Preserving the Luiseño Language Through Modern Technology 


The Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians provided a $50,000 grant to the CICSC and Palomar College’s American Indian Studies Department to create Luiseño language cartridges for the Nintendo DSi. Dr. Proudfit and her students created the program using the voices of tribal elders and children to teach terms for numbers, colors, animals and other basic vocabulary. The words coincide with uploaded photos, songs, images, prayers, quizzes and stories.    
 
The American Indian Student Alliance assisted the project and distributed about 150 cartridges to Pauma tribal members, as well as to the tribal library and after-school program. In the future, the preservation program plans to expand to include participation from the other five Luiseño bands.

Here are several news links about the project: 

New Games Breaking Barriers in Language and Communication
Language preservation helps American Indian students stick with college
Video games to help teach native language
Acorn button

“What we’re hoping to do is preserve the voices of current speakers for future generations and make learning the language fun, easy and accessible for all Luiseño people.”
- Dr. Joely Proudfit