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Article: Browning, Mont.-Area Immersion Programs Ensure Indian Cultural Survival.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- June 27, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Jun. 23--BROWNING, Mont.--Stepping into the Blackfeet Indian Reservation's language immersion schools is like stepping back into time.
Here, as with their ancestors, Blackfeet boys and girls from beginners not more than 2 through sixth grade are encouraged to think and speak in their native tongue. Here English is meant to be a student's secondary language.
Asked what he likes best about the program, Sam DeRoche says it is simple. "I can talk with my grandparents now. Before I couldn't understand them."
"People look up to us because we can speak Indian," adds fellow student Kristy Calf Robe.
"They're proud of it," says instructor ...