Roots: Reaching Out On Tribal Soil Project

The “ROOTS” Project (Reaching Out On Tribal Soil)

2000

Census records 15,000+ Native Americans located in Southern Nevada; over 47,000 Native Americans live in the State of Nevada. The most populated areas are near Lake Tahoe in the North and in Clark County near Las Vegas in the South.

2001

“5” EAGLES Corporation, a 501C3 developed by a group of Native Americans and small businesses in Nevada launched its campaign to develop additional environmental programs on reservations and educational projects for both urban and rural reservations. Serving both State recognized and Federally recognized tribes the programs cover 12 states at this time with employment and educational opportunities for Native Americans and other Indigenous people.

2003

The Indigenous Peoples Resource Center concentrates on Indian Child Welfare advocacy and other legal & social needs of Native Americans who both reside in Nevada and locate from other parts of the Americas to Nevada.

2004

Native American Community Services (NACS) developed its mission statement and a community partnership with the Resident Council Coalition (501c3). Their first grant was for social services and counseling for Native Americans of any federated tribe in the valley area.

2005

RED ONE-Red Nation Cherokee Business Services developed plans for small Native American owned businesses and educational opportunities with municipal and community based organizations as community partners. RED ONE has applied for 501c3 status with the IRS. This will allow them to partner with any and all state recognized and federally recognized tribes to develop tribal employment offices throughout Nevada and in the near future the Americas.

Native American Heritage Foundation developed a recreation and educational component for the Mesa reservations in Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Plans for programs similar to Big Brother and the Boys & Girls Club are requested by reservations throughout the South West.

2006

RED ONE: Red Nation - Cherokee Business Services is developing a community partnership with the Community College of Southern Nevada and the Remedial Reading Resource Center. This partnership will allow projects to be developed in language arts including data collection, training researchers to work with Native American languages, producing teaching materials for use by local schools, recording and cataloguing stories and myths of the local tribes and their people in Nevada. Additional work with remedial reading & ESL needs of both adults and youth will be complimented by the use of Master Reading Teachers working with all ages in the Community College of Southern Nevada and the Clark County School System.

Academia has recognized for many years that enrollment size has a stronger effect on learning in schools with large concentrations of poor and minority children (Cotton, 1996). Research ultimately confirms what parents intuitively believe: that smaller schools are safer and more productive because students feel less alienated, more nurtured and more connected to caring adults, and teachers feel that they have more opportunity to get to know and support their students (Fowler & Walberg, 1991; Gregory, 1992; Stockard & Mayberry, 1992).

The language classes of RED ONE in local schools will be limited to 50 students or less depending on their needs. Adults will be placed in groups of varying abilities and needs. Classes are hosted at this time in local libraries. The North Las Vegas Library District is a Co-Sponsor of the upcoming summer literacy camps and will continue to promote the language component of this project known as the “ROOTS” Language Lab.

Priority Area 1: ANA

Native Language Preservation and Maintenance

A. Description: The purpose of this assessment grant will include the needs assessment and development of a plan to describe the current status of the language(s) to be addressed and to establish community long-range goal(s) to ensure its survival with various activities including:

· Encouraging the use of Native languages

· Publishing materials in Native languages

· Producing documentation of and about Native language

· Training researchers, language teachers, other language specialists

· Developing curricula

· Producing teaching materials for local language and culture including but not limited to Paiute, Shoshone, Ute and others

· Archiving material on local Native languages, culture and history

B. Program Area of Interest:

· Data collection,

· Compilation,

· Organization and description of current language (language survey conducted by community members)

· Community consensus of language status based on elders, Tribal scholars, and/or other community members).

OBJECTIVE 1. YEAR 2006-2009 DEVELOPING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS & MARKETING “ROOTS” LANGUAGE LAB PROJECT

To fully compliment the activities of both paid coordinator and volunteers working in the Native American community, urban, rural and reservation - a marketing component needs to run concurrently with this project.

Community partnerships will be developed between native and non-native groups. The objective of scheduling presentations and getting and giving “feedback” allows trust to be developed within each group whether it is native or non-native, community, governmental, faith based or with academic interests.

