Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 10, 2008 12:09:10 GMT -5
Tribes on their own when it comes to saving languages
By Jason Stein
June 03, 3008
Efforts to save Wisconsin´s endangered native languages receive no real
state investment and only modest federal money, a Wisconsin State Journal review
has found.
The state stopped directly funding tribal language initiatives in 2003, when
the then Republican-controlled Legislature cut the $220,000 a year they were
receiving. That cut eliminated a program, dating to 1980, that helped fund
language and culture classes at five schools for American Indian students in
Wisconsin.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who in the past has sought modest increases for
that program, said the state no longer can ignore the dangers facing Wisconsin´
s five native languages.
"It´s a very, very important part of our heritage" in the state, said
Doyle, who as a young lawyer once worked with Navajo-speaking clients on their
tribe´s Arizona reservation. "We have the opportunity with older people to
preserve the language ... and it´s something that, somewhere years down the road,
we´re going to regret that we didn´t do."
The newspaper´s review found tribes seeking to save their endangered
languages get little government help, and even face some obstacles:
The federal No Child Left Behind Act makes difficult demands on small tribes
to back up their education programs with strong research. That could hamper
the creation of promising tribal "language immersion" schools in the state
that teach most subjects in students´ native languages.
Several federal agencies together provided roughly $850,000 in grant money
this year to native groups in the state to help fund a tribal immersion school,
train tribal language teachers and digitally record their languages. That
sum, though significant, is much less than the money the government once spent
on Indian boarding schools that sought to kill off those languages.
The state received $168.5 million in payments from tribal gambling casinos
over the two most recent years, but spends none of that on tribal language
programs. In contrast, not counting federal money, the state is expected to
spend $2.6 million this year to protect threatened wildlife such as the trumpeter
swan and the Karner blue butterfly.
The money tribes devote to their language programs partly reflects their
priorities. But with little public money available, that spending also depends
on whether the tribes have a lucrative casino or can win competitive outside
grants.
For instance, the Ho-Chunk tribe, whose business operations include a large
casino near Baraboo and a bingo hall outside Madison, has more than 30
employees in different departments working to teach and preserve their language,
said Richard Mann, who oversees the tribal language division. The Sokaogon band
of Ojibwe, which has a much smaller casino in Crandon, has had no more than
one paid language worker in recent years, Robert VanZile Jr. said.
VanZile, the former language preservation officer for the Sokaogon band,
said his tribe made a frustrating, unsuccessful bid for a federal grant to
preserve the Ojibwe dialect spoken on his reservation.
"It was always a struggle because we´re always competing with other tribes,"
he said.
State Rep. Terry Musser, chairman of the Legislative Council´s state-tribal
relations committee, said he hopes this summer his group can consider how to
help fund tribes´ language efforts.
"If we want to continue the tradition of those languages, something´s got
to be done now before it´s too late," said Musser, R-Black River Falls.
Both Doyle and Musser said the state should bring back its modest language
program using money from tribal casino payments. Previously, Doyle has sought
state spending of $260,000 a year for that now-defunct program. State schools
superintendent Libby Burmaster also said that, as in the past, she will
include money for native language and culture programs in the budget request she
will make to Doyle on Sept. 15.
The state does already provide some indirect aid to tribes in preserving
their languages, such as help in applying for federal grants, said J.P. Leary,
an American Indian studies consultant for the state Department of Public
Instruction.
Even with the right resources, however, native language immersion schools
face obstacles, Leary said.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act mandates all state public schools and
federally administered tribal schools base their teaching practices on
rigorous research. Those scientific studies require money and large groups of
similar pupils to study - high hurdles for small tribes to clear, he said.
For now, tribes interested in starting an immersion school probably have to
open a private institution or persuade a local public school district to
sponsor a charter school, since neither are bound by those parts of the federal
mandates, Leary said.
By Jason Stein
June 03, 3008
Efforts to save Wisconsin´s endangered native languages receive no real
state investment and only modest federal money, a Wisconsin State Journal review
has found.
The state stopped directly funding tribal language initiatives in 2003, when
the then Republican-controlled Legislature cut the $220,000 a year they were
receiving. That cut eliminated a program, dating to 1980, that helped fund
language and culture classes at five schools for American Indian students in
Wisconsin.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who in the past has sought modest increases for
that program, said the state no longer can ignore the dangers facing Wisconsin´
s five native languages.
"It´s a very, very important part of our heritage" in the state, said
Doyle, who as a young lawyer once worked with Navajo-speaking clients on their
tribe´s Arizona reservation. "We have the opportunity with older people to
preserve the language ... and it´s something that, somewhere years down the road,
we´re going to regret that we didn´t do."
The newspaper´s review found tribes seeking to save their endangered
languages get little government help, and even face some obstacles:
The federal No Child Left Behind Act makes difficult demands on small tribes
to back up their education programs with strong research. That could hamper
the creation of promising tribal "language immersion" schools in the state
that teach most subjects in students´ native languages.
Several federal agencies together provided roughly $850,000 in grant money
this year to native groups in the state to help fund a tribal immersion school,
train tribal language teachers and digitally record their languages. That
sum, though significant, is much less than the money the government once spent
on Indian boarding schools that sought to kill off those languages.
The state received $168.5 million in payments from tribal gambling casinos
over the two most recent years, but spends none of that on tribal language
programs. In contrast, not counting federal money, the state is expected to
spend $2.6 million this year to protect threatened wildlife such as the trumpeter
swan and the Karner blue butterfly.
The money tribes devote to their language programs partly reflects their
priorities. But with little public money available, that spending also depends
on whether the tribes have a lucrative casino or can win competitive outside
grants.
For instance, the Ho-Chunk tribe, whose business operations include a large
casino near Baraboo and a bingo hall outside Madison, has more than 30
employees in different departments working to teach and preserve their language,
said Richard Mann, who oversees the tribal language division. The Sokaogon band
of Ojibwe, which has a much smaller casino in Crandon, has had no more than
one paid language worker in recent years, Robert VanZile Jr. said.
VanZile, the former language preservation officer for the Sokaogon band,
said his tribe made a frustrating, unsuccessful bid for a federal grant to
preserve the Ojibwe dialect spoken on his reservation.
"It was always a struggle because we´re always competing with other tribes,"
he said.
State Rep. Terry Musser, chairman of the Legislative Council´s state-tribal
relations committee, said he hopes this summer his group can consider how to
help fund tribes´ language efforts.
"If we want to continue the tradition of those languages, something´s got
to be done now before it´s too late," said Musser, R-Black River Falls.
Both Doyle and Musser said the state should bring back its modest language
program using money from tribal casino payments. Previously, Doyle has sought
state spending of $260,000 a year for that now-defunct program. State schools
superintendent Libby Burmaster also said that, as in the past, she will
include money for native language and culture programs in the budget request she
will make to Doyle on Sept. 15.
The state does already provide some indirect aid to tribes in preserving
their languages, such as help in applying for federal grants, said J.P. Leary,
an American Indian studies consultant for the state Department of Public
Instruction.
Even with the right resources, however, native language immersion schools
face obstacles, Leary said.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act mandates all state public schools and
federally administered tribal schools base their teaching practices on
rigorous research. Those scientific studies require money and large groups of
similar pupils to study - high hurdles for small tribes to clear, he said.
For now, tribes interested in starting an immersion school probably have to
open a private institution or persuade a local public school district to
sponsor a charter school, since neither are bound by those parts of the federal
mandates, Leary said.