Dr. Sara Chase Merrick (Hoopa Valley Tribe) has profoundly impacted both the Hupa people of the Hoopa Valley and Indian Country as a whole through groundbreaking language revitalization and culturally based education initiatives.
Sara’s vision began in 2017 as a Running Strong Dreamstarter, when she used her grant to launch the first Hupa Language Immersion Camp for children ages 4–7, the first full Hupa immersion experience on the reservation in decades. The camp used traditional stories, songs, and land-based learning to teach the Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe (Hupa Language), incorporating elders and families in the process.
Her success transformed into an annual community event, inspiring new curriculum, storybooks, and teacher training programs, which are now used across multiple tribal education departments. With support from Running Strong’s Dreamstarter GOLD grant in 2020, Sara expanded her work into a four-week Hupa Immersion Summer School, teaching all core subjects, math, science, and history through the Hupa language and worldview.
In 2022, Sara and her team launched the Hupa Language Immersion Nest, the first full-time early childhood language program in the community, serving babies and toddlers 18–35 months old. The Nest runs four days a week, providing 4–6 hours of full immersion instruction to 8–10 families, and is now entering its third year of operation. Children are speaking Hupa as their first language for the first time in nearly a century.
The program also trains new Hupa language teachers through high school and college internships and collaborates with the last fluent speaker, Verdena Parker, to preserve oral traditions. Sara notes that while only a handful of fluent speakers remain, “we now have a growing number of emerging speakers, from babies to elders,” signaling that the language is once again alive in homes and classrooms.
Sara’s work exemplifies the Dreamstarter Program’s mission to empower Native youth to realize dreams that create lasting change in their communities. Through her leadership, Sara has shown how Native-led, intergenerational education rooted in language and culture can heal historical trauma, strengthen community identity, and empower future generations. Her projects embody Running Strong’s philosophy that “language is medicine, and children are the key to its survival.”
Dr. Sara Chase Merrick’s Dreamstarter journey has restored the heartbeat of the Hupa language and demonstrated how one Native woman’s dream backed by the Dreamstarter Program can transform a community and ripple hope throughout Indian Country
Learn more about the 2026 Dreamstarter application here: https://indianyouth.org/dreamstarter-apply/
