|
Aŋpétu Wašté Mitkuyape ~ Good day my relatives!
ANA’s Commissioner Patrice Kunesh recently announced ANA’s Native Early Childhood Development Initiative and commitment to supporting quality programs for our youngest Indigenous learners.
The research and data confirm that investing in quality ECD yields impressive economic and social returns to both the child and the community. From a human development perspective, a child’s early years are a critical time for positive physical and emotional development and ECD can provide children a healthy start in life that leads to lifelong success.
There’s also a big economic gain: funds spent on early childhood education resulted in an impressive return of 18%, most of that as a public benefit in terms of reduced encounters with social services, law enforcement, and higher educational achievements.
To Native children and families, the benefits of ECD cannot be overstated. Native ECD – high-quality, parent focused, ECD programs that begin at birth – can make an extraordinary difference in outcomes for Native children, family, and community. In addition to promoting healthy development and community well-being, Native ECD helps prevent the transmission of trauma and harmful stress from one generation to the next, especially when combined with Native language immersion.
This is because language is an integral part of our identity, culture, and communication – it plays a crucial role in shaping our thoughts, emotions, and interactions.
| |
ANA has incorporated Native ECD into its Strategic Plan in 3 key ways:
· Outreach to Native ECD programs
· Support ACF Native ECD policy and capacity building
· Engage with public and private partners on Native ECD strategies
We are grateful to the ACF Office of Early Childhood Development for being good partners as we focus on Native families with young children.
Commissioner Kunesh shared, “I am very excited about this initiative and the opportunity to increase the focus on early childhood development within the work of our community partners and ensure that Native children can grow up where their social, emotional, and educational needs are met. I will continue to keep you updated on our efforts!”
| |
|
10th Annual National Native Language Summit
For the past 6 months, ANA, along with partners from the Department of the Interior, Agriculture, and Education, have been planning a national convening around Native language revitalization and reclamation.
On October 16th, the 10th National Native Languages Summit came together at the Clyde Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where nearly 400 language educators, advocates, and program staff convened for a full day of discussion of the successes and challenges to creating sustainable Native language ecosystems.
| |
Highlights from the event included welcoming remarks from:
-
The National Indian Education Association, a partner in supporting the National Native Language Summit in conjunction with their 80th Convention. First Vice President Ka’ano’i Walk, challenged the participants to think of our work not just as revitalization but as revolution.
| |
ANA’s Commissioner Kunesh closed out the day, noting that “This is honor work – and I look forward working with you to honor the legacy of our ancestors and ensure that our languages are intact for our grandchildren.”
| |
|
Welcome New Language Community Partners
Commissioner Kunesh had a special opportunity to meet and welcome the new cohort of ANA language community partners at the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center.
Each of these new partners expressed their deep gratitude for the funding, which will help them transform language revitalization and cultural connections in their communities. In turn, Commissioner Kunesh expressed her gratitude for their earnest commitment to creating vibrant experiences that honor our Native heritage.
| |
|
Kunesh remarked on her visit: “The artistic skills and accomplishments of these students is very impressive. More inspiring is their reflection of the strength and brilliance of the Zuni people and how they wonderfully demonstrate ZYEP’s strength-based approach to build on the resilience and expansive potential of Zuni youth.”
| |
|
In the Lakota culture, children are considered to be very sacred – they are gifts from the creator who hold the future of our Native American people. Children are called wakanyeja in Lakota, a combination of two words that represent these gifts: “wakan” (holy or sacred) and “yeja” (little ones).
We use “Sacred Little Ones” to highlight our community partners engaged in fostering both early child development and culture.
The Clare Swan Early Learning Center, a subsidiary of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council which serves Alaska Natives in southcentral Alaska, established Anchorage’s first early childhood Yup’ik (Yugtun) immersion classroom. Now it is using funding from its ANA Esther Martinez Language Immersion grant to build a language learning continuum, all the while revitalizing language and cultural connections.
