“I never thought about the language being endangered. My great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and myself—we all spoke O’odham. Everyone I knew spoke O’odham. When we wanted to see a doctor, we went to our own traditional healers. When we needed things, we traded with one another. Our ceremonies, our songs, were all in O’odham. That’s how strong it was at the time. I didn’t hear anyone talking English in the community. We all spoke O’odham.”

—Jonas Robles, elder and board member at Tohono O’odham Community College

For decades, the O’odham language has been in decline. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared it a “definitively endangered language,” as it is no longer being passed down in the home as a primary language. But like many tribal nations, the Tohono O’odham are working to reclaim their language.

O’odham elder Jonas Robles’ memories of earlier times when the O’odham language was spoken and heard in all spaces of O’odham life is a goal of the O’odham Ñi’okĭ Ki: (the O’odham Language Center). Located on the campus of Tohono O’odham Community College (TOCC), the center was founded in 2020 and is for all O’odham, including those from other O’odham speaking nations. The O’odham language is a part of the Uto-Aztecan language family and is spoken in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, which is geographically where O’odham reside.

Creating opportunities where the language is passed from one generation to the next is a mission of the O’odham Language Center. Ronald Geronimo, the O’odham Language Center director, maintains that survival of a language is dependent on young ones learning it in the home so that the transfer of language can continue from one generation to the next. However, a 2021 community language survey illustrated that the language is largely spoken amongst O’odham aged 60 and above. This means that even though parents of school-aged children may wish for their young ones to grow up learning O’odham, they themselves do not have the ability to speak it.

As an O’odham language speaker, a parent, and a community member, Geronimo understands what is at stake for the youth when they grow up not knowing or speaking their heritage language. “Without the heritage language, children are developing cultural values and traditions that are not primarily a part of the O’odham way of life. This becomes significant as children become older and begin to experience life away from the community,” says Geronimo. “Without a strong self-identity, many will question and wonder how they fit in. Knowing who one is as Tohono O’odham will better suit them to succeed in an ever-changing society.”

Language is a source of strength, and ensuring its continuity has prompted much attention over the years, especially within the schools and formalized settings like TOCC where all students must take an O’odham language course. But to see the O’odham language as prominent as it once was, the teaching and learning of the language must extend beyond the classrooms and into every part of O’odham life.

From the schools, to work, to home and community, to social gatherings and social media, the O’odham language needs to be heard, spoken, and visible in all spaces. Then, as Geronimo emphasizes, O’odham Ñi’okĭ will become a natural part of who the children are and not something foreign as when it is learned later in life.

O’odham Language Center director Ronald Geronimo stresses that language survival is dependent on speaking and teaching it to children in the home.

For many years, the Tohono O’odham Nation has supported language documentation, teaching, and learning. Different groups have documented O’odham speech and historical records, developed an O’odham language dictionary, adopted a standard orthography, designed and implemented a certification process for K-12 O’odham language teaching, and developed college level and K-12 language classes.

All these efforts, critical as they are, have not been enough to revitalize the language. Bringing the language back into the home and community is the vision that motivates the O’odham Language Center.

STARTING THE JOURNEY

On December 6, 2018, a group of O’odham leaders convened for a language symposium titled Am o ‘i-hemakoc g t-cegĭtoidag k ‘am o ‘igewkamhun g t-ñi’ok (Bringing our minds together to save our language). It was hosted by TOCC in partnership with several collaborators, including the Tohono O’odham Nation Education Department, the American Indian Language Development Institute, and the Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum.

The goal was to bring awareness to the Tohono O’odham Nation’s leaders on the status of the O’odham language and advocate for the establishment of an O’odham language center dedicated to language revitalization. The symposium was attended by the TOCC board of trustees, the entire Tohono O’odham legislative council, and tribal leaders from across the Tohono O’odham Nation representing the 11 districts.

