Moving town elections away from the Quashnet Elementary School, where voting has taken place for more than three decades, to three new polling locations might strike some residents as unnecessary
Indigenous teachers and linguists are using new methods to revitalize an ancient and endangered language.
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal member Tracy Kelley, a language teacher with the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, has been working alongside others over the last several months teaching tribal households Wôpanâak, the Wampanoag language, via Zoom and other online platforms.
Kelley created a website called Kun8seeh, which means Talk to me, where tribal households can access different language resources and materials, including information on the Wôpanâak alphabet as well as nouns and phrases.
While the site and other online technologies utilized by the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project provide an alternative to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have also sparked an increased interest among tribal households wanting to learn the language.