From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Nov 1 16:10:06 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 09:10:06 -0700 Subject: Native language taught on Wind River Reservation (fwd) Message-ID: Native language taught on Wind River Reservation http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=303719 LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - Teaching the native language to students on the Wind River Indian Reservation seems to help establish cultural pride that can be passed on to future generations, according to a University of Wyoming anthropologist. Pam Innes, a linguistic anthropologist, said the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone languages are being taught to 3-5 year-olds in preschool Head Start programs. The language instruction continues through high school. Because fewer American Indian children speak their native languages at home, there is concern that native languages on the Wyoming reservation and those elsewhere are dying. A response has been language education combined with the teaching of cultural traditions and history. ''Language and culture are so entwined that to lose one seriously compromises the strength of the other,'' Innes said. ''My work has been an attempt to help tribes retain their language.'' Some students can how hold conversations in their native languages and have also developed or maintained an interest in traditional culture, such as by forming dancing, singing and drumming groups. However, the interest tends to wane among some students as they progress into high school. ''In some cases, the classes don't appear to be igniting the students' interest and keeping them focused, but that may be more reflective of the total school situation and social structure than an indication of the teachers' abilities or materials being taught,'' Innes said. Yet Innes said the classes yield a variety of benefits. Students who are taught native craftwork show potential as artists, for example, and students also are introduced to spiritual and political leaders. ''And there is the intangible facet of pride. Where these classes have instilled confidence to do well in the world, the experience offers them positive reinforcement that may give them an edge,'' she said. From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Sat Nov 1 20:29:19 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 12:29:19 -0800 Subject: Yaqui youth celebrating their culture, byte by byte =?utf-8?q?=28fwd=29?= In-Reply-To: <1067630776.c9c56001d17d9@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Hi Phil, Rolland, I found this news document at the Pasqua news site. I believe the answer then is, its at New Pasqua; http://www.pascuayaquitribe.org/news/times/pdf/intel.pdf David ------------------- > hi rolland, sorry i don't know where it is located, but i do know there > is an old and new pascua yaqui. later, phil > >> > > > Phil...do you know if that is New Pasqua or Old Pasqua? > > > > ---- > > wahjeh > > rolland nadjiwon > > > > > From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 2 17:14:00 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 10:14:00 -0700 Subject: Grupos =?iso-8859-1?b?aW5k7WdlbmFz?= se extinguen en Chile (fwd) Message-ID: Grupos indígenas se extinguen en Chile http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/learn_english/newsid_3226000/3226817.stm Two indigenous groups in Chile have died out and another two are in danger of extinction, according to a major new report by twenty-five experts that was overseen by former president Patricio Aylwin. The report also recommended greater autonomy for the people of Easter Island. At the extreme south of Chile, ethnic groups and languages are being wiped out. The reporters found two indigenous groups, the Aonikenk and the Selk'am had disappeared and another two are close to extinction. One group, the Kawesqar, has just twenty people left and the other, the Yagans, seventy. One Yagan woman who travelled more than two thousand kilometres north to Santiago for the formal ceremony told the BBC there are only two people left who spoke their language fluently. The report recommended an urgent census and new programmes to try to save their culture and language. The study also called for the three thousand Rapa Nui people of Easter Island to be given greater autonomy under the umbrella of Chilean sovereignty. On the key issue of land rights, it called for a mechanism to study ansestral links to the land. It said public property should be handed back to its original owners. Clinton Porteous, BBC, Santiago From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 4 19:59:53 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 11:59:53 -0800 Subject: Poster Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: /Harley%20Disk/Temporary%20Items/nsmail65.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 61419 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: itg03.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 61419 bytes Desc: Document URL: From fnkrs at UAF.EDU Wed Nov 5 00:36:58 2003 From: fnkrs at UAF.EDU (Hishinlai') Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 15:36:58 -0900 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= 2003) INDIANS AND CASINOS Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= [INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European "tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal for ordinary Americans to open? Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question 3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= at tommclaughlin at pivot.net From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Wed Nov 5 14:25:22 2003 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:25:22 -0500 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Hi, everyone. I've only skimmed the message below, but it makes me sad to see such misinformation about us being published in newspapers .... McLaughlin shows a total lack of knowledge about our (and his own) history. Do we need to respond as a group to this kind of message, or should we simply view Tom McLaughlin as an extremely misinformed person and ignore him? Resa -----Original Message----- From: Hishinlai' [mailto:fnkrs at UAF.EDU] Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 7:37 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Indians & Other Things Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= 2003) INDIANS AND CASINOS Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= [INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European "tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal for ordinary Americans to open? Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question 3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= at tommclaughlin at pivot.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 5 16:51:13 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:51:13 -0700 Subject: Omaha language classes keep culture alive (fwd) Message-ID: Omaha language classes keep culture alive By KRYSTAL OVERMYER / DN Staff Writer November 05, 2003 http://www.dailynebraskan.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/11/05/3fa87b511b58a [photo inset: In an office cluttered with American Indian texts and memorabilia, Mark Awakuni-Swetland explains the marriage of his adopted language and culture through a message in his hand.] To demonstrate, he forms an L-shape with his elbow, and his fingers straighten toward the ceiling. On one side of the hand, he says, you have the palm. On the other, there's the knuckled top. The two sides are different, he says, but nonetheless connected. "How can you separate the two?" he said. "They're tied together in a way you cannot separate." Like the language he teaches, Awakuni-Swetland, lecturer of anthropology and Native American studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is bound to his students and they to the culture, community and future of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. His Omaha classes are meant to revive the culture of the tribe through language, an oral tradition slowly becoming silent as its native speakers pass away. "The belief for many is that the loss of language is a loss of culture -- a unique identity," he said. But teaching a language that is disappearing among its speakers is difficult. These days, the first language American Indian children learn on the Omaha reservation is English. "How do you revive a language," he said, "when even the parents don't speak it?" Among the Omaha people, Awakuni-Swetland and his crew of students are a bit of an anomaly. Awakuni-Swetland is the white man in the tribe -- once a white boy merely interested in American Indian things, now a white professor teaching a Native American language. His students -- some American Indian, some white -- are outsiders, their presence sometimes considered an intrusion on tradition. The Omaha people can trace their ancestry in Nebraska back to the 1700s, the longest of any tribe in Nebraska. They are proud of their traditions, and it takes time for some to accept that white, college-aged students are learning and sometimes teaching their language, said Jessica Waite, a junior anthropology major. "Like everything, it's always nerve-racking the first time you go," she said, speaking of the class's visits to the Indian Culture Center in Lincoln. "You're pretty much the only white person there." Waite, whose ancestors were part of the Ogallala and Sioux tribes, said she was looking for a connection to the American Indian community when she signed up for the Omaha classes. She knew she and the other students were not just fulfilling a language requirement, but keeping the language alive for the tribe. "Most classes are consumptive," Awakuni-Swetland said. "You go in and consume a lecture or notes, regurgitating something as a paper. "In this case, your job is to learn the language while producing materials that will last beyond you." His first cohort of students to complete the program created an Omaha-English language cookbook. Waite's class, set to finish its four-semester cycle of classes this spring, will publish a how-to manual on constructing teepees. "If you know English, you can learn how to read and speak Omaha just from this book," Awakuni-Swetland said. The pinnacle of the classes' work, Waite said, came in April when the group organized a traditional "hand game" for the Indian Culture Center. When the students spoke in Omaha, it was one of the first times Waite said she felt accepted. "After they heard us speaking their language, it really felt like they were coming around to accepting us and realizing how important this course was at UNL," she said. The students realize, she said, they are among the few carriers of the Omaha language. "When we first started, Mark told us there were probably about 40 fluent speakers left," she said. "It kind of feels good that we're working to keep this language alive." True to the Omaha tradition, Awakuni-Swetland is awash with relatives. He has no Native American ancestors, save those who came through his adoption. In high school in the 1970s, he took Omaha classes from a woman who later would become his adopted grandmother. After that, her relatives became his -- including an 87-year-old brother and a daughter older than he. "Even though they're all technically fictive, they are relationships that came through my adoption," he said. "And through that, I have relationships with all of their relatives." The Omaha people don't use blood to distinguish relationships, he said. The relationship determines the term -- whether a close friend or mentor becomes a sister or uncle or brother. Alberta Canby, a 73-year-old Native speaker who assists in the classroom, calls Awakuni-Swetland her nephew; he calls her his aunt. "When he calls me Auntie, it makes me feel like he's one of my children," she said. The students in the class, she said, have become like her Omaha children, too. Some students speak, she said, as if they'd known the language before. And tribal council members were amazed, Awakuni-Swetland said, at the students' April celebration. On campus, the students are the ambassadors of the Omaha people. "It's something that makes the Omaha seem like real people, not just artifacts in a museum," he said. For now, though, Waite is simply grateful for the family the class has given her. The classes are purposefully small, with about 15 students each cycle. Because the class moves in a two-year cycle, the students take class together for four semesters. The next group of students will begin the program in fall 2004. After three semesters, the group is tightly knit, Waite said. They barbecue at Awakuni-Swetland's home; they go to their elders, the speakers in their classes, for advice. She has found the language cannot be separated from the Omaha culture and the relationships it has provided. "These people may not be my blood relatives," she said, "but they are my family."  From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 5 16:53:55 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:53:55 -0700 Subject: Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language (fwd) Message-ID: Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language Associated Press http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2003/11/05/build/state/25-blackfeet.inc Jesse DesRosier begins each high school day like a lot of kids. The eighth grader hangs up his coat, pulls off his muddy boots and lopes into his classroom, raising a hand in greeting. Then he opens his mouth, and out comes a small miracle. "Oki, aahsaapinakos!" Hello, good morning! Bantering easily in the drawn-out vowels and clipped endings of a nearly extinct language, Jesse and his 35 classmates are the first fluent Blackfoot speakers in more than two generations. Here at the Nizipuhwahsin, or Real Speak School, on the Blackfeet Reservation in far northwestern Montana, the kids spend all day speaking their ancestral tongue. From kindergarten through eighth grade, they study math, reading, history and other subjects in Blackfoot. "Some people think our language is dead, but it's not," DesRosier tells Smithsonian magazine contributor Michelle Nijhuis. "We still have our language and we're bringing it back." What's at stake is more than words. Filled with nuance and references to Blackfeet history and traditions, the language embodies a culture. "The language allows kids to unravel the mysteries of their heritage," says Darrell Kipp, director of the school and one of its founders. The Blackfoot language, also known as Piegan, has been in danger of disappearing for nearly a century. From the late 1800s through the 1960s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs forced tens of thousands of Native Americans into English-only government boarding schools. Taken hundreds of miles from the reservations, the children were often beaten for speaking native languages, and were sent home ashamed of them. As adults, they cautioned their own children to speak English only. Over the decades, many tribal languages fell silent. Of the 300 languages spoken in North America at the time of European settlement, 150 have disappeared completely, and only a handful of the survivors are acquiring new speakers. By 1980, the remaining Blackfoot speakers were more than 50 years old, and Blackfoot was headed down the well-worn road to oblivion. But in 1982, Darrell Kipp, now 59, a Harvard graduate and technical writer, moved back to the reservation's windblown plains after a 20-year absence. He met up with Dorothy Still Smoking, who had also returned, in 1979, after earning a master's from the University of South Dakota, to become a dean at the reservation's community college. Both wanted to learn the language they occasionally heard but rarely spoke as children. "There was always a missing piece in my life," says Still Smoking, "and that was the cultural component. The language contains everything -- our values and wisdom, our outlook on the world." In 1987, Kipp, Still Smoking and a fluent Blackfoot speaker named Edward Little Plume founded the nonprofit Piegan Institute, dedicated to restoring Blackfoot and other tribal languages. Because many on the reservation still associated their language with humiliating experiences at boarding school, the institute was controversial. To calm the waters, the founders made a video about tribal elders' experiences with the language and distributed 2,000 copies among the reservation's 7,000 residents. The video did the trick. Today, demand for the few openings at the school, where tuition is $100 a month, has parents signing up their toddlers, and the school's large, airy classrooms explode with activity. Supporters say the impact runs deep. "This is a way to heal the identity of confusion that so many of our students go through," says Joyce Silverthorn, a tribal educator and member of the Montana Board of Public Education. In Indian country, where the frequency of suicide among adolescents is more than double the national rate, such confidence can be, literally, a lifesaver. From ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US Wed Nov 5 16:59:21 2003 From: ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US (Sarah Supahan) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:59:21 -0800 Subject: Indians & Other Things In-Reply-To: <98732C3B53A0D311A5C20090273ABE5313F68C4A@ECUMAIL2> Message-ID: Perhaps many individual AND group responses to the NEWSPAPER is in order. It is totally inappropriate, inaccurate and unacceptable. Sarah On Wednesday, November 5, 2003, at 06:25 AM, Bizzaro, Resa Crane wrote: > Hi, everyone. I've only skimmed the message below, but it makes me > sad to > see such misinformation about us being published in newspapers .... > McLaughlin shows a total lack of knowledge about our (and his own) > history. > > Do we need to respond as a group to this kind of message, or should we > simply view Tom McLaughlin as an extremely misinformed person and > ignore > him? > > Resa > > -----Original Message----- > From: Hishinlai' [mailto:fnkrs at UAF.EDU] > Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 7:37 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Indians & Other Things > > > Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you > imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > > By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October > 30,= > 2003) > > INDIANS AND CASINOS > > Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada > and in > New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. > What's up > with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters must > decide > next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= the > airways > are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= > > Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" > or > "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good > for > Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one > of the= > ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a > casino,= > or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the > money.= > > [INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO > THEM. > THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES > PORTRAY THEM > TO BE.] > > Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and > robbed > of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories of > how, > before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been > conquering and > robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European "tribes", if > you > will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and savagery. Indians > were > fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to them. They weren't > all > the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray them to be. The > story of > who ended up controlling most of North and South America is one of > survival > of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest > Indian > tribes. Aside from that difference, the only other distinction is that > many > descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling > guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any > remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the > Pequakets > or any of their descendants felt about massacring or torturing > surrounding > tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these formerly-dominant > tribes > have any reparations or giveback programs that I'm unaware of? Please > inform > me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just assume that it's only modern, > white, > liberal Democrats who are so wracked by guilt over the sins of their > ancestors that they wish to force the rest of us to make amends > whether we > want to or not. > > Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several > states, but > I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back to > a > hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and trout > out of > season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going to > Shaw's and > Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have among the > highest > rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's true at least > for the > ones who continue to live apart from mainstream American society on > reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of course, plays right > into > Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= the party base > during > the last few decades and it should come as no surprise that outgoing > President Clinton granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian > tribes that would then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media > coverage > of these last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on > Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary > stealing > furniture from the White House. > > When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that > people > purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to get > clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending > in the > federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated > back in > the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of > land in > the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a > combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. > Thirty > years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and > this > doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations > within the > United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we > consider > it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation > and > the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other > foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal > for > ordinary Americans to open? > > Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on > Question 3. > (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > > Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be > reached= > > at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Wed Nov 5 18:25:11 2003 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rr Lapier) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 13:25:11 EST Subject: Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language (fwd) Message-ID: In a message dated 11/5/2003 9:55:51 AM Mountain Standard Time, cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU writes: > Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language > > Associated Press > http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2003/11/05/build/sta > te/25-blackfeet.inc > > I believe this is a reprint of the Smithsonian Magazine article. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Wed Nov 5 19:01:56 2003 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 12:01:56 -0700 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Typical one-sided, knee-jerk, finger-pointing, simplistic rhetoric. Unfortunately, in my experience, this point of view is not uncommon, particularly among the political right. The most amusingly stupid point made is that "Native Americans were not nice to each other." Well, surprise, they are human beings, and human beings are known for sometimes doing nasty and brutal things to each other. If one takes this argument to its logical extention, you could say "Well, the Jews in Europe sometimes were not nice to each other, so who can blame Hitler?" In my experience, as a white American, this "they were not nice to each other" point of view is surprisingly popular among the more boneheaded whites. I can remember, going home to rural Puget Sound, and hearing a white, Norwegian-American fisherman (my mother's family is also comprised of white, Norwegian-Americans) talking about how mean Native Americans were to each other, implying, I guess, that no-one should bother to be nice to them. My way of countering it was saying "Hey, look at OUR ancestors! They were some of the most violent and brutal people in history. Do you hear Indians walking around talking about how terrible those Vikings were?" So, how to counter this particular point of view? Flood the newspaper with letters. Don't act particularly outraged, don't question the author's right to be an idiot, but use logic and facts to explain clearly why his point of view is nonsense. In particular, point out the WORLDWIDE movement (not at all confined to liberal Democratic Americans!) to recognize, compensate, and otherwise show proper respect for native peoples. You might also point out that the author has every right to blather from, say, a barroom stool, but that does not mean that newspapers are compelled to print trash. But, remember, the more rational WE sound, the more that people like this author will sound like fanatical, ignorant morons. We have history on our side, these people do not. Hishinlai' wrote: >Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you >imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > >By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= >2003) > >INDIANS AND CASINOS > >Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada >and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. >What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters >must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= >the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= > >Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or >"Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for >Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= >ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= >or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= > >[INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO >THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES >PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] > >Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and >robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories >of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been >conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European >"tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and >savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to >them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray >them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South >America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger >than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only >other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered >Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors >did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the >Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt >about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their >lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback >programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll >just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so >wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force >the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. > >Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several >states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go >back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and >trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going >to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have >among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's >true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream >American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of >course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= >the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no >surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to >several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino >licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because >attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of >him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. > >When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that >people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to >get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending >in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated >back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of >land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a >combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty >years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this >doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within >the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we >consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki >Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any >other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be >illegal for ordinary Americans to open? > >Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question >3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > >Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= > >at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > > > From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Wed Nov 5 19:37:11 2003 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 12:37:11 -0700 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: By the way, here is the e-mail for the editor of The Conway Daily Sun: Adam at mountwashingtonvalley.com Have some fun with this one, I know I will. There should be any number of people in this listserve who can neatly and civilly tear the author to shreds, and you might open a few minds while your at it. Living in the SW, surrounded by so many positive examples of Native Americana, I just personally find it amazing that one could write such a lengthy article, and only dwell only on things like alcohoism, "nursing victimhood," and the fact that, historically, Native Americans displayed the universal human tendency to not always be able to get along. Not to mention that a TEACHER (shudder) should know the other sides of the story. Hishinlai' wrote: >Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you >imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > >By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= >2003) > >INDIANS AND CASINOS > >Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada >and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. >What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters >must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= >the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= > >Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or >"Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for >Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= >ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= >or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= > >[INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO >THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES >PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] > >Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and >robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories >of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been >conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European >"tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and >savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to >them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray >them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South >America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger >than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only >other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered >Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors >did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the >Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt >about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their >lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback >programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll >just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so >wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force >the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. > >Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several >states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go >back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and >trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going >to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have >among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's >true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream >American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of >course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= >the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no >surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to >several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino >licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because >attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of >him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. > >When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that >people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to >get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending >in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated >back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of >land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a >combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty >years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this >doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within >the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we >consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki >Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any >other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be >illegal for ordinary Americans to open? > >Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question >3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > >Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= > >at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > > > From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Wed Nov 5 20:11:10 2003 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 15:11:10 -0500 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Thanks, Matthew, for so clearly expressing a path that's useful for pointing out the problems of printing such "trash." Resa -----Original Message----- From: Matthew Ward [mailto:mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US] Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 2:02 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: Indians & Other Things Typical one-sided, knee-jerk, finger-pointing, simplistic rhetoric. Unfortunately, in my experience, this point of view is not uncommon, particularly among the political right. The most amusingly stupid point made is that "Native Americans were not nice to each other." Well, surprise, they are human beings, and human beings are known for sometimes doing nasty and brutal things to each other. If one takes this argument to its logical extention, you could say "Well, the Jews in Europe sometimes were not nice to each other, so who can blame Hitler?" In my experience, as a white American, this "they were not nice to each other" point of view is surprisingly popular among the more boneheaded whites. I can remember, going home to rural Puget Sound, and hearing a white, Norwegian-American fisherman (my mother's family is also comprised of white, Norwegian-Americans) talking about how mean Native Americans were to each other, implying, I guess, that no-one should bother to be nice to them. My way of countering it was saying "Hey, look at OUR ancestors! They were some of the most violent and brutal people in history. Do you hear Indians walking around talking about how terrible those Vikings were?" So, how to counter this particular point of view? Flood the newspaper with letters. Don't act particularly outraged, don't question the author's right to be an idiot, but use logic and facts to explain clearly why his point of view is nonsense. In particular, point out the WORLDWIDE movement (not at all confined to liberal Democratic Americans!) to recognize, compensate, and otherwise show proper respect for native peoples. You might also point out that the author has every right to blather from, say, a barroom stool, but that does not mean that newspapers are compelled to print trash. But, remember, the more rational WE sound, the more that people like this author will sound like fanatical, ignorant morons. We have history on our side, these people do not. Hishinlai' wrote: >Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you >imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > >By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October >30,= >2003) > >INDIANS AND CASINOS > >Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada >and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other >state. What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? >Maine voters must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to >open one here and= the airways are full of ads trying to influence >Maine voters on Question 3.= > >Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" >or "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be >good for Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. >Not one of the= ads I've seen addresses the question of why only >Indians can open a casino,= or why they would even want to. We can only >assume it's just for the money.= > >[INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO >THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES >PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] > >Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and >robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are >stories of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes >had been conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. >European "tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for >cruelty and savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as >Europeans were to them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers >Disney movies portray them to be. The story of who ended up controlling >most of North and South America is one of survival of the fittest. >Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside >from that difference, the only other distinction is that many >descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling >guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any >remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the >Pequakets or any of their descendants felt about massacring or >torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these >formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback programs that >I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just >assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so >wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to >force the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. > >Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several states, >but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back >to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and >trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll >going to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, >they have among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the >country. That's true at least for the ones who continue to live apart >from mainstream American society on reservations and nurse their >victimhood. This, of course, plays right into Democrat party politics. >Victim groups have become= the party base during the last few decades >and it should come as no surprise that outgoing President Clinton >granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian tribes that would >then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media coverage of these >last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on Clinton's >selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary stealing >furniture from the White House. > >When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that >people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able >to get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was >pending in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty >negotiated back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned >vast tracts of land in the state. It was eventually settled with the >Indians receiving a combination of millions in cash and several >thousand acres of land. Thirty years later, Indians still get a high >rate of public assistance and this doesn't make sense to me. If tribes >claim to be sovereign nations within the United States, how can they >qualify for welfare programs? Should we consider it foreign aid? Are >they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation and the United >States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other foreign >nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal for >ordinary Americans to open? > >Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question >3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > >Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be >reached= > >at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > > > From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Wed Nov 5 21:32:50 2003 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rr Lapier) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 16:32:50 EST Subject: Hawaiian immersion saved the language Message-ID: Here is an article from Pila. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Pila Wilson Subject: Fwd(2): Hawaiian immersion saved the language Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 09:28:55 -1000 Size: 4009 URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Thu Nov 6 17:43:00 2003 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (MM Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 11:43:00 -0600 Subject: Fwd: Indigenous Conference In Oaxaca, Mexico, Panelist Needed Message-ID: Begin forwarded message: > > Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 15:06:34 -0800 (PST) > From: "Luis M. Trujillo" > Subject:Indigenous Conference In Oaxaca, Mexico, Panelist > > My name is Luis M. Trujillo, I have recently graduated from Stanford > University and I am working as assistant to the director of the center > in Oaxaca called Centro de Estudios y Desarollo de Lenguas Indigenas > de Oaxaca, created in 1999 to research and develop news ways of > improving the indigenous education in Oaxaca. Our center is hosting is > second international congress, either the first week of December or > the second, that will be determined in the next up coming days. > > We are looking for a panelist that can speak about the role of > technology in the preservation, teaching of indigenous languages. If > this message can be posted, maybe a member of the list might know > someone. I have some people in mind at Stanford, but rather would like > to get other points of view. > > Luis > Tel. 01152(951) 549-4409 > Apartado Postal 410 > Oaxaca, Oaxaca > C.P 68000 > From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Nov 6 19:12:20 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 11:12:20 -0800 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Din=E9?