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New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Released in Tlapanec JW NewsWednesday, March 2, 2022
Air Force translators enable water sustainment project for African partner nations - Air Force Link - Translation
Through the Air Force Culture and Language Center’s Training Partnership Request, the 435th AEW requested translation support for a technical writing project to translate two major documents. The documents, totaling 62 pages, needed translation from German to English.
“This technical writing project demonstrated the can-do impact of LEAP Scholars on building partnerships in Niger and meeting short-notice operational needs through language and cultural skills,” said Christopher Chesser, AFCLC’s Language Division chief. “In response to Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s call to ‘Accelerate Change or Lose,’ our scholars are smashing old paradigms and bringing the capability to bear when and where it’s needed.”
The translation of these documents was critical for continuing a project in progress with the 435th AEW and its German partners to drill a well at a deployed location for enduring water sustainment. Without support from the LEAP team, the unit’s mission could have been postponed or derailed.
The LEAP team coordinated with members around the globe and divided into teams. Each team then divided the pages equally amongst team members to work translation. After completing the translation of their assigned section, members sent their documents to a designated partner for review. The lead from each team consolidated the documents and looked for discrepancies. The consolidated documents were then sent out one final time for review before a final copy was sent to the requester.
German LEAP scholar Maj. Franklin Nesselhuf participated in the project as his first official translation opportunity for the Air Force.
“The documents prevented the USAF from having to go through the testing and verification process a second time,” he said. “The documents we were using were a German translation from French, from the government of Niger, and revealed the water was too hard for use with filtration. That information will be very useful in informing the civil engineers where to drill and the requisite facilities needed to make the water potable. As we look to compete against Russia and China in Africa, developing bases and promoting stability in societies will be key to geopolitical success and human flourishing.”
Lt. Col. Gordon Kinney, director of staff at the 435th AEW, thanked the LEAP Scholars for their efforts in fulfilling the translation needs of this project.
“Africa is an unforgiving environment,” he said. “Between the heat, dust, wind and lack of water, our Airmen are taxed daily. This well affords our Airmen the peace of mind they need to focus on delivering secure, reliable, and flexible power projection platforms to combatant commanders and that’s thanks to the efforts of a few brilliant, dedicated LEAP scholars.”
Before the requested translation support, the German partners involved in the project had already accomplished well drilling on their side of the base. The team at 435th AEW needed a translation of these documents concerning the established well to expedite and enable drilling of the U.S. forces’ well. Without the translation of these documents, U.S. forces could not proceed with digging the well for airbase sustainment. Funding and engineering were in place, so the document translation was the final piece needed to commence the time-sensitive project.
Lt. Col. David Troxell, commander of the 768th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron, also expressed appreciation for the LEAP team and their work to support a project that will significantly enhance essential systems on base.
“This translation helps streamline a $500,000 project, ultimately supporting a $1.6 million total water production, treatment and distribution system,” he said. “This will go a long way to calm our nerves about sourcing water so we can focus on sustaining base operations, building our African partner’s defense capabilities, and enabling counter-violent extremism operations in the Sahel. This isn’t just a win for the U.S., it’s a win for all our allied and partnered nations."
Monday, February 28, 2022
Lost in translation? California election ballots may be in fewer languages • Sacramento News & Review - Sacramento News & Review - Translation
By Sameea Kamal for CalMatters
The 2020 Census confirms California’s status as one of the nation’s most diverse states — second behind only Hawaii, despite a likely undercount of Latino and Black voters. About 40 percent of Californians speak a language other than English at home — more than 200 languages and dialects — and one in five have limited English knowledge.
Combined with California’s tradition of expanding voting rights, that’s why some advocates are sounding the alarm over Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s decision to reduce the number of languages required in at least some voting precincts from 25 to 7 for the 2022 election.
As a result, some local election officials may find it more difficult to get funding to translate ballots and other voting materials for languages beyond what’s required by the federal Voting Rights Act. In a Feb. 11 letter to Weber, four voting advocacy groups expressed concern at what they called “the massive rollback of language assistance” and urged her to use her authority to uphold the expanded options.
The letter — sent by ACLU California Action, Common Cause California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice California and the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans — cited a Brennan Center report that in 2021, at least 19 states enacted laws that made it more difficult for Americans to vote, and that bills have been introduced in four more states this year.
