Bundled Arrows, Inc.
Overview
The Nęyękwawętaˀθkwáhshek Tuscarora Language Program (NTLP), an NCCRS member since February 2025, began in 2017 and has taken many forms before it finally evolved into what it is today. The Tuscarora Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is situated in New York State east of the Niagara River, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Tuscarora Language is an Iroquoian language, belonging to the same language family as Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, and Cherokee. In a community of approximately 1,200 there are a total of six second language speakers who are at an Intermediate - Advanced level. The Tuscarora language is an 8b - Nearly Extinct on the EGIDS (Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption) Scale. From 2004 to 2015 we operated informally as the Tuscarora Language Group (TLG).
In 2006 the TLG was introduced to the highly successful Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa Mohawk(OKM) immersion program and immediately began working with OKM to redesign our language program. We began to seek funding to create a similar program for the Tuscarora Language. In 2015, Nęyękwawętaˀθkwáhshek Tuscarora Language Program (NTLP) was formed as an organization. In April 2017, we applied for and received our 501(c)3 Not-For-Profit designation and Bundled Arrows Incorporated was established. NTLP supports the language efforts at every level in the Tuscarora community.
The goal of NTLP is to assist and teach all community members in an OKM style adult immersion program based on the Root-Word Method. This required NTLP to translate the content and develop supplemental instructional resources of all units of Year 1 and Year 2 of the Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa Mohawk (OKM) language program adult immersion curriculum to the Tuscarora language. In 2024 NTLP began the 3rd cohort and provided a way for district teachers to attain the newly created New York State Education, Indigenous Culture and Language Studies (All Grades) Certificate through participating in the immersion class. Individuals applying for the certificate will need 12 credit hours in the language. The Tuscarora Immersion program will provide individuals an opportunity to apply for this teaching certification to teach Tuscarora language and/or culture at a NYS public school.
Titles of all evaluated learning experiences
Source of Official Student Records
Descriptions and credit recommendations for all evaluated learning experiences
1440 hours. 48 weeks (30 hours per week).
September 2024 - Present.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: speak with hesitant fluency in Tuscarora to promote intergenerational language transmission (practice); the ability to understand the rudimentary linguistic features of a polysynthetic language from a language science perspective (theory); beginning depth in an area of linguistic knowledge that will contribute to Indigenous language revitalization efforts (theory and practice); foundational hands-on skills in linguistic or pedagogical research related to an Indigenous language (theory to practice);demonstrate their ability to speak, listen, read and write in Tuscarora; discuss familiar topics directly related to their daily lives; synthesize material learned to express ideas and ask simple questions to succeed in survival situations; converse with their teacher on a familiar topic for a period of 10 minutes; engage effectively in predictable and concrete exchanges that involve personal information related to self, family, home, daily activities, interests, and personal preferences, as well as physical and social needs, such as food and shopping; ask a variety of questions in order to obtain information regarding the topic; understand simple sentence-length speech on daily topics, conversation or receive directions and engage in the conversation; understand information through context clues in predictable texts and comprehend texts that convey basic information/messages in everyday contexts; meet functional writing needs, such as simple messages, letters or respond to basic questions in written format to communicate facts and ideas through loosely connected sentences in all tenses. Prerequisite: Entrance exam with score of 80 % or higher.
In the upper division baccalaureate degree category, 15 semester hours total distributed as: 3 semester hours in Introduction to Linguistics Tuscarora; 3 semester hours Foundations of Syntax of Tuscarora; 6 semester hours in Tuscarora Language; and 3 semester hours in Phonology and Morphology of the Tuscarora Language (2/25).
1440 hours. (48 weeks, 30 hours per week).
September 2024 - Present.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: speak with smooth fluency in Tuscarora to promote intergenerational language transmission (practice); the ability to articulate the principal linguistic features of a polysynthetic language from a language science perspective (theory); depth in an area of linguistic knowledge that will contribute to Indigenous language revitalization efforts (theory and practice); foundational hands-on skills in linguistic or pedagogical research related to an Indigenous language (theory to practice). Students will be able to actively participate in conversations to communicate information about themselves and topics of interest on a community or international scale. Speakers will be able to deal with unexpected complications in social situations, narrate and describe past, present, and future events. As a listener, students will be able to understand the main ideas in conversation about general topics and compensate for limitations in their lexical or structural control through real-world knowledge and context clues. Listeners will be able to understand a range of general interest topics. When reading students can understand the main ideas in a text and use context clues to compensate for any limitations. They can understand texts with a clear and predictable structure and show independence in reading new subject matter. As a writer students can write formal and informal correspondence in past, present, and future time frames. They can also produce a paragraph of connected discourse and show case control of frequently used writing structures. Prerequisite: Tuscarora 101 or five years experience.
In the upper division baccalaureate degree category, 15 semester hours total distributed as: 3 semester hours in Linguistics Analysis: Tuscarora; 3 semester hours in Introduction to Phonology at the Sentential Level (Intonation, Rhythm): Tuscarora; 6 semester hours in Tuscarora Language II; and 3 semester hours in Teaching Tuscarora Language or Cultural Studies OR in the graduate degree category, 12 semester hours in Indigenous Culture and Language total distributed as: 3 semester hours: Advanced Linguistic Analysis Methods, 3 semester hours in Teaching Tuscarora Language; 3 semester hours in Tuscarora Cultural Studies, and 3 semester hours in Tuscarora Linguistics (2/25).