Program helps families bring their children up speaking Kanien'kéha

Iethiiehiá:rons means 'we raise them' in Kanien'kéha (Mohawk language) and is the name of a project that supports parents raising their children with Kanien'kéha as their first language. 

Four families just completed the first year of the pilot program.

Taiawentón:ti Chelsea Sunday, who is from Akwesasne, on the Ontario-Quebec-New York state border, is also co-founder of Ionkwahronkha'onhátie' (We're becoming fluent), an adult language program.

She and her co-founders Karonhiióstha Shea Sky and Kaienkwinehtha Ransom wanted to create a space for language learners to continue their language journey outside of Kanien'kéha immersion programs. 

"All the first language speakers are dying and there's this panic, right?" she said.

"In communities, they've already experienced the loss of the last first language speaker and it's heartbreaking."

Sunday said this has created a sense of urgency and unease among language learners.

"We're now in a race against time to get the language as fast as you can and record everything you can," she said.

"My thought was, well, we can raise them too, right?"

This was was the inspiration for Iethiiehiá:rons.

She is raising her toddler as a first language speaker.

"He is picking it up and it's just crazy," she said.

"It feels like you go back in time, and you get to see what it was like for my grandmother's mother who raised her children in the language."

Nihahsennaa Peters, who is Onondaga, Snipe Clan from Akwesasne, is from an unbroken line of Kanien'kéha speakers. He and his wife, Iehsontenhawe Elisha King are raising their son and baby on the way in the language.