Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation

Language: Comanche

Program Base: Preschool, high school, tribal facility, and community setting

Goals:

1. To ensure that Numu tekwapu (the Comanche language) remains a part of everyday Comanche life.
2. To revive the language so that it becomes a living language once again.
3. To provide the opportunity for Comanche people of all ages to speak, write, and understand the language in order that it and our culture might live on.

Brief Description:
In 1989, the Comanche Tribe began a project to preserve its language and history, producing 15 two-hour tapes featuring 40 tribal elders telling stories and family history in their native tongue. Individual tribal members also taught language classes independently. The Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee was formed in 1993. A nonprofit organization, the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee does not charge for any of its activities, and its members are all volunteers.

Accomplishments in language preservation for the tribe include: (1) adopting an official Comanche alphabet; (2) holding alphabet workshops and later language classes in four Comanche communities; (3) publishing the NUMUMUU (Comanche) Monthly Reader and distributing 600 copies of it each month to all area schools; (4)publishing a picture dictionary for children; (5) developing a word game for a language contest at the annual Comanche Nation Fair; also developing and distributing 200 sets of 56 flash cards to children at the fair; (6) offering courses in the language for a time at The University of Oklahoma in Norman and at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma; and (7) conducting "Language Immersion Weekend."

A four-week summer preschool held in 1995 taught the language to 76 participating children, and one of the four Comanche communities operated a three-year language preschool pilot program for children 3-5 years old.

Materials: Children's stories, audiotapes, and videos.

Support:
Funds have come from the Administration for Native Americans, a private foundation, and the tribe. To raise funds, the committee also sells its audiotapes and videos, Comanche dictionaries, language flash cards, and other items. Other types of support include community donations, volunteers, and collaboration with a linguist or university linguistics department.

Contact Information:
Ronald Red Elk, President
Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee
P. O. Box 3610
Lawton, OK 73502
http://www.skylands.net/users/tdeer/clcpc/
Kanabuutsi@juno.com

(405) 247-5749 or (580) 353-3632