The “Save the Oneida Language Committee” was founded in December 2014 and renamed ”Twa’tati: Onʌyote’a:ka Revitalization Project” (TORP) in April 2015. Through a private Facebook call to recruit community members to volunteer in this project by Luke Nicholas, the original committee is made up of Ursula Doxtator, Carolyn Doxtator, Rick Fehr, Kanatawakhon, Charlene Deleary and Luke Nicholas. The primary goal of the committee was to design and begin implementation of a 2-year Oneida Immersion Program by September 2016 to provide adults with a full time language immersion program.

To fulfill a recognized need to produce fluent Oneida speakers in the quickest and most efficient process possible, the original committee members, with the guidance of Kanatawakhon, identified existing successful Iroquoian-based language acquisition programs. Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa (OK), a Mohawk immersion program based out of Six Nations, was identified as one of the most successful language acquisition programs currently operating in Iroquois country. After 2 academic years, this program took students that had very little Mohawk language skills (if any at all) and produced a level of speakership that allowed students to speak day to day conversationally, but moreover, they possessed a strong foundation in the Mohawk language needed to conjugate verbs and manipulate expressions in almost all situations.

Because Mohawk and Oneida share approximately 60-70% vocabulary, it seemed like a natural fit for TORP to adopt and adapt this immersion model. OK had already been in operation for several years and had a chance to refine the pedagogy and curriculum. In January of 2015, TORP met virtually with Owennatekha, Brian Maracle, the main instructor of the Mohawk immersion program to ask questions and better understand the program. He offered to provide any material or support we may need to help recreate the process for Oneida language.

Kanatawakhon has been teaching Mohawk for the past 20 years at the University of Western Ontario. His work includes the advancement of what we call the root-word method and is considered one of the architects of the Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa program. Kanatawakhon is also considered one of the leading Iroquois linguistic experts and has agreed to become the main instructor of the Oneida Immersion Program.

In 2016, the Mohawk curriculum from Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa was received and began to be translated into Oneida. That same year, the first Oneida Language Immersion class began with no curriculum. There were approximately 12 students. They started with an advanced speaker as the instructor and ended the year with a fluent speaker as the main instructor along with another fluent speaker as a TA. They also had the support of a few fluent speakers who came to visit the class regularly.

In Fall of 2017, we started language classes using the translated Mohawk curriculum. We had a fluent speaker who was an Ontario school-board certified teacher and a 2nd language speaker as his TA. We had only one year running at this time. The first year finished to the end of unit 7.

From Fall of 2017 to Spring of 2020, when COVID-19 shut down our program, we ran a first year and second year version of the program. The first year was taught by two 2nd language learners, and the second year was taught by a fluent speaker with a semi-fluent speaker TA. Starting in 2019, due to students’ concerns with being taught by a fluent speaker, 2nd language speakers occasionally visited to assist with teaching.

In Sept of 2021, our program started operating in collaboration with Fanshawe College. We began offering the Advanced Diploma 3 year compressed course of Language, Culture and Teaching Program, which was taught online over Zoom. During the first 3 months, the fluent main instructor became ill and Tracy Williams from Oneida, Wisconsin who is an experienced language teacher & 2nd language speaker, stepped in to fill the role of Main Instructor and joined Nancy George who is the Educational Support Technician and Program Coordinator. We started the year off with 19 students, 2 of whom graduated with a One Year Certificate and 8 of whom graduated with an Advanced Diploma.

In Sept of 2023, our second cohort started with 15 students.

This document was written by Nancy George.