Enrollment in tribal language courses grows in Oklahoma as tribes aim to increase fluency

OKLAHOMA CITY — Like many Cherokee Nation citizens of his generation, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. never had the chance to learn his tribal language in school.

He said those opportunities simply didn’t exist at the time.

“It would have meant a great deal to me,” Hoskin said. “It would have meant the opportunity to learn the Cherokee language as a child.”

Today’s generation of children has more possibilities, he said. State data shows an increasing number of students are seizing the chance.

Enrollment in Native American language programs is growing in Oklahoma public schools, according to information from the state Department of Education. 

At least 3,314 students, from elementary through high school, participated in an Indigenous language program at their public school in the 2022-23 school year. That’s over 1,000 more students than the previous school year and 2,500 more than in 2020-21, according to state data.

Last year’s total includes about 1,600 elementary and middle school students who participated in Indigenous language programs. 

Another 1,700 students earned high school world language credits by taking Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Comanche, Mvskoke, Osage, Pawnee, Potawatomi, the Otoe-Missouria language of Jiwere-Nat’Chi, and other courses. The right to take an Indigenous language for high school credit was encoded in state law in 2014.

Choctaw and Cherokee classes had the most participating students and were offered in the greatest number of schools, according to the state Education Department.

The Cherokee Nation aims to grow its numbers with plans for a $30 million language immersion middle school. The investment would expand the capacity of its existing immersion middle school that teaches in the Cherokee tongue.

The tribal nation has pledged to spend at least $18 million a year on various language-preservation initiatives.

“We know we’ve got people on the way to fluency in what is a very difficult language to learn,” Hoskin said. “We just need to have more of them, given what we’re up against.”

The Cherokee language has 2,000 first-language speakers and thousands more at a beginner or proficient level. 

UNESCO labels Cherokee as a language in danger of extinction. Chickasaw, Choctaw, Comanche, Potawatomi and other tribal languages found in Oklahoma also are designated as endangered.

Generations of Indigenous children were discouraged or forbidden from speaking their tribal languages at federally run boarding schools across the country for 150 years, according to a 2022 report from the U.S. Department of the Interior. 

The boarding schools existed to culturally assimilate Native American children, and Oklahoma had more of these schools than any other state, the report found.

Tribal nations are now working to rebuild their ranks of fluent speakers. 

The Choctaw Nation, for example, has its language taught in the greatest number of high schools in Oklahoma, as well as at colleges, early childhood centers, community classes and online. Fifteen adults are taking Choctaw as a full-time job through the tribal nation’s apprenticeship program.

Many Native American languages have a high degree of difficulty for English speakers to learn, according to state academic standards. 

Cherokee, for instance, is a Class IV language, indicating it would take a similar number of hours to gain proficiency as it would to learn Greek, Hebrew or Russian. Languages more similar to English — like Spanish, Swedish and French — would take fewer hours of study to reach the same proficiency level.

Indigenous language courses must be sanctioned by the state Education Department for students to earn class credit.

In most public schools, the language teachers and lesson plans come from tribal nations, said Jackie White, the state agency’s program director of American Indian education.

“We wanted to make sure, whomever taught, that they were fluent speakers and that what they taught was credible,” White said.

White joined the agency in 2020. Since then, the department has expanded its Native American education staff, helping to boost communication between tribes, schools and the agency about Indigenous-focused programs. 

Those conversations have included expanding tribal language courses to more schools through both in-person instruction and online teaching, White said.

Bartlesville High School is among the schools to recently add a face-to-face Indigenous language course. Only minutes away from the Osage Reservation, the northeast Oklahoma school is in its third year offering Osage language classes.

The school has 35 students enrolled in Osage I and 27 in Osage II, said Principal Michael Harp. He said the courses have attracted a diverse group of students, not only those who are Native American.

Interest in Indigenous culture has grown, he said, especially with movie filming of “Killers of the Flower Moon” taking place in the Bartlesville area.

“There definitely has been an uptick in the last couple of years of just students wanting to know more about their heritage, the culture (and) the culture that is around them,” Harp said.