The work plan demonstrates who will be responsible for the activities, what will take place and a projected amount of hours needed for the activity to be accomplished. The evaluation or benefit from this marketing component will result in the trust of community groups being established and the staff (both volunteers and paid) will have the ability to work within the Native American groups and community based organizations. Data collection is easier when the groups trust the project personnel.

Results will incorporate

1.) documents sent out to the community in the form of newsletters and web pages and
2.) feedback with data collected in community surveys.

Approaches to be used in the community will include:

Step 1. Needs Assessment in Southern Nevada area-

Part 1. Presentation to the principle Tribes in the Southern Nevada area

· Paiute

· Ute

· Shoshone

· TeMoak

· Other

Part 2. Schedule “talking circles”

· Interviews

· Document

· Record

· Other

Step 2. Develop community partnerships-

Part 1. Presentation to local College and University personnel

· English Dept.

· Language Studies Dept.

· Native American Studies

· Other academics

Part 2. Presentations to native/non-native groups

Step 3. Letters of Support for project-

A. Letters from Native American groups collaborating with “ROOTS” Project:

1. Native American Heritage Foundation

2. Indigenous Peoples Resource Center

3. RED ONE: Red Nation Cherokee Business Services

4. Red Lodge Para Legal Services

5. (N.A.C.S.) Native American Community Services

6. STAR Counseling Services

B. Community Based Organization Letters attached from:

1. NATABB-MARTIN THE EFFECTIVE TUTORING COMPANY licensed Master Reading Teacher Tutoring Services

2. Resident Council Coalition-Remedial Reading Resource Center providing coordination for the Summer Literacy Camp for 2006 and non profit organization 501c3

3. Las Vegas Valley League of Women Voters providing reading materials and volunteers

4. (JETSN) Job Education Training Services of Southern Nevada

5. (NPBDC) Non Profit Business Development Center

6. North Las Vegas Library District

7. Be A Mentor, Inc. providing mentors and volunteers

8. (Email request) Nevada History Project

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE:

A. Background

1. RED ONE: Red Nation Cherokee Business Services receives its support at this time from the Resident Council Coalition-Remedial Reading Resource Center, a 501c3 Community Based Organization (CBO). It has provided reading tutors and instruction in the valley since 1998. Its mission is working with “at risk” and minority groups (in government housing, particularly HUD Housing, on urban reservations and other sites). Tutors, volunteers and retired reading specialists recruited from non profit groups to teach reading skills and prepare adults, youth, teens and children. Classes have been held in a variety of settings including local classrooms, local libraries, non profit organizations conference rooms, juvenile hall, playgrounds, churches and homes. Additional programs have included ESL, Native Americans “ROOTS” Project( “Reaching Out On Tribal Soil”) and multilingual classes as needed. Remedial reading skills have been added to with social-economic development projects for groups, counseling for underserved minority populations as well as Board of Directors development for small minority/Native American Community Based Organizations and non profit 501c3 organizations.

B. Geographic Location

2. The Resident Council Coalition-Remedial Reading Resource Center as an umbrella agency has been in operation 1998-2006. Incorporation 1998 (9 years of community service). The Resident Council Coalition-Remedial Reading Resource Center is the only known non profit organization sanctioned by H.U.D. to teach Board Development and Officer training to its H.U.D. Housing Complexes in the state of Nevada and Washington, DC. Training for “at risk” groups and minority organizations has been their specialty as a CBO since 1998. Training has taken place at the HUD offices in Las Vegas as well as throughout the community at public and private housing complexes. With the assistance of the Coordinator working on “short term” projects (a consultant in Non Profit Business Development as well as Board Development) and the specialty of a Master Reading Teacher, additional reading teachers, volunteers and advisory groups from the community.

3. The “ROOTS” Language Lab will be developed in the southern area of the State of Nevada, specifically in Clark County, Nye County and Esmeralda County.

