The Center for Interior Salish and The Paul Creek Language Association are collaborating with Colville Tribal Head Start and Eastern Washington University to offer accredited beginning and intermediate Nselxcin language classes from July 7 through August 22nd. The classes are being held on the campus of Paschal Sherman Indian School at Omak, Washington with the generous support of the school leadership. The beginning classes are being taught by apprentice speaker Grahm Wiley. The intermediate courses are begin taught by LaRae Wiley. Teaching intern Jake LaMere is also instructing. Fluent Elder Sarah Peterson is leading additional cultural and immersion language activities outside of the classroom.
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| The Paul Creek Language Association has been awarded an Aboriginal Language Initiative grant from the First People's Heritage, Language and Culture Council of British Columbia. The award will partially fund a series of themed immersion language camps for apprentice speakers of Nsyilxcin language during the fall of 2008. Paul Creek, the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band, and The Center for Interior Salish are co-sponsors of the project.
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The Paul Creek Language Association has been awarded a British Columbia Language Initiative grant by the First People's Heritage, Language and Culture Council of British Columbia. The grant is a joint project of Paul Creek, The Center for Interior Salish, the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band, and the Penticton Indian Band. Under the auspices of the grant, the Association will be working to create K-4 Nsyilxcin language mathematics and science workbooks. The project team includes Sarah Peterson, Herman Edwards, Arnie Baptiste, LaRae Wiley, Michele Woitzik, and Christopher Parkin.
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| LaRae Wiley has been awarded a scholarship from the Endangered Language Fund of New Haven, Connecticut in order to study Nselxcin language with fluent Elder Sarah Peterson. The funds will reimburse Sarah for providing Master-Apprentice immersion instruction to LaRae during 2008.
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| The Paul Creek Language Association and The Center for Interior Salish hosted a three-week intensive language camp for beginning speakers of Nsyilxcn language for three week in July of 2008. Twelve students completed the full course of 45 language lessons.
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Sarah Peterson has been awarded a Aboriginal Arts Development Award by the First People's Heritage, Language and Culture Council of British Columbia. Sarah will be practicing the art of hide tanning, and will document her work in an Nsyilxcn language book and DVD.
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| The Paul Creek Language Association, in conjunction with the Okanagan Nation Alliance, sponsored a hide tanning and nsyilxcen language camp during the week of August 20-26. In the course of the camp, participants learned to tan a hide starting with a raw hide and ending with a beautifully tanned and supple piece of leather. During the afternoon, Paul Creek language teacher Tammy Allison demonstrated language teaching techniques for camp participants.
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The Paul Creek Language Association, in conjunction with the Okanagan Nation Alliance, presented a language learning and teaching demonstration for the Upper Nicola Indian Band at the Glimpse Lake language camp from August 14-16. Paul Creek staff enjoyed leading language groups throughout the three days, and language teacher LaRae Wiley, Lakes Band, presented four demonstration lessons from the text, nselxcin 1: A Beginning Course in Okanogan Salish, for Upper Nicola language students, teachers, and Elders.
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| The Paul Creek Language Association, in conjunction with the Lower Similkameen Indian Band and the Okanagan Nation Alliance, held a family language camp at the Buckhorn campground on the Ashnola River on August 11-13th. Over 30 people were in attendance for three days of nsyilxcen language games and activities. Everyone's favorite... the scavenger hunt!
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| For three weeks in June, LaRae Wiley of The Center for Interior Salish, presented an intensive language program for teachers from the Colville Confederated Tribes Head Start Program. The class studied the first 30 lessons of the book, nselxcin 1: A Beginning Course in Okanogan Salish, covering two lessons per day, Monday through Friday for three weeks. The program was funded by CCT Head Start and by a grant from the Seattle, WA based Potlatch Fund. As part of the program, throughout the 2006-07 school year, LaRae will conduct 10 follow-up classes for the June participants, allowing them to maintain their language skills and to master an additional 10 lessons.
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Members of The Paul Creek Language Association were presenters at the First Nations Support Workers Conference held on April 27-28 at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. LaRae Wiley and Christopher Parkin, along with Elder Sarah Peterson, presented a workshop on communicative language learning that included information on lesson sequencing, teaching for communication, and a sample Okanagan lesson.
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The Paul Creek Language Association sponsored an Okanagan Teacher Training and Book Sharing on March 20-21. Two teachers from the N'Kwala School at Merritt, BC, one teacher from Constable Neil Bruce School in West Bank, BC, and twelve teachers from the Colville Confederated Tribes Head Start program attended the training. The participants received an Okanagan TPR Teachers's Manual, a beginning Okanogan text book, and an Okanogan teachers' manual, as well as a copy of the SalishTutor software program. The training was a great success and an inspiration for both the trainers and the participants. We all look forward to meeting again for more language and teacher training!
The March 2006 Okanagan teacher training was held at the Lower Similkameen Indian Band school. The presenters/trainers were Sarah Peterson, LaRae Wiley and Christopher Parkin.
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Sarah Peterson and LaRae Wiley have won a Washington State Arts Commission Master-Apprentice Grant. Sarah will be teaching LaRae traditional sqilx stories in nselxcin and in English. The apprenticeship is funded from July of 2005 until the end of June of 2006. At the conclusion of the grant period, LaRae will be presenting a public performance of some of the stories that she has learned from her mentor.
Sarah Peterson is a member of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band of south central British Columbia. She is a fluent speaker of the nselxcin language, and is highly trained in writing and reading the language using the International Phonetic Alphabet. For the past 15 years, she has worked as a language teacher and linguist for the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Okanagan Nation. She currently teaches at the Lower Similkameen Band School and in her community. You may reach Sarah at speterson@interiorsalish.com
LaRae Wiley is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, Lakes Band. She is an apprentice speaker of nselxcin.
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