Native American Academic Summer Program

Dear Friends:

As the end of the current school year draws closer and closer that can mean only one thing, Summer Camp season is just around the corner. To get a jump on things, outreach efforts began in earnest starting in early May with the announcement of a very unique opportunity for District youth between the ages of 8 and 13. NAAF’s O’odham Immersion Camp began the process of recruiting a total of 10 female and 10 male participants to take part in this camp sponsored under NAAF’s I:mig Program.
This camp, which runs from 6/10-6/13, focuses on a deep immersion into the O’odham culture and heritage and deals directly with preserving the GuVo District’s oral history, ceremonies, language, landmarks and sacred sites, including an overnight camping opportunity in the beautiful GuVo Mountains. However, O’odham Immersion Camp is just one of many Summer Camp opportunities NAAF plans to host this summer. During the months of June and July NAAF is hosting several amazing opportunities for youth of all ages, which it has dubbed “Camp-palooza”!  

The longest of these camps is NAAF’s Ce:Ce:m A’al camp for the District’s youngest members.  This camp kicked-off on June 3rd and will continue until July 18th.  Twenty of the District’s 2- to 5-year-olds are taking part in camp festivities, with the older children, those between the ages of 5 and 17, scheduled to take part in either NAAF’s Summer Adventure Camp between June 17th and July 3rd,  or NAAF’s O’odham Camp between July 8th and 12th.

Combined each of these camp options offer some very cool hands-on experiences for children of all ages, including participation in activities that both preserve O’odham culture using traditional art, handcrafts, rituals, games and sacred geography, as well as STEM learning activities that expose participants to project-based learning that helps them to build stronger bridges to their futures. All NAAF’s Camp activities are designed to help perpetuate traditional knowledge using a combination of STEM activities and cultural exploration in order to promote a fuller understanding of the District’s unique heritage and facilitate the hands-on acquisition of skills and knowledge that connects classroom concepts to practical applications.

We cannot wait until the next update to share specific examples of how this year’s camps used STEM learning and the sharing of ancestral knowledge to provide opportunities for young people to both learn and simultaneously affirm their O’odham identity.