Ahtna Language and History Classes to Come

By Allison Sayer

An Ahtna language class for kindergarteners is planned for January 2026 at Glennallen Elementary School. Additionally, district high schools are proposed to have a strong Ahtna history component folded into their regular history curriculum this spring. On July 1, the Copper River School District (CRSD) School Board heard updates about both of these programs in a public work session. 

Copper River Native Association (CRNA) staff presented the idea of CRNA-funded Ahtna language instruction to the board in August 2024. The board encouraged the development of the program. 

CRNA Language Administrator and former CRSD teacher Kirk Howard and CRNA Tribal Community Services Department Supervisor Colleen Merrick presented the update on the Kindergarten program. 

According to Howard, starting in January 2026 Kindergarteners will have an afternoon class in Ahtna. The focus, based on input from a steering committee working with Howard, will be on “culture, values, and the family unit and how the language brings those three aspects together.”  

The instructor for the Kindergarten class will be a community member, Carol Cozzen. To prepare for this role, Cozzen has earned an Occupational Endorsement in Ahtna language through the University of Alaska in addition to a Class M teaching certificate. She has also worked one on one with Howard on developing the curriculum and learning classroom skills. She will begin student teaching August 8.

Merrick added CRNA is also developing an outdoor learning space incorporating Ahtna knowledge and language about plants and food as medicine. CRNA is also working to develop new teaching aids such as flashcards, a calendar, and other tools where “kids can see themselves.” 

An additional prong of the CRNA language teaching is adult education classes within the communities. The hope is this will encourage adults and children to use more Ahtna phrases together in the home. 

The long term hope for this program is for it to grow each year, with the current Kindergarten continuing to receive instruction in first grade while a new Kindergarten starts the program. Merrick emphasized it was important to start small to ensure the program could be sustainable. 

Board president Josh Scott asked if fluency was the goal of the language class, and board member Mark Somerville asked what the classroom would look like. 

Howard said that while the instructor has learned quite a bit of Ahtna, she is not fluent. Each class in the 36 week Kindergarten curriculum has a component of “Ahtna social emotional learning, numbers, letters, and activities.” 

The goal is to teach the pronunciation of the language, common words and phrases, and work towards bringing Ahtna back from the brink it is on now, as a “critically endangered language.” Howard would love for kids to “hear [Ahtna] in the hallways, hear it in the lunchroom, hear it outside on the playground.” However, he acknowledged that fluency might not be attainable. 

Howard also talked about his experience in shadowing immersive style language classes in Anchorage and on the Navajo nation. The class will be modeled on that instructional style, where the instructor speaks Ahtna to the students from day one, including classroom management prompts such as “sit down,” and “raise your hand.” The classroom would “look like a Spanish class,” but in Ahtna. 

Native Village of Chitina Council President Corina Ewan presented the board with a proposal for incorporating Ahtna history into the high school curriculum, which was well received. The curriculum would be based on the Ahtna History text created by Ahtna, Inc.

“We live, we learn, we grow in the heart of the Ahtna Region on the ancestral lands of the Ahtna People,” said Ewan, “but for a long time this rich history and contributions of the Ahtna people have been underrepresented in our classrooms.” 

Ewan proposed a seven week course. The first week would cover Ahtna Homeland- emphasizing geography and spiritual connections. The second, “living from the land:” subsistence and ecological knowledge. The third week would comprise Ahtna history before the Europeans arrived, followed by a week on Ahtna and the Russians and one on Ahtna and the Americans. 

The sixth week would teach students about the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and its implications for the Ahtna people. Finally, the last week would cover “customary and traditional use” in the present day with the goal to “preserve culture and legal recognition.” 

Like the language curriculum, this history program is proposed to start small with room to grow. 

Board member Heidi Jacobsen asked who would teach the curriculum and whether it would be offered as an elective for kids to sign up for. Superintendent Theresa Laville stated she felt the best way to introduce the class would be as units folded into the high school core history curriculum, taught by the regular teacher with support as needed. From there, it would be possible to gauge interest in expanding the class in the future to a standalone elective with guest speakers, field trips, and other activities. 

Laville, who has been actively working with both Howard and Ewan on these new programs, shared that she had just received new Alaska standards for history from the state. She said those will inform how the Ahtna history components will be used, and she will be reviewing them during the month of July.  

The board did not have a regular meeting for the month of July.

Disclosure: CRNA is a Copper River Record Advertiser. Carol Cozzen is a photographer for Copper River Record. This did not affect our coverage of these developments.