High School youth from the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde in Oregon and the Snoqualmie and Suquamish Tribes in Washington attended NILI’s 2013 Summer Institute for teacher training and language learning. The project will continue throughout the year to include high school youth from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s language programs. They will work with Robert Elliott of NILI to learn how to develop language materials for preschool learning and their own learning using technology. Youth will attend NILI’s 2014 Summer Institute and it is our hope that they will be joined by youth from other tribes. This project is wholly in line with our mission to support Native language teaching, and mentor youth to become leaders in their communities.

The project uses a participatory, project-based research model in which the youth and tribal mentors play a central role in: designing the project; gathering the data to address the issue of language loss; and mentoring leadership skills. By engaging in authentic, meaningful activities participants will build their understanding of language loss, teaching and revitalization, and to develop skills needed to be language mentors. Youth will form hypotheses about what will work as they teach preschoolers and how they can use this opportunity for their own learning as well.

The project is supported by: Wildhorse Foundation; Sociological Initiatives Foundation; Spirit Mountain Community Fund; AMB Foundation; The Susan A. and Donald P. Babson Charitable Foundation. We are most grateful to these foundations for supporting a change in the education and lives of Native youth.