Virginia Oliver has been teaching Tlingit at Wrangell schools since 2016, and this fall will expand her student body to include adults in a new twice-a-week program at the WCA Cultural Center on Front Street.
The classes will include a monthly bingo event, with a fluent Tlingit elder calling out the game. Gift cards to local businesses will be awarded the winners, and “everybody is welcome to come,” Oliver said.
The language class will be held at noon Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a bag lunch provided. The program will be funded by a grant from the federal Administration for Native Americans.
WCA Tribal Administrator Esther Ashton said she hopes to start the language program later this fall. There is a pressing cultural need for more adults to learn Tlingit, Ashton said.
Oliver currently teaches students in each of Evergreen Elementary School’s classes one period a week, in addition to teaching a daily class at the middle school and also at the high school. She has about eight or nine students each in the middle and high school classes.
At the high school, beginners are in the same class as students who studied Tlingit last year, presenting a bit of challenge to teach students of varied skills, said Oliver, who continues to improve her own knowledge and skills by taking a class through the University of Alaska. “We stick together, all of us Tlingit learners.”
Born and raised in Wrangell, Oliver said she wasn’t allowed as a child to speak the language. Her mom, who was from Kake, “put it away.” Looking back at her childhood years, she was told of the language: “There’s no room in this century.”
Working with students is a big change from those years. “These students are wonderful,” she said. The high school class is an elective, and students are in the class because they want to learn.
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