Language Department

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It all starts with language

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Language Department was established in cooperation with the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP) by Council Ordinance 2009-ORD-005 on June 10, 2009 to recognize the role of language as “central to the protection of the customs, culture, and spiritual well-being of the people,” and to acknowledge the “critical state of the newly reclaimed Wampanoag language, and the need to secure its survival for the benefit of future generations.”  The Tribal Council reaffirmed its commitment to language revitalization in resolution 2011-RES-025 to recognize the inherent “birth right of each Wampanoag child adult to speak his or her language given by Creator”, and the decades of work by WLRP to return language home to Wampanoag families.

 

Language in the News

Featured
Mukayuhsak Weekuw: The Children’s House
Mukayuhsak Weekuw: The Children’s House

Bright sunlight streams through a bank of windows, illuminating a circle of 23 preschool and kindergarten children holding hands. Having just finished reciting the days of the month and discussing the day’s weather and season—all in Wôpanâak (Wampanoag) language—the students giggle and sway slightly, then become still as the older students, 4- and 5-year-olds, launch into a lengthy morning address reaffirming Tribal values and homelands and giving thanks for their ancestors. Wide-eyed 2- and 3-year-olds watch intently as their venerated teachers and peers effortlessly recite a complicated list of commands exhorting the tiny school community to “Be respectful! Be honest! Be compassionate! Be humble! Be brave! and Be grateful!” Next door, Mukayuhsak Weekuw’s (The Children’s House) inaugural cohort of first grade students makes tobacco offerings and prays with their teacher. In forthcoming academic years, students will be encouraged to stay at the immersion school through fourth grade.

Mashpee High School Offers First-Ever Native American Language Course
Mashpee High School Offers First-Ever Native American Language Course

Learning a new language has long been a requirement at most American high schools. While the typical offerings include Spanish, French, and Latin, in Mashpee, a small group of students is taking on a language that hasn’t been spoken fluently in centuries. WCAI’s Kathryn Eident has more on the Wôpanâak Language class at Mashpee High School.

Reclaiming a lost language; New school’s goal to teach children Wampanoag tribe’s native tongue
Reclaiming a lost language; New school’s goal to teach children Wampanoag tribe’s native tongue

Students of the Mukayuhsak Weekuw language nest, or the ″Children’s House,” could be the first to grow up with a proficiency in Wôpanâak, the long-lost language of the Wampanoag nation.

And if the toddlers — some as young as 3 years old — decide to attend high school in Mashpee, they may be able to take classes about their native tongue for credit.

Services Provided by WLRP/MWT Language Department

  • Year round family and elders language classes, and community curriculum development.

  • For a list of current community classes visit https://www.wlrp.org/class-event-schedule

  • Daily language class for students at Mashpee High School for World Language credit.

  • Weekly language enrichment blocks at the Coombs and Quashnet Schools.

  • Full-time Weetumuw School for children ages 3-9 (180 days annually, 8:15am - 3:15pm), while preparing to expand to a Language Immersion School.

  • Translation and language services for Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal departments on request.

  • Summer language and culture based programming for tribal youth ages 3-12.

  • Year round language apprentice immersion and grammar training, including annual language exams (oral and written).

  • Language teacher certification exams (written and practice teaching) are administered every three years for community instructors.

  • MWT employee language classes on request

  • More than 1,000 Wampanoag Nation community members served (75% are Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Citizens)

  • 450+ hours of community language and cultural instructional delivered annually

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