“The reduction of covered languages similarly creates new obstacles for limited-English proficient voters,” the letter states. “With so much at stake, California cannot backslide. We must continue to lead and take bold steps to protect voting rights and remove barriers to the ballot box for all eligible voters, including voters who are members of language minority groups.”
The advocates are calling on Weber to act urgently, since California’s 58 counties need time to prepare for the June primary. Otherwise, there could be significant reductions in assistance for non-English speakers, they said.
Weber’s office blames limited information from the Census Bureau for the move, but did not say if it will act on the advocacy groups’ demands.
“We were disappointed that the data we received from the Census Bureau did not include the level of detail we previously received in 2017,” Joe Kocurek, Weber’s press secretary, said in a statement. “We are currently exploring options to ensure that voters have the tools they need to effectively vote.”
He declined further comment on Friday.
The Secretary of State’s Dec. 31 guidance to county clerks and registrars of voters was perplexing for advocates, partly because voter protections have been a cornerstone not just for the state, but for Weber.
Appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, she is making history as California’s first Black Secretary of State, and only the fifth African American to serve as a state constitutional officer.
“The fact that each citizen is a primary officeholder in a democracy is the lodestone tenet of our system of government,” Weber said at her swearing-in ceremony in January 2021. “It is my responsibility as Secretary of State to ensure that more Californians are able to exercise that power through the electoral process, and that our elections remain secure, accessible and fair even under the most adverse conditions.”
Over the last year, her office has regularly hosted events and campaigns to promote voter participation. And in a joint commentary with Michigan’s secretary of state published Friday by CNN, Weber stressed her commitment to equal access for all voters — and warned that supporters of the “Big Lie” that former President Donald Trump won in 2020 are running to be the chief election officers in their states this year. A “choice between truth and lies, autocracy and democracy” will be on the ballot, wrote Weber, who is seeking reelection.
Over the years, California dropped its ID requirement and allowed same-day voter registration and preregistration as early as age 16. The state also expanded early voting and vote-by-mail. For the 2020 election and 2021 recall election, California joined three other states that responded to the pandemic by mailing a ballot to every voter. Despite COVID, the November 2020 election set records for voters registered and total votes cast.
Last year, the Legislature passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to permanently require mail ballots be sent to every voter.
How are language requirements decided?
In 28 California counties, the federal Voting Rights Act requires translations for the most common languages for non-English speakers, including Spanish, Filipino, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese.
The state determines whether to add more languages — including Khmer, Russian and Farsi — and whether to require language assistance in more voting precincts.
On Jan. 1 of each year with an election for governor, the Secretary of State determines which voting precincts have enough “single language minority” voters who need assistance to vote. In precincts where 3% or more of the voting-age population falls into that category, counties must provide translations for ballots and voting materials in those languages and make a good-faith effort to recruit poll workers who speak those languages.
But this year, new Census Bureau privacy rules to protect its data from being used by private companies means the state is getting less information to use for its language determinations. And that means there will be far fewer precincts that meet that 3% threshold, Weber’s office says.
The difference is stark between the state tabulation based on Census data and the federal Voting Rights Act data. For instance, while the latest Voting Rights Act data shows 9,228 Tagalog-speaking adults in Orange County, the Census shows none. In Sacramento County, voting rights data shows 6,574 Hmong voting-age residents, while the Census data lists none.
“We strongly encourage counties to work with their community groups to determine if a need exists for any of the previously covered languages. Counties should consider the need of their communities before eliminating languages that were previously covered,” Weber’s office told county clerks and registrars of voters.
But without the state determinations, the advocacy groups say that languages will be cut.
For example, counties including Santa Clara and San Mateo confirmed to the groups that they would continue offering the languages they did in the 2021 recall election. Other counties, however, said that they could not secure funding from their board of supervisors without a mandate from the secretary of state.
Since 2018, the number of potential languages for voter information translations has grown in California. Six were added that year: Arabic, Armenian, Hmong, Persian, Punjabi, and Syriac.
And after Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California Foundation won a lawsuit against then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla, another 14 languages were added in 2019: Bengali, Burmese, Gujurati, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Laotian, Mien, Mongolian, Nepali, Tamil, Telegu, Thai and Urdu.
