Local linguist develops cultural awareness games
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ST. IGNATIUS – Players get more out of it than the satisfaction of winning.
“You can learn about history and it helps you retain the language,” said Rebecca Goff of the different games she has developed as executive director of Native Teaching Aids.
Native Teaching Aids opened a shop this year on Blaine Street in St. Ignatius, across from Cornerstone Pizza, where they are creating games of all kinds based on Native American culture.
“Our mission is cultural awareness,” said Creative Director Brandon Goff. The games focus on cultural knowledge and language.
Brandon and Rebecca Goff worked together in the business for a couple years at their home in St. Ignatius before expanding into the shop with their collators, laminators, printers, shrink wrap stations and computer design systems to create the games.
The couple doesn’t have a genetic connection to any Native American group, but they do have an interest in culture.
Rebecca came up with the idea for the business while she was in her master’s degree program for linguistics at the University of Montana. As she was studying language she noticed that Native American languages are struggling to survive, although many have experienced a resurgence — and a need for learning material.
She used her knowledge of language formation to create games to help people practice and remember words, first for the Blackfeet and then the Salish. She developed matching games for beginners and phrase building games for the advanced.
She also created historical games. In one particular game, cards are placed in front of each player with the object of eventually creating a historical timeline. One side of the card has a fact and the other side has a date that players need to try and put in the correct order. The first person to use all of their cards wins.
“These games target the indigenous perspective as opposed to the colonial perspective,” Rebecca said of the historical facts.
The Salish-Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee approved of the games before they were published, and a portion of the proceeds from every Salish game goes to the committee.
“Collaboration is the core part of our company, and we want to be as accurate as possible,” Rebecca said.
The company is also working with the committee to develop an online dictionary where people can look up Salish words.
“This is something we’ve needed for a long time,” said Salish-Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee Director Antoine “Tony” Incashola.
Incashola explained that elders use their knowledge of language to add to the word bank on the website. People will soon be able to click on the words and hear them spoken.
Production manager Avery Old Coyote is on the five-member team helping to develop the games. While packaging a stack of educational cards, he explained that he graduated from the Mission School District in 2006 and went on to get a degree in resource conservation.
“I consider this (cultural information) as a natural resource that needs to be preserved,” Old Coyote said.
The Montana Office of Public Instruction bought 500 games soon to be distributed to libraries. The games are available for sale at the shop, at the gas station on Mountain View Drive, and on the website at http://www.nativeteachingaids.com.
