The Euchee Language Project and the Sauk Language Department were recently recognized for their contributions to a Native American languages kit for children called the “Euchee and Sauk Language Supplemental Resource,” developed with the American Indian Resource Center at the Tulsa City-County Library.
The resource kit includes pronunciation guides for each Native language, an audio CD, and dozens of illustrated exercises emphasizing enumeration and animation in the natural world.
“Detailed enough to use in a language-immersion setting, this early childhood supplemental resource supports the Priority Academic Standards Skills objectives as identified in the Oklahoma State Board of Education’s core curriculum," Theresa Runnels, American Indian Resource Center coordinator, writes in her introductory letter to the resource kit. "We hope that by providing these tools to educators, the next generation will never know that these languages were once on their way to becoming extinct,”
“Our role is to create an interest," says Runnels. "We’re not the ones to save the languages, but we can create an interest. Our hope is they go back to the tribes for deeper learning. Click here to view sample pages from the resource kit and brief interviews with Ms. Runnels, Dr. Grounds, and Sauk Language Department director/CS Sauk language apprentice Jacob Manatowa-Bailey.
