By Natalie Pate for The Hechinger Report.Broadcast version by Eric Tegethoff for Oregon News Service reporting for The Hechinger Report-Public News Service Collaboration Jaeci Hall completed her dissertation in tears. She was writing about the importance of revitalizing and teaching Indigenous languages, specifically the Nuu-wee-ya’ language and her tribe’s dialects. “I spent months writing,” she said, “just crying while I wrote because of how it felt to not be recognized.” Hall — who graduated in 2021 with a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Oregon — is the language coordinator for the Coquille Indian Tribe. .
A community college in Winnebago, Little Priest Tribal College, celebrates its 25th anniversary this September. After more than 20 years of roughly 120 students, enrollment passed 200 last fall. Little Priest President Manoj Patil said a common misconception is that only Native Americans can enroll, but the student body has been roughly 78% Native American and 22% non-native students in recent years. .