After residential schools across the United States tried to erase Indigenous cultures, the Lake Shore School District is working to ensure everyone can learn about the Seneca language
By Jaurdyn Johnson | October 13, 2023 | wkwb.com
ANGOLA, NY — Seneca Language Teacher Jordan Cooke says there are only so many elders in the Seneca Nation. So he and other teachers decided to come and empower their community through classes.
According to the Endangered Languages Project, there are less than 50 fluent native Seneca speakers left.
Kate Kennedy is a 15-year-old sophomore at Lake Shore High School in Angola and she says she wanted to learn how to speak Seneca to feel more connected to her culture.
We’ve lost quite a few first language elders in during the pandemic. The challenge to find a way to inspire our youth to have a desire and a passion to want to learn and preserve their own culture. Their own identity, their language and I see it working. ~ Jordan Cooke, Seneca Language Teacher
When I go into like stores, I see like these other cultures like speaking their language so well to like their little kids and it kind of just makes me jealous because like I can’t do that. I cannot do it with my friends. My friends cannot do it with anyone else either. It just made me want to learn it until one day I can have a conversation in Seneca. ~ Kate Kennedy, LSHS student
