Teaching Indigenous Languages

Bernadette Adley-SantaMaria, White Mountain Apache, is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Arizona's American Indian Studies Program. She is from the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in East-central Arizona and is involved in numerous organizations and activities on and off campus. She is currently a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Language, Reading, and Culture in the College of Education. Her future plans include further research and writing with the goal of advocating for and assisting indigenous language revitalization.

Alice Anderton is executive director of the Wordpath Society. She is a linguist, editor, and teaching consultant who has studied Native American languages for 25 years. A former Comanche language instructor at the University of Oklahoma, she is producer of Wordpath, a Norman television show about Oklahoma Indian languages, and author of The Language of the Kitanemuks of California.

Ann Batchelder is an assistant professor of secondary education at the Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona University. She has spent many years as a teacher and teacher educator working with Native American and Native Alaskan communities.

Ruth Bennett is ethnographic researcher for the Center for Indian Community Development at Humboldt State University. Her research with California tribes interested in revitalizing their languages has been ongoing for over 25 years. She is the author and editor of publications related to the languages and cultures of 15 Native American tribes. Her most recent publication is Dundi Ne:sing? Dixwedi "Unt'e:n? (Who Is It? What Are You Doing?) an illustrated grammar for the Hupa language.

Barbara Burnaby is a professor in the Modern Language Centre and Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her research includes areas such as language and literacy in Aboriginal education, ESL and literacy for adult immigrants, and adult literacy.

Gina Cantoni, Regents' Professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, is the editor of Stabilizing Indigenous Languages, a 1996 monograph of NAU's Center for Excellence in Education. Her teaching and research interests include language pedagogy, multicultural education, and Native American issues.

Veronica Carpenter is a graduate student from the University of Southern Maine with a B.S. in Linguistics. She is a language teacher for Casco Bay Partnership for Workplace Education and is collaborating with USM's Center for the Study of Lives on a book on American Indian women.

Mark Fettes is a Ph.D. student in educational administration at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. His dissertation on "The Linguistic Ecology of Education" draws on ten years of language policy work with the Esperanto movement and Aboriginal organizations.

Norbert Francis teaches classes in bilingual/multicultural education at Northern Arizona University. His research interests include: literacy and bilingualism in vernacular speech communities, and the development of language awareness in relation to second language learning and biliteracy. He is presently working on a study of oral narrative in Náhuatl speaking communities of Central Mexico.

Stephen Greymorning taught courses on linguistics, comparative Indian legislation, and aboriginal self-government at the University of Alberta in Canada from 1988 to 1992. After receiving his Ph.D. in Political Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma in 1992, he accepted a two year contract to serve as director of the Arapaho Language and Culture Project for the Wyoming Indian Schools (K-12) at Ethete, Wyoming. While his academic interests have focused on Aboriginal sovereignty issues, he has continued to develop programs and strategies toward revitalizing American Indian languages, and is currently the Executive Director for the Arapaho Cultural and Language Immersion program on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming.

Stacye Hathorn is currently a graduate teaching assistant at Auburn University, pursuing a masters degree in sociology with special emphasis in the fields of sociolinguistics and archaeology.

Emily Hawkins is associate professor of Hawaiian at the University of Hawai'i Manoa and co-director of the Immersion Teacher Training Project that incorporates computer assisted instruction and distance education in courses for inservice and pre-service teachers of the State of Hawai'i's Department of Education's Hawaiian Language Immersion Program. She has also served as a translator and editor in the production of immersion materials.

Armando Heredia has a Masters degree in bilingual multicultural education from Northern Arizona University. He is and ESL instructor for Parker Unified School District and Arizona Western College. He has functional as principal/coordinator for Native American and Migrant summer school programs.

Dolores Borrego Jacobs is team leader of the K-12 Science Education Team in the Science and Technology Base Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The SE Team conducts programs in teacher development, student projects, educational technology, and public understanding of science, especially in northern New Mexico, but also statewide and nationally.

Makalapua Ka'awa is an instructor in Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai'i Manoa and vice-president of the 'Aha Punana Leo, the preeminent Hawaiian immersion organization. She teaches the Hawaiian materials development class that requires students to put their materials on the web. She has served as the principle investigator for contracts with the State of Hawai'i in developing Hawaiian immersion materials and coordinated a project at the Anuenue immersion school involving the students in creating their own newspaper.

Sherry Markel received her M.Ed. and Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in Teaching and Teacher Education. She has worked as an elementary classroom teacher for ten years and is currently a site faculty leader with the Flagstaff Partnership Teacher Education Program with Northern Arizona University. Her research interests include teacher knowledge, technology integration with instruction, and Native American issues in education.

Teresa L. McCarty began her work in Indian education as a youth counselor and community liaison for the Fort McDowell Yavapai-Apache Tribe in Arizona. She subsequently worked as a curriculum developer for Rough Rock Demonstration School, the National Indian Bilingual Center, and the Arizona Department of Education. She continues to work with the Rough Rock School's Navajo bilingual program. She is currently associate professor of language, reading and culture at the University of Arizona, where she also codirects and teaches in the American Indian Language Development Institute.

