The Oneida language is in a state of emergency in our community, the Oneida Nation of the Thames. We have less than 20 speakers remaining, all of whom are over the age of 70. The loss of our language would mean that we lose the ability to communicate with the intricacies of our language and in a manner that is shaped by our worldview.

Because there are less than 20 fluent Oneida speakers remaining, our program must support language learning at a faster rate than is possible with night classes or online learning. For this reason, our students work with speakers on a daily basis in an immersion setting, maximizing exposure to Oneida and achieving fluency as quickly as possible. This allows the students and speakers to develop bonds that build language. Furthermore, as we build our speaker base through operating an adult immersion program, we will be able to expand our programming to offer more options to the community.

Our entire community is aware of the current situation of our language and most community members are excited for the learners to learn. As with everything, there are some in the community who don’t understand the importance of the language but time is of the essence, so it is not especially feasible for us to attempt to convince people of the importance of our program.

Our adult immersion curriculum is based on the curriculum of Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa, who have been successful at creating advanced level speakers of Mohawk in a two-year intensive adult immersion program. Our program has noticeably improved since we began using our Oneida adapted version of the Onkwawenna Kenyohkwa curriculum.

In addition, our Oneida language partnership with Fanshawe College has allowed us to run an accredited program at the college level, which has opened doors for students to access post-secondary funding. However, having a program offered in community where Elders/Speakers could be a part of the program would help to raise language proficiency.