Who are you if your identity is based on your language, and your language is dying?

It's a question posed by teen participants in a digital-media workshop titled "Ancient Voices, Modern Tools," at Santa Fe's Indigenous Language Institute. The 13 students involved learned how to use film as an educational tool to promote the use of Native tongues. The three-day workshop culminated Thursday with an in-class screening (popcorn included) of the completed works, which ran 3 to 5 minutes — and packed a lot of story into that tight time frame.

Though not all the students fully completed their film by end of day Thursday, most seemed enthused with the project as they manipulated images, text and song on their computer screens.

The Legend of Ho'ok, by 18-year-old Klair Hubbard, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, related the tale of Ho'ok, a La Llorona type who lived in a hillside cave and came down to the village to spirit away newborns. Hubbard used historical photos, traditional music and narration in the film.

Hubbard's grandfather told her this story — and many other tribal tales — when she was a child. "Our legends set a base for our way of life," she said.

Living Our Culture: The Quest to Preserve Our Languages, by Kenny Chavez, Ohkay Owingeh, and Tiffany Esquibel, San Felipe Pueblo, also includes historical images, Native languages and music to depict the decline — and hopeful resurgence — of language within their cultures.

The decline stems from the 1880s to the mid-20th century when federal law mandated that Native American children only speak and learn English. During those years, most Indian children were educated in "English-only" boarding schools.

The Indigenous Language Institute was founded in 1992 to revitalized Native languages. This workshop provides a way for young people to connect to the cause, according to Matt Pecos, Cochiti Pueblo, who teaches at the Santa Fe Indian School's Cochiti Keres Language Program.

"Our young people need to hear our language to learn it, and technology is a medium you can use to speak that language to them," Pecos said. "Language is not only a form of communication with one another. It's who we are."

The workshop was funded by a grant from the First Nations Development Institute in Longmont, Colo., according to Inée Slaughter, executive director of the ILI, which is on the campus of the Santa Fe Indian School on Cerrillos Road.

"There is a renaissance of interest among the young generation to learn more about their language and culture," Slaughter said. "They need to learn language skills that are relevant to their lives, such as being able to talk about things that interest them — such as sports. ILI believes in taking language where the kids are and technology — social networking sites, texting, MySpace, YouTube — is where they are."

The institute will archive the shorts. Otherwise, the filmmakers can do with them what they wish. Slaughter encouraged them to submit their works to the Greater New Mexico All Roads Film and Photo Project, a statewide program that showcases student work.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.