By Jessica Edwards

It was in many ways a typical summer scene: 20 or so sweating, intent youths practiced drills aimed at improving their strength and agility on the basketball court.

But walking into the middle school gym at the Haines School last week, it was immediately obvious this was no average summer basketball camp. Along with ball handling and teamwork, students were learning and practicing Tlingit language.

Called the "Latseen Hoops" camp, the program aims to teach Tlingit language in a setting meaningful to young people. It’s organized and taught by staff of the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Standing in four lines at court’s end, students leaned forward, listening closely to coach Mischa Plunkett’s instructions. "Yaa nashken," said Plunkett. "Yaa nashken."

One student confidently skipped forward across the court, earning Plunkett’s approval. Recognizing their teammate had correctly identified Plunkett’s command, "skip," the other three quickly followed.

The next group stepped to the line, listened, and began running with heels hitting buttocks in response to the phrase, "Yeey gats nayts’ex," or "butt kicks."

During another drill, students spread out across the court, listening to commands in English to move forward, pivot, and charge an opponent. But before they could move, each shouted the command back at teachers – translated into Tlingit.

Last year Sealaska piloted Latseen Hoops camps in Juneau and Angoon, and offered them this summer in the primarily Tlingit villages of Klukwan, Yakutat and Klawock.

The teaching method used in the Latseen Hoops camp, where students respond physically to verbal commands, as well as vocalizing their actions, is called "Total Physical Response." It’s based on the observation that infants learn language through a combination of verbal and physical cues.

Local Tlingit teacher Marsha Hotch of Klukwan said Latseen Hoops was proving so successful because it tied Tlingit language to an activity important to youth in Southeast – basketball.

Hotch said she was impressed by the students’ progress during the weeklong camp. Acting out the words gave them more meaning, she said.

And, it made practicing language fun. "As you can see, they really love it," said Sealaska language director Yarrow Vaara, as students crooned a Tlingit translation of "Yeah, Baby," the signature phrase of movie character Austin Powers, before dribbling down the court.

Near the end of the day, students and coaches played a full-court game of basketball, yelling to one another, sometimes in Tlingit, sometimes in English, to "kux kawdizik’ut," (rebound) or "Kei kageix’" (throw it up — shoot).

The enthusiasm was palpable; the team play, noteworthy. Even the youngest players got ball time, and teams racked up 61 and 62 points, earning points for baskets sunk as well as for cheering in Tlingit.

Even with all the excitement, on the sidelines, a few players conferred with Vaara on the correct pronunciation of their cheers.

At intervals during the day, students studied Tlingit in more typical fashion by hearing and reciting vocabulary words.

Standing next to about 50 pictures taped on the wall, Sealaska language instructor Jessica Chester worked one on one with students to practice basic nouns and verbs.

Hearing and repeating simple words such as "line," "run," "girl," "boy," "basket," "key," "bench," and others, helped students gain basic vocabulary, reinforcing what they heard and said in context—on the court.

Some students struggled to match words and pictures after listening to Chester pronounce them in Tlingit.

For a few, among them teenager Shawna Hotch, the exercise was a little easier.

Hotch, granddaughter of Evelyn and Joe Hotch of Klukwan, said the camp was a chance to learn more and practice a language she had heard all her life.

"I’ve been learning my whole life," she said. "But I don’t have a chance to use it." Hotch said there wasn’t much opportunity to practice her Tlingit where she lived in Oregon, so she spoke it mostly when visiting family in Klukwan during the summer.

"Some have had language before, and they are really standing out," said Vaara.

To build the language curriculum for Latseen Hoops, Vaara worked with Sealaska’s council of traditional scholars, elders with extensive knowledge of language, to find appropriate Tlingit words for the context of basketball camp.

Along with fellow language instructors, Vaara collaborated with Plunkett, an Anchorage native whose family hails from Klukwan, to develop the basketball curriculum.

Plunkett played college basketball for University of Santa Cruz and is currently an assistant women’s coach at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

This spring, Vaara traveled to Klukwan to work with Marsha Hotch, Joanne Spud, Joe Hotch, and village elders, to continue translating basketball terms into Tlingit and to learn the local vernacular.

"It’s really challenging to work with the languages," said Vaara, adding each village had particular ways of saying things.

In the stands, watching students work with Plunkett on shooting techniques, Vaara and Hotch continued the process of finding the words for what students were doing on the court.

They conferred several minutes about translating the word "balance," as applied to the pause a player should take before attempting a shot. They winnowed through different words and phrases meaning "balance," such as "balancing two objects," and the more metaphorical "balance of the world."

Hotch shrugged when she finally pulled from memory the words most closely describing "balance of the body," saying the phrase she recalled was "missing something," but basically correct.

For Hotch, getting young people interested in learning the language was the biggest promise of Latseen Hoops. "I like this, because as a community who has tried to work at retaining and reviving language and culture, this is what’s going to work," she said.