The translations are meant to ensure that residents with limited English skills — 6.8 million, making up about 20% of the state’s population — can vote without any barriers. In some places, voter participation is lower among non-whites.
“California has often led on language assistance for voters, and we don’t want to see a problem coming out of a data issue getting in the way of voters getting the language assistance they’re accustomed to and that they need to be able to vote,” said Julia Marks, staff attorney and program manager with the voting rights project at Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of Common Cause California, said his group believes that Weber’s office understands “the enormity of the problem” created by the new language determinations.
“Everything their office stands for suggests that they’ll work towards solutions immediately,” he said. “We hope that they’ll do that in collaboration with voting rights advocates and leaders in limited-English speaking communities.”
Jeanine Erikat, a policy associate with Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, a research and advocacy group for refugees in San Diego County, said the Secretary of State’s language decisions are especially important to guarantee language assistance to the people her organization serves — such as Middle Eastern and North African voters, who are designated as White in the census, or East African residents.
“It’s really an exciting moment for communities who’ve been here for five-plus years and are acclimating and engaging civically in different ways,” she said. “And now they’re having to rely on someone who can translate for them, and we know often that means relying on a child or a neighbor or a community member. And it’s just not the same as being able to vote for yourself and really ensure you’re getting all the correct information.”
For the record: This story has been updated to clarify the number of languages affected. The number of languages required to be translated in at least some California voting precincts has been reduced from 25 to 7. The number of languages included in Census data the state uses to determine translations dropped from 56 to 20.
Cowlitz Language Being Brought Back With Online Dictionary, Weekend Classes - Centralia Chronicle - Dictionary
By Brennen Kauffman / The Daily News
It’s been nearly 50 years since the Cowlitz Coast Salish language went extinct. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe is working to revive it and so far, they’re seeing success.
The tribe debuted the first major set of results from a three-year partnership with The Language Conservancy at a Feb. 12 event. The tribe announced an alphabet book and two picture books to introduce the language to Cowlitz children and an online and mobile dictionary with more than 3,000 words. Weekend lessons for adults interested in the language have been running for several months.
The new uses are all the more impressive considering how far the language had fallen out of use. Language Conservancy experts had to rely on recorded interviews from the 1960s to get a sense of what Cowlitz was meant to sound like. It was the first time the Language Conservancy had to fully reconstruct a language without the benefit of a fluent living speaker.
Snippets of those original recordings live on in the online dictionary as the example pronunciations for people to listen to.
“You can click on a word and hear how to pronounce it from our late elder’s voices. That’s so amazing and really brings out the ability to bring the language back to life,” said Rita Asgeirsson, cultural resource director for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
The Language Conservancy is a nonprofit working to revitalize the use of Indigenous languages that are extinct or at risk of going extinct. The conservancy works with dozens of tribes in the United States, Canada and Australia to preserve traditional ways of speaking.
Conservancy president Wil Meya said all the work that’s been done so far hopefully will lay the groundwork to produce new proficient speakers in younger generations.
“As people learn that this language is learnable and doable, they’ll get more experienced and become more advanced and put more effort in. But of course, the resources have to be there first,” Meya said.
The loss of Cowlitz Coast Salish
Cowlitz Coast Salish is far from the only Native American language that has withered or died off.
Only half of the languages spoken in the United States before Europeans arrived still exist, according to the Endangered Languages Project. Many of the ones still around are in danger of disappearing.
The last major work done to preserve the Cowlitz Coast Salish was done by M. Dale Kinkade, a University of Kansas linguist who was born in Washington and specialized in the study of Salish languages. In the 1960s, Kinkade interviewed two of the remaining Cowlitz Tribe members who were fluent in the language, Emma Mesplie and Lucy James.
Asgeirsson said after the tribe earned federal recognition and established the reservation in Clark County, they started looking for the next set of priorities.
“The language came out as one of those all-important aspects of our history that impact all aspects of Cowlitz culture,” Asgeirsson said.
Those recordings formed the basis of the “Cowlitz Dictionary and Grammatical Sketch” Kinkade published in 2004 and the work done by the Language Conservancy. An article in the International Journal of American Linguistics about Kinkade’s dictionary said his work “represents the sum total of our knowledge of Cowlitz.”
