Post by Okwes on Jun 21, 2006 20:34:18 GMT -5
New speakers of ancient tongues Indian tribes find teaching is last
hope for saving native languages By Lourdes Medrano Arizona Daily
Star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.17.2006
www.azstarnet.com/metro/134019.php
As time treks through Indian country, the words of ancient songs and
sacred rituals crumble under the weight of the dominant language. "I
hear more and more English on the reservation," said Danny Lopez, who
teaches Tohono O'odham at the Sells community college. "A lot of
children don't know our language anymore." But a language revival of
sorts has gripped many American Indian tribes working to keep their
mother tongues vibrant. Just southwest of Tucson, in the San Xavier
District of the Tohono O'odham Nation, children and their parents learn
the language of their ancestors in special classes. In Nebraska,
Ho-Chunk youths absorb an elder's words preserved in 1,500 audiotapes
about life on the reservation. In Montana, mothers immerse their
newborns and toddlers in a new language program. They are some of the
initiatives being discussed this month at the University of Arizona,
where 20 tribal members hope to learn how to preserve declining
indigenous languages. "Gathering Talk: Documenting, Describing and
Revitalizing Our Languages" is the theme of the American Indian Language
Development Institute this summer. The residential program has offered
training since 1979 to teachers of indigenous languages. But institute
director Ofelia Zepeda said it is the first time tribal members have
received a fellowship from the National Science Foundation to focus on
language preservation. The fellows represent languages from a number
of American Indian tribes, including Oneida, Ho-Chunk, Blackfeet,
Coushatta, Sahaptin, Southern Ute, Cheyenne, Laguna-Keres, Okanagan,
Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham. The decline of indigenous languages
has been well documented, but "of late we're having more tribes
acknowledge it," Zepeda said. She and other linguists say the reasons
for language loss are complex. But they note that American Indian
languages historically were suppressed in government attempts to
assimilate tribes into mainstream society. In 1995, the Alaska Native
Language Center found that of 175 indigenous languages still spoken in
the United States, 155 were moribund because children no longer learned
them. "It's a huge loss," noted Zepeda, who is Tohono O'odham. "Young
people are not learning their language, but that's because the adults
are not using it." Growing up, that was certainly the case for Don
Preston, an artist who grew up away from the Tohono O'odham Reservation.
He returned as an adult and since March has attended a weekly language
class in the evening at the San Xavier District Education Center. "My
parents never taught me, and I always wanted to learn to speak my own
language," said Preston, 52. "It's like going back to my own roots."
Jodi Burshia, one of the fellows at the university, said she also wants
to learn the language of her ancestors. Her ancestry includes Pueblo,
Navajo, Sioux, Chippewa and French Canadian, but she speaks none of the
languages. "I want to know about all of them," said Burshia, who grew
up with the Laguna Pueblo people in New Mexico and now lives in Tucson.
Burshia, like the other fellows, is learning how to write effective
grant proposals to secure outside funding for language documentation
when tribal money falls short. She said she hopes to help collect and
preserve letters, tapes and other documents in her Laguna community.
Marvin Weatherwax, a member of the Blackfeet tribe in northwestern
Montana, said the death of elders in the past two years has meant a drop
in the number of fluent native speakers to 350 from 500. Eighteen new
speakers were gained in the past five years, said Weatherwax, who
teaches language at his reservation's community college. Last summer,
the UA fellow said, he determined by knocking on doors that 1,500 tribal
members understand Blackfeet but rarely speak it. He calls them
"sleepers," and his goal is to reawaken their knowledge about the
language so they can share it with youngsters. "We can't lose our
language," said Weatherwax, 59. "Without it, you lose pretty much your
identity, you lose pretty much everything." In the Ho-Chunk Nation of
Nebraska, Caroline Frenchman, another fellow, said tribal members teach
the language to students from preschool to college two to three times a
week. "But that is not enough," she said. Five fluent speakers
remain among the roughly 2,600 enrolled members in the state, she said.
To stir interest in the language, tribal members are digitizing the
1,500 audiotapes that a late elder, Stanford Whitewater, left behind.
Frenchman said Whitewater's recordings contain a wealth of language
lessons and tribal history. Frenchman, 42, said she studied her native
language under Whitewater for five years before he died at age 90
recently. The language apprentice said she never learned Ho-Chunk from
her grandparents, who raised her. Now, she herself is learning the
language as she tries to save it from extinction. "There's an old legend
that says if the language ever dies, the world will cease to exist," she
said. "I don't want it to die." Marie Sanchez, a Northern Cheyenne who
teaches the tribal language to elementary school students, characterized
as severe the language loss among youngsters in her northeastern Montana
reservation. "Our youngest fluent speaker is 30," said Sanchez, 67. To
counter the downward trend, tribal members plan to expand an immersion
program for mothers and infants, Sanchez said. "We want to get them back
into learning the language and traditions before childbirth," she said
of expectant mothers. Seeing so many youths no longer speak Cheyenne
saddens Sanchez, but at the same time, "it makes me want to try harder."
