Nákxtwishana pxwít, wáwnakwshash, ku wak’íshwit (We are strengthening mind, body and spirit): Yakama language and culture as protective factors

Project Summary

The Sapsik’wałá Program team is partnering with the Yakama Nation and K-16+ schools to develop models for Yakama storytelling and language practices to increase Yakama wellbeing. Ichishkíin teachers, Elders, and students are helping to develop and pilot storytelling kits and gather information about Yakama language and story exposure, learning, and usage. The team is dedicated to strengthening existing protective factors in the community, ensuring that thousands of years of tradition continue to be honored as a key component of Yakama wellbeing. The team’s hope is to utilize storytelling and language practices as a foundation for systems-level change to increase Indigenous wellness.

Research Questions/Aims

How do Yakama storytelling and language learning contribute to wellbeing?
What methods create meaningful partnerships to support reclaiming Yakama ways of knowing and being?
What methods support prioritizing, cultivating, and infusing Yakama ways of knowing and being throughout K-16 schools and other systems?
How does family and community engagement specifically around storytelling and language sustain systemic transformation that honors Yakama ways of knowing and being in education?

Actionability

Demonstrate successful ways to engage Yakama language, story learning, and usage;
Enhance wellbeing through the widespread implementation of storytelling and language models in schools, workplaces, and homes pending research findings; and
Support Ichishkíin teachers to enhance the wellbeing of their students and families.

Outcomes

Health: Wellbeing

Other: increased cultural knowledge; usage of and comfort speaking, reading, and writing in Yakama language

Methodology

The project team is gathering qualitative data about the ways in which language and story exposure, learning, and usage are protective factors for Yakama wellbeing. From this work, a Yakama wellness survey instrument will be developed. Quantitative data, including the wellness survey and Yakama Nation Language Program Census form, will be collected to further understand people’s experiences with systems that uphold key Yakama values through storytelling circles.