The group heard from guest speakers of tribes where there are no more living speakers of their languages. These tribal members shared how they rely on audio recordings, books, and print materials to learn their heritage language. Tribal leaders from the Tohono O’odham Nation reflected on these words and discussed the importance of actively working to reclaim the language while the tribe still has fluent speakers and living resources. Dr. Ofelia Zepeda, chair of the college’s board of trustees, acknowledged that O’odham are fortunate to still have first language speakers. The speakers that are with us today are an important asset in ensuring the language continues to move forward. The visioning and efforts of the symposium collectively led to the development of the O’odham Ñi’okĭ Ki:. The Tohono O’odham Nation provided funding in 2020 to create the center and continues to support its efforts.

PLANNING FIRST

Still in its early stages of development, the O’odham Language Center staff have focused on strengthening language learning, teaching, and visibility. One of the first efforts included seeking community input through a survey to assess the general fluency of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s members, to gain a better understanding of community interest in the language, and to determine needed language resources and programming for language learning to occur in the home and community.

The second part included convening the various language-focused programs that exist across the Tohono O’odham Nation within the schools, community, tribal programs, and other entities focused on O’odham language continuity. The goal was to discuss the status of language sustainability efforts, assess how the ongoing language work and goals are aligned with one another, and determine how the programs may work collaboratively toward reaching the shared goal of intergenerational transmission of the language.

Through these discussions, the group identified four areas of need: 1) supporting language learning in the home and community; 2) building capacity for more speakers to become community-based language teachers; 3) supporting O’odham language learners who feel hesitant to learn O’odham; 4) making the language more visible. Being informed by a larger community perspective is important to reaching shared goals. As Andrea Ramon, long-time O’odham language instructor and teacher trainer states, “Nothing is done in isolation—it takes all aspects of a community to reclaim its language and culture.”

IMMERSION FOR CHILDREN

Andrea Ramon plays a critical role in supporting the creation of a new generation of O’odham language speakers. Through a recently awarded grant to the Oʼodham Language Center from the National Science Foundation – Tribal Enterprise Advancement Center, Ramon is working closely with three of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Head Start centers to transform them into immersion schools. The site coordinators of the partner centers have taught a bilingual/bicultural curriculum since the 1980s. In recent years, they desired to strengthen their language teaching and learning through immersion at Head Start centers and sought support in reaching this goal from the O’odham Ñiʼokĭ Ki:.

The three partner centers are well positioned for immersion schools, as they are staffed with proficient speakers who have taught in their centers for more than 15 years. To support their transition to language immersion, the centers have access to trainings that focus on using immersion methods and strategies. As the teachers put into practice this new approach to teaching, Ramon travels to the different sites throughout the week to model and provide strategies for “staying in the O’odham language” when working with the children. As the little ones build their language fluency in the classroom, the parents also have access to language learning opportunities through developed videos, materials that support learner-speakers, and specialized Oʼodham language development programs.

Jenny Narcho, a program coordinator with the O’odham Ñi’okĭ Ki:, works closely with the Head Start centers to promote language use amongst the parents and families. She also travels to the centers to meet with the families, providing interactive language games and activities aligned with the center’s monthly theme. The families may use these games and activities to continue language learning in the home. Additionally, families are encouraged to participate in the master-apprentice language learning program. Families earn a stipend for the language learning hours they complete each month when working with their selected master speaker, whether parents, grandparents, or culturally knowledgeable people within their community. Their speakers also earn a stipend, and the apprentices receive an iPad to record their language learning sessions, which they may reference for continued language learning once their session ends. Offering language learning opportunities to families is one example of how formalized learning in a classroom may continue in the home.

The O’odham Ñi’okĭ Ki: utilizes a master-apprentice model that connects learners with elders. To further incentivize language learning, both masters and apprentices receive a stipend.

