It’s 9 a.m. in the morning and the children at the Walatowa Head Start Early Childhood Learning Center on the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, line up outside, each carrying a small amount of cornmeal in their hands. Bertha Gachupin, one of the teachers, leads the children as they say their Native American name, the name of their clan, and then a prayer to learn and understand the Hemish language and have a good day at school, before blowing the cornmeal from their palms, preserving the Indigenous language through this daily ritual.

When finished, they rub the remaining cornmeal dust over their hands and heart. “It gives them strength,” Gachupin said. Cornmeal is sacred to the Jemez, a federally recognized tribe, she explains. Each classroom has a cast-iron grinder attached to a desk with baskets of corn next to it. “Whenever it’s getting low, without even telling them, [the children] will go to the machine and start grinding it,” she said.

The morning prayer and grinding of cornmeal are two of the many traditions 3- to 5-year olds learn at Walatowa’s Head Start, where Gachupin has taught for over 25 years. The entire program is conducted in Hemish (which linguists also refer to as Hemish-Towa, or Towa), the oral language of the Pueblo of Jemez, as part of an effort to preserve the community’s language, history and culture.

Native American citizens represent about 12% of the population in New Mexico, and 23 tribes live on sovereign land, like the Jemez Pueblo. Of the 34 Head Start and Early Head Start programs in New Mexico, half are on tribal lands; Walatowa is one of three that implements a formal language immersion program (the other two are Saad K’idilyé Language Nest in Albuquerque and Keres Children’s Learning Center at Cochiti Pueblo).

Over the past five years, New Mexico has made significant investments in early care and education, including expanding its funding, creating an early childhood department in the state government and most notably, becoming the first state to guarantee a right to early childhood education. The state is also supporting programs that protect and preserve tribal languages and culture, including the New Mexico Indigenous Languages initiative, Native Language Database and Grow Your Own Indigenous Language Teacher Pipeline. Some of the state’s Head Start programs are also prioritizing preserving tribal culture in their work with young children and families.

Read the full article about preserving Indigenous languages by Rebecca Gale at The 74.