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Project History
The Kaw Nation has maintained a department for the preservation and education of the tribal language since the late 1990s. Beginning in the Summer of 2001, the Kanza Language Project was formed as the result of an Language Implementation grant from the Administration for Native Americans. Between 2001 and 2005 the Project focused on teaching Kanza to local elementary school children, but also ventured into adult education and document publication. Since 2005, we have focused on the documentation of available Kanza language and cultural resources, expansion of educational opportunities at the tribal level, and the development and distribution of multimedia materials.
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Research
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Education
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Publication
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With no fluent Kanza speakers,
research is a necessity.
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The Language Director teaches
a class at a Ponca City middle school.
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Please visit the works section
for these and other documents.
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Project Staff and Affiliates
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Language Director
Justin McBride has been involved with the Project since October of 2001. An active member of the Cherokee Nation with a background in linguistics, he has been interested in Native language preservation for many years.
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Language Coordinator
Dr. Linda Cumberland has been involved with the Project since January of 2006. Her area of expertise is Linguistic Anthropology. She has been at the forefront of research on the related Assiniboine language for many years, and is the author of "A Grammar of Assiniboine."
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Language Apprentice/Teacher
L. Carol Clark has been involved with the Project since February of 2006. She is the granddaughter of the last female Kanza speaker, and has an active interest in the preservation of the language and culture of the tribe.
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Language Consultant
Dr. Robert Rankin has been the leading figure in Kanza language preservation for more than thirty years. Some of his accomplishments include hours of field recordings of the last fluent speakers of Kanza, creation of a Kanza-English dictionary, and years of tireless research and publication. Dr. Rankin is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics as the University of Kansas.
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