Indigenous language students gather at Sam Noble to show off talents

Apr. 4—The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History opened its doors to thousands of Indigenous language learners from throughout the state.

The Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair has taken place for the last 20 years and every year, elementary, middle, and high school students gather to showcase their language talents.

This year's event was April 1-2 and brought in 1,500 youth from about 250 schools, clubs, or individually-registered families.

Raina Heaton, associate professor of Native American Studies and assistant curator of the Native American Languages Collection at the Sam Noble Museum, said preserving Indigenous languages is important because Native Americans have experienced different forms of trauma that have completely obliterated some languages, and have endangered others.

"The Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair is about sharing our language skills as students in this state. Native languages have come a long way in 20 years in Oklahoma, so we are excited to see so many kids who are learning their native languages and feel confident to share them with us at the fair," Heaton said.

Quinton Roman Nose, a volunteer who took part in the original committee that started the language fair 20 years ago, said the fair is important to him for personal reasons.

"My mother was a survivor of the boarding school system. Her first language was Cheyenne, so she went to boarding school," Roman Nose said.

He said his mother was forbidden from using her language at school, and that she had her mouth washed out with soap when she spoke Cheyenne.

"She was fluent and even growing up, I'd hear her talking to other Cheyenne people. They would be laughing and talking and it was all in Cheyenne. It got to a point where I asked her, 'Hey, Mom, why didn't you teach any of your kids Cheyenne?' She said, 'I wanted you to get ahead,'" Roman Nose said.

Over the years, Roman Nose has had to learn Cheyenne as a second language learner.

"That idea or concept was embedded in her mindset. She wouldn't teach her kids because she wanted them to learn English," he said. "I used to joke with her, 'Hey mom! There's no language police that's going to come over and say, are you teaching your kids English?'"

He said the committee was inspired to launch the language fair 20 years ago after learning about language fairs in other states, including New Mexico.

"I got the idea from New Mexico. They had a language fair, which has since gone away," he said. "The University of Oklahoma, we need to appreciate their effort on keeping this going."

Heaton said in the last 20 years, the fair has experienced a lot of turnover, especially around COVID-19 when many elders went into retirement.

"We've been recruiting new teachers to tell them to bring their students to this event. It seems the word has been getting out. We've had a lot of new groups that have been coming out, and we're really excited about that," Heaton said.

Pawnee language classes from Pawnee Public Schools came out to compete for awards.

Warren Pratt Jr., Pawnee language instructor, said his students competed in different language competitions at the event.

"We've got 30 kids here this year, and we have a lot of non Native kids too, because they just enjoy the fun of learning, going on trips and just interacting," Pratt said.

He said the school district has come to the event for at least the last 12 years, and that Pawnee language enrollment has increased since the district classified it as a world language, which puts it on the same footing as Spanish, French, and German for graduation.

"We come because it gives us something to work towards every year," Pratt said.

He said students feel pride knowing they have represented their district and taken home prizes.

"We're the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and so we treat it as a competition. Like a sports competition, you have to bring your best, and they really get into it," he said.

Roman Nose said he would like to see every school teach Indigenous languages, even if it isn't possible for students to become fluent in all situations. He said students should also not wait to become fluent before entering competitions.

"Our purpose is not to expect fluency, but to showcase all students and participants in their program wherever they're at, and give the young people a chance to perform, draw, or do a video, or whatever their interest is with their language," Roman Nose said. "We certainly don't do enough in Oklahoma to support Native languages."

Brian King covers education and politics for The Transcript. Reach him at bking@normantranscript.com.