Kiowa Tribe Tries To Preserve Native Language By Including In School System - Legislator

DENVER (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2018) The Kiowa tribe is currently working with Oklahoma's State Department on making its native language a requirement for graduating from high schools as part of the efforts to preserve the tribe's culture and traditions, legislator Michael Primus told Sputnik.

Kiowa tribe is the Southern Plains tribe of about 12,000 people in southwestern Oklahoma, according to Primus.

"We are working on a program to implement our language into the school system to be taught. We work with the State Department of Oklahoma to be able to have our language count as a language requirement which they need before they get out of high school ... Even though we are on the reservation, It's a public school where everybody from the community still attends," he said on Sunday on the sidelines of the 75th Annual Convention & Marketplace, which is taking place in Colorado and is organized by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

The legislator noted that that the tribe had a Kiowa language and culture revitalization program to help preserve the traditions.

"We have a get together for the youth every quarter and we go over some of our points of culture such as horses, our ceremonies, and our proper regalia, which we wear when we dance, and our ancient games that the children play ... We continually teach them," Primus added.

Established in 1944, the National Congress of American Indians is the oldest and largest non-profit organization representing US native tribes and the interests of tribal governments and communities.