Not so long ago, Alaska Native children were sent from their villages to English-language boarding schools throughout Alaska and the lower 48, where they were often forbidden from speaking their Native languages. In 2016, the Clare Swan Early Learning Center (CSELC) took a step toward reclaiming what was lost by creating Anchorage’s first early childhood Yup’ik (Yugtun) immersion classroom.
| |
Starting at just six weeks old, children in the immersion classroom are spoken to exclusively in Yugtun, a Yup’ik dialect spoken by Yup’ik people in southwest Alaska. Yugtun currently is spoken by between 10,000 – 13,000 people, but the number of Yugtun speakers is rapidly declining. By partnering with College Gate Elementary—and through its Esther Martinez Language Nest grant from the Administration for Native Americans—CSELC is helping a new generation of children and families keep this language alive.
Marceline Sherbick-Brown, two years old, is one of eight children currently enrolled in CSELC’s Yugtun class. Her mother, Mary, is from the Bristol Bay region and grew up learning Yup’ik and she studied it during her university years. But while living in Anchorage, she worried that she couldn’t immerse her daughter fully in the language.
“Being in Anchorage, we don’t get out often to rural communities,” commented Marceline’s father, Howdice Brown. “It was important to us to have Marceline hear Yugtun from a very early age. When we heard about the Yugtun immersion classroom at CSELC, we requested to be on the waiting list right away.”
| |
For other families, the class provides a crucial connection to culture. Josie Beavers and Chantal De Alcuaz enrolled their two-year old, adopted son Jude in the class because “as white-presenting parents raising a Yup’ik son, we want to do everything we can to keep his connection to his birth culture alive.”
Three of Jude’s four biological grandparents are first-language Yugtun speakers. “Without CSELC, being able to eventually speak his Native language with his grandparents wouldn’t even be an option,” Josie said.
CSELC involves the whole family and the community in its language curriculum by providing adult learning aids so parents can practice Yugtun with their children and a library of language videos accessible on YouTube that offer Yugtun words, translations, pronunciation, songs and stories.
“We have a lot of people from different school districts and different parts of Alaska who have told us the videos, especially, are very instrumental, not just for their kids, but for the family to learn together,” said CSELC Cultural Coordinator Piiyuuk Qungurkaq-Shields.
Despite the challenge of finding Yugtun-fluent teachers and the limitation of being able to support only one classroom, CSELC has provided 24 children with 315 hours of language immersion over the 2022/2023 school year. Those numbers reflect the first year of the Center’s new language grant. In prior years, CSELC and partners educated 261 children through 681 hours of Yup’ik/Yugtun language immersion.
This year, with a new five-year Language Nest grant, CSELC is bridging the gap for children like Marceline by offering “Saturday school” for children ages three to five. Through this language learning continuum, children six weeks to three years old graduate from CSELC’s early childhood Yugtun immersion program to the Yup’ik language classes for kindergarten through fifth grade at College Gate Elementary.
These additional opportunities to be immersed in Yugtun will help children like Jude and Marceline—along with their families—deepen their connection to Alaska Native culture while helping to keep Yup’ik alive through the next generation.
|  | |
|
ANA Celebrates NAHM With Speaker Series
The Administration for Native Americans (ANA) have been preparing a special program for Native American Heritage Month (NAHM) and I’d like to share a preview of our activities with you.
Commissioner Patrice Kunesh will kick off Native American Heritage Month in a pre-recorded video highlighting the month’s importance and how acknowledging Native American Heritage aligns with ANA’s mission and values. She will also preview top-line programing for the month where ANA will host a speaker series featuring four virtual events with distinguished guests who will speak to this year’s theme of “Seeds."
| |
The theme highlights those who keep traditional seeds, food, and lifeways alive while thriving into the future!
Find out more about our terrific panel of speakers and register for their talks at ANA CELEBRATES NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH November 1st – 30th, 2023 | The Administration for Children and Families (hhs.gov).