Meya said the experts went through nearly 100 hours of tape to build the current dictionary and books and preserved audio clips for around 2,000 individual words and a range of phrases and sentences.
The Salish group of Native American languages can be notoriously hard to learn. The Cowlitz alphabet has 42 letters, several of which Asgeirsson said take “a lot of motion in the mouth and throat.” Cowlitz has different pronunciations for the letters c (sounds like the ‘ts’ in cats, according to the Cowlitz online dictionary) and c’ (the same sound but with a sharp pop).
Tribe leaders also face the issue of adapting the language to 2022. Meya said creating new words or adapting now-common English terms was an evolution that was especially tough for languages that have not been actively used for generations.
“There are tens of thousands of new words that need to be coined for the things you want to talk about in a modern context,” Meya said.
Helping tribe members become ‘culturally cohesive’
The Cowlitz Indian tribe is taking multiple approaches to getting Cowlitz Coast Salish back into use.
The alphabet books and early reader books are part of the program focused on raising Cowlitz children with a familiarity of the language. In addition to the two current books, Asgeirsson said the tribe plans to eventually build a library of 100 children’s books that will be provided at the tribe’s child care centers and Head Start programs.
“Language provides the cultural instruction, the morals, the ethics, the values,” Asgeirsson said. “So the sooner you start with kids, the more culturally cohesive a person can be brought up.”
For older members, the Cowlitz tribe has been holding a series of virtual language learning weekends for the last two months. They work Saturdays and Sundays to practice speaking in Cowlitz Coast Salish, using the Language Conservancy work as a baseline.
Asgeirsson said after the first run of classes, there were around 25 people who had shown significant affinity for Coast Salish and who had the time to dedicate to learning it. Those learners were placed on an advanced track to move toward being the first set of proficient Cowlitz speakers. The initial cohort of speakers will help teach the language to other members of the tribe and help create video lessons and new recordings for the dictionary.
The written and spoken language may also enter classrooms across Southwest Washington. The state’s “Since Time Immemorial” curriculum requires lessons about the history of Washington’s Native American tribes with significant input from the tribes in the area. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe is working with 24 school districts to teach local tribal history, including their original names and descriptions for features of the land.
“Something really important is making sure we norm seeing the written language, seeing the imagery and the history of the tribe,” Asgeirsson said.
Dictionary.com responds to tweet from Louisiana Congressman about ‘millennial leftists’ - WIAT - CBS42.com - Dictionary
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Dictionary.com responds to tweet from Louisiana Congressman about ‘millennial leftists’ WIAT - CBS42.comCowlitz Language Being Brought Back With Online Dictionary, Weekend Classes - Centralia Chronicle - Dictionary
By Brennen Kauffman / The Daily News
It’s been nearly 50 years since the Cowlitz Coast Salish language went extinct. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe is working to revive it and so far, they’re seeing success.
The tribe debuted the first major set of results from a three-year partnership with The Language Conservancy at a Feb. 12 event. The tribe announced an alphabet book and two picture books to introduce the language to Cowlitz children and an online and mobile dictionary with more than 3,000 words. Weekend lessons for adults interested in the language have been running for several months.
The new uses are all the more impressive considering how far the language had fallen out of use. Language Conservancy experts had to rely on recorded interviews from the 1960s to get a sense of what Cowlitz was meant to sound like. It was the first time the Language Conservancy had to fully reconstruct a language without the benefit of a fluent living speaker.
Snippets of those original recordings live on in the online dictionary as the example pronunciations for people to listen to.
“You can click on a word and hear how to pronounce it from our late elder’s voices. That’s so amazing and really brings out the ability to bring the language back to life,” said Rita Asgeirsson, cultural resource director for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
The Language Conservancy is a nonprofit working to revitalize the use of Indigenous languages that are extinct or at risk of going extinct. The conservancy works with dozens of tribes in the United States, Canada and Australia to preserve traditional ways of speaking.
Conservancy president Wil Meya said all the work that’s been done so far hopefully will lay the groundwork to produce new proficient speakers in younger generations.
“As people learn that this language is learnable and doable, they’ll get more experienced and become more advanced and put more effort in. But of course, the resources have to be there first,” Meya said.
