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Washington State University
College of Education

Ti’tooqan Cuukweneewit – Velma Brehm

Velma Brehm

Tribal affiliation: Spokane Tribe

On keeping Tribal language alive

Our language is actually in danger of dying because we only have six fluent speakers left. So basically, those of us who are trying to learn the language and teach it at the same time, are running a race against time that we could essentially lose at any moment. Every time we lose an elder who fluently speaks the language as their first language, we lose an entire library of knowledge. We’ve already lost three in the last couple of years. It’s a huge loss that we just can’t ever replace. So we literally feel like we’re in a race against a clock.

On a bigger language perspective

For me, this is not just a way of keeping me in the classroom as a language teacher, but it gives me the opportunity to work on a larger scale and reach a bigger audience in the schools so they can see it’s not just about language. There’s a bit of an idea that it’s just about language and thus not that important. I want that to change! I want my students to see the language is part of their history, it’s part of their math, it’s part of their science, it’s part of everything about who they are. It’s not jsutabout where they come from, but also about where they’re going. For me, this opportunity is just amazing… that I can potentially reach this kind of audience and maybe, just maybe, inspire another youth to take my footprints and keep going, and make their own footprints someday.