Native American Studies graduate student recognized for cultural preservation and outreach work
Christina Dawa Kutsmana Thomas is Numu (Northern Paiute), Newe (Western Shoshone), and Hopi (Tobacco Clan) and is an enrolled member in the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.
When Christina Dawa Kutsmana Thomas was growing up, she didn’t know anyone on her reservation who had gone to college. Now the doctoral candidate is helping pave the way for future generations of Indigenous children starting with her son, Jace Naki’e. Not only is she setting an example by pursuing higher education but also by being more connected to their cultural roots.
“I grew up on the reservation all my life. I knew I was Native, I knew my tribes, but I really didn’t know much about our history,” Thomas said. “My family didn’t really speak our language even though it was my grandma’s first language. Because of the times that she grew up in, she didn’t pass that on.”
Thomas, a graduate student in the Department of Native American Studies at UC Davis, has spent years learning, teaching and preserving her language, Numu Yadooana (Northern Paiute). Her work is primarily based in northern Nevada and focuses on Indigenous sound studies, historical musicology and language resurgence of Numu Yadooana.
“A lot of what I've learned has been as an adult, that’s why I'm hoping with my son to change that,” Thomas said.
As a single mom, Thomas has worked throughout her undergraduate studies to be a good role model for both her son and community. She even got Northern Paiute established as the first Indigenous language at University of Nevada, Reno – the first Indigenous language to be offered in higher education anywhere in Nevada.
During her time at UC Davis, Thomas has been a member of the Chancellor's Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Board and a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion graduate scholar ambassador. She's participated in multiple organizations on-and-off-campus as a leader, mentor, member and presenter.
And her work hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Thomas was recently recognized for achieving “remarkable outcomes” within her academic pursuits and community with the inaugural Cobell Outstanding Graduate Scholar Award. Last year, Thomas was awarded Native Forward Scholar Fund’s Graduate Student of the Year, and she's a recipient of the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship through the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Within the College of Letters and Science, she's received the Dean's Graduate Summer Support Award, the Margrit Mondavi Graduate Support Award, and has been a Mellon Public Scholar at the UC Davis Humanities Institute.
Thomas said she wants to show “little rez kids” they can achieve great things despite the obstacles.
The connection between language and culture
In 1997, a linguist visiting the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation in northwestern Nevada, where Thomas grew up, predicted that the Northern Paiute language would be gone in 20 years. In a census of more than 2,000 tribal members, the linguist found that only about 65 people, all Elders, were fluent in the language.
Kooyooe Pa’a Panunadu (Pyramid Lake, Nev.) is home to the kooyooe, an ancient sucker fish also known as cui-ui. The species lives only in Pyramid Lake and, when possible, the Truckee River. Due to water diversion from the river resulting in lower lake elevation, many years passed when the fish were unable to cross into the river to reproduce, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“We have stories where the ancient ones say, ‘When our fish die, our language will cease to exist.' Because the story of how we became a people originates from the lake as well, it doesn’t surprise me that they are both considered 'endangered.'" — Thomas
The kooyooe was added to the endangered species list in 1967.
Though linguists consider Northern Paiute “critically endangered,” Thomas prefers to say Numu Yadooana is asleep. Words matter and, according to Thomas, those describing Northern Paiute as "disappearing" or "gone" imply the language has already died out. She describes her efforts as "reawakening" it.
“Having only eight speakers left is very scary, and unfortunately time is not on our side,” Thomas added.
Some words in Paiute don’t translate well to English, their depth and description is lost.
“If Numu Yadooana dies, so does our music, our dances, our stories, our connection to our Elders and Ancestors, our connection to the land, and our connection to ourselves as Numu peoples,” Thomas said. “Everything is connected.”
Learning and teaching the language
Thomas started learning the Paiute language when she was in her early twenties. Already pursuing an undergraduate degree at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), she was invited by an Elder to take a language class at the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. She caught on quickly and started bringing her mother and grandparents along with her.
“All of us would go, which was really great,” Thomas said.
Soon, Thomas began studying the language with Ralph Burns, a respected Pyramid Lake Paiute Elder, cultural resource specialist, teacher, traditional dancer and storyteller. When Burns wasn’t able to teach his high school class anymore, he asked Thomas to take over. At the time, Thomas had no intention of being a teacher – she was working towards becoming an orthodontist. She remembers Burns telling her, “If you don’t teach it, they’re not going to have the class."
