This day care helps an endangered language survive: Inside a Gwich'in language nest

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Tanan Ch'at'oh is not your typical daycare.

Here, toddlers spend all day immersed in an endangered language called Gwich'in.

It's an Alaska Native language with fewer than 250 advanced speakers.

This kind of daycare space is called a "language nest," and it's a method used by communities around the world to revive their languages.

With this age group, we allow them to play and we speak in our language, and learn our colors and we count.

Hilda Johnson is an infant and toddler teacher who spoke Gwich'in growing up.

She's been working at Tanan Ch'at'oh since it opened in March 2021.

The first week was kind of hard because they didn't understand.

But the more we were consistent, they started understanding us.

Our world view, our philosophy, our way of life, is so embedded in our language.

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