Mvskoke Language Master-Apprentice Program

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN) asserts its tribal sovereign status as a political government based on the existence of the Etvlwv which literally means nation, but is often translated to tribal town that has the same meaning. The Mvskoke Etvlwv serves various functions including but not limited to governmental, theological, social, labor, and justice. Historically, there were over 150 Etvlwv(s) in our ancestral homelands of the southeastern region of the United States. Each governed their people autonomously with one major commonality being the Mvskoke language. Today, that connection with the Etvlwv, the sovereign status of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and Mvskoke language exists as a part of our cultural and political identity. Therefore, it is imperative the Muscogee (Creek) Nation maintains the vitality of the Mvskoke language and Etvlwv in order to continue to assert its tribal sovereignty for generations to come.

The challenge ahead for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation lies in maintaining it’s indigenous language. The Mvskoke language like many native languages are considered to be moribund; adults are the only speakers of the language, and many of these languages will eventually become extinct (Crawford 1998). A research study on A Subjective Approach to Defining A Community as Reflected in a Rural Oklahoma Creek Nation Tribal Town in 1970 indicated 90% of the respondents were fluent in the Muscogee (Creek) Language (Trimble, 1970). In 2009 A Master’s Thesis survey on the Recommendations for Revitalization of the Muscogee (Creek) Language indicated 17% of the respondents were fluent in the Muscogee (Creek) Language (Randall, 2010). The most recent MCN Mvskoke Language Immersion survey in 2021 indicated 4% of the respondents were fluent in the language (Muscogee (Creek) Nation, 2021). Over the past fifty-one years the percentage of fluent speakers has dropped significantly by 86% while the population has steadily increased to over 90,000 members.

With fewer and fewer tribal members who are fluent in their native language, many tribes are in danger of losing their language altogether resulting in loss of one of the fundamental building blocks of their cultural identity (Adley-Santa Maria, 1997). Language identifies and integrates individuals into communities; it gives them a sense of belonging, and a sense of their own uniqueness as a people (Randall, 2010). Tribes that have a strong cultural identity can call upon their individual histories, traditions, beliefs, and certainly languages to authenticate themselves as a sovereign entity (Randall, 2010). The tribe has a responsibility to the people to develop strategies to maintain and at times revitalize the language.

There has been a lot of work in the Mvskoke language with the development of the Mvskoke Language Program in 2000 and the College of the Muscogee Nation in 2004. That work has included community language classes, college classes, and a vast amount of curriculum. There is no exact data on the amount of Mvskoke language speakers these strategies have created, but the surveys indicate a drastic decline in the percentage. In order to facilitate language revitalization the Muscogee (Creek) Nation should develop a master-apprentice approach to teaching and learning.

The master-apprentice approach is where an elder speaker is paired with a member of the community who wants to learn the language and, ideally, the new speaker becomes equipped to become a language teacher (Hinton, 1994 & 2002). The master-apprentice team members commit themselves to spending at least ten hours a week together speaking in the native language. The approach is derived from Stephen Krashen’s “input hypothesis,’ that states that language is learned when it is spoken in the context of actions which combines language with whole body movement so that the learner focuses not on the words themselves but on the overall message (Schütz, 2007). The master-apprentice model places the responsibility for guiding the learning process on the apprentice because the elder teacher is generally not a trained language instructor.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation has an estimated 200-500 Mvskoke language speakers who are not trained as language instructors, but can serve as the master for the master-apprentice program. The College of the Muscogee Nation (CMN) offers a Mvskoke Language Certificate that is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The certificate consists of 21-credit hours of Mvskoke language studies. Under the Higher Learning Commission, a 3-credit hour class requires a total of 40 hours of class time each term. In addition, two hours is the expected amount of time to complete readings and assignments which combined with class time comes to 120 hours a term. The college has 15-week terms and classes are on Monday through Thursday. That would come to 6 hours a day at 4 days a week for three, 5 week classes a term. At this rate a student could take 9 credits for 2 terms and the final 3 credits for in one term. For the complete 21-credit hour certificate program a person will receive 2,520 hours of instruction and assignments in the Mvskoke language for 45 weeks for 4 days a week.