“I lovingly got pushed to do something he saw in me,” Thomas said. “It kind of all just happened. In a way, I felt like I was meant to be on this path.”
As Thomas began spending more time immersed in the language and culture of her people, there was a domino effect. She became an ambassador for Americans for Indian Opportunity and participated in Native American and mainstream pageants, including Miss Indian World, Miss Indian Nations, and Miss Humanity International, focusing on cultural preservation and language revitalization.
“I feel like all these opportunities just started opening themselves up to me,” she said.
Thomas remembers thinking, “It’s because I’m just being who I am as an Indigenous woman.”
Continuing education as a first-generation college student
Though she enjoyed the work she was doing with her tribe and Washoe County School District, Thomas still planned on attending dental school via the Indian Health Service Scholarship. Because of her cultural and musical performances, she was encouraged by a professor at UNR to also look into the Native American Studies program in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis.
When she was admitted to the competing programs, she was forced to make a choice.
“I had to think about what, as an old woman, would I regret?” Thomas said.
Ancestors were visiting her in her dreams, speaking to her in Numu Yadooana and trying to teach her dances. She wasn’t sure at first if it meant anything. Then she realized that the work she was doing with youth and Elders in her community was her “heart work” and passion.
“Maybe I'm meant to go this way,” she thought.
Thomas enrolled in the Native American Studies doctoral program at UC Davis in fall 2019.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit just a few months later, the distance from home and the isolation of lockdowns made parts of life in Davis more difficult at times.
“Being away from my family, reading, writing, reading, and writing ... and reading a lot about the horrific past of the history of the United States, and the trauma that colonization caused onto my community and Native communities in the U.S. was a lot to grapple with, all during a pandemic isolated away from my homelands,” Thomas said.
In 2023, as part of her research and as a Fulbright Scholar, Thomas traveled to Aotearoa, the North Island of New Zealand, where she was based at the University of Auckland. She worked with iwi (tribes) across Aotearoa to conduct research on Te Reo Māori (Māori language), performance, and culture.
While there, she felt that same spark of love and joy she feels working in her community and reminded her of why she does this work in the first place.
"My connection to my culture helps me in my educational path as it reminds me of why I am pursuing a doctoral degree," Thomas said. "I am here for my community and to regenerate our ways of being that have been asleep for far too long."
A source of inspiration and hope for the future
Aotearoa had a language renaissance between the 1970s and through the 2000s when Māori people took the lead in preserving and revitalizing their language. The movement, Thomas said, grew from lessons being taught by aunties and grandmas in garages to being implemented in schools and, in some instances, being funded by the government.
The New Zealand Government recognized Te Reo Māori, the Indigenous language of Aotearoa, as an official language of the country in 1987, and now calls it a taonga (treasure) that must be protected.
“In Aotearoa, a huge part of Te Reo Māori success of creating first-generation speakers is getting children to speak their language early on so that they grow up immersed in the language and the culture,” Thomas said. “They are not shy to be who they are, and they are so proud to be Māori.”
Being able to see this work in action inspired Thomas and made her think: “Wow, this is what it could be like for my community someday.”
Her dream is to open an immersion school at home in Pyramid Lake.
“That kind of love — being proud of who you are and where you come from — is infectious. I want that kind of strength in my school someday,” Thomas said.
This work not only inspires her, but also benefits her son, who accompanies her around the world and is surrounded by Indigenous peoples and cultures.
Over the years, Jace Naki’e has learned how to make his own drum, his own clapper stick and how to build a traditional fire. He knows the dances, stories and songs that his mom knows, and he gets to learn Numu Yadooana alongside her. He is around Indigenous doctoral students and scholars so often, he knows higher education is available to him. And, perhaps more importantly, he’s proud of his Indigenous roots just like mom.
"By remembering who I am, and where I come from, it uplifts me, and inspires me to make not only my family and community proud, but also my ancestors, and to pave the way for future generations," Thomas said. "I want young people to see me and think, 'If she can do it, so can I.'"
Student Work: (Re)Awakening Numu Nugadu
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