The Sauk language Kimachipena immersion school took another step toward realization last month, when Cultural Survival staff participated in training to help implement a $300,000 grant from the federal Administration for Native Americans. The grant, which Cultural Survival helped the Sac and Fox Nation submit, will support a master-apprentice program in which three teachers will learn the Sauk language from the last five elderly speakers. After three years of work, the teachers should be fluent enough to teach children in the immersion school, which is scheduled to open in 2012. The grant is critical in ensuring that the language is passed on while there is still time to learn it from living speakers, who are all over 70 years old.
Click here to read the project summary and here to watch a short film about the Sauk community’s dream to create a new generation of speakers of their language.
Click here to see a list of all Department of Health and Human Services ANA grant recipients
