Mary Rose is a revered village elder in Kaltag village, closing in on a personal milestone as she is turning 91.
Members of the Yukon Koyukuk School District language workshop gather around the elder, sing to her, in English and Athabascan. Celebrating her birthday and contribution to a project aimed at passing the Athabascan language onto younger generations.
Holly Wofford is a leading force in the workshops. She is a Native Language teacher for the Yukon Koyukuk School District based in Fairbanks. She teaches the Athabascan Denaakk'e language virtually to about 146 students in 15 different classes across 10 different villages in the Yukon-Koyukuk census area. While teaching she is developing various curriculum and teaching materials for the schools.
Susan Paskavan, a former teacher with the sprawling district, pushed Wofford to start developing ideas they discussed, teaching culture through a game.
“When I was working here with Susan she asked me to help with some of the game development for our curriculum, and I started this game and started it as a project in school at the same time,” says Wofford. “It was really focused on engaging youth and older students and adults. I created it around learning language, learning how to count, getting kids to learn about our cultural beliefs around animals.”
The board game follows a story of different Alaskan animals through the four seasons. Each animal's personality aligns with their Athabascan story. Like the raven who plays the trickster. When you land on that bird or draw his card, you start back to his last spot.
With QR codes, students scan different markers and animals as they advance to learn their Denaakk'e name.
“I met with elders and consulted with Susan and other people to make sure that I was putting the right things in the pamphlet and making sure I was teaching the kids the right things,” says Wofford. “So it was my baby in college and here. I drew it. I hand drew the whole thing and typed out everything. I created that board game and that was my senior project. After I graduated, working here at YKSD, I had the opportunity to actually turn it into a board game, like an actual board game.”
From this board game, Wofford’s ideas continue to grow. She and the Native language team are now working on Athabascan language kits to get young kids and parents to start speaking and learning the language at home. The aim is to have the kit ready this summer.
“This new kit that we're developing is an early childhood kit,” explains Wofford. “It can be used from birth to 5 years old. And we broke it down into three kits, so there's 0 to 18 months, 18 months to 3 years old and then 3 to 5. Parents have an option to request the kid through our program and they can start teaching at home and learning along with their kids. It's very user friendly. We're using QR codes, we're going to have videos. We're going to have activity cards so that parents can hear the pronunciation, see the songs, and sign language that goes with it.”
Each elder involved has shown great appreciation for these projects. With new technology and change in lifestyles, the Native language is growing greater than before.
“I think they're doing a really, really good job,” says Madeline from the village of Hughes. “Trying to teach babies from when they were young. Us in our days, we didn't have time to teach babies. We gotta go try to get something to cook.”
“I really worked hard with the language in my classes,” former teacher Christina Semaken shares. “I thought and then I would talk in Native to my teacher's aid. So the kids heard that. And these were kindergarten 1st and 2nd grade, that's what I had. So from me, then they went to Thelma's class. And then they went all the way to junior high. So just Denaakk'e, Denaakk'e. I just pushed hard. It worked, but then we all retired. The good thing is they're keeping it up that generation.”
Holly has more ideas coming. She aspires to create a virtual reality game for students and a user-friendly Denaakk'e Athabascan dictionary.
Even as generations come and go the passing of traditions and Alaskan languages grow stronger and faster every day, thanks to ambitious teachers like Holly Wofford and elders committed to sharing their stories.