= Message-ID: Let's ensure Navajo language passes on to future generations By Lucille Mescale Hunt Eagle Air Med Summer has been great and memorable. Now it is time to get ready for winter activities. In coordinating our efforts for such activities, verbal language is one very important tool of communication. Verbal language comes in various tongues and is so powerful that it motivates us to act or react to everything we do. As children, we learn to speak a language at a very young age and cannot even remember how we first learned to say a word or words. Verbal language begins with data input of words from our parents and those around us. When our brain received sufficient input we began to make sounds in an effort to communicate with words. In the traditional Navajo way, a baby's first laugh is considered its first word and is celebrated with a prayer and a feast of traditional foods along with natural salt, which represents old age. At the celebration everyone wishes the baby a long and prosperous life reaching into old age, and the baby blesses you with the same wish. My grandparents and parents taught me that our language is our life. How we speak to others and how we speak of others represent our integrity. They taught me to speak well of others and not say anything unkind because the gods that are listening will take away blessings. Navajo is my first language but I am still learning new words. Every region on the reservation has its own dialect. I didn't know this until I visited my aunt in Arizona. One day she asked me to wash the spoons (adee' táángis). I understood her to mean wash the spoons only. I wondered why she would ask me to wash the spoons and not the dishes. I obeyed and washed the spoons. When she returned she asked me why I hadn't washed the spoons to which I gladly replied that I had washed the spoons. She was puzzled and asked me if I understood Navajo. Before I could answer her she explained to me that "adee' táángis" means to wash the dishes. I chuckled and told her that to me ádéé' means spoon. She asked me how I say dishes. I told her it is, _eets'aa'. She thought that was a funny way of saying dishes because to her it meant all the pots and pans in her house. I told her that to me adee' meant a gourd dipper. Now my aunt teases me that I don't understand Navajo. A dialect in a language often tells what region a person is from. I was born and raised in eastern Navajo and therefore speak in the eastern Navajo dialect. When I started school, I began to learn English words by associating Navajo words with new words in English. For example, when I learned the word for Kool-aid, I called it tòòl-aid. Because Kool-aid was made with water I associated the Navajo word for water, tò, and I pronounced it tòòl-aid. Another word was flashlight. In those days flashlights were made out of metal and not plastic. Because it was made out of metal I called it béésh- light (metal-light). It was not until about the second year in school that I started to construct easy sentences in English. At school I was exposed to television, books, the telephone and the phonograph or record player for the first time. These are types of communication media. The English data input began for me as soon as I started school. Today I am very grateful I can communicate in both the Navajo and English languages. I want to encourage all of you who speak the Navajo language to honor yourselves by speaking Navajo as your dominant language. The Navajo language is a beautiful language with its unique sounds and tones. It is a very descriptive language. It was even used in winning the Second World War. Tell your stories in Navajo, make someone laugh by telling your jokes in Navajo, speak Navajo in your home and in public, value your heritage by speaking Navajo, and empower yourself by such a Navajo experience. Navajo is a very hard language to learn. There are many books written for learning the language, but there are very few 24-hour source speakers to learn from. A source speaker is a person who is available for the learner to speak with in the language being learned. In order to learn a language there must be a fluent speaker with whom you exchange dialogue. Otherwise the input data of your language will always be limited. Language is one of those things were you "use it or lose it." The majority of our children are growing up knowing very little Navajo or none at all. I know this because most of my nephews and nieces speak only English and in some cases poor English. It is because we are not 24-hour source speakers for them. I realize that not all Navajos speak fluent Navajo but in preserving our language, we who speak fluent Navajo need to recommit ourselves to living our language. We need to be available for our children to learn our sacred language. Many grow up wishing they could speak and carry on a conversation with their grandparents who speak no English at all. And grandparents wish they could share their sacred traditional stories and songs with their grandchildren. The traditional stories are more meaningful and have their greatest impact when they are told in Navajo. It would be so sad if one day in the future we read in the newspaper that the last Navajo language speaker has died. It would read on to say that the once great and powerful Navajo language is now extinct. This could happen in 50 or more years if we don't do something about it. It is not too late to speak our Navajo language and pass it on to our children and grandchildren. Too much responsibility is being placed on the schools to teach our children the Navajo language. The schools are doing an excellent job in trying to help preserve our heritage but it is not enough for us to depend on the schools to teach our children our language. The schools should only serve as a support group to family efforts. I appreciate and commend those who have a strong desire learn and practice often to communicate in basic Navajo. There are many elderly Navajo people who do not speak English. They need our help to interpret and translate for them because they utilize the health services and other public vendors on the reservation. May we serve with dignity and respect no matter how little or how much we are able to speak in the Navajo language. (Lucille Mescale Hunt operates Eagle Air Med that is based throughout the Navajo Nation.) From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 05:27:00 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 22:27:00 -0700 Subject: Red tape can't fix national wound (fwd) Message-ID: Red tape can't fix national wound JAMES TRAVERS Nov. 6, 2003. 01:00 AM http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1068073811434&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795 If time is the best healer, politicians, lawyers and bureaucrats are surely the worst. That will become sadly evident as the federal government unveils a startlingly cold, badly flawed program to compensate only those former students of aboriginal residential schools who are willing and able to prove they were abused beyond the norms of the times. However well intended, the nearly $2 billion resolution process Public Works Minister Ralph Goodale is expected to announce as soon as today is too defensive, too legalistic and too bureaucratic to close a national wound. Along with a previous apology, the expected 12,000 applicants who manage to wade through a 55-page form and the pain of a hearing can expect awards that, depending on the severity of beatings or the frequency of sexual assaults, will range from a low of $5,000 to more than $200,000. But in most cases those settlements will be reduced by 30 per cent because the Catholic Church is sidestepping responsibility, claiming the Orders that operated the schools were independent and are now extinct or penniless. Adding insult to injury, there will be no compensation for loss of language and culture suffered by the surviving 90,000 aboriginal children who, for almost 100 years, were torn from their families and communities. Fearing added liability and more years of ugly wrangling, the federal government is specifically avoiding more inclusive solutions that would have put higher value on reconciliation and less on clearing the cases from an already overloaded judicial system. Nowhere is that approach more obvious, or more disturbing, than in the decision to attach a point system and price tags to abuses that shattered lives. Former students who prove they were raped, sodomized, forced to perform oral sex or beaten more frequently and ferociously than their peers will get bigger cheques. It's all contained in a brutally specific list of sexual and physical abuses that should be required reading in a country that too often assumes its moral superiority. The inescapable truth detailed in careful, almost clinical language is that adults took shocking advantage of children whom the state and four churches trusted them to protect. While today's announcement attempts to address that breach of trust as well as that stain on the country's past, it falls far short. In too closely following legal precedents, it puts too little weight on national culpability and fails to recognize that a soul can be as easily destroyed by one incident as by many. That puts daunting pressure on adjudicators to add a human face to a complex, high-risk process that aboriginals and others will be sorely tempted to dismiss as mean-spirited. Those 40 or so former judges and legal experts now confront the formidable challenge of giving this system credibility by tilting it away from the federal government and back toward the victims. Even so, the risks are enormous. There is real danger that fragile people will be damaged again and then left to cope with fresh emotional scars as well as unaccustomed cash. That Ottawa is now weaving a supporting safety net is proof enough that some former students may not be able to relive the past safely. A lesser danger is that aboriginal groups whose concerns are already well documented will assess the system with a few test cases before walking away. If they are disappointed, or worse, the government will be left with a costly white elephant in the form of the first totally new federal department in decades, one that will consume about half the projected budget, and courts swamped by thousands of emotional, complex and costly cases. What's most dispiriting is that there are alternatives to this alternative. A government notoriously generous to its corporate friends should have searched its conscience and found a more humane model for its most vulnerable citizens. Borrowing from South Africa, it could have opted for more truth, reconciliation and healing. Instead, politicians are allowing themselves to be led by lawyers and bureaucrats instead of their hearts. A process focused on attaching a specific cost to each time a child is molested or assaulted misses important parts of the point. It misses that rapidly aging victims need to put this behind them at least as much as they need money. It misses that what happened at residential schools dripped like acid from generation to generation, destroying families and communities. Most of all, it misses that a country that tried to assimilate a people by attacking their language and culture, by forcing their children into strange and distant schools, must now err on the side of those it hurt, or hide its head in shame. James Travers is a national affairs writer. His column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. jtravers at thestar.ca. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 06:07:16 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 23:07:16 -0700 Subject: Australasian Language Technology Association (link Message-ID: Australasian Language Technology Association http://www.alta.asn.au/index.html fyi...a link of interest, phil UofA, ILAT From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 17:12:34 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 10:12:34 -0700 Subject: Fighting life in the margins (fwd) Message-ID: Fighting life in the margins By Samantha Santa Maria Medill News Service http://www.norway.org/newsofnorway/news.cfm?id=675 For centuries, the Samis of Norway were seen as reindeer herders nomadically wandering the frozen northern lands of Finnmark, surviving in their tepees during winter’s polar nights and summer’s midnight suns. But Norway’s largest ethnic group is no longer a people stuck in time. About 90 percent of the 40,000-strong population lives in the cities. Many of those still in the north have given up the nomadic life and are locked in a decades-old struggle to decide how they can put their land to use. What has made Norway wake up to these new realities is the Sami media that many in the community and country credit for the recent resurgence in Sami culture and language. Unlike most indigenous media -- such as Native American radio and newspapers -- the Samis have gone even further, transforming their alternative voice into a powerful political lobby group. Despite being heavily subsidized by the government, they remain critical advocates for Sami rights. Dissimilarities However, the initial use of this media was to coerce a persecuted ethnic group to shun its heritage and history and to become more Norwegian. Sociologist Dr. Mariann Lien of the University of Oslo theorizes that the rise of the pro-eugenics Labor Party in the 1950s capitalized on Norwegians’ tendency to avoid racial and culture dissimilarities. As a result, Sami children were taken away from their parents and sent to Norwegian-language schools; a law directed toward the Samis was passed prohibiting the sale of land to anyone who couldn’t speak Norwegian. In 1946, Sami radio was inaugurated but used mainly as a propaganda device. Media's role “Radio programs often told Samis to forget who they were, including their language, to become more Norwegian,” said Nils Johan Heatta, the current head of Sami Broadcasting. “But that backfired; the people rebelled and listened to the radio to remind themselves of their language and culture.” Today, Sami media have been credited in helping the community set up its own parliament. Its dogged support of Sami land rights for over 20 years will soon see the motion get the nod of the Norwegian government later this year, officials said. Struggling newspapers But despite these successes, Sami media, particularly the three biweekly newspapers, face the same problem seen by the Native American media here: funding. And the complaints about how mainstream media cover their issues are many. Despite government subsidies, the three Sami newspapers are struggling. Their small readerships – averaging circulations of about 2,000 – make it a tough sell for advertisers. Low salaries have forced many journalists out of Sami newsrooms. One of them is Torkel Rasmussen, who was with “Min Aigi” (“Our Time”). “I was fed up working for a poor company where we hardly ever had resources to do good enough journalistic work,” Rasmussen said. "Bored" But if the Native American experience is anything to go by, mainstream media hasn’t proved to be the better alternative. “You get thrown into this great blender of journalism and often you, and your interests, get marginalized,” said Mary Annette Pember, executive director of the Native American Journalists’ Association. She speaks from experience. “I was unhappy in the mainstream media, spiritually deprived and extremely bored,” Pember added. Having to choose between poor-paying jobs at indigenous media, or market rates at mainstream media, both young Samis and Native Americans are choosing the former. Rasmussen, now a teacher with the new Sami journalism school in Kautokeino, said there are 15 students graduating this year and most are bound for Sami radio and television production jobs. Small numbers In the U.S., Pember said, young Native Americans prefer tribal newspapers and radio because they are interested in their own people and culture. However, this has given rise to another problem: under-representation in mainstream media newsrooms. Last year, the American Society of Newspaper Editors polled two-thirds of the nation's daily newspapers and found only 307 of 54,414 newsroom employees – a 0.5 percent penetration rate in a population where 1 percent are Native Americans -- were Native American. There are no corresponding numbers in Norway but a check in the Oslo newsroom of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation – the country’s largest broadcaster – found a few Vietnamese and even an African-American woman, but not a single Sami. "Biased media" Rasmussen sees this as a major problem. “Norwegian media are biased,” he said. “In most of their stories there is a clear ‘We vs. Them’ view.” “Norwegian media is mostly concerned with conflicts, sensational stories or curiosities in their coverage of Sami issues,” Rasmussen added. But help may be on the way – at least in Norway. Anders Eira, state secretary at the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, is working to increase the government subsidies for the three newspapers so that by 2005, they become full-fledged dailies. A Sami from a traditional reindeer herding family in Karajsok, Eira wants to build upon the contributions Sami media has made, believing that the more frequently Sami voices are heard, the greater the importance that is attached to them. Visibility For radio and television, expansion is in the cards. Heatta said Sami programming would be given more airtime next year. He is especially targeting children and teenagers, with children’s television programs and radio programs where teenagers can send in their dedications via text messaging. “One of the challenges of a minority culture is to make themselves visible,” Eira said. “Sami media has done that. Now the task is to not lose, but gain ground.” From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 17:17:27 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 10:17:27 -0700 Subject: Supreme Court hands down ruling on language rights (fwd) Message-ID: Supreme Court hands down ruling on language rights Thu Nov 6 18:48:33 2003 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/06/language031106 From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Fri Nov 7 17:56:19 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 09:56:19 -0800 Subject: Bringing Yagan back Message-ID: Re: CHILE posting Unless there is some other speaker I have not heard of, Yagan now has only one fluent speaker, Cristina Calderon. Her sister Ursula, also fluent, died early in the year. I've been working nonstop to compile and re-edit materials related to the Yagan language (also spelled Yahgan, Yakan, Iakan, Jagan, etc., as well as alternate name (Kuta) Yamana), with an eye towards the creation of teaching materials as well as archiving. So far as I know mine is now the most comprehensive collection anywhere. Materials (published or manuscript) produced during the late 19th century include a number of grammars of varying degrees of coverage- in the 20th century work was much more intermittant and spotty. Very little has been done with regard to syntax, pragmatics, prosody- I'm hoping to pursue this when I go down to Ukika (Isla Navarino, in Chilean Tierra del Fuego). The language is highly unusual areally- its morphosyntactic type more resembles many languages of North America in what Delancey has termed the "bipartite stem belt"- Yagan has instrument/bodypart manner prefixes, pathway/location suffixes, and a great deal of verb serialization of other types. Yet it is largely case marking. The phonology is mostly on the lenis side, lacking in glottalized occlusives and resonants one often sees in languages further north. It also shares with its next door neighbor Kawesqar an extensive pattern of geographical marking on nouns and verbs. While Greenberg put Yagan in with his "Andean" stock (and there are some tantalizing hints in that direction), there are actually much closer historical linkages again with North America, especially it would appear with Salishan. While likely to raise an eyebrow this claim is no more unusual than that proposed by Sapir regarding the relation between Algonkian and Ritwan (Yurok, Wiyot) in California. Sea coasts are easier to traverse in any case. And there used to be a language group (now extinct, with little data about the lexicon, grammar extant) just north of Kawesqar, where the inhabitants possessed the woolly dog, just as did the Salishan groups. I don't draw any conclusions here- just an interesting coincidence. Bringing Yagan back from the brink will be no easy task. But it is one I am willing to attempt. Any advice or help (for instance recommendations for models for the creation of teaching materials) would be appreciated. Thanks. ...Jess Tauber --- phonosemantics at earthlink.net From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 9 08:19:18 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 09:19:18 +0100 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, impotence and/or rage" (at the site http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor the official languages used in school). Further research found that another author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is "a radical impoverishment of human relations." My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and language policy. I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of many years of observation and not formal research (which should not depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and community life. Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net *Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - développement http://www.bisharat.