The loss of Cowlitz Coast Salish
Cowlitz Coast Salish is far from the only Native American language that has withered or died off.
Only half of the languages spoken in the United States before Europeans arrived still exist, according to the Endangered Languages Project. Many of the ones still around are in danger of disappearing.
The last major work done to preserve the Cowlitz Coast Salish was done by M. Dale Kinkade, a University of Kansas linguist who was born in Washington and specialized in the study of Salish languages. In the 1960s, Kinkade interviewed two of the remaining Cowlitz Tribe members who were fluent in the language, Emma Mesplie and Lucy James.
Asgeirsson said after the tribe earned federal recognition and established the reservation in Clark County, they started looking for the next set of priorities.
“The language came out as one of those all-important aspects of our history that impact all aspects of Cowlitz culture,” Asgeirsson said.
Those recordings formed the basis of the “Cowlitz Dictionary and Grammatical Sketch” Kinkade published in 2004 and the work done by the Language Conservancy. An article in the International Journal of American Linguistics about Kinkade’s dictionary said his work “represents the sum total of our knowledge of Cowlitz.”
Meya said the experts went through nearly 100 hours of tape to build the current dictionary and books and preserved audio clips for around 2,000 individual words and a range of phrases and sentences.
The Salish group of Native American languages can be notoriously hard to learn. The Cowlitz alphabet has 42 letters, several of which Asgeirsson said take “a lot of motion in the mouth and throat.” Cowlitz has different pronunciations for the letters c (sounds like the ‘ts’ in cats, according to the Cowlitz online dictionary) and c’ (the same sound but with a sharp pop).
Tribe leaders also face the issue of adapting the language to 2022. Meya said creating new words or adapting now-common English terms was an evolution that was especially tough for languages that have not been actively used for generations.
“There are tens of thousands of new words that need to be coined for the things you want to talk about in a modern context,” Meya said.
Helping tribe members become ‘culturally cohesive’
The Cowlitz Indian tribe is taking multiple approaches to getting Cowlitz Coast Salish back into use.
The alphabet books and early reader books are part of the program focused on raising Cowlitz children with a familiarity of the language. In addition to the two current books, Asgeirsson said the tribe plans to eventually build a library of 100 children’s books that will be provided at the tribe’s child care centers and Head Start programs.
“Language provides the cultural instruction, the morals, the ethics, the values,” Asgeirsson said. “So the sooner you start with kids, the more culturally cohesive a person can be brought up.”
For older members, the Cowlitz tribe has been holding a series of virtual language learning weekends for the last two months. They work Saturdays and Sundays to practice speaking in Cowlitz Coast Salish, using the Language Conservancy work as a baseline.
Asgeirsson said after the first run of classes, there were around 25 people who had shown significant affinity for Coast Salish and who had the time to dedicate to learning it. Those learners were placed on an advanced track to move toward being the first set of proficient Cowlitz speakers. The initial cohort of speakers will help teach the language to other members of the tribe and help create video lessons and new recordings for the dictionary.
The written and spoken language may also enter classrooms across Southwest Washington. The state’s “Since Time Immemorial” curriculum requires lessons about the history of Washington’s Native American tribes with significant input from the tribes in the area. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe is working with 24 school districts to teach local tribal history, including their original names and descriptions for features of the land.
“Something really important is making sure we norm seeing the written language, seeing the imagery and the history of the tribe,” Asgeirsson said.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Cowlitz Language Being Brought Back With Online Dictionary, Weekend Classes - Centralia Chronicle - Dictionary
By Brennen Kauffman / The Daily News
It’s been nearly 50 years since the Cowlitz Coast Salish language went extinct. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe is working to revive it and so far, they’re seeing success.
The tribe debuted the first major set of results from a three-year partnership with The Language Conservancy at a Feb. 12 event. The tribe announced an alphabet book and two picture books to introduce the language to Cowlitz children and an online and mobile dictionary with more than 3,000 words. Weekend lessons for adults interested in the language have been running for several months.
The new uses are all the more impressive considering how far the language had fallen out of use. Language Conservancy experts had to rely on recorded interviews from the 1960s to get a sense of what Cowlitz was meant to sound like. It was the first time the Language Conservancy had to fully reconstruct a language without the benefit of a fluent living speaker.