Federally recognized Tribes

558 ++ and growing

State recognized Tribes

2000 ++ groups, bands, non profit Native American Service Organizations and growing

Federal and State recognitions are continuous

Nevada Tribes members estimated numbers 100,000+ before 1100AD

State of Nevada

Locations of Tribes

Urban and rural locations in Indian Country that “ROOTS” Language Lab proposes to work with-

“ROOTS” Project was developed on the Paiute reservations in the Clark County area in 2001

“ROOTS” Language Lab Project will expand to include the Counties of Clark, Nye and Esmeralda 2006-2009.

“ROOTS” Language Lab Project proposes to work with 5000 persons annually in person, by personal contact, by newsletter and website use in 3 southern counties in Nevada

PAID STAFF:

C. Agency's existing staff positions and consultants include:

1. Linda Sapp-Cox, Coordinator developed the organization in 1998 and has served as the Coordinator 8 years with a variety of projects of short duration.

· NPO Business Developer/Grant Writer working with federal, state, county, city, regional, public, private grants & funding sources

· Grant Coordinator/Grant Instructor since 1958 (a variety of funding sources)

· Grant Consultant & Instructor (Adjunct Faculty) UNLV 5 years

· 30+ years experience with federal funding of all types

· Consultant to H.U.D. Washington, DC,

· Social Security Disability Business Planner for SBA,

· Administrative Assistant/Grant Writer Las Vegas Paiute Colony 3 years working with Federal & HUD, ICDBG, SAP Indian Health Service grants

· BIA Contractor

2. Noreen Tabb-Martin, Master Reading Teacher has worked with the Coordinator on several projects 2001-2005

· 3 Masters In Reading, ESL, SLD

· Former Manager of Las Vegas Colony Paiute Child Care Center

· Owner tutoring services in Clark County

· Employed by the Clark County School District

3. Roberta Lessard, Bookkeeper/Notary Services worked with Coordinator on several projects 1988-2005

· Accounting services 30 years in Nevada and California

· Bookkeeping services for Summer Literacy Camp 2006 and the North Las Vegas Library District CoSponsor

4. Volunteers will be trained from all walks of life including from the reservations

The City of Las Vegas Neighborhood Services awarded a federal grant of $5,000.00 to the organization in 1999 to provide training at Elmwood Villas, Joshua Villas, Stewart Villas, Judith Villas and other L/M income families housing complexes in North Las Vegas, the downtown Las Vegas area and on the West side of Las Vegas.

COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS:

North Las Vegas Library District, our Co-Sponsor will allow the lab participants access to the library computers and catalogue system as well as the use of a room for the language lessons at no charge during regular business hours.

Parents will provide transportation to the participants who can not drive (children, teens under age of 16 w/o license). Adult participants will be contacted both on and off reservations, in homes both urban and rural and in as many community based sites as possible. Surveys will document sites of information and how it was accessed.

Clark County Library District will be encouraged to follow the example of North Las Vegas Library District and give the “ROOTS” Language Lab access to their facilities as well.

Letters of Support from community organizations support the project and their participation for 3 years. These include both native and non native groups, all sizes and bases including municipalities and faith based.

NEED FOR ASSISTANCE IN LANGUAGE PRESERVATION:

(Crawford 1994) “… language loss does not happen in privileged communities. It happens to the disposed and disenfranchised -- the people who most need their cultural resources to survive.

Native communities where children are actively learning their native tongue are rare in the southwest. Many Elders have expressed their concern about native language survival. The uniqueness of languages reflects a history of some of the oldest and longest sustained cultures in the nation. These languages have existed and still function primarily within a socio-cultural and socio-religious community context (Blum, 2000; Sims, 2001; Suina, 1990).

The “ROOTS” Language Lab proposes to record oral traditions and oral histories, including the revival of the southwestern Nevada Native American cultural knowledge and spiritual way of life as much as possible.

Elders in Nevada have expressed concerns that the Native American society would unravel and be lost to future generations without a record. To date this has not been done and kept for posterity. As they pass away- their heritage and their legacy is clouded in the midst of the metropolis named Las Vegas.

Ask any person on the street and they will not be able to tell you the name of a local Tribe, the location of a reservation or who lives there. All Native American lifestyle has been abandoned for the current culture of Las Vegas.