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 9 21:00:47 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 14:00:47 -0700 Subject: Keeping Their Word (fwd) Message-ID: Keeping Their Word By Andrew Metz STAFF CORRESPONDENT http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-mohawk1109,0,6803089.story?coll=ny-statenews-headlines Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, N.Y. -- There's a small school in the far north of New York where English is a foreign language. The tongue taught here is Mohawk. And though the 64 students at the Akwesasne Freedom School learn math and history and reading, their real purpose is their people's cultural survival. "My grandmothers and aunts got spanked if they talked Mohawk at school. That's how we lost our language," said a 12-year-old pupil, whose name is a thicket of letters -- Tehrenhniserakhas, pronounced De Lon Ni Zeh Lakas -- that means "He Puts Two Days into One." "Now we have a better sense of our language than probably any other kids." In a last chance to reverse the consequences of American policies that sought to obliterate Indian identity, the school is immersing children in traditional language and customs and counting on them to emerge the faithkeepers of the new century. With most fluent speakers in their twilight years and few families maintaining Mohawk traditions at home, the intensive teaching on this reservation that spreads over the Canadian border begins before kindergarten and concludes at eighth grade. Mohawk is the only language allowed except for the final two years, during a crash catch-up in English to prepare for public school. "We saw what happened to one generation that lost their culture, lost their history, lost their language," said Sheree Bonaparte, Tehrenhniserakhas's mother, who 25 years ago was one of the first teachers at the school -- the forerunner to immersion programs that have been blossoming around the country. "We decided that we didn't want to raise American children or Canadian children. We wanted to raise Mohawk children." Out of the limelight, these schools -- as many as 50 nationwide -- have become vanguards of a dramatic change in Indian education building since the 1970s, when U.S. officials and Indians began trying to redress a history of forced assimilation dating to the 19th century. Where Indian children were once shipped to federal boarding institutions to be purged of their native ways, schools around the country are now steeped in tribal history and heritage. "Our generation, we were punished for speaking Mohawk. Now we are getting paid to teach it," Lillian Delormier, a third- and fourth-grade teacher, said with amusement, as she watched her students race around the playground, their language flying like sparks through the air. "When I was brought up, all this was a no-no." The linguistic revival is at the core of broad efforts by Indian people to uplift their communities, yet it is also an act of desperation, as native languages are vanishing and taking with them irreplaceable traditions. By 1900, amid the boarding school era, only about 400 Indian languages were in use on the continent. Today, there are around 185, most precariously close to extinction. Linguists and Indian educators predict that many will vanish in less than 50 years. "The tribal languages are the libraries of information for each tribe. They contain the genesis, the cosmology, all the oral histories," said Darrell Kipp, a leader in the immersion movement and founder of the Piegan Institute, a center on his Blackfeet reservation in Montana dedicated to preserving native languages. "They are a blueprint for how to look at the world." The Mohawks may be in better shape than other New York tribes, with as many as 2,000 to 3,000 speakers out of roughly 12,000 on the reservation. The Senecas, however, estimate that fewer than 100 people are fluent, while other members of the Iroquois Confederacy, such as the Oneidas and Onondagas, have hardly anyone able to converse. "This is a survival school. I want to survive as a Seneca for a little while longer," said Dar Dowdy, who six years ago founded the Seneca's Faithkeeper's School. "Our old people tell us that when you lose your language, you're nothing, you're just a social security number." The immersion programs, most of which are privately or tribally funded, are considered by many experts the surest way to stem the onslaught of cultural illiteracy, imparting an Indian perspective on everything from geography to botany. Because of this intense focus, students can be set back in mainstream subjects, particularly English, when they enter public schools. But after some quick catch-up they usually excel: four of the five Indians inducted into the National Honor Society in the local high school last year had attended the Freedom School. "It may take us a couple of weeks to catch up to their work at the beginning of the year," said Tsiehente, (pronounced Jeh Hon Deh) Herne, 13, an eighth-grader. "But after that we zoom past them." The schools also lure parents back to the classroom to reclaim their complex native tongue. The Mohawk language has similar cadences to English but uses only 11 of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Its vocabulary is florid, atavistic and evolving in real time to incorporate the modern world. "Out of everything I learned at Cornell, nothing compares to this, maybe neurology," said Iotenerahtatenion, (pronounced Yo De Neh La Da Den Yo) Arquette, an environmental researcher and veterinarian, who is one of about 20 mothers studying in the Freedom School's adult program. The language renewal push is also permeating public schools that serve most native children, even as educators continue to contend with deficiencies in mainstream Indian education. Federally funded schools and public districts are now routinely incorporating native language and traditions into their curricula. The U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs are spending tens of millions of dollars on improving student performance and training teachers. On the Canadian side of this reservation, one elementary school offers immersion from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade. "Every single book, every single resource material we have to make for ourselves," said Margaret Cook-Peters, who develops Mohawk studies at the Akwesasne Board of Education. New York's Salmon River School District offers language and culture at both its high school and elementary levels and has recently started an advanced Mohawk class. The district is also running a summer program for teachers around the state on Iroqouis history. In the district's St. Regis Mohawk primary school – entirely Indian, 452 students, pre-kindergarten to sixth grade – there is a distinctly native aesthetic, from a mosaic at the entrance depicting the Mohawk creation story to murals in the cafeteria of the clan system. Still, administrators and teachers acknowledge that the Mohawk classes held every other day at best can open students' eyes. "In this situation and this setting I can't take a non-native speaker and make them a speaker," said Irving Papineau, the principal, a graduate of the school. "My primary responsibility is to make sure they meet their academic standards. We've got our hands full." At the Freedom School, there is no such calculation. Mohawk is first, from the moment the students flop onto benches at 9 a.m. Quiet envelops the hall, then the young Indians together welcome the day with the "Words Before All Else," an homage to the natural world meant to bring their minds into focus as one. "There was a process to get rid of us, but it didn't work," Elvera Sargant, the school manager, said as another day commenced and students scattered to their classes. "This is where you learn where you came from and who you are." Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 9 21:03:04 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 14:03:04 -0700 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?b?kUxvc3M=?= of Language and =?iso-8859-1?b?Q3VsdHVyZZIoZndkKQ==?= Message-ID: ‘Loss of Language and Culture’ Schools tried to wipe out identity by Andrew Metz STAFF CORRESPONDENT November 9, 2003 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stside093532795nov09,0,4484123.story?coll=ny-statenews-headlines It began in Carlisle, Pa. with the philosophy: Kill the Indian and save the man. This was the pedagogical mission of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the model for a system of forced assimilation that plucked children from reservations and tried to wipe out their native language and identity. Founded in 1879 by Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, the government school was the alma mater to more than 10,500 American Indians during its 39-year existence, notably Olympic champion Jim Thorpe. For most Indian people, though, it remains the grim touchstone of an era where their tribal ways were shocked out of them. "Carlisle was considered the elite of the off-'rez [off-reservation] boarding schools because the father of them was the one who developed the policy," said Barbara Landis, the school's biographer for the Cumberland County Historical Society. "It was his experiment and Carlisle was the site of that first experiment." While some children were shipped away by relatives or tribal officials who hoped they'd escape the despair of reservation life, many were forcibly enrolled in the schools by the government. Upon arrival at Carlisle or the scores of institutions it spawned in the United States and Canada through the turn of the century, students were stripped of their traditional dress, bathed, clothed in Western garb and made to cut their hair. Pratt's intention was deprivation from all things native and total immersion in white society, a "baptism," as he once was quoted as saying in an address to Baptist ministers. "I believe in immersing Indians in our civilization," he said, "and when we get them under, holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked." In the years following the U.S. military's defeat at the Little Bighorn, the schools became a key weapon in the campaign against the Indians, imposing an ethnic oppression that has traumatized native people even decades after most of the institutions closed or converted into more palatable places of learning. Carlisle was shuttered in 1918, however, the Bureau of Indian Affairs still funds several dozen residential schools. "There is still a legacy from boarding schools," said Carmen Taylor, executive director of the National Indian School Board Association. "All the way from a lack of parenting to feelings of oppression, to say nothing of the loss of language and culture." Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc. From miakalish at REDPONY.US Mon Nov 10 00:06:00 2003 From: miakalish at REDPONY.US (MiaKalish@RedPony) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 17:06:00 -0700 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: Dear Don: There is lots of this kind of research, but mostly you find it in education, specifically related to environments and student success, and, you find it in Health, particularly with regard to the impact that attempts to eradicate their language and culture has had on Native Americans. You find the small, bright glimmers in qualitative research on the success of reinstituting Native culture and religion in AA. Good luck, Mia Kalish ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Osborn" To: Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 1:19 AM Subject: Language impoverishment I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, impotence and/or rage" (at the site http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor the official languages used in school). Further research found that another author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is "a radical impoverishment of human relations." My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and language policy. I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of many years of observation and not formal research (which should not depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and community life. Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net *Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - développement http://www.bisharat.net From susangehr at SISQTEL.NET Mon Nov 10 04:11:00 2003 From: susangehr at SISQTEL.NET (Susan Gehr) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 20:11:00 -0800 Subject: Sean's assessment of FirstVoices In-Reply-To: <20031028071010.B81C32CBA0@listserv.arizona.edu> Message-ID: >> What exactly is FirstVoices? It's an easy-to-use, secure, cost-effective >> web-based tool that enables any language group to develop its own >> authentic and authoritative archiving and language reference resource from >> within its own community. > > Regrettably, it's also junk. You're better off using, well, absolutely > anything else. > > -- > Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ I'm also interested in how you came to your opinion of FirstVoices. I shopped around several different technology-based tools for documenting our languages before settling on Shoebox for documentation & analysis. I do recall having a brief exchange with the FirstVoices folks to get some more information. -- Susan Gehr Karuk Chi Nuuchuuphi Project Karuk Tribe of California P. O. Box 1016 Happy Camp, CA 96039 USA Karuk Language Resources on the Web: http://www.karuk.org/ From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 10 16:54:16 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:54:16 -0800 Subject: Proclamation For Elders Message-ID: RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS COUNTY OF Humboldt County Courthouse WHEREAS, the Northern California Indian Development Council will be hosting the 22nd Annual Inter-Tribal Gathering and Elders Dinner on November 15, 2003 at Redwood Acres in Eureka from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; and WHEREAS, the Gathering is an annual event established to honor all Elders, regardless of ethnicity. It is an opportunity to pay respect to all Elders, our link to the past and bridge to the future; and WHEREAS, the Elders Dinner will be served from noon to 4:00 p.m. and will feature the traditional Salmon cooked over and alder wood fire as well as a full turkey dinner; and WHEREAS, last year, over 1200 meals were served with 600+ being given away to community Elders. The overall attendance was in excess of 3500 people; and WHEREAS, there will be a special honoring and gifting of all Elders in attendance; and WHEREAS, demonstrations of traditional Tribal dances will be performed throughout the day and a Pow Wow Demonstration will begin at 4:00 p.m. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors hereby commends the Northern California Indian Development Council, Inc. for sharing the Native communities' long tradition of respect for the gift of Elders with the community through their sponsoring of the 22nd Annual Northwest Inter-Tribal Gathering and Elders Dinner -- André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com) COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY TO THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN INDIANS/NATIVE AMERICANS/ALASKAN NATIVES & HAWAIIAN ISLANDERS. To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 10 17:42:00 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 09:42:00 -0800 Subject: Island Speak (language) Message-ID: I did not say that the article I forwarded did, but My understanding is yes it is happening but you might check with the people themselves: http://www.k12.hi.us/~waianaeh/waianhi/hawaiian.html http://www.punahou.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=506 http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/o-linkpage.html http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/language/olelo.htm http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/stabilize/additional/hawaiian.htm Julia Sallabank wrote: > Dear Andre > > I am interested in the development of language revitalisation movements. You > say that 'Hawai'ian immersion saved the language', and what has bee achieved > is certainly impressive, but do the children who have been taught Hawai'ian > speak the language out of school, and will they raise children speaking it? > > Many thanks > > Julia > From gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 10 17:56:10 2003 From: gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Garry Forger) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 10:56:10 -0700 Subject: Ed Media conferece In-Reply-To: <1060704059.641700cad417a@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: This conference happens next June in Switzerland. There is a specific track for Indigenous Languages and Technology Topics inlcude: 7. Indigenous Peoples & Technology: This topic provides information on the issues and applications related to indigenous peoples and technology. Submissions are invited on the following non-exclusive list of topics * The Internet's effects on linguistic diversity * Promoting indigenous language development via discussion & chat * Multimedia support of language & culture * Exploring language with digital resources * Cultural attitudes and technology acceptance * Modifying computers to meet minority language requirements * Oral tradition meets voice dictation * Voice over IP, net meetings and collaborative thinking * Asynchronous, reflective discourse * On-line dictionaries and language development More info at http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/topics.htm -- Garry J. Forger, MLS Technology Coordinator The University of Arizona Learning Technologies Center 1077 N. Highland Ave Tucson, AZ 85721-0073 gforger at u.arizona.edu http://www.ltc.arizona.edu/ Phone 520-626-7761 Fax 520-626-8220 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Mon Nov 10 18:25:42 2003 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 11:25:42 -0700 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: I'm sorry that I can't point you to any studies, but I wanted to comment that I wonder if there are not two separate things going on here: First, there is the phenomenon of people who fail to learn the official language used in school sufficiently well, yet the non-use of their own mother tongues in education and other contexts means that they lack vocabulary to use those languages for many contexts. (It is not, of course, that the mother tongues cannot develop, or have not developed the sufficient vocabulary, but if ones education is in another language, one might not be able to use ones own mother tongue in certain contexts). At any rate, the result is people who, in some sense, do not speak any language fluently. One context I've read about this phenomenon is in Hong Kong, a decade or more ago--many high school students were not particularly fluent in English, especially in terms of grammar, but, while Cantonese remained the language they would use at a native level of fluency for nearly all social functions, they were unable to discuss many school subjects in it, since as it was not used in education past a certain level in some schools. This was actually one of the arguments used when the decision was made to make Cantonese the main medium of instruction in HK--I think the argument was something to the effect that it would be better to gain complete fluency in Cantonese and to learn English more as a foreign language, rather than to have people who had deficiencies in both languages. I've also seen this in Taiwan, where people who lacked anything near native-like fluency in Mandarin Chinese also had a low level of advanced vocabulary in the own mother tongues, and here in Northeastern New Mexico, where many native speakers of Spanish express insecurity about their ability in English, yet they clearly lack the vocabulary in Spanish to discuss certain subjects. Immigrants everywhere may have the some problem--they do not achieve native-like fluency in the language(s) of the countries they have moved to, yet they may also lack sufficient fluency in their own native languages, largely because their acquisition of vocabulary largely stopped after they immigrated. Second, when you have languages in a totally different situation--languages that are truly on the brink, often with only a small number of older people who speak it natively, you see not only the loss of vocabulary, but also the seeming loss and simplification of grammatical structures. Of course, all languages are known to change in this way, even the healthiest ones, but in these cases of dying languages, it does not seem that you are dealing with a change in which one structure is replacing another, but with a situation where the structures are not being replaced, and the language may actually be losing its expressiveness. This is something that, despite popular perceptions of language being "in decline," does not normally happen to any language. Indeed, this real loss of expressiveness seems to only occur when a language is truly dying. To me, the first phenomenon is an excellent argument for mother-tongue education, and the second is a subject of study for linguists, as well as a warning sign of language death. It is certainly possible that certain individuals might be affected by both at the same time, but I do believe that they are separate issues. In many situations in Africa, where people who speak large and otherwise fairly healthy indigenous tongues, yet are educated in colonial languages such as French, English or Portuguese, then probably the first issue is relevant, but for those who speak dying languages (which are, as I understand, usually replaced by larger African languages, not by the colonial languages) the second might apply as well. Don Osborn wrote: >I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John >Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, >impotence and/or rage" (at the site >http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new >take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African >context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor >the official languages used in school). Further research found that another >author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is >"a radical impoverishment of human relations." > >My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a >language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression >and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what >may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have >broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and >language policy. > >I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of >many years of observation and not formal research (which should not >depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I >would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on >language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and >community life. > >Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net >*Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative >*Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - développement >http://www.bisharat.net > > > From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 10 19:45:22 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 11:45:22 -0800 Subject: Loss Of Language Message-ID: 'Loss of Language and Culture' By Andrew Metz STAFF CORRESPONDENT It began in Carlisle, Pa. with the philosophy: Kill the Indian and save the man. This was the pedagogical mission of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the model for a system of forced assimilation that plucked children from reservations and tried to wipe out their native language and identity. Founded in 1879 by Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, the government school was the alma mater to more than 10,500 American Indians during its 39-year existence, notably Olympic champion Jim Thorpe. For most Indian people, though, it remains the grim touchstone of an era where their tribal ways were shocked out of them. http://www.newsday.com/ny-mohawk-side1109,0,5398756.story?coll=ny-top-headlines From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Tue Nov 11 06:53:06 2003 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 20:53:06 -1000 Subject: Island Speak (language) In-Reply-To: <3FAFCDE7.4C8876FC@ncidc.org> Message-ID: I can't point you to any specific documents at this time, but as the parent of an immersion child, with whom I have only spoken Hawaiian since she was an infant (she's now 12), and being very active in the programs from the support side, I can tell you that yes, many of the children do use the language out of the school, and beyond graduation. The oldest Hawaiian immersion graduates are only around 23 right now, and they are not numerous at this point, but a few do have children, and the ones I know that do are using the language with their children. It's their choice whether or not to pass it on, and hopeful as the number of graduates reaching adulthood and starting their own families increases, this will be the rule and not the exception. It will probably be a few years before their children will start showing up in our immersion preschools in sufficient numbers to tell for sure. I can tell you this as well - a number of our immersion graduates are back in the schools teaching the next generation and working in the offices that develop curriculum and provide other support services to the schools. If that isn't an indication of how they feel about the perpetuation of the language I don't know what is. Aloha, Keola andrekar at ncidc.org writes: >I did not say that the article I forwarded did, but My understanding is >yes it >is happening but you might check with the people themselves: > >http://www.k12.hi.us/~waianaeh/waianhi/hawaiian.html >http://www.punahou.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=506 >http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/o-linkpage.html >http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/language/olelo.htm >http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/stabilize/additional/hawaiian.htm > > > > >Julia Sallabank wrote: > >> Dear Andre >> >> I am interested in the development of language revitalisation >movements. You >> say that 'Hawai'ian immersion saved the language', and what has bee >achieved >> is certainly impressive, but do the children who have been taught >Hawai'ian >> speak the language out of school, and will they raise children speaking >it? >> >> Many thanks >> >> Julia >> ======================================================================= Keola Donaghy Hawaiian Language Curriculum and Technology Coordinator Native Hawaiian Serving Institution Program University of Hawai'i at Hilo keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nhsi Kualono http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/ ======================================================================= From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 12 17:32:09 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 10:32:09 -0700 Subject: Maori radio goes global (fwd) Message-ID: Maori radio goes global http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0311/S00230.htm Listeners of Maori Radio will welcome the ability to tune into their local iwi station on the internet according to Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia. Irirangi.net is being launched in Wellington this afternoon. This new vehicle opens up a wide range of possibilities for the many dedicated listeners of Maori Radio as well as potential new audiences," said Parekura Horomia. "This technology will allow whanau hapu and Iwi living outside of their tribal areas to listen to news and events at home. "It will also open up Maori Radio to the global market via the internet. Maori living abroad will now be able to find their own iwi stations on the net while others living abroad will have access to indigenous Aotearoa programming." Earlier this year Te Mangai Paho commissioned a survey of almost 28 thousand Maori which found that half of those living in areas covered by Maori radio were tuning in on a regular basis. Maori Radio has led the broadcasting industry. In the past New Zealand artists struggled to get airplay on mainstream radio while Maori stations instituted self imposed quotas to ensure local artists were given higher airplay priority. "13 years on we now see acts like Moana Maniapoto making a huge impact on the international scene. Hopefully Irirangi net will provide opportunities so that other Maori artists can launch long and successful careers," said Parekura Horomia. ******* Maori Language Radio WAI 11 Te Reo Maori Claim In 1986, the Waitangi Tribunal responded to a claim lodged by Huirangi Waikerepuru and Nga Kaiwhakapumau i te Reo (Inc) asking that the Maori language receive official recognition. In reference to Article II of the treaty, the tribunal established that the Maori language is a taongait is plain that the language is an essential part of culture and must be regarded as a valued possessio. This means that the Crown has an obligation to guarantee exclusive and undisturbed possession of this taongaThe word guarantee imposes an obligation to take active steps within the power of the guarantor, if it appears that the Maori people do not have or are losing, the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of the taonga (1986 Report of the Waitangi Tribunal into the WAI 11Te Reo Maor Claim) The Crown and Maori accept that the language is now in aperilous stat. In regard to broadcasting, the tribunal stated: If we were to conclude that the Maori language has been harmed by the predominance of English on radio and television, and if we were to conclude further that Article II of the Treaty promises that the Maori language was not only to be guaranteed but to be protected by the Crown by virtue of the provisions of the Treaty, then we could well conclude that the Minister has "omitted to do" an act within the meaning of section 6 of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, viz. that he has omitted to exercise his power to give a direction under Sec 20 by which that harm could be alleviated. This we say would give us the statutory right to intervene in this matter. But before we exercise our authority we must consider the concurrent jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Tribunal and the Royal Commission In its widest sense the Treaty promotes a partnership in the development of the country and a sharing of all resources. It is consistent with the principles of the Treaty that the language and matters of Maori interest should have a secure place in broadcasting. If there is any impediment in the statute that governs the Broadcasting Corporation, then it is the statute itself that must be called into questio. The tribunal went on to recommend to the Minister of Broadcasting thatin the formulation of broadcasting policy, regard be had [to the Crows obligation] to recognise and protect the Maori language, and that the Broadcasting Act 1975 (section 20) enables this to be done so far as broadcasting is concerned Broadcasting Assets Case Further imperative for the Crown to be proactive came in 1989 when the Government proposed to transfer the assets of the Broadcasting Corporation (BCNZ) to the newly formed state owned enterprises, Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand. On the basis of the Tribunas findings in WAI 11, the Maori Council and Nga Kaiwhakapumau challenged this transfer in the High Court and the Court (Justice McGechan) subsequentlyordered the Crown to submit a scheme of protective reservations as to transmission and production facilitie. Maori Radio Maori radio has a vital role to play in the regeneration of the Maori language. Because it is portable and easy to access, radio makes the language widely accessible to learners, fluent and non-speakers of te reo. Iwi Maori radio stations were established in the period 1989-94 through New Zealand on Air, which included an initial capital grant to each station of $100,000 and from then on, an annual sum of $200,000 (+GST) . Te Mangai Paho assumed responsibility for funding all stations in 1994. The average level of funding budgeted for Maori radio services until the end of 2002 is $9.2 million per year. This includes operational funding for 21 stations as well as a range of other services such as distribution, coverage extension, audience surveys and incentive funding. This compares with the average funding for Radio New Zealand of around $21 million per year. The figure of $200,000 was determined by NZ On Air in 1990. In 1994, TMP sought two separate views from industry on what would be reasonable costs to operate a Maori radio station effectively. Both sources provided estimates and explanations totalling $400,000 $450,000. Despite progressive increases in the quantity and quality of te reo radio programmes, the level of funding for the operational costs of Maori radio stations has not substantially increased since the stations were established more than 10 years ago. Taking into account the shared services and other industry costs, the stations currently receive an average of around $320,000 per year to meet their operational requirements. ENDS From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Nov 12 19:42:52 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 11:42:52 -0800 Subject: Maori radio goes global (fwd) Message-ID: Sung to the Tune of Mexican Radio by Wall Of Voodoo I feel a cool breeze on my shoulder Off the river at the reservation border I have my walkman and check the station I listen for Tribal News of the Native nations I hear the talking of the DJ Is it Hopi, Maybe Hoopa, perhaps Lakota Sometimes even Bellagana (sp?) Can't understand just what does he say? I'm on an Indian radio I'm on an Indian radio I dial it in and tune the station They talk about Council business, and commodity allocations There is a tourney on the next Rez Guess its time for a road trip journey I'm on an Indian radio I'm on an Indian radio I wish I was in Albuquerque Dancing at the Midnight Rodeo I call my request in on the phone Can~Rt We hear "One Eyed Ford" I want to taste some food from home Maybe Salmon, even deer meat, Mutton stew just doesn~Rt cut it There is the guy, with no teeth That I met at the 49er Can't understand just what does he say? I'm on an Indian radio I'm on an Indian radio Radio radio... From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 14 17:18:49 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 10:18:49 -0700 Subject: Scholars resuscitate dead languages (fwd) Message-ID: Scholars resuscitate dead languages Tech advances help illustrate how Arabs preserved ancient wisdom http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/11.13/01-archimedes.html By Jenny Attiyeh Special to the HNO "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth," said Archimedes in a boastful claim about the marvelous properties of the lever. He was the first to prove mathematically that this seemingly simple device could lift great loads, if only the weight-bearing plank were positioned properly on its pivot. Building on this principle, Archimedes went on to invent machines capable of performing previously unimaginable tasks and ushered in a new era of mastery and achievement for ancient Greece in the third century B.C. Today, a team of Harvard scholars in the Department of the Classics is leveraging 21st century technology to achieve wonders of its own. The aptly named Archimedes Project, now in its third year, aims to investigate the history of mechanics with new, penetrating tools that can, with a click or two of a mouse, peel back time and reveal heretofore hidden truths. The goal of this academic research project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and conducted in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, is to develop advanced computer technology that will help scholars mine myriad scientific texts in a variety of languages, but also to connect the dots between them. In this way, it can broaden the scope of scholarship, but also sharpen the scholar's ability to probe deeply into the past, thereby shedding new light on generally accepted assumptions. "Now what we can do is take into account a vastly wider range of evidence, and that changes the picture quite considerably," explained Mark Schiefsky, an assistant professor of the classics at Harvard and the principal investigator of the Harvard team. "It changes our idea of what mechanics was like in antiquity, in such a way that it makes it seem both much more complicated and more modern than one might have thought." In other words, Archimedes, Aristotle, and their ilk were far more advanced in their thinking than we generally give them credit for. They were truly ahead of their time. And Schiefsky and his team plan to prove it. But for that you need sharp, smart tools, which are the chief responsibility of Malcolm D. Hyman, a research associate with the project. "What we want to do is to get scholars to be able to see the big picture," said Hyman. "This is a complex tradition. We have all these different languages, and we have lots of texts. By using this technology, what we hope to do is to allow people to work with a mass of material that they would otherwise not be able to work with." In some ways, the technology driving the Archimedes Project resembles the sophisticated computer programming used more often in the hard sciences, where computers are designed to decode genes, or map complex chemical structures. But the Archimedes team intends to prove that such techniques can also bear fruit in the humanities and the softer sciences. "It's a new direction for the study of the past and its future," said Elaheh Kheirandish, a Harvard lecturer and the third member of the Archimedes Project team. "It's very young, and there's no question that it's uncommon, but there are very interesting projects that use humanities and technology." So far, the Archimedes Project technology can perform a variety of impressive feats, including automatic morphological analysis - which means that each word in a text, be it Greek, Arabic, or Latin, can be linked to its root form in the dictionary. This is a godsend for scholars who want to study primary sources in their original languages, but need a little extra help in mastering them. A key software program for the project is called Arboreal. It facilitates linguistically complex searches, and also allows for the annotation and creation of data. In this way, you can scribble in the margins, as it were, of the ancient text inhabiting your computer screen. "What's novel about Arboreal is the integration of all these linguistic tools into one package," explained Hyman, who created it. "It's new in scale - there is no existing tool, actually, that will serve scholars working in the type of texts that we're working on. Arboreal is the first." But it is nonetheless insufficient. Eager for more, the Archimedes team is in the process of acquiring yet another instrument for its forensic research, called latent semantic indexing. This technology uses statistics to characterize and identify texts by determining the structure and meaning of words, how frequently they are used, and in what context. In this way, for example, the identity of an anonymous author can be discovered, and translations can be distinguished from original content. With such tools, the Archimedes Project members can start to ask, and answer, questions that have until now been too unwieldy or time-consuming to tackle. In particular, the Archimedes team hopes to go back in history and re-create important ancient Greek texts, which were known to have existed but have since disappeared. "For the first time I feel that there is the possibility of reconstructing lost fragments," said Kheirandish, speaking of missing documents by Archimedes, which are referred to in later texts on mechanics. "The technology gives you a range of vocabulary in a magnitude that is unimaginable. The fact that you have the linkage of all these roots, the morphology, the connections, allows you to reconstruct something almost on the spot." In many cases, these lost Greek texts can only be reconstructed through careful analysis of a handful of critically important Arabic translations, which are the only copies of these works to have survived. During the early Middle Ages, while much of Europe stagnated, Arabic culture, with its headquarters in Baghdad, flourished. Starting in the ninth century A.D., caliphs and viziers funded an extensive and systematic translation movement, which transferred to their own time the ancient wisdom of the Greeks, thereby preserving many crucial texts, which would have otherwise perished. "It's a process of transformation, where Greek originals are transformed into Arabic sources, which are then used for further development," Schiefsky said. "In those days, they really did appreciate what the Greeks had achieved and tried to bring it into their own language." Certain Arabic translations - such as one by Qusta Ibn Luqa of a document called "The Mechanics" by Heron of Alexandria, a first century A.D. Greek scientist - are key texts for the Archimedes Project team as it sets out to reconstruct, to translate in reverse, missing Greek documents. In particular, Schiefsky and Kheirandish, who reads both Arabic and Persian, are working on a section of this text in which references to Archimedes' definition of the "center of gravity" appear. "Archimedes apparently invented the concept of center of gravity. It persists throughout the entire history of mechanics, and one of the important things about this text is that it gives us insights into the introduction of this concept," explained Schiefsky. "So if one can reconstruct from this an actual argument of Archimedes that belongs to some lost work, that would be quite helpful." Although Archimedes' notion of the center of gravity does not anticipate Newton's breakthrough 20 centuries later, it does reveal sophisticated abstract thinking on weights and balances. Archimedes realized that the entire weight of an object could be regarded as concentrated at a single point - its center of gravity. This concept, which is still accepted today, is essential in designing mechanical systems. Such third century B.C. thinking was precocious, and according to Schiefsky, "extremely modern" on the part of Archimedes. It's Schiefsky's hope that the Archimedes Project will be able to not only reconstruct Archimedes' original argument on this concept, but also, in time, rescue from neglect dozens of Greek texts, which currently exist only as Arabic translations. "This will take years of work from all three of us, and beyond, to actually get to where we want to be," explained Kheirandish. "But one must not shy away from these things. Three years back when we started, where we are today would have been unthinkable." Academic research of this nature is usually slow and painstaking, but the Archimedes team is betting that their technology has the potential to transform this process. "We're taking off in leaps and bounds," said Schiefsky. "We're not trying to do everything by hand. This one little example on the center of gravity is only the first of the many results we could expect when we actually apply the full resources of modern technology to these questions - which has never been done. So what we can expect, I think, is really extremely impressive." