Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project

The Weetumuw School Expansion Project will create a new immersion classroom environment for rising first and second grade language nest students, enabling our Mukayuhsak Weekuw (Children's House) preschool and Kindergarten community to retain tribal families in our immersion programming, while simultaneously recruiting potential new teachers and students though language retreats.

The Wâchônumuhucheek Wâânutam8ôk Project lays the groundwork for comprehensive state and tribal language teacher certifications for our growing preK - Grade 8 immersions school, while continually incorporating parent and family involvement into school design and students' grade level advancement in order to retain 90 percent of our current immersion cohort.

The project will leverage existing language nest resources to increase grade level capacity through fourth grade, while retaining current parent volunteerism and creating monthly opportunities for citizen and tribal leadership involvement during the nest’s expansion into a language school, by incorporating surveys, focus groups, community-engaged curriculum design, and literacy materials.

The ultimate purpose of the Summer Turtle program is to: 1) increase our children's cultural understanding and appreciation and, thus, give them a heightened ethnic confidence and pride about who they are and how they fit into the world. 2) increase language fluency among our youth in order to ensure the long term sustainability and viability of our previously dormant language. 3) create and nurture values in our youth that yield physically and emotionally healthy children who will one day become adults who can lead in and serve their communities and families.