The origins of Skaˀnikú·lat
Shekolih swakwe·kú (Hello all),
Tekwanuhela·tú - First, I want to extend my greetings and acknowledgements to you all and all of Creation. I am truly thankful to have the opportunity to share the heartwork of Skanikulat. Therefore, it is with immense joy to announce the birth of a dream. I share this first blogpost with you all with immense gratitude, humility and honor as Skaˀnikú·lat's Executive Director. I am excited for this next chapter in the movement of Oneida language revitalization in this community and the ability to work alongside others who support this mission. A dream that I, along with many others, envisioned for over a decade. A dream our ancestors intended for us to pursue. That dream was to start a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that could house Oneida language and culture reclamation efforts right here in this community. This vision came about after years of work and many lessons learned in the field of Oneida language revitalization by myself, many dear colleagues, beloved friends, and close family. This work was fueled by a desire to create an Oneida language medium school that creates proficient speakers of the Oneida language and shift the onset of language loss to language proficiency yet again within our territory. The history of our language thus far since the point of settler-colonial contact has been one filled with pain, loss, grief, and survival. It is in this spirit, where such a school can exist to heal the past and simultaneously create a thriving future for our community. The visioning of the work included a range of beautiful ideas that demonstrate a high level of cultural values and intentionality. Together, we envisioned this school as:
...A school where our language is the sole medium of instruction and that centers a ceremonial calendar as the core curriculum.
...A school that utilizes a strength based approach to helping to guide people to be the best version of themselves.
...A school that thrives on the advancement of oneida understandings of mathematics, science, and arts in a worldview that is our own.
...A school that is safe and healthy with a strong awareness of our lifeways that can be used to address the settler-colonial educational framework we exist within.
...A school where our language and learning from and with the land go hand in hand.
....A school where our language lives.
...A school where our culture lives.
...A school that normalizes the use of our language.
...A school that centers reciprocity and responsibility as pillars for healthy and respectful relationships.
To create such a school means to truly reclaim who we are, reclaim our highly advanced knowledge systems, and finally, our identity.
In March 2022, the idea to name the organization 'Skaˀnikú·lat' came from a truly enlightening experience I had in Hilo, Hawaii. I was invited there to attend a language conference and it was my first time on the islands. The trip initially started out very stressful because of a large blizzard that hit Green Bay the morning my flight was expected to depart. This snowstorm left me waiting on the plane for 2 hours before we could take off to Atlanta, where I would catch my connecting flight. I was so anxious for 2 hours, I nearly had a panic attack since we had a very short layover in a large airport. This snowstorm delayed my flight and forced me to miss my connection. I was able to take the next flight out of Atlanta, but not until the next day. Not only did I fly to Hawaii, I then flew to the conference because I did not want to miss anything. I was even listening to the conference via zoom on the tarmac immediately upon arrival because I did not want to miss a thing. It has been a dream to see the language medium programming happening in Hawaii, as it is world renowned. I have researched and studied various language-medium programs across the world, and it was an absolute honor now to see it and experience their work in person. The Hawaiians are the leaders in Indigenous reclamation, revitalization, and language-medium programming here in North America, and to be in the same space seeing their work, was an absolute honor. I was immensely grateful for the opportunity. The next morning, I got to the conference early and we were greeted as visitors by the locals in their traditional way. This traditional protocol was breathtaking, beautiful, and emotional. I almost broke down in tears witnessing the beautiful power and vibration of their welcoming songs and protocols. It left myself, and many others, absolutely speechless. I witnessed what it was truly like to be unified, to be in harmony and balance with one another and all of creation. Their unity was observable and my body physically absorbed and reacted to what I was seeing and hearing. It was emotional to see the beauty of this harmony. A balance of oneness with each other and all of creation. The acknowledgement and coexistence of each other and their place in this world. An acknowledgement of a shared consciousness, of oneness. It was stunning seeing such evolution and level of higher consciousness, as well as a celebration of survival, resilience, and liberation of a people with deep origins of Creation long ago living and breathing here with us. It was clear that the Indigenous Hawaiian people used the language as the pathway back to their ancestral ways. I recognized this moment as a very important cultural phenomena for us Oneidas. We call phenomena “Skaˀnikú·lat” to be of “one mind”. This value is powerful and it seeks to have a place of balance and unity, all while respecting each other's unique and individual existence. I knew at that moment, I had witnessed and felt what that phenomena was in real time and seen it in practice. I knew what I was witnessing was an important moment and window into what is truly meant by this sacred and ancestral teaching.
