From Numu Tekwapuha Nomneekatu

The Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee

P.O. Box 3610

Lawton, Oklahoma 73502

Master Apprentice Team Project Grant

The Lannan Foundation of Santa Fe, NM has awarded a grant to the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee to fund a Master-Apprentice Team Project.   The three year program will team a fluent Comanche speaker (Master) with a family (Apprentice) who wants to learn to speak their native language.  They will spend 20 hours a week for 20 weeks communicating only in Comanche.  Seven teams will be selected from ten communities throughout Comanche country in southwest Oklahoma.

Community meetings were held to inform tribal members of the upcoming program.

Project Plan

The project will begin in January with an intense three day training session.  It will be held at the Great Plains Vocational Training School in Lawton.  There will be six trainers that will include linguists and members of the Karuk and Hoopa Tribes of California.  Also sitting in on the training will be Randi Nott (a TWG Production founder) from Illinois, of the Indigenous Peoples Project, in addition to tribal members from the Mountain Comanches in the Santa Fe area.

Implementation of the Project will begin in February.  At the end of ten weeks a gathering will be held that will bring all teams together to discuss the project.  A final gathering will be held at the end of the project period, where it is planned that all conversations will be held in the Comanche language.  After a 30 day break, the Language Committee will begin the second year program.

Teacher Qualifications

The Language Committee set down some rules to qualify speakers as teacher for this project.  They are:

1. Must commit to attend 100% of the training required.

2. Must have a knowledge of the language, both understanding and speaking.

3. Must have a knowledge of Comanche history.  May include origin, relationship to other tribes, treaties, events of change, leaders, bands, etc.

4. Must be able and willing to teach with an organized plan (syllabus).

5. Must be willing and able to plan own teaching sessions.

6. Must have some knowledge of teaching principles.

7. must have the ability to work with others in the program.  This includes students at all age levels, other teachers, and officers and leaders of the Comanche Language Committee.

8. Must be knowledgeable of Comanche traditions.

9. Must be willing to learn and teach others.

10. Must be committed to the Comanche Language Program.

11. Should be flexible in personal approaches which encourages and demonstrates interest in the level and learning of the students and their progress.

12. Must be Comanche.

13. Preference to learn or be knowledgeable of word derivatives, (history of the words being taught.