Tribal Colleges Promote Ancestral Language, History: Cultural Mission Sparks Pride, Preserves Heritage

Tribal Colleges Promote Ancestral Language, History: Cultural Mission. Sparks Pride, Preserves Heritage

by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

For Tanya Shendo, the Pueblo lifestyle has been a source of strength and pride, but she has always felt that half of her heritage was missing.

Although she grew up surrounded by the rich traditions of her father's Pueblo culture in New Mexico, and learned to speak the native Jemez language, she longed to know her mother's history. Shendo's family was distanced from that culture decades ago when her mother moved from the Rocky Boy (MT) Indian Reservation and her Chipewa Cre tribe.

"I always told my mother I wish I, could dance and …