Briggs: Desperate times for Native languages
By
Kara Briggs
|
| These are desperate measures undertaken in desperate times for Native languages. The Indigenous Language Institute in Santa Fe, N.M., has documented the loss of more than 20 Native languages since 1997. |
Ryan Wilson, a National Indian Education Association board member, has said we are in the 59th minute of the hour for Native languages in the United States.
Although the loss of language in the space of one, two or three generations is a common story among immigrant groups, it is a story that most of us can recite from our Native family experience of boarding school and other periods of loss. We in Native America live in a remarkable state of denial, he said; because if we weren’t in denial, we would be doing everything in our power to save our languages.
“A lot of us missed the boat on how critical language survival is to our own survival,” said Wilson, who was contracted by the Northern Arapaho to get the Hinono’ Eitiino’ Oowu’ (Arapaho Language Lodge) off the ground.
On May 11, 12 and 13, the 2nd Annual National Native Language Revitalization Summit will be held in Washington, D.C., with a special meeting called “From Code Talkers to Immersion: Native American Language” on May 12 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The events are organized by Cultural Survival, a nonprofit based in Cambridge, Mass., the National Alliance to Save Native Languages and the museum. The public is welcome to events at the museum.
A similar convening occurred after the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006 was passed by Congress. But with only $2 million of the potential $10 million appropriated to support language preservation, programs at dozens of nations have had to look elsewhere. Many operate on a mix of dollars from the nation and grants. Teaching language to new generations of children is expensive work that doesn’t fall readily inside standard grant cycles.
Grounds, Yuchi, left his teaching position at the University of Tulsa to work with his people on language preservation. Grounds, who has a doctorate of religious history from Princeton Theological Seminary, understands the need in the terms of a moral imperative to keep on the tongue of today’s children the language of their ancestors.
“The good news,” Grounds said, “the reality is that there are effective methods for bringing back our languages. The problem is we have very few resources and very little time.”
Yuchi is a language isolate, which means it is unique, and is not spoken by anyone else. The nonprofit Yuchi Language Project offers free classes. Since the program began, one of the elder speakers has died. Five remain.
“People are little aware of the very extreme crisis,” Grounds said. “Three out of four Native languages in North America are only spoken by the grandparents’ generations. In other words, there aren’t fluent speakers having kids and raising kids so the language can be carried forward.
“It’s a crisis all over Indian country, but there is silence.”
The generations since everyone in a Native nation spoke their language are growing distant. With that generational shift, Wilson said, even languages that were thought to be strong because of the number of speakers are seeing marked declines among the young.
The cold, hard fact is we may be deluding ourselves.
“We are in a generation that has been able to separate language and culture,” Wilson said. “It’s the first time in history that we have been able to say you can have one without the other. A lot of older people aren’t comfortable. In ceremonial protocols we have to do things in English.”
| One of the barriers to language preservation is the long arm of shame that stretches from boarding school experiences to contemporary generations. |
“Actually, I am one of those people who know words and phrases, but is not conversant; I often hold myself up as that example. I am not atypical for anyone who grew up in a community.”
One of the barriers to language preservation is the long arm of shame that stretches from boarding school experiences to contemporary generations. Sometimes it is the fluent speaker of a Native language who is ashamed, sometimes it’s the non-speaker who is afraid of being scorned for stumbling over words.
But the time for hesitant action is over. Nations, whether federally recognized like the Northern Arapaho or not, like the Yuchi, must establish goals and make commitments. Wilson said often the objective of language preservation must bubble up from the grassroots of Native nations for the elected leaders to take hold.
This is no time for half measures with the clock on preservation of indigenous languages ticking. Immersion programs, Wilson states, are the proven method for language preservation.
This investment of indigenous language in our children is an investment in the future of Native nations.
Kara Briggs, Yakama and Snohomish, is a columnist with Indian Country Today. She owns Red Hummingbird Media Corp., and she lives at the Tulalip reservation in Washington State. Reach her at briggskm@gmail.com.
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Wednesday, Nov 11 at 12:00 PM frank Beaulieu wrote ...
Hello, Im a Ojibay annoucer Im geeting alot of critisizm but I keep on goin g. Can you please tell me what should i do with negitive comments. Im known as a great annoucer on a province Radio net work NCIFM in Winnipeg manitoba... Discouraged
31944441 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Wednesday, Apr 29 at 8:04 AM Chooge wrote ...
I've met Mr. Grounds, plus attended one of the Yuchi Green Corn Ceremonies in which he plays an important role in conducting the ceremonies. His way is true, to leave a good paying white job to go back to help preserve his people and their ways, it's being true to his people. I wish him success.
20483231 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Apr 21 at 1:23 PM AZndee wrote ...
intersting, the formable lost of the North American preliterate languages is dissiminated in the symbols of a foreign language, what better way is there to speed the process of disappearance.
19957966 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Sunday, Apr 19 at 8:23 PM Yvette wrote ...
As a young child I remember sitting on my dad's lap begging him to teach me Muscogee. Always, I was begging him to talk to me in Creek. When we would go to his step-mother's house for holidays everyone would be speaking Creek except my generation. I am first generation that does not speak our language, and I'm 50 years old. There are a few of us in my office who will try to begin learning, but we will have the English accent on the Muscogee language. Even then, will we ever become fluent?
19867096 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Saturday, Apr 18 at 3:23 AM Wise One wrote ...
Language like the culture, is a lifestyle, whereby daily existence includes communication to the elder and among each other. As a result of "progress" and the melting pot, our culture is dying; with the language an indicator of this - another important indicator is the diluted tribal blood of our youth. In order to preserve the language for the future, our culture, by re-instituting daily lifestyles is a must - or is it too late, with most of our people living comfortable in urban cities?
19817006 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Friday, Apr 17 at 5:43 PM Navajo wrote ...
On the Navajo Res, young parents don't teach their childrn Navajo Lang. And they teach them pow-wow dancing instead of their native culture. How sad.
19803357 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Add a comment
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