Snippets of those original recordings live on in the online dictionary as the example pronunciations for people to listen to.
“You can click on a word and hear how to pronounce it from our late elder’s voices. That’s so amazing and really brings out the ability to bring the language back to life,” said Rita Asgeirsson, cultural resource director for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
The Language Conservancy is a nonprofit working to revitalize the use of Indigenous languages that are extinct or at risk of going extinct. The conservancy works with dozens of tribes in the United States, Canada and Australia to preserve traditional ways of speaking.
Conservancy president Wil Meya said all the work that’s been done so far hopefully will lay the groundwork to produce new proficient speakers in younger generations.
“As people learn that this language is learnable and doable, they’ll get more experienced and become more advanced and put more effort in. But of course, the resources have to be there first,” Meya said.
The loss of Cowlitz Coast Salish
Cowlitz Coast Salish is far from the only Native American language that has withered or died off.
Only half of the languages spoken in the United States before Europeans arrived still exist, according to the Endangered Languages Project. Many of the ones still around are in danger of disappearing.
The last major work done to preserve the Cowlitz Coast Salish was done by M. Dale Kinkade, a University of Kansas linguist who was born in Washington and specialized in the study of Salish languages. In the 1960s, Kinkade interviewed two of the remaining Cowlitz Tribe members who were fluent in the language, Emma Mesplie and Lucy James.
Asgeirsson said after the tribe earned federal recognition and established the reservation in Clark County, they started looking for the next set of priorities.
“The language came out as one of those all-important aspects of our history that impact all aspects of Cowlitz culture,” Asgeirsson said.
Those recordings formed the basis of the “Cowlitz Dictionary and Grammatical Sketch” Kinkade published in 2004 and the work done by the Language Conservancy. An article in the International Journal of American Linguistics about Kinkade’s dictionary said his work “represents the sum total of our knowledge of Cowlitz.”
Meya said the experts went through nearly 100 hours of tape to build the current dictionary and books and preserved audio clips for around 2,000 individual words and a range of phrases and sentences.
The Salish group of Native American languages can be notoriously hard to learn. The Cowlitz alphabet has 42 letters, several of which Asgeirsson said take “a lot of motion in the mouth and throat.” Cowlitz has different pronunciations for the letters c (sounds like the ‘ts’ in cats, according to the Cowlitz online dictionary) and c’ (the same sound but with a sharp pop).
Tribe leaders also face the issue of adapting the language to 2022. Meya said creating new words or adapting now-common English terms was an evolution that was especially tough for languages that have not been actively used for generations.
“There are tens of thousands of new words that need to be coined for the things you want to talk about in a modern context,” Meya said.
Helping tribe members become ‘culturally cohesive’
The Cowlitz Indian tribe is taking multiple approaches to getting Cowlitz Coast Salish back into use.
The alphabet books and early reader books are part of the program focused on raising Cowlitz children with a familiarity of the language. In addition to the two current books, Asgeirsson said the tribe plans to eventually build a library of 100 children’s books that will be provided at the tribe’s child care centers and Head Start programs.
“Language provides the cultural instruction, the morals, the ethics, the values,” Asgeirsson said. “So the sooner you start with kids, the more culturally cohesive a person can be brought up.”
For older members, the Cowlitz tribe has been holding a series of virtual language learning weekends for the last two months. They work Saturdays and Sundays to practice speaking in Cowlitz Coast Salish, using the Language Conservancy work as a baseline.
Asgeirsson said after the first run of classes, there were around 25 people who had shown significant affinity for Coast Salish and who had the time to dedicate to learning it. Those learners were placed on an advanced track to move toward being the first set of proficient Cowlitz speakers. The initial cohort of speakers will help teach the language to other members of the tribe and help create video lessons and new recordings for the dictionary.
The written and spoken language may also enter classrooms across Southwest Washington. The state’s “Since Time Immemorial” curriculum requires lessons about the history of Washington’s Native American tribes with significant input from the tribes in the area. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe is working with 24 school districts to teach local tribal history, including their original names and descriptions for features of the land.
“Something really important is making sure we norm seeing the written language, seeing the imagery and the history of the tribe,” Asgeirsson said.
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