By the late 1990s there were only a few dozen first-language Kanyen’kéha speakers left at the Six Nations Grand River Territory. Although the elementary schools had begun teaching the language in the 1980s, students left with little speaking ability. Onkwehonwe Language Revitalization was just emerging at the time and apart from occasional short-term and part-time community programs there was no place for adults to study the language and become speakers.
The first full-time adult immersion program in Canada began at Six Nations in 1999 with the establishment of Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa. The program was one school-year long until 2006, when it expanded to two years. Classes are small, usually from six to twelve students. Students attend six hours per day for eight months per year. In the years since its inception, approximately 160 students have completed the first or second-year programs. 31 others did not complete the first year or are currently enrolled in the 1st year program.
In 2011, Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa adopted the guidelines and methods of the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) in assessing student language proficiency through an oral proficiency interview. The guidelines set speaking proficiency on three major levels: Novice, Intermediate and Advanced, with three sub-levels in each. O.K. based its program goals on the ACTFL levels of most students’ speaking proficiency – Intermediate-Low for 1st Year and Advanced-Low for the 2nd Year. In 2024, most students achieve those levels, after entering the program with little to no language experience. A few students score in the Mid-range of the levels.(Examples of students’ before-and-after progress can be viewed on O.K.’s Youtube Channel.
Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa’s success in creating highly proficient speakers has had a significant impact on the other Onkwehonwe language programs. Full-time adult immersion programs based on the Root-Word Method have begun in two other Kanyen’kehá:ka communities. O.K.’s curriculum and materials have been translated in sister languages are being used to teach Tuscarora, Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca in southern Ontario and western New York.
Over the past two decades, thirty Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa graduates have gone on to teach Kanyen’kéha at the pre-school, elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels across southern Ontario. O.K.’s impact has been especially noticeable at Six Nations where graduates established a private elementary school which teaches a full-time Kanyen’kéha immersion program. 72 students were enrolled in 2023, and enrolment rates are increasing each year. The staff, most of them O.K. graduates, teach standard school subjects alongside cultural teachings and traditional skills, all in Kanyen’kéha.
Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa graduates also established the first-ever Kanyen’kéha-speaking longhouse at Grand River where traditional religious ceremonies and cultural practices are held throughout the year. The ceremonies are conducted entirely in the language with almost all the speakers being Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa graduates. The four day long Mid-Winter Ceremonies are the high point of the year, attended by nearly 200 people.
One of the greatest measures of success is the fact that a few Onkwawenna graduates have intermarried over the years and begun raising their children to be first-language speakers, thereby re-establishing the chain of intergenerational transmission of the language, from parent to children, at home, instead of in school.