Post by Okwes on Oct 30, 2006 11:24:47 GMT -5
Losing the Native tongue
Cultural preservation group draws attention to disappearing languages
NORMAN OK
Sam Lewin 10/22/2006
www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?actionfiltered=displayarticle&artic\
le_id=8273
<http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8\
273>
Up until a few months ago there were six people still fluent in Euchee.
Then one died, dropping the number to five. The average age of the
speakers is currently 85, said Richard Grounds, the head of the Euchee
language program and a language preservation and anthropology professor
at the University of Tulsa.
�"You try to raise the visibility of language by connecting
people-matching elders and youngsters,�" Grounds tells the Native
American Times.
Grounds and several dozen other people attended the Intertribal Wordpath
Society�'s 9th annual celebration of languages spoken by Oklahoma
tribes. The event, held Oct. 20th at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in
Norman, comes with the stark knowledge that there are too few speakers
left and that languages once thriving are now in danger of disappearing
altogether.
It�'s already happened. According to the society, there are 13
Oklahoma Indian languages that no longer have any fluent speakers in the
state. While a handful-including Wyandotte, Seneca and Cayuga- are still
spoken by people living in other areas and Canada, others-Delaware, Kaw,
Tonkawa and Modoc-are effectively dead.
Those facts scare people like Grounds and Alice Anderton, a linguist and
former Comanche language instructor who serves as the society�'s
executive director. Anderton has her own theories as to why languages
once used by state Indian tribes are now disappearing at an alarming
rate. Anderton said tribes are �"very assimilated here culturally.
There are many tribes living in a small space and you have situations
where someone speaks Cherokee and they are talking with someone else
that speaks another [Indian] language. They don�'t speak each
other�'s language so they communicate in English.�"
In addition to funding language teaching programs and stressing the
importance of cultural preservation, Anderton has other ideas for
stemming the tide. One notion, she says, is for a tribe hosting a powwow
or other cultural celebration to use the occasion as a chance to speak
in their language, making the event more specific to that tribe and
highlighting their language in the process.
�"So if it�'s in Kiowa Country, they use-and everyone learns-a
little Kiowa,�' Anderton said.
According to the society, out of the 591, 437 people enrolled in
Oklahoma tribes, only 22,979 of them are fluent in their tribal
languages. That boils down to a whopping 96.2-percent of the tribal
population not knowing how to speak the language of their ancestors.
Delving further, the numbers turn even grimmer. The number of children
newly fluent in tribal languages due to programs of the last 20 years:
Zero. At the current rate of speaker replacement, likely surviving
languages by 2030: Five. The tribes themselves are not wholly blameless.
Out of 39 tribes in the state only 10 fund language preservation
programs. The Modoc, for example, did not. Now their language is gone.
Albert Lorentz made a three hour round trip to attend the society�'s
language celebration. He has three daughters ranging in age from 12 to
13 and each is enrolled in a Pawnee language program. He is optimistic
about the future of his tribe�'s language preservation efforts.
�"Our language is coming back,�" he said. �"Pawnee children
are returning to their roots. But the parents have to keep at it.�"
Cultural preservation group draws attention to disappearing languages
NORMAN OK
Sam Lewin 10/22/2006
www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?actionfiltered=displayarticle&artic\
le_id=8273
<http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=8\
273>
Up until a few months ago there were six people still fluent in Euchee.
Then one died, dropping the number to five. The average age of the
speakers is currently 85, said Richard Grounds, the head of the Euchee
language program and a language preservation and anthropology professor
at the University of Tulsa.
�"You try to raise the visibility of language by connecting
people-matching elders and youngsters,�" Grounds tells the Native
American Times.
Grounds and several dozen other people attended the Intertribal Wordpath
Society�'s 9th annual celebration of languages spoken by Oklahoma
tribes. The event, held Oct. 20th at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in
Norman, comes with the stark knowledge that there are too few speakers
left and that languages once thriving are now in danger of disappearing
altogether.
It�'s already happened. According to the society, there are 13
Oklahoma Indian languages that no longer have any fluent speakers in the
state. While a handful-including Wyandotte, Seneca and Cayuga- are still
spoken by people living in other areas and Canada, others-Delaware, Kaw,
Tonkawa and Modoc-are effectively dead.
Those facts scare people like Grounds and Alice Anderton, a linguist and
former Comanche language instructor who serves as the society�'s
executive director. Anderton has her own theories as to why languages
once used by state Indian tribes are now disappearing at an alarming
rate. Anderton said tribes are �"very assimilated here culturally.
There are many tribes living in a small space and you have situations
where someone speaks Cherokee and they are talking with someone else
that speaks another [Indian] language. They don�'t speak each
other�'s language so they communicate in English.�"
In addition to funding language teaching programs and stressing the
importance of cultural preservation, Anderton has other ideas for
stemming the tide. One notion, she says, is for a tribe hosting a powwow
or other cultural celebration to use the occasion as a chance to speak
in their language, making the event more specific to that tribe and
highlighting their language in the process.
�"So if it�'s in Kiowa Country, they use-and everyone learns-a
little Kiowa,�' Anderton said.
According to the society, out of the 591, 437 people enrolled in
Oklahoma tribes, only 22,979 of them are fluent in their tribal
languages. That boils down to a whopping 96.2-percent of the tribal
population not knowing how to speak the language of their ancestors.
Delving further, the numbers turn even grimmer. The number of children
newly fluent in tribal languages due to programs of the last 20 years:
Zero. At the current rate of speaker replacement, likely surviving
languages by 2030: Five. The tribes themselves are not wholly blameless.
Out of 39 tribes in the state only 10 fund language preservation
programs. The Modoc, for example, did not. Now their language is gone.
Albert Lorentz made a three hour round trip to attend the society�'s
language celebration. He has three daughters ranging in age from 12 to
13 and each is enrolled in a Pawnee language program. He is optimistic
about the future of his tribe�'s language preservation efforts.
�"Our language is coming back,�" he said. �"Pawnee children
are returning to their roots. But the parents have to keep at it.�"