FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — This foreign language class in the Yosemite Unified School District isn’t your typical Spanish, French or German option.
At Yosemite High School, students have the opportunity to learn how to speak Chukchansi.
“It’s easy to learn. For me, it’s like going to kindergarten again,” Sophomore Wyatt Lawhon said.
Many of the students, like Wyatt, have a connection to the Chukchansi Indian Tribe, but you don’t have to have one to join the class.
Wyatt’s mom, Kim Lawhon, is the instructor.
She worked with Fresno State Linguistics to develop the curriculum.
A tribal member herself, she’s worked with other members to preserve the language.
“Out of all these years, we’re down to just a handful of people in our whole tribe that can speak Chukchansi, especially at a conversational level,” Lawhon said.
The initiative originally started nearly 20 years ago at the preschool level.
But without native speakers in the home or continuing education, most students would take a different language in high school.
That’s why, three years ago, the district entered into an agreement with the Chukchansi tribe to create a foreign language class at the middle and high school level.
Interim director for the tribe’s education department, Karen Wynn, says she’s grateful the tribal council has made the investment into students.
“For them to have this exposure and this training is going to be only beneficial for the tribe of the future, so they can continue these language experiences and continue the reintroduction to some of the families,” Wynn said.
Previously, the tribe agreed to extend the commitment annually but this year, they signed on for a three-year partnership.
That means students who started taking ‘Chukchansi I’ this year as a freshman will have the opportunity to take the language all four years.
“In just three more years, we’ll have dozens more students who can bring language to their homes in the community,” Lawhon said.
While it can help preserve the language from going extinct, district superintendent Brian beck says providing access to something other students in the state don’t have can help set students apart in college or in their career.
“It gives our students a competitive advantage, and it gives them more opportunities than maybe people would think are coming from such a small school here in the Madera County mountain community,” Beck said.
The partnership will be in place for at least the next three years, but district officials say they’ll be working with the tribe to hopefully extend that relationship again.
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