Connecting with elder speakers brings forth conversations and familial learning that may not come up in everyday conversation. It provides an opportunity to awaken words that haven’t been used in a long time. Ramon, who is a fluent speaker, still looks to her elders when encountering O’odham terms she didn’t hear growing up. As the English language becomes more dominant, O’odham words that were used in the past are sometimes forgotten until given a reason to be used again. During one of Ramon’s instructional coaching sessions, she wondered how to say “slide,” as she and the site teacher watched the kids laughing and enjoying their time on the playground slide.

In trying to determine an O’odham word for slide, Ramon asked her mom for help. Her mom recalled one of her childhood memories of playing with her cousins in the desert. Growing up in the community of Kom Wo’o in the Tohono O’odham Nation, it was common for washes, also known as arroyos, to form from areas flooded by the desert rain. A wash is a flat bottom with steep sides that Ramon’s mom and cousins enjoyed sliding down. Her mom remembered how she and her cousins would yell to one another, “’e-helwa, ’e-helwa, ’e-helwa (slide, slide, slide).” Ramon reflected that “times are different, maybe kids no longer slide down the wash but the context of going down a slippery surface is similar to sliding down a playground slide. We can use the same term to describe a playground slide that was used when sliding down the wash.”

COMMUNITY EFFORTS

Making connections from the past to today is an underlying theme that arises when thinking about language sustainability. As someone born in the late 1940s, Robles recalls how he was a young boy from a community filled with O’odham language speakers, remembering the value that was placed on English in the 1950s-1970s while trying to adapt to the new way of doing things. He also remembers that O’odham who could read, write, and speak English were sought after to take on leadership roles since they would have an understanding of how to succeed in the changing world.

However, through a recent legislative order, the Tohono O’odham legislative council amended their rules, encouraging council members to speak O’odham to the maximum extent possible and to encourage programs and other presenters to bring translators and interpreters to council sessions to share in O’odham. The council sessions are also broadcasted on the local radio station, O’odham Hewel Ñiʼokĭ (KOHN, KOHH, KOHF-LP, KWAK-LP) reaching a wide audience.

The O’odham Hewel Ñiʼokĭ has four towers located in different regions of the nation. In addition to broadcasting the council sessions where O’odham can be heard, local news updates are given in O’odham and English. Some of the O’odham disc jockeys speak O’odham intermittently during airtime, and time slots are set for traditional O’odham songs. TOCC also has a partnership with the radio station, and during its time slot, when possible, fluent O’odham speakers are interviewed in the O’odham language.

The local Tohono O’odham Nursing Care Authority is another avenue for meeting a mass audience through media. Community liaison Isidro Lopez started developing news segments that include an Oʼodham and English component to share weekly activities, weather, and other news of interest to nursing home residents and the greater community. The videos are uploaded to YouTube each week, allowing people to hear the language spoken in an everyday context when sharing about local happenings. Additionally, Ms. Ramon’s YouTube channel “O’odhamkaj!”, focuses on O’odham language-centered videos and O’odham book read-alongs where O’odham can be heard in different contexts.

All of these efforts combined are component parts of the collective work that is necessary for a heritage language to survive. Working with the youngest members of the community, supporting language development of the families, having access to language learning in formalized school systems and through community-based classes, as well speaking and hearing the language in media outlets, are all needed to reverse language loss. The efforts must be continuous, which is part of what makes tribal colleges so valuable in this effort.

THE ROLE OF TRIBAL COLLEGES

Tribal colleges and universities, such as TOCC, are in a position to preserve, protect, and revitalize heritage languages, as language is a central part of the greater tribal college mission. TCUs offer access to language learning that may be the only place for people to learn their heritage language as family members and speakers within communities pass on, or as people move away from the central part of their communities and no longer have access to heritage speakers.

TOCC student Letitia Martin brought this truth to light when discussing her own language experience. Raised by her grandmother until she was eight years old, Martin remembers how O’odham was her first language. When her grandmother passed away, her living condition became unstable as she moved from home to home. She found herself in places where she could no longer speak O’odham, as she was surrounded by non-speakers. “That’s when I started to lose it. That gap caused me to forget the language,” says Martin.