Speakers for ANA's four virtual zoom sessions are:
ANA will also share various social media posts to feature key stakeholders in the Native American community, including our community partners (grantees) with an existing or historical relationship with ANA or have subject matter expertise related to the theme of “Seeds.”
Please follow ANA on Facebook, Twitter, and bookmark ANA News and Events page for the most updated information, including ANA's virtual meeting background for the month!
| |
|
Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC)
The mission of the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC) is to grow the field of early childhood research in partnership with American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Head Start, Home Visiting, Child Care, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) program leaders, AIAN community partners, early childhood and family economic well-being researchers, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) federal staff, and a broad network of ACF-supported and other early childhood initiatives and national centers serving AIAN communities.
The Tribal Research Center (TRC), Brazelton Touchpoints Center, and educators working in Indigenous early childhood settings in the U.S. and Canada convened in May 2023 for a series of Virtual Learning Circles on Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Early Childhood:
Wiba Anung (Early Stars, Michigan)
-
The series’ first learning circle was held on May 16, 2023, and lead by a team of early childhood researchers and program leaders from Wiba Anung (early star) project. The team included Jessica Barnes-Najor, Ann Cameron, Danielle Gartner, Lisa Martin, Jessica Saucedo, Rosebud Schneider, Beedoskah Stonefish, and Chelsea Wentworth. This is a partnership between Michigan State University and the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan to support Tribal early childhood education programs in Michigan. The team shared their efforts to develop health-focused curricular materials grounded in connections to Indigenous food practices for use in tribal home visiting and Head Start Programs.
Keres Children’s Learning Center (New Mexico)
-
The second learning circle was held on May 18, 2023, and lead by a team from the Cochiti Pueblo and the Keres Children’s Learning Center (KCLC), a Keres language and cultural immersion Montessori program. The team included Bernard Suina, Jennifer John, and Trisha Moquino. The KCLC team is engaged in Indigenous food sovereignty work from early childhood through adolescence in their Keres language and cultural immersion Montessori program. The team described their community, how they are working with the land to self-sustain what they plant, grow, and harvest and the connection of this work with child, family, and community health, development, and well-being.
Wicoie Nandagikendan (Minnesota)
-
The third learning circle was held on May 23, 2023, and lead by a team from Wicoie Nandagikendan – Minneapolis’s Ojibwe and Dakhóta language Immersion Early Childhood Center. The team included Jewell Arcoren (Sisseton Whapeton Nation) and Fawn YoungBear-Tibbetts (White Earth Band of Minnesota Ojibwe). The team shared their work to reintroduce and increase access for urban families to traditional foods and processing methods. The team also discussed how they are engaging families, connecting with the broader community, and finding creative solutions to support a vibrant Indigenous food sovereignty movement in the city.
| |
CCU and Cultural Humility Training in AI/AN Communities
The “Cross-Cultural Understanding and Cultural Humility: Training for Early Childhood Researchers Working with American Indian and Alaska Native Communities” (CCU) training was designed to ensure that research study staff are rigorously trained on how to work respectfully with tribal programs and communities. The training reflects an ongoing commitment to fostering culturally responsive and respectful research. Research partnerships with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities must work to benefit those communities.
The CCU training focuses on how to practice respectful and ethical research in AIAN communities, including growing knowledge of AI/AN culture and reflecting on one’s own assumptions and biases.
These training materials give facilitators the information and materials they need to lead the training. Training materials describe the background, guiding principles, and skills that early care and education research staff need to work respectfully with AI/AN communities as partners in ethical research. Training participants should be better able to recognize and be more ready to overcome the barriers and biases that can interfere with authentic and meaningful research partnerships with AIAN community members.
Download the Combined Training Guide and Related Materials here.
| |
|
Administration for Native Americans - ANA
An Office of the Administration for Children & Families
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
330 C Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
| | | | |
