Accomplishments in Language Preservation

For Comanche People Has Been:

1.      Founding of the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee in 1993.

2.      Adoption of an official Comanche Alphabet and Spelling System by the elected officials of the Comanche Nation in 1994.

3.      Workshops held in area Comanche communities (Apache, Cache, Indiahoma, Lawton and Walters) to acquaint tribal members with the new alphabet and spelling system.

4.      Language Immersion Week-End held at Fort Sill Indian School in May 1994.

5.      Developed and published hundreds of copies of the NUMUNUU Reader, which was distributed widely during both school months and during summer camps for children in 1994.

6.      Comanche Word Game developed for a language contest held at the Comanche Nation Fair.

7.      Community language classes were held from March through May 1996, in area communities.

8.      Comanche language taught at Cameron University, Lawton, and the University of Oklahoma, Norman.

9.        Summer pre-school classes held during the month of June 1995 in area communities, in which 76 children participated along with several fluent Comanche speakers.

10.     A Picture Dictionary was developed and published beginning in 1995, with a CD added later to accompany it.

11.     Development of a three year language pre-school program for three, four and five year olds in the Cache and Walters communities.

12.     Cultural trip to Paint Rock TX in March 1997 to view early pictographs by Comanches, the first means of written communication.

13.     Received a grant from Yale University in 1997 to review words from a 1894 and 1895 dictionary of old Comanche words.

14.     In June 1997 a month long summer camp was held for students of all ages in area communities and twenty five speakers and aides were trained and taught 100 students.

15.     $15,000 grant received over a period of three years to train fluent speakers the concept of teaching the Comanche language in complete immersion, beginning in 1997.

16.     $115,000 grant received to implement and administer a three year Master-Apprentice Team Project for 1997-2000.

17.     Grant received from the Oklahoma Arts Council for a Master-Apprentice Project in 1998.

18.     Cultural trip to Palo Duro and Adobe Walls sites in west Texas in April 1998, in which 30 people participated.

19.     Three day Language/Cultural Camp held in the Wichita Mountains near Cache OK in June 1998, in which 70 people participated.

20.     Comanche word for “Peace” requested by Wintercount American Indian Card Company in Colorado for use on a Christmas card which was available in December of 1998.

21.     In 1998-1999 a set of 48 Comanche Flash Cards was developed, followed by a second and third set.  Later a cassette tape, then a CD would accompany the three sets of Flash Cards.

22.     Richard Codopony Jr., a member of the Language Committee from Apache, OK, was honored by the United Nations in February 1999 for his work in preserving the Comanche language.

23.     Cultural trip to Comanche Peak, near Granbury TX in March 1999, in which 28 people participated.

24.     Cultural trip to Hutchinson County Museum in Borger TX on June 15-17, 1999, to view old Comanche photographs and give a presentation on Comanche culture.

25.     Historical journey June 25-27, 1999, to Adobe Walls Battle site in west Texas to commemorate the 125^th Anniversary of the Red River War of 1874-1875.  Special recognition was given to descendants of the Comanche participants of that battle.

26.     Provided speakers, teaching materials and learning tools during the Comanche Tribe’s two sessions of Summer Camps in June and July 1999.

27.     Three day Fall Encampment held in October 1999 on the grounds of the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton.

28.     Have handed out free language teaching/learning material and brochures during the Annual Comanche Nation Fair beginning in 1999.

29.     Community language classes were held in area communities during 2000.

30.     Fall 2000 completed the final year of the Lannan Foundation Master-Apprentice Team Project with outstanding results.

31.     In the summer of 2000, we worked with Boeing Aircraft for a Comanche phrase to instill pride in the people working on the RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter at that time.

32.     Provided speakers and teaching/learning material for the Comanche Nation’s Summer Camp sessions in 2000 through 2003.

33.     In 2000 we began work on a Comanche Song Book that includes 116 hymns, written in Comanche with an English translation.  Publication began in 2001.

34.     Developed a set of four Comanche Lessons, which is accompanied by a CD, in 2001.

35.     Certified two (2) Comanche language speakers to teach classes in the new Comanche Nation College that began with the Fall 2002 session.

36.     Developed Comanche Language I and Comanche Language II books, which were initially used in the Comanche language classes at the Comanche Nation College.

37.     In November 2002, Ronald Red Elk, president of the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee, was the recipient of the Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award in Arts and Education for his work in preserving the Comanche Language.

38.     In 2003 the culmination of several years work resulted in the publication of Our Comanche Dictionary, compiled entirely by Comanche people.

39.     A banquet was held on May 25, 2003, to honor Comanche speaking elders who helped compile the new Comanche Dictionary.

40.     We have provided training for several other tribes and an A.N.A. program in the immersion concept of teaching native languages.

41.     Work was completed in 2005 on a set of three (3) CDs to accompany the Comanche Song Book that was compiled in 2000.

42.     November 2005 Billie Kreger, vice president of the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee, was honored during Native American Heritage Celebration month at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City for her work preserving the Comanche language.  Geneva Navarro, language instructor at the Comanche Nation College, was also honored in addition to receiving the OK Spirit Award, one of only two given that year.

43.     In 2006 a 12 minute Comanche Children’s Video was converted to DVD and given away to families with children.

44.     In 2006 two (2) Comanche language DVDs were produced, one to teach the Comanche Sounds and Spelling System, and the second featured three Comanche speakers teaching short phrases.  They have been widely distributed.

THE LANNAN MASTER-APPRENTICE TEAM PROJECT

      In 1998 the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee was successful and received a grant from the Lannan Foundation, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a Three Year Master-Apprentice Team Project.  Community meetings were held throughout Comanche country to hand out applications for the project.

      Three days of intense training in the native language immersion concept was given at the beginning of Year One by Leanne Hinton, linguist from the University of California at Berkeley, followed by the selection of seven (7) teams who would participate.  Guidelines were adopted for the project.

      The proposal submitted required teams to work 20 hours together each week for a total of 20 weeks.  Evaluations were given each team at the end of 10 weeks and again at 20 weeks to check their progress.  In-home visits provided one on one monitoring by members of an evaluation team.  At the end of Year One, a report was made to the funding agency, who then issued additional grant money for Year Two.    

      Year Two also began with a three day training session that all potential teams were required to attend.  Again seven teams were selected, but with an amendment to the original proposal that allowed the teams to work 10 hours per week for 40 weeks.  Many teams in Year One were unable to complete the full 400 hours allowed due to the huge time commitment.  Because of the longer overall project period, three evaluations took place — at the end of 10 weeks, 20 weeks and a final evaluation at the end of the project.  The Final Evaluation showcased the learning level of each apprentice.

      Year Three began with another training session, but this time with a significant difference!  Members of our own group participated in the training.  It was a much more meaningful training, to hear our own language spoken during the training.  Due to funding cuts, only six teams were selected  for the final year of the project. 

      Our hope that each apprentice would gain at least a basic proficiency in the Comanche language was realized, much beyond our expectations!  Earlier evaluations focused on the apprentice learning the basics of the language.  Final Evaluations allowed them to use those basics and form sentences.

     Presentations given by the apprentices were both creative and unique, and extremely well done.  We were impressed with the learning level each has achieved.  Our final report to Lannan showed that we had made a difference in the number of younger Comanches that were learning to speak the language of our ancestors.  We want to continue to add to those numbers.