This fall quarter of 2025, the UW will be piloting an online course share program with the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA). For fall, UW students will have the opportunity to enroll in a course at UO to learn a language Indigenous to what is currently the states of Washington and Oregon.
Yakima Ichishkíin (Sahaptin)
Learn a unique language and gain a new perspective on the culture and history of the Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest.
For the first time, UW students will be able to formally learn Yakima Ichishkíin (Sahaptin), a Native American language of the Columbia River area of Oregon and Washington. The 101 (Introductory) class will be taught online by an instructor at the University of Oregon this fall 2025.
Yakima and related dialects are still spoken in the region today, in the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The language is critically endangered, and this course adds to language preservation efforts. As a student in this class you will have the opportunity to learn with people from these communities and contribute to the expansion of vital language resource materials. Materials have been developed with Yakama Elder and UO graduate Dr. Virginia Beavert, highly respected and renowned language activist and scholar.
The courses will also be of interest to students wanting to understand more about Northwest Native history and cultures, or who want an opportunity to study and understand a language radically different from English.
NAME: ICH 101 1st Yr Ichishki´in
CREDITS: 5
TIME: 1200-1350 Tue / Thu
Questions about how to register for the course: llc@uw.edu
Questions about course content: Regan Anderson (randers6@uoregon.edu) or,
NILI (nwili@uoregon.edu)