Rangi Nicholson is from the Ngai Tahu and Ngati Raukawa tribes in New Zealand. He trained as a high school teacher, became a coordinator of Maori studies at a community college, and was for eight years Director of Language Studies at the Maori University in Otaki. He is now a lecturer in Maori language and society at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Rangi is also a theologian and an ordained Episcopalian minister.

Carla Paciotto graduated from the University of Bologna, Italy, and is currently enrolled in the Northern Arizona University Center for Excellence in Education's Curriculum and Instruction doctoral program. She has worked as a graduate assistant at CEE Research Services for the past two years.

Scott Palmer and his wife Lynanne work in Supai, Arizona with Havasupai colleagues who are translating the Bible into Havasupai. Scott is a member of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and he studied linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Leighton C. Peterson is in the graduate program in anthropology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. His M.A. thesis investigates "Broadcast Navajo," the effects of commercial radio on the Navajo language.

Greg Prater is a professor in educational specialties at Northern Arizona University. He has done extensive work with Native American populations since coming to NAU in 1992. Dr. Prater has served as the coordinator of the Center for Excellence in Education's Office of Research Services.

Willem J. de Reuse currently teaches for the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. He has previously taught at the University of Arizona, Ball State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Chicago. He has a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and has published numerous articles and papers on the linguistic aspects of various indigenous languages.

Jon Reyhner is an associate professor of education at Northern Arizona University. He is editor of Teaching American Indian Students (University of Oklahoma, 1992) and coauthor of A History of Indian Education (Eastern Montana College, 1989). Jon's website address is http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar.

Trevor Shanklin has been a teacher trainer for the last seven years and is now the first Soros fellow in the new Yugoslavia. Between 1995 and 1997, Dr. Shanklin served as a research specialist and adjunct professor at Northern Arizona University. Prior to that he held the position of guest associate professor at the Center for English Teacher Training (CETT) in Budapest, perhaps the most innovative teacher training program in all of Central Europe.

Joyce Silverthorne is a doctoral student at Gonzaga University and a member of the Salish tribe of the Flathead Reservation in Montana. She has been a classroom teacher, college instructor, school board member, and program administrator on the reservation. As an appointee to the Montana Board of Public Education, she has worked with the passage of the Montana Class 7 Specialist Certificate in Native American Language and Culture.

Robert N. St. Clair did his doctoral research on the Eskimo language (University of Kansas). He also did field work on Skagit, and Lummi (The University of Washington). In the Pacific Northwest, he worked on Wanapam and developed the Yakima bilingual education program. His is currently working on Mayan.

Dawn Stiles works in adult education for the Cocopah Indian Tribe of Somerton, Arizona. Exposure to Native American culture has prompted her to study indigenous languages over the past four years as she pursued her master's degree in multicultural education at Northern Arizona University-Yuma. She completed her degree work in June, 1997.

Alice Taff taught in bilingual Alaskan communities for many years. She is currently working on a graduate degree in Linguistics at the University of Washington, focusing on the documentation, description, analysis and maintenance of the Unangan (Eastern Aleut) and Deg Xinag (Ingalik Athabaskan) languages.

Tezozomoc graduated from California State University at Northridge with a degree in electrical engineering. He has taken the works of Náhuatl academic leaders and has interpreted them into the everyday life for children, youth, and elders to begin singing and dancing through their native language.

Octaviana V. Trujillo works in the area of multicultural and indigenous peoples education program development. Presently she is the director of the Center for Indian Education and editor of the Journal of American Indian Education at Arizona State University. She is a former Vice Chairwoman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona.

Lucille J. Watahomigie is currently the director of all state and federal programs at Peach Springs Unified School District in Peach Springs, Arizona. She earned her masters of education degree from the University of Arizona in 1973. From 1972 to 1975 she was director of the Teacher Education Program for Indian Students at the University of Arizona. She returned to Peach Springs in 1975 to direct the Hualapai Bilingual Program. From 1992 to 1994 she was principal and acting superintendent. Under her direction, the Hualapai Bilingual program became a national demonstration program funded under the bilingual education act (Title VII).

Akira Y. Yamamoto has worked with the Hualapai Indian community for the past two decades, especially with the Hualapai Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program since its inception in 1974 to present. He is also continuing his work with various Indian education projects in Oklahoma. He is an instructional staff of the Arizona-based American Indian Language Development Institute (1979-present) and was an instructor of the Oklahoma Native American Languages Development Institute (1992-1994). Working with the staff of the Institute for the Preservation of the Original Languages of the Americas (IPOLA) and Dr. Ofelia Zepeda of the University of Arizona, he has been active in bringing together the language communities and professional communities for an effective and long-lasting language and culture revitalization programs. He also chaired the Linguistic Society of America's Committee on Endangered Languages and Their Preservation. Most recently he has joined the language revitalization efforts of Venezuela-based group. He is a professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Kansas.

Ofelia Zepeda has a degree in linguistics with research emphasis on the Tohono O'odham language. She is the series editor of Sun Tracks, an American Indian literary publication and is the author of a collection of poems, Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert, and coeditor of Home Places: Contemporary Native American Writing from Sun Tracks, both from the University of Arizona Press.