Delphine Saraficio, who teaches O'odham to children and adults in San
Xavier, said she sometimes feels discouraged to see her native language
disintegrating. But then she hears new students such as Preston
painstakingly emit the soft, lilting sounds of O'odham in class. It is
the affirmation she needs to keep working to save her mother tongue.
hope for saving native languages By Lourdes Medrano Arizona Daily
Star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.17.2006
www.azstarnet.com/metro/134019.php
As time treks through Indian country, the words of ancient songs and
sacred rituals crumble under the weight of the dominant language. "I
hear more and more English on the reservation," said Danny Lopez, who
teaches Tohono O'odham at the Sells community college. "A lot of
children don't know our language anymore." But a language revival of
sorts has gripped many American Indian tribes working to keep their
mother tongues vibrant. Just southwest of Tucson, in the San Xavier
District of the Tohono O'odham Nation, children and their parents learn
the language of their ancestors in special classes. In Nebraska,
Ho-Chunk youths absorb an elder's words preserved in 1,500 audiotapes
about life on the reservation. In Montana, mothers immerse their
newborns and toddlers in a new language program. They are some of the
initiatives being discussed this month at the University of Arizona,
where 20 tribal members hope to learn how to preserve declining
indigenous languages. "Gathering Talk: Documenting, Describing and
Revitalizing Our Languages" is the theme of the American Indian Language
Development Institute this summer. The residential program has offered
training since 1979 to teachers of indigenous languages. But institute
director Ofelia Zepeda said it is the first time tribal members have
received a fellowship from the National Science Foundation to focus on
language preservation. The fellows represent languages from a number
of American Indian tribes, including Oneida, Ho-Chunk, Blackfeet,
Coushatta, Sahaptin, Southern Ute, Cheyenne, Laguna-Keres, Okanagan,
Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham. The decline of indigenous languages
has been well documented, but "of late we're having more tribes
acknowledge it," Zepeda said. She and other linguists say the reasons
for language loss are complex. But they note that American Indian
languages historically were suppressed in government attempts to
assimilate tribes into mainstream society. In 1995, the Alaska Native
Language Center found that of 175 indigenous languages still spoken in
the United States, 155 were moribund because children no longer learned
them. "It's a huge loss," noted Zepeda, who is Tohono O'odham. "Young
people are not learning their language, but that's because the adults
are not using it." Growing up, that was certainly the case for Don
Preston, an artist who grew up away from the Tohono O'odham Reservation.
He returned as an adult and since March has attended a weekly language
class in the evening at the San Xavier District Education Center. "My
parents never taught me, and I always wanted to learn to speak my own
language," said Preston, 52. "It's like going back to my own roots."
Jodi Burshia, one of the fellows at the university, said she also wants
to learn the language of her ancestors. Her ancestry includes Pueblo,
Navajo, Sioux, Chippewa and French Canadian, but she speaks none of the
languages. "I want to know about all of them," said Burshia, who grew
up with the Laguna Pueblo people in New Mexico and now lives in Tucson.
Burshia, like the other fellows, is learning how to write effective
grant proposals to secure outside funding for language documentation
when tribal money falls short. She said she hopes to help collect and
preserve letters, tapes and other documents in her Laguna community.
Marvin Weatherwax, a member of the Blackfeet tribe in northwestern
Montana, said the death of elders in the past two years has meant a drop
in the number of fluent native speakers to 350 from 500. Eighteen new
speakers were gained in the past five years, said Weatherwax, who
teaches language at his reservation's community college. Last summer,
the UA fellow said, he determined by knocking on doors that 1,500 tribal
members understand Blackfeet but rarely speak it. He calls them
"sleepers," and his goal is to reawaken their knowledge about the
language so they can share it with youngsters. "We can't lose our
language," said Weatherwax, 59. "Without it, you lose pretty much your
identity, you lose pretty much everything." In the Ho-Chunk Nation of
Nebraska, Caroline Frenchman, another fellow, said tribal members teach
the language to students from preschool to college two to three times a
week. "But that is not enough," she said. Five fluent speakers
remain among the roughly 2,600 enrolled members in the state, she said.
To stir interest in the language, tribal members are digitizing the
1,500 audiotapes that a late elder, Stanford Whitewater, left behind.
Frenchman said Whitewater's recordings contain a wealth of language
lessons and tribal history. Frenchman, 42, said she studied her native
language under Whitewater for five years before he died at age 90
recently. The language apprentice said she never learned Ho-Chunk from
her grandparents, who raised her. Now, she herself is learning the
language as she tries to save it from extinction. "There's an old legend
that says if the language ever dies, the world will cease to exist," she
said. "I don't want it to die." Marie Sanchez, a Northern Cheyenne who
teaches the tribal language to elementary school students, characterized
as severe the language loss among youngsters in her northeastern Montana
reservation. "Our youngest fluent speaker is 30," said Sanchez, 67. To
counter the downward trend, tribal members plan to expand an immersion
program for mothers and infants, Sanchez said. "We want to get them back
into learning the language and traditions before childbirth," she said
of expectant mothers. Seeing so many youths no longer speak Cheyenne
saddens Sanchez, but at the same time, "it makes me want to try harder."
Delphine Saraficio, who teaches O'odham to children and adults in San
Xavier, said she sometimes feels discouraged to see her native language
disintegrating. But then she hears new students such as Preston
painstakingly emit the soft, lilting sounds of O'odham in class. It is
the affirmation she needs to keep working to save her mother tongue.