NW Tribal Communities Support Grant

Collaborating groups: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Contact: Se-ah-dom Edmo

This grant has allowed Lewis & Clark Faculty from the ESOL/Bilingual Program and the IWOK (Indigenous Ways of Knowing) Program to engage in an action based partnership with Umatilla Tribal Educators and Master Linguists. An initial site visit allowed for critical conversations around native perspectives and tribal needs and led Lewis & Clark staff to identifying partnerships for grant writing and support services for the Tribal Indigenous Languages Program Development. Time is of the essence, tribal elders, few in numbers, are preparing tribal language teachers to teach lessons in Pre-K through high school classrooms.  This unique partnership will further enable the Umatilla Tribe to save, develop and sustain their languages while promoting their values, wisdom and cultural identity for the next generation.