By Arlene Bigby, former Early Childhood Education and Education Instructor, Aaniiih Nakoda College
Belinda Horn sharing an All About Me book in the Nakoda language. Belinda and her daughter made the book during the family literacy night. Belinda also graduated with her Associate of Arts Degree in Early Childhood Education from Aaniiih Nakoda College in December 2025.
Aaniiih Nakoda College’s (ANC) Early Childhood Education (ECE) program is utilizing the Ihduwiyayapi Advancing Indigenous Early Childhood Education grant to strengthen Aaniiih and Nakoda language and culture through its early childhood program and students. In the 2025-2026 academic year, the program utilized a portion of the funding to host family events.
ANC ECE students used family events to promote Aaniiih and Nakoda languages while building practical experiences. The events integrated both languages with hands-on activities and gave early childhood students opportunities to work directly with children and to build connections with parents and community members.
The family activity nights were a way for the ECE students and instructors to connect with the community and demonstrate how the Aaniiih and Nakoda languages can be integrated into classrooms.
Aaniiih Nakoda College’s building, Returning Buffalo/Tataʔga Kni/Píítaanʔ’ʔ’nʔi Kéʔíʔaakʔí. Murals of culturally and ecologically important animals of the region decorate the side of the building. The murals were painted by Blackfeet Nation artist, Louis Still Smoking.
One such event was a book-making fair. Materials in both Aaniiih and Nakoda were available for children to make an “All About Me” book with their parents’ support. The books included blank pages for children to color or for parents to include pictures of their child’s earliest years. The completed pages were hole-punched, laminated, and connected with braids to produce a finished book the children could take home. While the families were creating their books, ECE students told stories in both Nakoda and Aaniiih. Elizabeth Horn, one of the students coordinating the activity shared, “I enjoyed it, as well as my daughter. She loves coloring anything and drawing, so she added her own personal touch to her pages.”
ECE students also planned and hosted a family literacy night. A Nakoda elder, Geraldine Rutherford, told a story in Nakoda and explained it in English. She emphasized the importance of teaching Indigenous languages and culture to children. After finishing the story, Geraldine and an Aaniiih elder, Marlene Stiffarm, shared their childhood memories during a communal meal. ECE students presented gifts to both elders in thanks for bringing their knowledge to the family literacy night.
Aaniiih Nakoda College campus.
The program’s language and culture revitalization efforts have not been limited to family events. Under the Ihduwiyayapi IECE grant, ANC’s ECE department has collected and distributed Nakoda and Aaniiih classroom resources to local early childhood teachers, including Indigenous children’s literature and pre-k/kindergarten curriculum materials. ANC’s library is now stocked with these classroom materials, and they are available to local teachers in the community. ANC held a training for local Head Start and Early Head Start staff focused on how to utilize these materials to integrate language and culture back into classrooms. Geraldine again lent her wisdom in support of the program’s work and reviewed the materials. She appreciated that ANC is using these materials in early childhood classes with aspiring teachers and for making these resources accessible to teachers within the community.