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 14 17:22:50 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 10:22:50 -0700 Subject: Canadian fund gives P40 000 to develop languages (fwd) Message-ID: Canadian fund gives P40 000 to develop languages 13 November, 2003 http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20031113&i=Canadian_fund_gives_P40_000_to_develop_languages Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) has given RETENG: Multicultural Coalition of Botswana P39 600 to develop writing systems for five local languages ­ Sebirwa, Setswapong, Sesubiya, Setsiretsire and Sekgalagadi, which currently have no written materials. According to a news release, CFLI is a small grants fund administered by the World University Service of Canada in Gaborone, and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The money will also be used to conduct a feasibility study for establishing a community radio station to promote the use of local languages and record a CD of traditional music produced by a youth group. The release quotes RETENG secretary general Lydia Nyathi Ramahobo as saying it is important for Batswana to know that their languages could be written. She said about 10 more languages of Botswana would still need to be developed and more materials for the developing languages generated. Ramahobo described the fund as an invaluable contribution to this development process and the enhancement of democracy and cultural rights in Botswana. RETENG aims to promote and preserve the linguistic and cultural diversity of Botswana's heritage. It also seeks to cultivate an appreciation, knowledge and understanding of unity in diversity and tolerance for multiculturalism as key elements in national development. Three workshops have been conducted at Bobonong, Manxotae and Hukuntsi as part of the language development initiative. BOPA   From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 16 22:59:46 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 15:59:46 -0700 Subject: One Man's Goal: For a Tribe to Pray in Its Own Language (fwd) Message-ID: November 15, 2003 One Man's Goal: For a Tribe to Pray in Its Own Language By KATIE ZEZIMA http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/15/national/15RELI.html?ex=1069563600&en=9fe3d95d870be6b5&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ANGOR, Me. — The automated voice is flat and monotonous, but Allen Sockabasin says he hears the words and prayers of his ancestors through the speakers of the Macintosh computer on his desk. Mr. Sockabasin, a member of the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe, has spent more than a decade trying to save its language. Though the tribe has been Roman Catholic since Jesuit missionaries from France arrived in northern Maine 400 years ago, few of its members today know how to pray in their native language. In fact, fewer than 600 people in the Passamaquoddys' indigenous land — eastern Maine and the adjacent region of Canada — now speak Passamaquoddy or Maliseet, a dialect. And of those who do, fewer still can pray in the language, in part because most prayers were taught their ancestors in either Latin or English, by the Jesuits and the Anglicans who followed. The 58-year-old Mr. Sockabasin is trying to change all that. Having previously recorded his translations of songs and poems from English to Passamaquoddy (pronounced pass-eh-meh-KWAD-ee), he is now translating the rosary and recording it on compact discs that he plans to distribute to schools and churches in eastern Maine and the adjoining Canadian province, New Brunswick. The project is the first in which the prayers have been translated into the native language, professionally recorded (in a local studio) and distributed. "It's really sad when a young person tells you he doesn't know how to pray," Mr. Sockabasin, the H.I.V. coordinator for an Indian health clinic, said in an interview at his office here. "It's sad when a native speaker feels like he doesn't know how to pray. In Indian country, its all made up as you go along." Most of those who still speak Passamaquoddy at all are aging, now over 50. Some tribal members say the language is dying out because many parents simply want their children to learn English so that they can pursue education and better jobs, and so leave rural Maine. Tribal elders tried to preserve Passamaquoddy orally through the years, but English often seeped in, tainting it. Linguists have studied the language since the 1970's, but members of the tribe say they have not benefited from the research, which has for the most part been scholarly and, they say, not focused on helping Indian communities. So they have started their own programs, at schools and community centers. The prayer project, however, is the most moving, they say. One tribal member, Brenda Commander, who for three years has run a language program in the Indian community of Houlton, Me., said she first heard a prayer in Passamaquoddy last year, at a funeral. The words took on a different meaning. "I just can't even describe it," Ms. Commander said. "I felt inspired. It made me really emotional." Mr. Sockabasin lives in another Indian community, Pleasant Point, on the Bay of Fundy about 25 miles from the Canadian border. The Rev. Frank Morin, the pastor of St. Ann's parish there, hopes parents will use Mr. Sockabasin's disc to teach children both culture and religion. Father Morin says the Passamaquoddy prayers are audible reminders of parents and grandparents who spoke the language. Francis Nicholas, 75, a deacon at St. Ann's, says parishioners want to worship in Passamaquoddy. "Everybody wants to be baptized," Mr. Nicholas said. "Everybody wants to be taken to the church when they die and be buried by a priest. One should be able to pray in their own language, I think, and you've got to pass that on to the younger generation." Mr. Sockabasin, who grew up speaking Passamaquoddy, decided in the late 1980's to translate songs and poems, and record the results. He has now recorded seven discs of translated poems, prayers and songs, including "Amazing Grace." He says he pays for his projects with donations and grants; the discs are free. Mr. Sockabasin works with the aid of a computer program that reads back written text. He types letters that he believes will translate orally to Passamaquoddy. Then, when the computer speaks them back to him, he tinkers with those that sound awry to his ear, and tries again. Once a rough translation is complete, he takes the printed word, reads it aloud and adds correct inflections. Once an accurate translation is complete, he records it. He also teaches the language to anyone who is interested in learning it. "If I can teach a computer how to sound out a Passamaquoddy word," he said, "I certainly can teach native children how to sound the words." Still, translating Passamaquoddy is complicated, because unlike English, it groups sets of ideas into single words. Dr. Robert Leavitt, professor of education at the University of New Brunswick and director of its Mi'kmaq-Maliseet Institute, tells of the difficulty encountered by a group of linguists who tried to translate "thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory" into Passamaquoddy. The word they first used, Dr. Leavitt said, made it "sound like God had been working out at the gym," conveying a vision of physical strength rather than authoritative power. But Mr. Sockabasin knows the hurdles well: it was still the mid-1990's when he started work on the rosary. His hope is that through his work, young people will find more meaning in the prayers they say each week in church. "I know when I say `my creator' in my language, there is no other definition," Mr. Sockabasin said. "It's who made me." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 17 17:51:50 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:51:50 -0700 Subject: Survey to help save Aboriginal tongues (fwd) Message-ID: Survey to help save Aboriginal tongues http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/sa/metsa-17nov2003-2.htm Posted: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 9:29 ACST A national survey of Aboriginal languages will be undertaken in an effort to stop a further deterioration of traditional dialects. It is thought that one Indigenous language is lost each year and the survey will aim to develop a policy for their preservation. University of South Australia lecturer Bill Edwards says Aboriginal languages are slowly dying because of modern pressures. "With all the pressures of globalisation and media and television, some of the younger ones in communities, even where languages are strong, are now tending to speak with English or a mixture of English and their Indigenous language," he said. "The experts have made some fairly pessimistic predictions because of these changes that are happening in even remote Aboriginal communities." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 17 17:54:10 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:54:10 -0700 Subject: Languages that are lost in time (fwd) Message-ID: Languages that are lost in time http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,7897586%255E2682,00.html 18nov03 THE death of hundreds of traditional indigenous Australian languages is a symptom of the decay of Aboriginal culture, a South Australian academic says. "This is an important matter of identity for these people who have lost much of their culture," Bill Edwards, adjunct lecturer in Aboriginal Studies at the University of South Australia, said yesterday. He claimed that traditional languages were an "identity marker" for Aboriginal people. His comments coincide with the announcement of a national survey of indigenous languages undertaken by the Federal Government. The last major survey was conducted by linguists Patrick McConvell and Nicholas Thieberger two years ago. They said that Aboriginal languages had declined from more than 250 – incorporating about 600 dialects – when Australia was first settled by Europeans, to the point where only about 17 are now regularly in use. "Globalisation is a bit of a buzz word for it, but it's that whole influence of young (Aboriginal) people watching TV, films and videos," Mr Edwards said. "A lot of older people are still speaking the languages quite well. "A few old people use a few words on occasions such as greetings and ceremonies, but younger people only hear a handful of words." For Mr Edwards, the extinction of Aboriginal languages erases a wealth of history from Australia's national consciousness. "If we lose any language we are losing human understanding about the world," he said. "This is more than just a loss of words, it is a loss of intuition and a loss of understanding." Mr Edwards said the survey would play an important role in trying to preserve Aboriginal languages. There were about 6000 languages still being spoken worldwide with around half of those now under threat of being lost within the next 25 years, he said. "Languages with less than 10,000 speakers are particularly under threat and all the Aboriginal languages are well within that limit," Mr Edwards said. Even "stronger" languages such as Pitjantjatjara were only spoken by about 2000 to 3000 people. "Aboriginal languages are seen in the worldwide situation as being in extreme danger," Mr Edwards said. From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 17 18:53:09 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:53:09 -0800 Subject: Whistling Your Language Message-ID: Near-Extinct 'Whistling Language' Returns By SARAH ANDREWS, Associated Press Writer SAN SEBASTIAN, Canary Islands - Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a cell phone or the Internet to communicate. Instead, he puckers up and whistles. Cabello is a "silbador," until recently a dying breed on tiny, mountainous La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary Islands off West Africa. Like his father and grandfather before him,Cabello, 50, knows "Silbo Gomero," a language that's whistled, not spoken, and can be heard more than two miles away. This chirpy brand of chatter is thought to have come over with early African settlers 2,500 years ago. Now,educators are working hard to save it from extinction by making school children study it up to age 14. Silbo â~@" the word comes from Spanish verb silbar, meaning to whistle â~@" features four "vowels" and four "consonants" that can be strung together to form more than 4,000 words. It sounds just like bird conversation and Cabello says it has plenty of uses. "I use it for everything: to call to my wife, to tell my kids something, to find a friend if we get lost in a crowd," Cabello said. In fact, he makes a living off Silbo, performing daily exhibitions at a restaurant on this island of 147 square miles and 19,000 people. A snatch of dialogue in Silbo is posted at http://www.agulo.net/silbo/silbo.mp3 and translates as follows: "Hey, Servando!" "What?" "Look, go tell Julio to bring the castanets." "OK. Hey, Julio!" "What?" "Lili says you should go get the kids and have them bring the castanets for the party." "OK, OK, OK." Silbo was once used throughout the hilly terrain of La Gomera as an ingenious way of communicating over long distances. A strong whistle saved peasants from trekking over hill and dale to send messages or news to neighbors. Then came the phone, and it's hard to know how many people use Silbo these days. "A lot of people think they do, but there is a very small group who can truly communicate through Silbo and understand Silbo," said Manuel Carreiras, a psychology professor fromthe island of Tenerife. He specializes in how the brain processes language and has studied Silbo. Since 1999, Silbo has been a required language in La Gomera's elementary schools. Some 3,000 students are studying it 25 minutes a week â~@" enough to teach the basics, said Eugenio Darias, a Silbo teacher and director of the island's Silbo program. "There are few really good silbadores so far, but lots of students are learning to use it and understand it," he said. "We've been very pleased." But almost as important as speaking â~@" sorry, whistling â~@" Silbo is studying where it came from, and little is known. "Silbo is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have," said Moises Plasencia, the director of the Canary government's historical heritage department. It might seem appropriate for a language that sounds like birdsong to exist in the Canary Islands, but scholarly theories as to how the archipelago got its name make no mention of whistling. Little is known about Silbo's origins, but an important step toward recovering the language was the First International Congress of Whistled Languages, held in April in LaGomera. The congress, which will be repeated in 2005, brought together experts on various whistled languages. Silbo-like whistling has been found in pockets of Greece, Turkey, China and Mexico, but none is as developed as Silbo Gomero, Plasencia said. One study is looking for vestiges of Silbo in Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places to which Gomerans have historically emigrated during hard economic times. Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to have UNESCO declare it an "intangible cultural heritage" and support efforts to save it. "Silbo is so unique and has many values: historical, linguistic, anthropological and aesthetic. It fits perfectly with UNESCO's requirements," he said. Besides, says Cabello, it's good for just about anything except for romance: "Everyone on the island would hear what you're saying!" From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 18 16:49:48 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 09:49:48 -0700 Subject: New Panther Language Features (link) Message-ID: fyi, i found this intersting Panther note for Mac users... New Panther Language Features http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07439 phil UofA From jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU Tue Nov 18 17:48:25 2003 From: jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU (Gross, Joan) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 09:48:25 -0800 Subject: dialect differences site Message-ID: > Here's a clever site showing differences between French in Quebec > > and in France. > > > > http://www.cyberjean.com/quebec/batman.swf > > > > Joan Gross > > > > > > > > Joan Gross > > Professor of Anthropology > > Oregon State University > > Waldo Hall 222 > > jgross at orst.edu > > (541) 737-3852 > From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Fri Nov 21 16:58:19 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 08:58:19 -0800 Subject: Introduction Message-ID: Hello, just a brief moment to let others know a little bit about me ( or remind you, if you have been around awhile). I am an enrolled member of the Karuk Tribe from the Klamath and Salmon Rivers in NW California. I am the chairman of my tribes language restoration committee (please see http://www.ncidc.org/karuk/index.html) and am an active participant in our Tribal dances and ceremonies. What is your full name? André Pierre Cramblit What State do you reside in? Arcata, CA What nation do you come from? Karuk Tribe Of California (also have Creek & Tohono O'odham blood-Norris Family) Do you have a title or position that will identify you more clearly to others in the group? Operations Director NCIDC http://www.ncidc.org What activities are you involved in that help the American Indians today? Language Preservation, cultural resources, story telling, traditional activities, tribal ceremonies, grant writing, communications (www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo ), education, environmental issues, etc Who are your favorite musical artist/s? (Only Considering Natives) Indigenous, Arigon Starr, Merve George, Native Roots, Who is your favorite author or authors? (Only Considering Natives) Vine Deloria, Louise Erdrich, Heid Erdrich, Diane Burns, Joy Harjo, Lori Arviso-Alvord What is your favorite Native Movie? Pow Wow Highway or Black Robe -- André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 23 05:45:18 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 06:45:18 +0100 Subject: Languages that are lost in time (fwd) Message-ID: This phrase ... > "A few old people use a few words on occasions such as greetings and > ceremonies, but younger people only hear a handful of words." ... reminds me of some discussions about parental (and larger family) approaches to educating children in multilingual settings (generally involving more widely spoken languages). It is common for parents of different cultures to educate their children in the languages of both, and there are approaches (e.g., one parent, one language) and even support groups to make that work. But the same approaches are apparently not widely known or practiced in communities where less widely spoken languages are involved - with the possible exception of Europe. Or am I mistaken? In much of Africa, it is taken for granted that kids will pick up languages, and in the cases where parents focus on the language issue, my semi-informed impression is that they are as likely to adopt a one-language approach (focusing say on English or French, with the idea this would benefit their children) as anything else. And I know of some African parents abroad who effectively abandon their maternal language in the family. This makes me wonder about educating parents on how kids learn languages and the benefits of a thought-out approach to their children's multilingual learning. In the case of less-spoken languages, has there been any effort to encourage those in a community who speak the mother tongue to focus on using it with the young people on a day to day basis? If all kids hear as they grow up is a smattering of words in greetings and ceremonies, then of course the language will be lost (regardless what we do with technology). There are certainly cultural factors and education policy issues involved, and I haven't really researched this, but I still wonder if techniques used by multilingual families could not be adapted to and more systematically used in minority language communities. Beyond that I had another thought regarding language strategies and that is the comparative difficulties for minority languages in dominant monolingual cultures as opposed to mutlilingual cultures. In the latter people expect to speak and hear more than one language frequently if not daily, so I wonder if the environment is more favorable to ongoing use of maternal languages. (Again this is an area I have not researched personally but thought about from the viewpoint of training Peace Corps volunteers from mostly monolingual backgrounds in the US for living in multilingual Africa.) Of course you can't change the larger social milieu but maybe one missing part of strategies to language in less-spoken language communities is creating this multilingual mindset - in this case that the mother tongue and the dominant language can coexist in the community, and that one can learn both well, switch between them according to context and expressiveness, and be at least as well off if not better than if all one spoke was the dominant language. Sorry if some of this is obvious to the rest of you - there are aspects of the field I am still catching up with. Any comments welcome. Don Osborn Bisharat.net From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 23 08:14:38 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 09:14:38 +0100 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: Thank you, Mia (belatedly). In looking at your response and Matthew's I'm wondering what sort of connections have been made between research in educational, health, and psychological effects on individuals of language impoverishment on one hand and the wider socio-linguistic processes on the other. I realize this goes rather beyond the focus of the group, so I beg your indulgence (and advice where else to take the thread). Having read not long ago a piece that George Packer wrote about the young men in southwestern West Africa involved in the conflicts there, and how they have adopted elements of American pop-culture for image and whatever, it seems clear that beyond having tenous roots, little education (formal or informal), and no hope, they also have no deep knowledge of their maternal language, no significant instruction in any other language, and arguably a very limited range of expression ... pop-culture & violence are manageable media for expressing frustration, hope, and a restrained spectrum of human relations. It would be a huge leap to try to make the case for a socio-linguistic cause for the problems in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and now Cote d'Ivoire (and why there and not elsewhere in the subregion), but I wonder if anyone has tried exploring a "language impoverishment" angle on conflict in changing societies and the psychology of combattants. Thanks... Don Osborn Bisharat.