Native American Academic Summer Program

Dear Friends:

Once again NAAF hosted its annual Summer Immersion Camp. Activities kicked off on July 24th and concluded on the 27th.  Camp was open to the youth in the District and transportation and lunch were provided for each day.  In total thirty-nine youth enrolled in the camp, with an additional 14 little learners from NAAF's pre-school Ce:ce:m A'al o O'odham Neñok program participating in Early Education activities such as rag doll making, working with clay, beading jewelry, and traditional singing and dancing. This year camp activities were held at the GuVo Community’s Feasthouse, with staff NAAF’s RLC, HPC, EE and ASP programs lending a helping hand.

Day one of camp got underway with a fun day cooking cecemaith (tortillas) in the kosin (kitchen). Day two activities were even more spirited with campers participating in a sharing circle, painting canvases, and observing a prickly pear lemonade demonstration hosted by the Healthy O’odham Promotion Program!  Fun, fun and more fun was the theme of day three as campers split up to play traditional Tohono O’odham games, Toka and Wopoicuda. Toka is a traditional Tohono O’odham game played only by girls and women and is most like field hockey, while Wopoicuda involves running with and controlling a small ball similar in appearance to soccer. Camp ended on the highest of notes with a surprise visit from the Tohono O’odham Nation Fire Department. After an enriching morning of STEAM activities, which are the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math, but also represents art as well, campers filled up on chili and the cooled down with water games thank to the camp’s surprise visitors!

Overall, camp was a fun time filled with traditional language, traditional songs, traditional games, traditional foods, storytelling, history of the O’odham and some tasty prickly pear lemonade!  Camp also provided campers with the opportunity to come together to learn how to work as a community, engage in healthy competition, understand right and wrong, and speak for themselves through their himdag. Thanks to all the children and volunteers who participated, we can’t wait to do it again very soon.

That said, camp was not the only thing going on this summer.  A Bahidag (saguaro fruit) Harvest event was held in early July.  Transportation was provided, and staff from NAAF’s Early Ed program, ASP, and HPC programs attended to assist with the event which was attended by adults and children from throughout the District.  And speaking of harvests, 230 pounds of vegetables were harvested from the community garden, Ruth’s Oidag.  This included summer squash, gray zucchini squash, butternut squash, sugar baby watermelons, cantaloupe, honeydew, blue corn, tomatoes, and sunflower seeds.  The garden was fully planted with 42 sunflowers, 15 squash, 18 beans, 3 tomatoes, 11 melons, 69 white and blue corn total.

Finally, NAAF placed a youth intern from the Kukatch community at its Remote Learning Center through its Summer Youth Worker Program. There she assisted in organizing, updating the classroom decor, and putting “busy books” together for the Early Education program. During her time at the Center, she was able to obtain her food handlers certification card, her civil rights training certificate, and a customer service certificate.

Overall, it was a busy and rewarding summer for everyone, but everyone is also looking forward to some much cooler days!