PORT ANGELES — Leaders from the Port Gamble S’Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam and Lower Elwha Klallam tribes will offer their expertise on a number of topics during the Studium Generale at 12:35 p.m. Thursday.
Peninsula College is opening the fall season of Studium Generale with a presentation that has become an annual event but with a change to the title.
This year, the title includes Klallam language wording. In “Welcome to Klallam/S’Klallam Territory,” Klallam/S’Klallam is written in the Klallam language.
The presentation will be at the Little Theater on the Port Angles Peninsula College campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
It will be followed by a reception in the House of Learning Peninsula College Longhouse, which is also on the college campus.
All tribal members and members of the general public are invited to attend the event, along with the Peninsula College community.
Presenters will include, among others, Gina Beckwith, tribal attorney for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (PGST); Kari DeCoteau, career and education director for PGST; Stormy Purser, tribal historic preservation officer for PGST; Loni Grinnell-Greninger, the Social and Community Services deputy director for the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe; and Wendy Sampson, Klallam language teacher and leader in the language programs for Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
All three tribes recognize the importance of the language programs and have encouraged the coordinators of this event to use the Klallam/S’Klallam language in the title of the Studium Generale, organizers said.
Language revitalization is the result of a decades-long commitment. This effort was made not only to transcribe the language into written text but to emphasize the importance of reviving a “living language.”
The language is available from the Early Head Start classrooms through to the college level. High school students can earn credits for “foreign language” which is now known as “World Language” because of the local, indigenous influences on such terms.
The House of Learning is the first longhouse built on a community college campus. It is located on the traditional territory of the Klallam and S’Klallam people. It was designed and built through partnerships with six area tribes including the Hoh, Makah, and Quileute tribes, as well as the Klallam/S’Klallam tribes of the area.
For more information, contact Kate Reavey at kreavey@pencol.edu.