After experiencing this breathtaking moment in Hawaii, I knew I wanted to revitalize that phenomena for our community. I began looking into how to do that and then hit the ground running, planning for months and even years. That paired with some of the important lessons I learned from previous experiences I had in teaching and learning the Oneida language, I discovered a pathway to reclaim the cultural phenomena and value of 'one mind' here in our community. I knew this approach required movement building, autonomy, and agency, and to combine such intentions, the idea to create a nonprofit came about. This approach was the most sustainable and suitable pathway in achieving the mission to reclaim the value of 'one mind' through the Oneida language and culture.
As the planning and preparation for this dream began to further take shape, I realized how much more impactful our ways and our language are - more than just 'saving the language', and beyond simply just creating speakers and running a school. But really this dream was building an ecosystem of programming that centers our language and language medium programming. I have been fortunate enough to witness and personally experience the transformational power and energy associated with Oneida language learning. I have seen students take pride in who they are and learn more about our ways through the medium of our language. I have witnessed profound moments with students who develop comprehension in the language and connect such consciousness to their personal connections with the Creator, the land, and one another. To view such transformations - and experience my own - is a beautiful healing journey back to our Original ways of being. I have developed an understanding about the impact the language has on people, including its power to decolonize, heal, and (re)indigenize. I can wholeheartedly say that our language saves lives, our language saves the land, our language saves families, our language saves our culture and ceremonies, our language saves our history, our language saves our stories, our language saves our art, our language saves our medicines, and so much more. Our language saves our sovereignty and connection to the natural world.
Put simply; our language is everything.
Our language is a powerful tool that we can use to heal from historical, generational, and colonial trauma both for the self and the collective. With these thoughts, the dream naturally evolved to simply centering our language in all we do. This work emerged as an intersectional and interconnected web weaving together our ways of being; from arts to agriculture, from environmental justice advocacy to social justice, to outreach and advocacy, our work exists within all these areas that truly encapsulate our cultural values and Original instructions given to us by the Creator. This dream became more clear as our ideas on our programming areas began to take shape. During this process, it was apparent that our work had to center language, but also another really important factor to our way of life. That factor was centering our Oneida women as leaders, contributors, co-collaborators, developers, teachers, among many other roles. To honor the matrilineal nature of our way of life, it was decided that in order to give birth to this dream, it was going to be our women leaders who would boldfully and beautifully build this movement that is Skaˀnikú·lat. Within our planning process, our core team of language practitioners, supporters, parents, and leaders were intentional to focus our programming on some core areas like youth leadership, women’s leadership, and language medium education for children and adults.
With these ideas in mind, the final piece that laid a foundation for the mission of Skaˀnikú·lat was to address healing and wellness, using Oneida language and culture as tools and pathways to restore the needed balance in our community. Through the many experiences I had as a language warrior, educator, activist, scholar, philosopher, and practitioner, I have learned much about our community and the medicine it needs to heal. Such experiences taught me how deep historical trauma truly runs and still exists within our community. To experience such pain, loss, sadness, but also hope, love, faith, and radical joy in these instances taught me a lot about how much our language helps us address, alchemize, evolve, and heal deep parts of our lives. But more than that - our language is our identity and when we begin to learn language we then build ourselves up again. Our people have been through an intense amount of trauma for generations - to the extent that almost seems unsalvageable - but our language is the medicine that makes us whole again. Our Language shows us who we truly are and where we come from. It is a window into a worldview that gives us insight into our past. A past that existed way before we were ever on this earth. Our language gives us a glimpse into what our ways are and what they truly mean. To say it, to live it, to breathe it, our language needs that life - the life of not only speaking it but living the teachings and embracing the medicine that it is. To restore our cultural values, we must heal and that is done through oneida language and culture education, outreach, advocacy, and programming. We have solutions to issues that affect us. It is not complicated. The Creator gave us the tools and medicine we need to heal from the harms of genocide, colonization, trauma and ongoing assimilation. It is our language that is a key to the door of wellness. The highs and lows of working in Oneida language revitalization for the past 14 years have shown me how much amazing work has been done before my time, and how much work still has yet to be done. It is our responsibility, as people of this present generation, to pick it up and do what we can in whatever way we can to carry it forward. And as the Executive Director of Skaˀnikú·lat, I am truly honored with immense gratitude to carry the movement forward in this community. A movement towards speakership, healing, wellness, and liberation. Liberation from colonial systems, ideologies, and behaviors that inhibit our ability to (re)create community and build our collective power as sovereign nations.
Here’s to the journey ahead - may it be filled with love, fun, radical joy, strength, respect, reciprocity, and a renewal and reclamation of our Original ways of being.
With gratitude,
Yekuhsi·yó