Taking O’odham language classes at TOCC and connecting with speakers on campus helped Martin remember words she thought she lost and made her feel like it was possible to become fluent again. “Being in my language class I see myself catching on pretty quick. Getting the practice, I feel like I can get great at this. I feel confident that I can learn,” she explains. As Martin progresses through her studies, she aspires to become involved in language work and help others in their language learning journey as well. “Why would I want to keep this to myself? I know I can help people going through their classes and through their language learning journey,” she says.

Martin’s enthusiasm and belief in her abilities to learn her heritage language is one shared by TOCC alumni Teresa Choyguha, who was the first graduate of the college’s Tohono O’odham Studies Program. Her coursework included completing four semesters of O’odham language classes where she was encouraged to create a plan for continued language learning outside of the classroom. Choyguha understood that to acquire a high level of language fluency she would need to speak the O’odham words she knew as much as possible, listen to fluent speakers, and continue actively learning the language.

Learning a heritage language as a second language speaker can lead to some discouraging moments and may even feel as though learning the language is impossible. Despite the difficulties, Choyguha persists in her effort to learn O’odham. “I choose to be fearless, to use the O’odham I know, to grow in the language, and most importantly to inspire—to be an example of a language learner who believes in the gift of language and believes that it is attainable by all,” Choyguha asserts. “We must not give up, instead ask ourselves, ‘What can we do to contribute to language revitalization?’ And know that together, we will be successful in saving our language.”

One of the O’odham Language Center’s first orders of business was to launch a survey to determine O’odham language use in the home and community. Findings revealed that most speakers were aged 60 and over.

In addition to earning her Associate of Arts in Tohono O’odham studies, Choyguha recently earned her Tohono O’odham language teacher certification through the Tohono O’odham Nation and started teaching introductory language classes for TOCC during the fall 2023 semester.

As we move further into the new digital era, access to online language learning is making an impact and allowing out-of-state residents to access language classes. Given the unique mission of tribal colleges, there are special grants through federal funding agencies available to TCUs to support language-focused initiatives. In addition to the funding that the Tohono Oʼodham Nation has awarded TOCC to establish the Oʼodham Ñi’okĭ̆ Ki:, other funds that make language revitalization work possible come from federal grant awards such as the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM); the Administration for Native Americans (ANA); and the National Science Foundation. The Oʼodham Ñi’okĭ Ki: is grateful for all the support they have received to work on sustaining the O’odham language.

The O’odham Language Center was ultimately established to extend language learning beyond the classroom and into everyday life and to nurture the development of a new generation of O’odham language speakers. There is resounding support across the Tohono O’odham Nation for language continuity. From the Tohono O’odham Nation’s leaders to Pre-K and tribal college educators, to speakers and language learners at home and in the community, everyone plays a part in keeping the language strong and vital. The everyday effort of using the words one knows, supporting one another in their language learning journey, and taking active steps to learn the language are all needed to ensure the language continues to move forward. Or, as Andrea Ramon states, “We:sij o ’ab ’i-t-ap matt o ’i-wamig g t-ñi’ok c himdag—it’s up to all of us to wake up our language and culture.”

Frances Benavidez is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation and currently serves as a program director with the Oʼodham Ñiʼokĭ Ki:.

REFERENCES

Tohono O’odham Community College (2021). O’odham Language Comprehensive Survey. Tohono O’odham Nation.

Tohono O’odham Nation Legislative Council (2023). Public Notice Encouraging Use of O’odham Ñi’okĭ by Presenters During Council Sessions. Tohono O’odham Nation.

UNESCO (2003, March 10-12). Language Vitality and Endangerment. UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert group on Endangered Languages Document submitted to the International Expert Meeting on UNESCO Programme Safeguarding of Endangered Languages. Paris, France.