Doyon Foundation is pleased to welcome Dewey Kk’ołeyo Putyuk Hoffman as our new Doyon Languages Online project manager. In this role, Dewey is responsible for the coordination and completion of the Doyon Languages Online project, which has been in development for the past three years.
“This is an incredibly exciting time for the Doyon Languages Online project, which we launched last summer with the roll-out of the first four online language-learning courses in Holikachuk, Gwich’in, Denaakk’e and Benhti Kenaga’,” said Doris Miller, Foundation executive director. “We are thrilled to welcome Dewey, who is a previous Doyon Foundation scholarship recipient and active advocate for culture, education and language.”
“There was great work completed by the Doyon Languages Online team prior to my joining Doyon Foundation. I look forward to building upon that work and seeing the project through to its successful completion,” said Dewey, adding that they are currently working to complete a fifth language course, Hän, which is the language spoken in Eagle, Alaska, and across the Canadian border in Moosehide and Dawson City, Yukon Territory.
A Doyon Foundation alumnus, Dewey received basic and competitive scholarships during his undergraduate and graduate studies program between 2004 and 2019. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in 2009, and a master’s in education from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2019.
Dewey’s education and career demonstrate his strong interest in positive youth development through cultural education, which is in line with his lifelong love of language learning and cultural exchange across the world. Prior to joining Doyon Foundation full time in 2020, Dewey was a content creator for the Denaakk’e course through Doyon Languages Online, as well as a community partner who helped host language-related gatherings in Fairbanks and Anchorage. He was a preschool teacher in Fairbanks Native Association’s Denaakk’e Head Start Classroom, the Indigenous leadership continuum director at First Alaskans Institute, and development manager at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. He is also the owner of Hoozoonh, a consulting business offering services in curriculum design, strategic planning, meeting facilitation and other special projects.
“I want to learn more about hands-on language planning, and work with the Interior Native communities to carry forward the vision of one people many languages,” he said. “Our Indigenous languages are extremely important and useful. Nogheedeno’! It is coming back to life!”