Culture And Language

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Culture and Language

Most people do not know the loss that Native People have suffered in our communities. We have lost our land, our strong cultural family value base, our language and culture, and our “way of life” through the boarding school and federal relocation policies. We are taking steps to revitalize our language and culture in partnership with the Lushootseed Department and the Tulalip Tribes Rediscovery Program. The Lushootseed Department started its work in 1992.

The Lushootseed Department has been conducting classes for our teachers and to our teacher assistants so that they can support the work that the Lushootseed department is doing with our children. We have a great partnership with our Lushootseed Department. The Lushootseed Department provides 15-minute sessions with our birth to three children four times a week and thirty-minute immersion sessions four times a week to our preschoolers. Our goal is to help our children learn how to have conversations in Lushootseed by the time they leave the academy.

The Rediscovery Staff are partnering with us to provide more culturally relevant objects and activities in the classrooms. We want the children and families to be exposed to the rich, vibrant culture lifeways that we have here at Tulalip. Learning about our fish, berries, crab, and root gathering cycles, how we gathered, prepared, and utilized will enrich children’s knowledge about who they are and where they come from. Research says that students who attend schools that bring the “community” into the classroom do better in school and life with a stronger “sense of self.”