The legacy and the future of younger generations who will take their place as leaders in their respective Tribes will depend upon the steps taken today. For some tribes, there are now only a few speakers or even no speakers of their language left. In a response to this crisis, “ROOTS” Language Lab proposes to contact several tribes and offer to work with them to stem the loss of language and therefore culture through community-based and school-based language efforts. The youngest generation of tribal members will have age appropriate curriculum developed by the Master Reading Teacher and associates in the Clark County School District as well as interested language scholars in both the Community College of Southern Nevada and the University of Las Vegas.

Tribal Community members will have input and influence regarding the curriculum. Native teachers and assistants and other leadership positions and the tribal community work together as a team will begin to reclaim their native language. Students will benefit from language preservation. Attendance and parent participation will show significant improvement in language classes as the 3 years progress.

A budding childcare center will have a new language curriculum to teach tiny tots after this project is over. The Native American heritage will once again take shape and be strong.

“Native Language immersion is more than words- it is a person’s culture heritage, identity, and the way he or she is taught to view the world. Speaking and learning in more than one language enhances the development of cognition and should be viewed as desirable and be encouraged both at home and at school. Native Language and Culture Curriculum is an Integral Part of the Whole Curriculum including Native language and culture in will help assure that indigenous children are educated in a culturally appropriate manner and be able to relate to the larger society from an intact cultural perspective, not from a destroyed or distorted cultural perspective.”

In 1992 Dr. Michael Krauss, President of the Society for the study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and Director of the Alaska Native Language Center, testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

In his testimony, he estimated that in 1492 there were 300 or more native languages spoken in North America and that 190 of these are still spoken or remembered by native North Americans. However, of 155 of these languages in the United States only about 20 are still spoken by people of all ages and thus fully vital. Even these few languages, including Navajo and Crow, are threatened as fewer and fewer children are learning them in the home.

Many non-Indians and some Indians see no tragedy in the loss of these languages, but as this country becomes more and more dominated by concern about crime and the breakdown of traditional families, many Indians and some non-Indians see the perpetuation of native languages as vital to their cultural integrity.

“In addition to speech, each language carries with it an unspoken network of cultural values. Although these values generally operate on a subliminal level, they are, nonetheless, a major force in the shaping of each person's self-awareness, identity, and interpersonal relationships” (Scollon & Scollon, 1981).

These values are psychological imperatives that help generate and maintain an individual's level of comfort and self-assurance, and, consequently, success in life. In the normal course of events these values are absorbed along with one's mother tongue in the first years of life.

“For that reason, cultural values and mother tongue are so closely intertwined in public consciousness that they are often, but mistakenly, seen as inseparable. For the majority of young Natives today, culture and language have, in fact, been separated. As a result, most of these young people are trying "to walk in two worlds" with only one language. This is a far more complex and stressful undertaking than the "two worlds" metaphor would suggest” (Henze & Vanett, 1993).

“Across two cultures the preferred etiquette for behaving or communicating in a particular situation may be starkly different. Using the same language across the two cultures often poses a challenge to both sense and sensitivity” (Platt, 1989). Giving young Native Americans the opportunity to keep or learn their tribal language offers them a strong antidote to the culture clash many of them are experiencing but cannot verbalize.

If along with the language, they learn to recognize the hidden network of cultural values that permeates the language, they will add to the knowledge and skills required to "walk in two worlds." They will learn to recognize and cope with cross-cultural values that are often at odds with each other, and they will begin to adopt more comfortably the cultural value that is appropriate for a particular cultural situation” (Tennant, 1993).

Department of Education studies of bilingual education programs show that native-language use in schools does not hurt children (Ramirez, 1992). Such research tends to use English-language standardized test scores as a measure of success. If such research also focused on objectives such as strengthening Native American Indian families, there can be little doubt that bilingual programs utilizing and developing native-language fluency produce superior results. This is supported by the findings in the Department of Education study that parents were most satisfied with having their students learn both English and their home language and wanted their children to stay in bilingual programs longer (Ramirez, 1992).