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Neek - The YNLC Newsletter

Neek - The YNLC Newsletter

Issue No. 6

October 17, 2025

The Yukon Native Language Centre (YNLC) welcomes you to the YNLC Newsletter “Neek” – meaning News or To Tell in Tlingít.

The goal of Neek is to ensure Yukon First Nations, community partners, and the public stay connected and informed about the work YNLC is carrying out to uphold Yukon First Nation languages. Within each issue, you will find updates on language initiatives, programming, and projects that the YNLC is leading. Issues will include community spotlights, comics, audio links and more!

Fall Time Language

Fall time language in Łingít (white text), Northern Tutchone (black text), and Kaska (white & blue text).

Northern Tutchone Fish Poster

Youth Today, Language Leaders Tomorrow (YTLLT) Program

YTLLT July Language Immersion Camp at Ätá Kų

The YTLLT Program staff and trainees have been making strides in fostering a new generation of language speakers and leaders. Over the last 7 months, trainees took part in on-the-land immersion camps where they learned and practiced seasonal language such as making and setting snares, cutting salmon, paddling, and working on learning stories and cooking in the language, where no English is spoken. In addition to camps, trainees have been working with speakers to elicit new language, go out on the land to use the language, and take part in courses including Introduction to Language Learning & Teaching, Mentor Apprentice, and Introduction to Elicitation.

Tlingít Cohort getting ready to hang and smoke salmon

Män käk Trʼëkèw Lake on we-paddle (Hän)

As the program enters itʼs second year, the four language cohorts (Northern Tutchone, Tlingít, Hän, and Kaska) will be focussing on learning language around hunting, hide tanning, berry picking, daily language, prayers, and songs to strengthen their spirits. The Hän cohort is meeting weekly with Hän speakers from Eagle, Alaska to work on learning the traveller stories. The Tlingít cohort welcomed their new coordinator Skàydu.û Jules and together they have been going out on the land in the language. The Northern Tutchone cohort is working with their speakers to translate stories and create prayers that celebrate language, and the Kaska cohort started Level 4 and have been working with speakers on Mentor Apprentice.

Łezhī yetsédlok - Humour (everyone laugh together)

Northern Tutchone

Cooking in Northern Tutchone with Ellie Shorty & Annie Ranigler at the language house in Whitehorse.

In Whitehorse, the Northern Tutchone and Tlingít YTLLT students have access to a language house, a place where they have access to a home-based environment to learn language. These students have been cooking in the language and using the casual language-learning setting that reflects their daily lives.

Yukon First Nations Languages and Cultures Curriculum Framework (YFNLCCF)

The YFNLCCF’s Languages Technician Team is back from summer break and hosted their first meeting on September 4^th to review the draft work plan and meeting dates for the project. The Languages Technician Team, along with YNLC staff, will focus on completing an analysis and substantive edit of the YFNLCCF scope and sequence, completing write-ups on Yukon First Nations languages and cultures, teaching methodologies, proficiency and performance-based assessments for the first three fluency stages of the framework inclusive of multi-media examples throughout this upcoming year.

Additionally, project staff will work to pilot beginner and intermediate resources and approaches with host programs that will provide feedback and strengthen the framework, and present to Yukon First Nations communities and organizations on the critical importance of the initiative.

The YFNLCCF is being written by multiple contractors and staff with the goal of having a completed draft completed by December 2025 to begin piloting in 2026. The Languages Technician Team Curriculum Meeting Dates for the 2025/2026 year include 3 in-person meetings and 5 online meetings.

Dän ghą täshänäddhį - Grateful

Southern Tutchone

May 2025 Languages Technician Team Meeting in Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Territory

Office of the Commissioner for Indigenous Languages (OCIL)

YNLC staff met with a representative from the Office of the Commissioner for Indigenous Languages in October to hear about their Fluency and Indigenous Language Immersion Teacher Education Initiative. The primary aim of this initiative is to establish a comprehensive roadmap to foster the development of fluency and Indigenous language immersion teacher education interventions. This is in response to what was heard during a series of engagement sessions hosted by the Commission and aligns with its mandate set out by the Indigenous Languages Act (the Act).

YNLC is excited for the opportunity to work with OCIL and share this national advocacy work with Yukon First Nations language learners and teachers as we learn more.

YNLC Language Proficiency Courses

The Fall 2025 term kicked off on September 3^rd , with 67 students from Yukon, BC and Alaska registered for courses. Public courses being offered this term include:

· Introduction to Practical Phonetics with Pat Moore and Daniel Tlen

· Introduction to Tlingít Grammar with Dr. James Crippen and Tim Hall

· Southern Tutchone Level 3 with Natane Primozic

· Introduction to Southern Tutchone Grammar with Natane Primozic

· Kaska Level 4 with Emeral Poppe & Paul Caesar-Jules

· Advanced Tlingít Grammar with Dr. James Crippen

Gijint’aii, ntth’ayhath’äk - Try hard with all your strength

Gwichʼin

There is still time to register for Introduction to Southern Tutchone Grammar with Natane Primozic. Class will run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday over the lunch hour from November 24^th and wrap up in February 2026. Contact [email protected] to register or if you have any questions.

Meet some of YNLC's Fall 2025 Language Proficiency Program Instructors

Dan Tlen – Intro to YFN Phonetics

Dan studied linguistics at the University of Victoria and has been working extensively with the Southern Tutchone language since the 1970ʼs. Amongst many other achievements, Dan has compiled language lessons, a basic noun dictionary, and a collection of stories and songs in Southern Tutchone and other YFN languages. Dan has an amazing ear for hearing the tones of Yukon First Nations languages.

Patrick Moore – Intro to YFN Phonetics

Pat is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Anthropology. Pat has worked for many years learning First Nations languages in northern Alberta and the Yukon, teaching those languages, and developing curriculum and teaching materials. He works extensively with Dene (Athabaskan) languages and communities and his doctoral research documented and analyzed the Kaska language and Kaska historical narratives

Dzéiwsh James Crippen – Intro & Advanced Tlingít Grammar

Dzéiwsh is Tlingít and a member of the Kaḵáakʼw House of the Deisheetaan clan in the Raven moiety, and a child of the Sʼiknax̱.ádi clan. He comes from the Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan (or Shxʼát Ḵwáan) of the area around Wrangell, Alaska (Ḵaachx̱an.áakʼw) at the mouth of the Sitkine River (Shtaxʼhéen).

Dzéiwsh works primarily on the Tlingit language as well as on related languages in the Na-Dene family such as Kaska, Navajo, and Eyak. Dzéiwshʼs passion for languages shines through and YNLC feels lucky to host him at the Centre for the Fall and Summer terms.

Chris Cox – ELAN Training

Christopher Cox is an Associate Professor in the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University. His research centres on issues in language documentation, description, and revitalization, with a special focus on the creation and application of permanent, accessible collections of language resources. Chris has working with many communities in the Yukon throughout the years, and we are excited to have him back to share with knowledge with language learners.

More Instructors to come!