Lushootseed teachers braved the 70 degree weather this afternoon to harvest cedar for traditional community use. Collaborating with Tulalip Natural Resources, the teachers were able to gather enough cedar bundles to continue providing cedar roses for use in funerals.
The Lushootseed Department provides 150 roses per funeral service and make them traditionally by hand with good hearts and minds, and receive no profit made for this service. Rocky Renecker, with Tulalip Funeral Services, also harvested cedar on behalf of the funeral services team.
Participants to the Wednesday, May 7, Lushootseed Family Night learned the Little Prayer and basic home phrases. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
A family approach to Lushootseed language
By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
TULALIP – Tulalip Lushootseed Family Night began their summer series on Wednesday, May 7. The informal classes, held weekly until July at the Hibulb Cultural Center are designed to encourage daily Lushootseed use in the home via basic words or phrases, such as “good morning, how are you” and “clean your room.”
Curriculum is based on participant requests and sections of the Lushootseed Language 101 college course through Northwest Indian College.
Natosha Gobin, Tulalip Lushootseed teacher, will be teaching this summer’s Lushootseed Family Night series. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
“Anyone is welcome to attend whether Tulalip tribal member or not. There is no age limit and although we call it Family Night, anyone is welcome to attend,” said Natosha Gobin, Tulalip Lushootseed teacher.
Through the use of crafts, storytelling, songs and games, kids are able to learn the same curriculum as the adult participants, this helps encourage fluency in the household.
“The classes are laid back and intended to empower the speakers within ourselves,” said Gobin, who stresses that participants needn’t fear mispronunciation or fear of learning the language. “Our goal is to find the best ways to bring Lushootseed into the home.”
Lushootseed Family Nights are held Wednesday’s at 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Hibulb Cultural Center classrooms. Materials and lessons are free of cost, and dinner is provided.
TULALIP, Wash- On Thursday evening, as part of the Hibulb Cultural Center & Natural History Preserve’s Lecture Series, staff from the Tulalip Lushootseed Language Department provided a presentation on the “Lushootseed Calendar”. Natosha Gobin and Michelle Myles, Lushootseed language teachers, explained how Coast Salish people kept track of time by observing weather and nature.
Today our lives are dictated by the calendar. Our agendas are arranged by what day, week, or month it is. Not too long ago, native people of this area did not think of days as Tuesday or Wednesday, or if it was February 3rd or the 4th, rather they witnessed the conditions in their surroundings, or environment, which would indicate what tasks need to be done, or what events need to be prepared for.
“We don’t have an exact translation for each of the months,” Natosha Gobin explains. “But what we have is each particular thing that happens around that time.“ For example, for what we know as April, one thing that happens is slihibus, or the time when the swans/cranes migrate, referring to the time you would see large white birds migrating back to the area. This was a reminder that the weather is starting to get warmer; the “season” is changing.
For more information on the Lushootseed Calendar, or the Lushootseed Language department, log on to www.tulaliplushootseed.com call (360) 716-4495.
Please join us for Lushootseed Family Nights where you can gather with loved ones and learn to speak the words off our ancestors. Scheduled for every Tuesday in February and March 20113 at the Hibulb Cultural Center from 5pm-7pm.
