Oneida language is on the move

[Okwes]

Oneida language is on the move

Posted: January 04, 2006
by: Melissa Gorelick
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412204

Photo courtesy Oneida Indian Nation -- Ray George, Thames Oneida, is
one of two ''native-fluent'' speakers of Oneida who was brought in
and trained by Berlitz International to help start the Oneida Indian
Nation of New York's language program. He assists with classes as the
instructors become more fluent.
ONEIDA NATION HOMELANDS, N.Y. - Early on a wintry Monday, an Oneida
classroom is filled with chirping voices and the smell of coffee. The
morning's class is arriving. Eight women chat against the room's
drawing-peppered walls while overhead, clock faces show the hours of
the day in Oneida and over one woman's shoulder a sun and cloud
demonstrate types of weather.

Sunny Shenandoah teaches today's lesson, although the women take
turns leading the class. She asks a question in Oneida, pointing to
drawings taped to a whiteboard behind her. The other women answer,
giggling and correcting each other's mistakes.

Almost two years into the Oneida Nation's newest language initiative,
classes have an easy, homey feel. Over coffee and chatter it's easy
to forget that the program is one of the nation's most innovative
efforts at reviving a dying Native language. Shenandoah's class is
built on an immersion framework developed by Berlitz International, a
well-known language education company.

Following the lead of the Lakota Nation, the Oneidas are only the
second Indian community to contract with Berlitz. They got the idea
to find an immersion program by visiting a Mohawk program, said Sheri
Beglen, an advanced member of the class and an experienced Oneida
teacher. The Mohawks were already using immersion (though not through
a contracted company), and Beglen said that seeing it in action was
an enlightening experience.

''It was amazing to see little [Mohawk] kids walking around speaking
their language,'' she said. Such a thing did not exist at the Oneida
Nation.

Shenandoah said that before this initiative began, there were only
two families in the region who spoke any Oneida natively. Attempts to
teach the language to non-Native speakers were failing.

Deniz Ghrewati, a Berlitz instructor and spokesman, said that
creating a comfort level in teachers is an essential part of the
Berlitz program, what she calls the ''direct method.'' Before
Berlitz, teachers with only minimal knowledge of the language were
instructing others.

''Our goal was to get them thinking in the language,'' she said. ''By
the end [of the first class] they were laughing and joking in Oneida.
It was very emotional.''

Since their initial 25-week Oneida immersion course, the teachers'
education continues in classes like Shenandoah's, which perpetuate
this comfort and ease.

Designing a program that led to this stage of immersion was no small
feat, however, because the Berlitz method relies heavily on
using ''native-fluent'' instructors. When dealing with a language
spoken by only several hundred people on the North American
continent, this isn't easy.

Berlitz took revolutionary steps to find native Oneida speakers, said
Ghrewati. It contacted a group of Oneidas living in the Thames River
region of Canada, where Oneida is more commonly spoken, and flew two
speakers to central New York to start the course.

Before starting to teach, the two Thames Oneidas were coached
extensively in the direct method of teaching. The instruction
consists of listening and repetition, along with visual cues, like
the ones Shenandoah uses in class.

Ray George is one of the Thames Oneidas who began the central New
York course. George has remained in New York to assist with the
classes as the teachers become more and more fluent. He supports the
women when they make mistakes, said Beglen.

George said that the New York Oneidas, while new to the language, are
making strides that surpass even other native-speaking Oneida groups.

''Overall, in the language being learned in the three Oneida groups,
they are doing the best,'' he said. The New Yorkers are also some of
the only Oneidas learning to read and write the language.

Shenandoah said that the work with Berlitz has been exciting and
personally rewarding.

''I just heard about this program and knew right away it's what I
wanted to do,'' she said. ''I feel really proud of myself.''

Last summer, the Berlitz-revived Oneida language reached young
Oneidas for the first time through several pilot programs. Shenandoah
said that getting the language to kids early is the most effective
way to create real fluency in the community.

''I'd really like to get it into schools,'' she said.

The Stockbridge Valley Central School District, in Stockbridge
Valley, N.Y., is just seven miles south of the Oneida Nation. Ten
percent of the district's students are Oneida, said Superintendent
Randy Richards. The district incorporates many aspects of the Oneida
culture into the curriculum, he said, but so far it has been unable
to integrate an Oneida language class into the schools.

With the newfound success of the Oneida language program, that may
all change. Richards said he would be very interested in employing a
fluent Oneida speaker to teach children the language.

Having finished their work, the women wrap up the day's lesson. They
swing on their coats and purses, still discussing the verb ''to go''
as they chatter out the door. It's an appropriate verb, considering
the dynamic nature of the Oneidas' new language plans.

The program is going places, and fast.