"The real theme of Celebration is our culture and our kids and how the elders have left it in our care and that now it's our time to learn and to give to our kids," said Eddy of the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School.

Most of the 66 immersion students from the program will perform Tlingit children's songs on Friday, the first day of Celebration.

Eddy works with a team of Native Alaskan teachers and elders who teach Tlingit language and culture to kindergarteners through fifth-graders in the Juneau School District. The district has mandated that schools become more culturally relevant to engage Native students who are at a higher risk for dropping out of school. Spread over three classrooms, Eddy's team includes three classroom teachers, two cultural specialists, a literacy specialist, curriculum specialist and two elders.

"It's really important for us to show our elders that we are doing a lot," Eddy said. "We really are working hard to make it a part of the norm, the everyday. We've talked to the kids (and said) that there may be tears shed because, for many of our elders, speaking our language wasn't acceptable during their time in school."

Students will perform two counting songs sung in the Tlingit language, one composed by traditional Native leader David Katzeek and another composed by the University students and revised by elder Grandma Selena. The lyrics of this song begin, "I'm going to the beach. I spot five killer whales. One goes down and then there are four."

Another song, "Tsu Hei D� Shugax Dutann," is an older song with words spoken by George Davis and put to music by Harold Jacobs. The translated lyrics begin "we are opening the box of wisdom."

Eddy's students have added a new verse, which answers, "we have now opened it and we are now learning."