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Creating online Indigenous language courses as decolonizing praxis
This article shares a participatory action research project about the use of technology, specifically online Indigenous language courses, to learn and teach Indigenous languages. The research collaborators are the NEȾOLṈEW̱ ‘one mind, one people’ Partnership, 7000 Languages, and two Indigenous Partners who have created courses with 7000 Languages: the Hase’…
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Decolonizing Indigenous language pedagogies: Additional language learning and teaching
Given the experiences of colonization common to North American Indigenous communities, people learn Indigenous languages in situations with multiple layers of removal: communities from land; relations from intergenerational continuity; and grammar from real communicative contexts, places, and spirituality. Indigenous languages are often taught in ways inscribed by norms and assumptions…
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Chikashshanompaat bílli’ya: The Chickasaw language is forever
Drawing on research with Chickasaw citizens committed to Chikashshanompa’ (Chickasaw language) reclamation work, this chapter focuses on how Chikashshanompa’ learners and teachers engage in nation-building as they work to ensure the continuance of Chikashshanompa’ for future generations. Complementing Michelle Cooke’s chapter about teaching university Chickasaw language courses, I draw upon…
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Centering relationality in online Indigenous language learning: Reflecting on the creation and use of Rosetta Stone Chickasaw
Drawing on the authors’ experiences developing Rosetta Stone Chickasaw (RSC), an asynchronous online Chikashshanompa’ (Chickasaw language) course, this article shares examples of how relationality is enacted in online Indigenous language learning. We discuss the RSC interface and ways that it created opportunities and barriers to centering Indigenous and Chikasha (Chickasaw)…
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Persistence in Indigenous language work during the COVID-19 pandemic
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigenous communities have persisted in Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation efforts. This research utilized a scan of social media, a survey, and interviews, conducted in the summer and fall of 2020 and primarily focused on Canada, to explore: What shifts to support Indigenous language work occurred…
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Chikashsha alhihaat Chikashshanompa’ anompoli katihma: Chickasaws are still speaking Chikashshanompa’
Holisso mako̲ anompa toklo’ ishtiiholissochitok, Chikashshanompa’ micha Naahollimanompa’. Hopaakikaash Chikashsha mó̲ma’at i̲yaakni’ sipokni’ áyya’shattook. 1837aash Naahollo i̲naalhpisa’at pomokloshi’ wihat kanallichittook. Pomokloshaat Hattak Api’ma’ I̲yaakni’ onat tahattook. Pomanompa’at impállaminattookookya kaniya’ookya iláyya’shakmat Chikashsha ilittimanompohó̲li katihma. Chikashsha alhihaat ittimanompoli aaissa ki’yokittook. Chikashsha sipóngni’at imanompa’ imaabahánchi bíyyi’kanattook. Mako’no imaabahánchi katihma. Pomanompa’at ikshoka’chi imahoobookya ki’yokittook.…
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Sustaining and revitalizing Indigenous languages in Oklahoma public schools: Educational sovereignty in language policy and planning
As Indigenous scholars committed to Indigenous education in Oklahoma, we use a decolonizing approach to consider how the 39 Indigenous Nations in Oklahoma assert educational sovereignty to sustain Indigenous high school students’ linguistic and cultural identities. Seeking to promote education models that sustain and revitalize Indigenous languages, we ask: 1)…
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#KeepOurLanguagesStrong: Indigenous language revitalization on social media during the early COVID-19 pandemic
Indigenous communities, organizations, and individuals work tirelessly to #KeepOurLanguagesStrong. The COVID-19 pandemic was potentially detrimental to Indigenous language revitalization (ILR) as this mostly in-person work shifted online. This article shares findings from an analysis of public social media posts, dated March through July 2020 and primarily from Canada and the…
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Cultivating enduring and reciprocal relationships in academia: An Indigenous mentor-mentee model
This article takes form following an exchange of letters in which the Chickasaw and Hopi authors reflected on an Indigenous mentorship relationship in higher education as the embodiment of a carved-out space for Indigenous ways of knowing and being. They begin the story of their faculty mentor-doctoral mentee relationship with…
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Chikashshaat asilhlhat holissochi [Chickasaws are asking and writing]: Enacting Indigenous protocols in academic research and writing
As Chikashsha (Chickasaw) scholars and Chikashshanompa’ shaali’ (Chickasaw language learners/carriers), we utilize a dialogic and autoethnographic approach to explore the continuance between ancestral and community protocols for research. An account of the Chickasaw Nation’s language revitalization efforts is followed by a discussion of how Indigenous scholars engage in the writing…