Educators who teach Indigenous languages in Billings come together to exchange teaching strategies for upcoming generations

Billings, Montana – At Montana State University (MSU), Billings, the third annual Inter-Tribal Language Summit has brought together indigenous language instructors over the previous three days.

“It feels good to learn something new,” said Dr. Lenny Realbird, one of the event’s organizers.

To maintain the survival of indigenous cultures, linguistic lecturers can share the most recent approaches to teaching native tribal languages with one another at this conference.

“It gives some of these people in attendance an idea of what other communities are doing so that they could network, collaborate, and possibly share resources,” said Realbird.

These concepts include methods such as the use of flashcards to help students comprehend the location of vocal emphasis on syllables in various languages, such as Cree.

“Right now we’re at a critical point … My journey has been to help bring back indigenous languages,” said Dwayne Lasas, who invented 132 different pronunciation flashcards.

Participants said that these initiatives guarantee that learners in the future will be able to preserve their mother tongues.

“It allows (students) the opportunity to reconnect to their language … we develop a greater capacity to deal with the tribal traumas that impact our students today,” said Jonathan Jay Eagleman, the founder of the annual summit.