alive for future generations.

Conclusion

Today, the reality of hearing Cherokee spoken as the language of everyday life can be observed in the CNHS classrooms. And the benefits do not end there. Parents and family members have been learning along with the children. Thanks to the ongoing collaboration of the CNHS and the CNCRC, the entire Cherokee community can see its language and culture being revitalized and preserved.

Language connects with the child's heart and lays the foundation for emotional well-being. The language that signals this earliest connection is the home language of the family and the cultural community.

Excerpt from Sylvia Y. Sánchez. Is It Wrong to Speak to My Babies in Their Home Language? (http://www.headstartinfo.org/English_lang_learners_tkit.htm)

Ramona Drew is an Education Specialist with the Cherokee Nation Head Start in Tahlequah, OK. T: 918-458-4393; E: rdrew@cherokee.org.

Regina Grass is the Director of the Little Nations Academic Center at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS. T: 785-749-8441; E: rgrass@haskell.edu