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at RedPony" To: Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 1:06 AM Subject: Re: Language impoverishment > Dear Don: > > There is lots of this kind of research, but mostly you find it in education, > specifically related to environments and student success, and, you find it > in Health, particularly with regard to the impact that attempts to eradicate > their language and culture has had on Native Americans. You find the small, > bright glimmers in qualitative research on the success of reinstituting > Native culture and religion in AA. > > Good luck, > Mia Kalish > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Don Osborn" > To: > Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 1:19 AM > Subject: Language impoverishment > > > I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John > Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, > impotence and/or rage" (at the site > http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new > take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African > context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor > the official languages used in school). Further research found that another > author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is > "a radical impoverishment of human relations." > > My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a > language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression > and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what > may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have > broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and > language policy. > > I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of > many years of observation and not formal research (which should not > depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I > would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on > language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and > community life. > > Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net > *Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative > *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - développement > http://www.bisharat.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 23 17:27:14 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 10:27:14 -0700 Subject: Last fluent speaker of Wampanoag language dies (fwd) Message-ID: Last fluent speaker of Wampanoag language dies; his life is celebrated R.J. HALLIDAY , Gazette Staff Writer 11/23/2003 http://www.tauntongazette.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10558379&BRD=1711&PAG=461&dept_id=24232&rfi=6 FREETOWN -- Hundreds of Native Americans traveled from across New England to the Watuppa Wampanoag Reservation here Friday to celebrate the life of Clinton Neakeahamuck Wixon (Lightning Foot), who passed away Nov. 9 at the age of 72. Known throughout the region as perhaps the last fluent speaker of the native Wampanoag language, Wixon dedicated his life to educating Wampanoag and Ponkapoag youths about tribal traditions, culture and language. He also kept Native American awareness alive by organizing Pow Wows and demonstrations throughout the state in towns such as Brockton, Lakeville, Middleboro, New Bedford, Taunton, Mashpee and on the Boston Common. >From sunrise to sunset yesterday Native Americans from various tribes, many dressed in full regalia, stood in a circle around a Vigil Fire that had been burning in Wixon’s honor for four days. Women stood on one side, men on the other, as they passed around a wooden talking pipe and each eulogized Wixon. Later, his ashes were spread over the Watuppa Reservation and at Ponkapoag Indian Plantation in Canton, the homes of his beloved ancestors. Wixon’s nephew, Darrel of the Nemasket Band, who led a procession of chants and drumming in his uncle’s honor, called Wixon "a legend in his own time." Darrel’s father, Wixon’s only brother, the late Clarence Wixon, Jr. (Chief Red Blanket), was proclaimed by then-Gov. Michael Dukakis as "one of the greatest losses amongst the Native American community in the last 50 years" following his 1990 death. Wind Song, chief of the Assonet Band, said he and Wixon worked to clean up the Watuppa Reservation and make it a place again for Native American services and celebrations. "When this place was a dump, we cleaned it up," he recalled. "Now we have someplace for our ceremonies." Born in Middleboro in 1931, Wixon was an 11th generation direct descendent of the powerful chieftain, Massasoit, the supreme sachem who befriended the Pilgrims in 1620. After serving in the Korean War, Wixon founded perhaps the first modern day nonprofit Indian organization in Massachusetts, the Algonquin Indian Association, anda few years later formed the United Indian Tribes of America. During the 1960s Wixon joined forces with Indian tribes from Maine to Florida to form the Federated Eastern Indian League. Wixon was also a strong voice behind the organization of the National Day of Mourning at Plymouth in 1970, which today is still a stage for Native American awareness and unity during the Thanksgiving holiday. "He was well-respected in his community for always standing his ground with everyone about who he was and where he came from," said Maurice L. Foxx, representative of the state Commission on Indian Affairs. "It’s always tough to lose our elders because they are the ones who teach our culture and language." ©The Taunton Gazette 2003 From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 16:44:22 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 08:44:22 -0800 Subject: LinguaPax Message-ID: Dear colleague, The call for candidates to the Linguapax awards 2004 is open. Kindly communicate the names of your nominees to the secretariat of the Linguapax Institute before the 15th of January 2004 and attach their short biographical note whenever possible. The names of the prize-winners will be made public on February 27, coinciding with the presentation of 2003 Linguapax Awards to Aina Moll and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. The ceremony will take place on the occasion of the II International Mercator Symposium to be held at the University Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona (27-28 February 2004). More information on: http://www.linguapax.org/en/premisLPXang.html Sincerely, -- Josep Cru Institut Linguapax tel. 93 458 95 95 fax. 457 58 51 info at linguapax.org www.linguapax.org From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Tue Nov 25 17:03:18 2003 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rr Lapier) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 12:03:18 EST Subject: Salish Revival Message-ID: Salish revival By JOHN STROMNES of the Missoulian Joshua Brown chats with sisters Siliye, center, and Susseli Pete at the Salish language immersion school in Arlee last week. Brown was recently awarded a 2003 Echoing Green fellowship worth $60,000 over two years to fund the Salish Language Perpetuation Project. Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian Pablo man wins $60,000 grant for language program ARLEE - Joshua Brown has studied such arcane subjects as social linguistics and bilingual education but still isn't fluent in Salish, the native tongue of his Indian tribe. Neither are most Salish Indians on the Flathead Reservation. Salish as a living language is dying fast, Brown said. Only 70 to 80 people are fluent out of some 6,000 enrolled members in the entire tribal confederacy - Pend d'Oreille, Salish and Kootenai. (Salish is by far the largest of the three tribal groups that comprise the Flathead Nation.) Brown aims to revive the language as a living, cultural force with the help of a two-year, $60,000 "social entrepreneurship" award from a foundation in New York City. The Pablo resident, who has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Montana, is a founder of the Salish language-immersion school, Nk(w)usm (One Fire) in Arlee. He was recently named one of the world's Top 10 Emerging Social Entrepreneurs for 2003 by Echoing Green, a nonprofit group started by the venture-capital investment firm General Atlantic Partners. Competition for the fellowship is tough. Brown said he went through a rigorous written competition against more than 100 other hopefuls, and surprised himself by making the finals last spring. In New York, he went through grueling days of formal interviews with the foundation's selection panel, who themselves were social entrepreneurs recruited from all over the world. From the 25 semifinalists, 10 were chosen to receive the $60,000 grants, Brown said. "It was basically like defending your thesis" for a graduate degree, Brown said of the experience. Since then, he's attended Echoing Green workshops in Greenwich, Conn., and San Francisco addressing social entrepreneurship skills, including, he said, the vital "60-second elevator pitch" in which you explain your program's mission and need to potential donors. Over the past 16 years, Echoing Green has invested $21 million in seed money to more than 370 individuals who the organization defines as "talented yet unproven social entrepreneurs dedicated to addressing the root causes of social challenges" and "visionaries who will develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems ... (and) who will work to close deeply rooted social, economic and political inequities to ensure equal access and to help all individuals reach his/her potential." So the grant is a pretty big deal for a low-key, gentle, soft-spoken, bespectacled 29-year-old from the Flathead Reservation, Brown agreed. An attorney for the Eastern Montana Self-Help Law Project also was a winner. That project uses technology, volunteer attorneys, paralegals and lay community members to help people represent themselves in court in civil proceedings. Brown started thinking about becoming a social entrepreneur - although not in those exact terms - several years ago when his friend and mentor Clarence Woodcock, a beloved Salish elder, editor, linguist and cultural leader, died. Brown had learned much from Woodcock, including language skills, spiritual and cultural traditions, while in high school in St. Ignatius. When Woodcock died, Brown was an undergraduate majoring in environmental sciences at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo. This field of study would almost surely get him a good job with the resource-rich Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes when he graduated. But with Woodcock dead, Brown realized that his easy access to a fluent Salish speaker and cultural leader had been cut off forever. "When he died, I realized that I took a lot of things for granted," Brown said. So he changed his academic major, his goals and his outlook on life. "Ever since then, I have studied history, linguistics and education," he said. While at college, he started thinking about how to revive Salish as a useful, vital, living tongue among the Salish people on the reservation. Deliberate repression of the Indian language by religious and civil authorities for two generations - now referred to politely as "the boarding school experience" in tribal cultures throughout the western United States - had severely eroded the language by the time Brown was born. Salish was rarely spoken by anyone outside the home, and then usually only among elders. Brown's parents, for example, spoke little Salish at home. He remembers learning Salish words and phrases from his great-grandparents and great uncles. At St. Ignatius High School, he attended Salish classes, but they were only "enrichment" courses of study, designed to familiarize students with the local Salish cultural tradition, not language fluency. That kind of instruction will never save Salish from extinction, Brown said. "Public schools are never going to save the Salish language ... they can't and should not be expected to do it by themselves," he said. "The Salish community should take the lead and possibly partner with schools and other entities to move away from enrichment programs only, and discover solutions that will really produce people who are highly fluent in at least the Salish and English languages." Last year, Brown and others sought support from the tribal government to do just that, starting Nk(w)usm (One Fire) in Arlee for children ages 2 to 5. There is no requirement that parents or children be enrolled tribal members, only that parents maintain an active interest in the school, helping with school repairs, maintenance, fund-raising and the like, and that the children attend regularly. The tribal government encouraged the venture, providing $170,000 in funding last year, and $200,000 this year for staff and operations. The school recruited and hired fluent Salish speakers, mostly older tribal members, and supplemented them with younger folks, like Brown, who had academic training and teaching expertise. The school now has 17 students - seeds for the future of the Salish language, Brown and others hope. The Echoing Green grant will allow Brown to form a nonprofit group to expand and elaborate on the mission of the school, working in tandem with it, he said, to revive Salish as a spoken, used and useful language and as a tool for cultural revival. Brown said the formal structure of the nonprofit, tax-exempt Salish Language Perpetuation Project he will form with the $60,000 grant is a work in progress. But he foresees a collaboration between a variety of tribal and nontribal entities and individuals. The tribal government, especially the CSKT Education Department, is vital to its success, as is Salish Kootenai College, local public elementary and secondary schools and UM. It is not too late to revive Salish, he contends. Other aboriginal people - the Maori of New Zealand, for example, and the native cultures of Hawaii - have had success reviving languages within those societies, Brown said. "Language is the foundation of society and the fundamental key that connects generations through time. The Salish Language Perpetuation Project will ensure that our language and heritage do not become extinct," he said. Echoing Green warns fellowship recipients that entrepreneurship is fraught with risk, success is never guaranteed, and there may not be a steady job at the end of the rainbow. Brown has accepted the risks. "I want Salish to be the language of our community, the language of the heart of the Salish people," he said. Reporter John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jstromnes at missoulian.com Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 17:35:54 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 09:35:54 -0800 Subject: Americas Message-ID: MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICAN PEN "CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION" Dear PEN Colleagues: The "Americas" Congress, which will take place in Mexico City from November 22- 28, 2003, is the first World Congress of Writers of the new millennium to be held on the American Continent. The Congress theme, "Cultural Diversity and Freedom of Expression", gives us the opportunity to work on two essential aspects of PEN's core mission. The first is respect for the human rights of those whose medium is the word, and, in particular, the written word, deployed either in creative writing or through daily narratives and testimonies. The second is respect for sovereignty and cultural diversity, which is so essential in the face of the increasingly antidemocratic tendencies that threaten to dominate the world. The trend towards economic globalization challenges us to avoid cultural homogenization and safeguard diverse ways of life and languages, many of which, as with minority indigenous languages, are already in danger of disappearing. Mexico was selected as the site for this Congress because it is a country where different cultures have cohabitated and coexisted. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos imagined the existence of the Cosmic race, a product of the crossbreeding of all peoples. It now seems that new communication technologies have outrun us so that the ideal of a completely mixed-race humanity living in equality, free from the intolerances that often lead to war and conflict, has been replaced by a "globalized humanity" whose characteristics are social injustice and cultural homogeneity. Near the end of the 20th Century, we realized that perhaps the main cause for the economic and spiritual underdevelopment of many nations has been the lack of respect for the cultural and economic rights of the individual. That is why, through this Congress, we wish to call attention to the fact that human development cannot be achieved as long as we continue to push cultural, educational and economic rights into oblivion, and that it is urgent and necessary to view these as civil and political rights. Through this Congress, we are attempting to call upon humanity to reflect on its values and its visions as they are expressed, in their highest form, in written and spoken language. The loss of this cultural treasure would impoverish us and deny us the opportunity to use our knowledge of our past in order to shape not only one unique future, but the newest and best futures possible. The 69th PEN International Congress- World Congress of Writers 2003, seeks to show the world that tolerance and respect can only survive through the free expression of diversity. María Elena Ruiz Cruz President, Mexican PEN -- There's nothing like the old songs, but what's the good if you can't remember them. Mem. Mem. Memory. William H. Gass http://www.kirogi.demon.nl/index.htm http://www.lucashusgen.net/index.html -- André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Nov 25 17:47:19 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:47:19 -0700 Subject: FEL Call for Proposals for 2004 (fwd) Message-ID: The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for projects of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation, protection or promotion of one or more endangered languages. Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in endangered language communities who may not have access to Ogmios, the Internet or e-mail. Form for Submissions There is a form that defines the content of appropriate proposals, which is accessible at the Foundation's website: http://www.ogmios.org It may also be obtained from me at the address below. All proposals must be submitted in this form, to ensure comparability. Deadline The time-limit for proposals in the current round will be 18 January 2004. By that date, proposals and supporting testimonials must reach me at the address below. The FEL Committee will announce its decision before the 31st of March 2003. Here are four points to note especially, the first two of them new this year. 1. The form now contains a new question, enquiring on the potential for further work, after completion of a first grant. This material will serve both to support the current application in the selection process, and also to provide the Foundation with arguments in their quest for further funds to supplement existing projects in the future. 2. Where possible, work undertaken within endangered language communities themselves will be preferred in the selection. FEL is prepared to comment on draft proposals from communities or community linguists, and suggest weaknesses and potential remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft proposals - clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no later than 31 December 2003. 3. The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and it is not anticipated that - in the first instance - any award will be greater than US $1,000. Smaller proposals stand a better chance of funding. 4. The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF, the Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly possible (and has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be  partially funded by both FEL and ELF. -------------------------------------------------------------- Nicholas Ostler Foundation for Endangered Languages UK Registered Charity 1070616 http://www.ogmios.org Batheaston Villa, 172 Bailbrook Lane Bath BA1 7AA England +44-1225-85-2865 fax +44-1225-85-9258 nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2725 bytes Desc: not available URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Nov 25 18:04:08 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:04:08 -0700 Subject: Indigenous language book to keep culture alive (fwd) Message-ID: [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s996391.htm] Last Update: Tuesday, November 25, 2003. 