Well, just being here at the mite ceremony, I had a chance to listen to some speakers yesterday talking about languages. A huge concern was about the time spent by our young people on mobile devices, be it phones or computers. They said, you know, if you want to learn a language, you have to go on the earth to get your hands dirty. You have to connect with our lands and our waters. Those are our teachers. Our language came from the land, not from a computer or from sitting in a classroom. We do need some technical support or technical curriculum to assist the teachers, or even the families at home, that way, but I think the real teachings come from the land.
In terms of giving the responsibilities back to us to get back on the land, this fall we went to skin a deer and tan the hide. These little ones were scraping and getting their hands bloody. They loved every minute of skinning the deer hide to make either clothing or drums. I incorporated the language within the whole process. This was an amazing event for three days for them.