10:00am (AEDT) Indigenous language book to keep culture alive A new book is helping young Indigenous children learn some of the languages that will help maintain ties with their culture into adulthood. Indigenous Children's Services Unit project development officer, Andrew Burns, says the book, Language - Our Right, Our Identity, is being used in more than 120 Indigenous child care services in Queensland. Mr Burns says the approach helps young Indigenous children become truly bi-lingual and move easily between their traditional language and English. "What we're actually looking at is trying to implement Indigenous languages into the early childcare curriculum, the reason being it's a lot easier for a child to learn certain concepts within their home or native language than it is to learn English, because it is a well-known and proven fact that English, within itself, is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn." © 2003 Australian Broadcasting Corporation -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1546 bytes Desc: not available URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 21:08:42 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:08:42 -0800 Subject: New Book Message-ID: sorry could not find the isbn number or a publisher but did run across the attached article Julia Sallabank wrote: > Dear Andre > > Do you have any more details of the book, such as publisher and ISBN number, > so that interested people can get hold of it? > > Many thanks > > Julia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Andre Cramblit" > To: > Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 6:26 PM > Subject: New Book > > > Indigenous language book to keep culture alive > > > > A new book is helping young Indigenous children learn some of the > languages > > that will help maintain ties with their culture into > > adulthood. > > > > Indigenous Children's Services Unit project development officer, Andrew > > Burns, says the book, Language - Our Right, Our > > Identity, is being used in more than 120 Indigenous child care services in > > Queensland. > > > > Mr Burns says the approach helps young Indigenous children become truly > > bi-lingual and move easily between their traditional > > language and English. > > > > "What we're actually looking at is trying to implement Indigenous > languages > > into the early childcare curriculum, the reason being > > it's a lot easier for a child to learn certain concepts within their home > > or native language than it is to learn English, because it is a > > well-known and proven fact that English, within itself, is one of the > > hardest languages in the world to learn." -- André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ntsub2.doc Type: application/msword Size: 145920 bytes Desc: Unknown Document URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 21:26:55 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:26:55 -0800 Subject: Maintaining language Message-ID: Maintaining and Renewing Native Languages Jon Reyhner Northern Arizona University Edward Tennant Educational Research Associates Abstract This article reviews research on maintaining and renewing American Indian languages. A rationale is given for the importance of maintaining tribal languages in terms of Native students' cross-cultural understanding. Then Joshua Fishman's theoretical paradigm for reversing language shift is summarized and tribal and national language policies are reviewed. Early childhood, elementary, secondary, and tribal college native language efforts are described along with Navajo and Yup'ik examples of school-based native-language maintenance/renewal efforts. Based on the research of tribal native-language renewal efforts and current research on second language teaching, specific suggestions are given for maintaining and renewing native languages. In 1992 Dr. Michael Krauss, President of the Society for the study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and Director of the Alaska Native Language Center, testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. In his testimony, he estimated that in 1492 here were 300 or more native languages spoken in North America and that 190 of these 300 plus languages are still spoken or remembered by native North Americans. However, of the 155 of these 190 languages in the United States only about 20 are still spoken by people of all ages and thus fully vital. Even these few languages, including Navajo and Crow, are threatened as fewer and fewer children are learning them in the home. Many non-Indians and some Indians see no tragedy in the loss of these languages, but as this country becomes more and more dominated by concern about crime and the breakdown of traditional families, many Indians and some non-Indians see the perpetuation of native languages as vital to their cultural integrity. The reason for this is, that in addition to speech, each language carries with it an unspoken network of cultural values. Although these values generally operate on a subliminal level, they are, nonetheless, a major force in the shaping of each person's self-awareness, identity, and interpersonal relationships (Scollon & Scollon, 1981). These values are psychological imperatives that help generate and maintain an individual's level of comfort and self-assurance, and, consequently, success in life. In the normal course of events these values are absorbed along with one's mother tongue in the first years of life. For that reason, cultural values and mother tongue are so closely intertwined in public consciousness that they are often, but mistakenly, seen as inseparable. For the majority of young Natives today, culture and language have, in fact, been separated. As a result, most of these young people are trying "to walk in two worlds" with only one language. This is a far more complex and stressful undertaking than the "two worlds" metaphor would suggest (Henze & Vanett, 1993). Across two cultures the preferred etiquette for behaving or communicating in a particular situation may be starkly different. Using the same language across the two cultures often poses a challenge to both sense and sensitivity (Platt, 1989). Giving young Natives the opportunity to keep or learn their tribal language offers them a strong antidote to the culture clash many of them are experiencing but cannot verbalize. If along with the language, they learn to recognize the hidden network of cultural values that permeates the language, they will add to the knowledge and skills required to "walk in two worlds." They will learn to recognize and cope with cross-cultural values that are often at odds with each other, and they will begin to adopt more comfortably the cultural value that is appropriate for a particular cultural situation (Tennant, 1993). The revival and preservation of minority languages is not a hopeless cause. Successful efforts towards indigenous language renewal and maintenance are to be found around the world. Examples are to be found in the revival of Hebrew in Israel, French in Quebec, and Catalan in Spain (Fishman, 1991). Even in the United States with its emphasis on conformity, small groups such as the Hutterites and Hasidic Jews have been able to maintain their languages and cultures. In this article we will bring to bear experience from both international and local tribal efforts to describe "what works" in language renewal efforts. It should be noted that in seeking to preserve their cultural heritage, tribes are not rejecting the importance of English-language instruction for their children. Littlebear, a Northern Cheyenne advocate for bilingual education, sees "our native languages nurturing our spirits and hearts and the English language as sustenance for our bodies" (1990, p. 8). In addition, the results of the latest U.S. Department of Education study of bilingual education programs show that native-language use in schools does not hurt children (Ramirez, 1992). Such research tends to use English-language standardized test scores as a measure of success. If such research also focused on objectives such as strengthening American Indian families, there can be little doubt that bilingual programs utilizing and developing native-language fluency produce superior results. This is supported by the findings in the Department of Education study that parents were most satisfied with having their students learn both English and their home language and wanted their children to stay in bilingual programs longer (Ramirez, 1992). Joshua Fishman's Theoretical Paradigm Joshua Fishman (1991), a world renown expert on sociolinguistics, sees minority-language maintenance embedded in a more general attempt to maintain traditional cultures. He asks minority-language activists to "view local cultures (all local cultures, not only their own) as things of beauty, as encapsulations of human values which deserve to be fostered and assisted (not merely 'preserved' in a mummified sense)" (p. 33). Fishman works from three value positions: 1) The maintenance and renewal of native languages can be voluntary 2) "'Minority rights' need not interfere with 'majority rights,'" and 3) "Bilingualism is a benefit for all" (pp. 82-84). Fishman postulates a continuum of eight stages of language loss with stage eight being the closest to total extinction and stage one being the closest to dynamic survival. Partly as a result of years of concerted U.S. government language suppression, many American Indian tribes, such as the Salish and Kootenai in Montana, are in Fishman's eighth stage where only a few elders still speak the tribal languages. The languages of these tribes are on the verge of extinction. Other tribes are in stage seven where only adults beyond child-bearing age still speak the tribal language. In stage six, there is still some intergenerational use of languages in the homes. In stage five the language is still very alive and used in minority communities, and even on a voluntary basis in schools. According to Fishman, "Stages 8 to 5 constitute the minimum context for reviving native languages. Language revitalization efforts at these stages can be done inexpensively and do not need the cooperation of the dominant group. Stages four through one deal with giving the minority language a legal status, including minority-language use in schools, the workplace, and in government. Efforts to bring about such legal changes can evoke reactions from the majority population such as those of the "English-Only" movement (Crawford, 1992). In stage four, the minority language is required in elementary schools (here it is important to have it as a language of instruction rather than as a second language to be learned). In stage three, it is used among employees (but not by supervisors). In stage two, government offices use the language. Finally in stage one, higher levels of government use the language. Fishman shows through studies of various minority-language efforts worldwide how successful efforts to restore minority languages move the language from higher number stages to lower numbered stages with the most critical move being from stage five to four. Fishman notes how the emphasis on individual rights in modern western democracies detracts from the recognition of minority group rights. He maintains that, The denial of cultural rights to minorities is as disruptive of the moral fabric of mainstream society as is the denial of civil rights. Civil rights, however, are focused on the individual, while cultural rights must focus on ethnocultural groups. Such groups have no recognized legal standing in many Western democracies where both establishment capitalist thought and anti-establishment Marxist thought prophesies [sic] the eclipse of culturally distinct formations and the arrival of a uniformized, all-inclusive 'modern proletarian' culture. (p. 70) He defends the need to recognize "cultural democracy" as a part of general democracy and to see efforts to preserve and restore minority languages as societal reform efforts that can lead to the appreciation of the beauty and distinctiveness of other cultures as well as one's own. He also emphasizes that efforts to restore minority languages should be "facilitating and enabling" rather than "compulsory and punitive." Bilingualism should be viewed as life enriching and a bridge to other cultures. Fishman's position is echoed in smaller studies such as Colin Baker's (1988) review of compulsory and voluntary efforts to revive Celtic languages in the British Isles. Important factors Fishman finds in successful efforts to maintain minority languages include the need for sacrifice, self-help, self-regulation, and the establishment of boundaries for language use. He logically locates the key to minority-language preservation in the intergenerational transmission of the language in the home by families, not in government policies and laws. This thought is reinforced by Littlebear (1990) who emphasizes the importance of family involvement in these efforts. Fishman writes "The road to societal death is paved by language activity that is not focused on intergenerational continuity" (p. 91). He cautions against putting too much effort and reliance on native-language media, schools, and governmental efforts. Policies, such as those embodied in the Native American Language Act of 1990, and native-language radio stations can make a friendlier environment for minority languages, but they are no substitute for grass roots efforts focused on use of the language in homes. Outside of homes, minority-language use in early childhood centers, such as the Maori and Hawaiian language nests (described later in this paper), and in pre- and post-natal programs for young mothers is important. In the community, minority-language use can also take place in cooperative markets, employment centers, recreational centers, legal aid services, credit unions, and so forth. Fishman also points out the need for teachers who teach subject matter in the home language and who are tolerant and accepting of different dialects. Fishman asserts "it doesn't pay to force a written standard, much less a spoken one, on an adamantly unwilling or seriously ailing speech community" (p. 345). Lastly, social boundaries must be developed that give minority languages an exclusive role in traditional family and community social activities. Fishman's central issue of the book as we see it is the same one brought up by Lilly Wong Fillmore in her article "When Learning a Second Language Means Losing the First" in the September 1991 issue of Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She expresses a deep concern that an English-language emphasis in early childhood education will separate language-minority children from their parents. This separation leads to family breakdown (specifically parent-child communication problems) and identity problems for these students as they reach their trouble-filled teenage years. That breakdown has had disastrous consequences for American Indians who, for example, die from alcohol related causes at a rate 4.3 times the national average (Indian Health Service, 1990). These tragic social costs have been recognized by Republicans and Democrats alike in the family values debate during the 1992 presidential campaign and by all Americans in our concern about what is happening to our nation's youth. Tribal, National, and International Policies In recognition of the positive values it embodies, native-language renewal has received support through policies, legislation, and pronouncements at the tribal, national, and international levels. In the last few years tribal governments have been acting to protect and preserve their languages. One of the first of these was the Northern Ute Tribe whose Tribal Business Committee passed resolution 84-96 in 1984 declaring, the Ute language is a living and vital language that has the ability to match any other in the world for expressiveness and beauty. Our language is capable of lexical expansion into modern conceptual fields such as the field of politics, economics, mathematics and science. Be it known that the Ute language shall be recognized as our first language, and the English language will be recognized as our second language. We assert that our students are fully capable of developing fluency in our mother tongue and the foreign English language and we further assert that a higher level of Ute mastery results in higher levels of English skills. (Northern Ute, 1985, p. 16) The resolution also requires Ute language instruction from preschool through twelfth grade, encourages "pre-service training in Ute language theory and methodology for teachers," and requires three credits of inservice training in Ute language for teachers within one year of employment (Northern Ute, 1985, pp. 16-18). Another tribal language policy passed by the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council in 1984 holds that "Our ancient language is the foundation of our cultural and spiritual heritage" and declares that "all aspects of the educational process shall reflect the beauty of our Yaqui language, culture and values" (Pascua, 1984, p. 1). The same year the Navajo, living on the nation's largest reservation, passed an education code that recognized the importance of the Navajo language (Navajo, 1985). Although tribal policy and support are critical factors in language maintenance or renewal, they cannot of themselves without comprehensive planning and broad cooperation ensure that a formal language program will be successful. In 1974 the Coeur d'Alene tribe in Idaho commissioned the development of a modern writing system, language course, and dictionary for their language. These were completed the following year (Nicodemus, 1975). Today, twenty years later, the interest in the language remains strong. However, because there was no comprehensive program of implementation and because there are now so few adult speakers of the language, the renewal effort has been limited to elementary school children learning just a few words here and there. The Pawnee Tribe in Oklahoma developed a similar language-teaching program in 1979 (McNiel & Tennant). Of the eleven speakers of Pawnee who contributed to the course, only one is alive today and the tribal office estimates that there are only five to ten speakers of the language still living. Occasional courses in Pawnee are offered by the tribal library. The number of attendees at the 1994 course ranged from 10-15. One participant noted that in spite of strong motivation it is difficult to learn even simple conversation "because there really is no one to talk to." Although it is theoretically possible for an individual to learn a nearly extinct language through private effort with the help of a well planned, systematic approach (see Hinton,1990/91), the number of people with the level of motivation and persistence needed to succeed in such an effort remains small. At the national level, native-language maintenance received support from the passage of the Native American Languages Act, Title I of Public Law 101-477, in 1990. Congress noted in this Act that "the status of the cultures and languages of Native Americans is unique and the United States has the responsibility to act together with Native Americans to ensure the survival of these unique cultures and languages." The Act makes it the policy of the United States to "preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native American languages" and recognized "the right of Indian tribes and other Native American governing bodies to use the Native American languages as a medium of instruction in all schools funded by the Secretary of the Interior." Furthermore, the Act declares that "the right of Native Americans to express themselves through the use of Native American languages shall not be restricted in any public proceeding, including publicly supported education programs." In addition, the final report of the U.S. Secretary of Education's Indian Nations at Risk Task Force in 1991 set as one of its ten national goals the maintenance of native languages and cultures. The Task Force gathered testimony at seven regional public hearings and at the annual conference of the National Indian Education Association, made 30 school site visits, and commissioned 21 papers from national experts on American Indian/Alaska Native education on subjects such as current conditions, funding, dropout prevention, curriculum, and other relevant areas of concern (see Cahape & Howley, 1992). In the transmittal letter accompanying the Final Report, the Task Force's co-chairs, former Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell and former Alaska Commissioner of Education William G. Demmert, Jr., wrote: The Task Force believes that a well-educated American Indian and Alaska Native citizenry and a renewal of the language and cultural base of the American Native community will strengthen self-determination and economic well-being and will allow the Native community to contribute to building a stronger nation--an America that can compete with other nations and contribute to the world's economies and cultures. (Indian Nations at Risk Task Force, 1991, p. iv) The Task Force found that "schools that respect and support a student's language and culture are significantly more successful in educating those students" (p. 16). Overall, their final report gives strong support for linguistically and culturally appropriate education for American Indian and Alaska Native students and echoes the Native American Languages Act in calling for the maintenance and renewal of native languages and cultures. The experience Canada has had with Indian reserves, residential schools, and assimilationist policies parallels recent U.S. experience. Public hearings held in 1992 by the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples brought forth concerns similar to those of U.S. Natives. There was a call for more aboriginal control of education; more aboriginal teachers; more native language, culture and history in schools; and for cross-cultural training and education programs (Royal Commission, 1992). Worldwide, the survival of indigenous peoples and their cultures is a resurgent and compelling political issue. The breakup of the Soviet Union is one example of the strong claims minorities make for self-determination. Elsewhere, Kurds, Basques, and other indigenous groups demand independence. The continued poverty and social problems of these minority groups are linked to their political disempowerment and minority status. Minority children everywhere are filled with the idea through mass media and schools that the dominant culture reflects the way things ought to be. But their elders remind native children of the reality that they are not and can never be white. The United Nations recognized both the predicament and aspirations of indigenous minorities by declaring 1993 the International Year for the World's Indigenous People. The current policy of Indian self-determination in the United States, while not perfect, approaches the ideal of freedom and cultural democracy envisioned in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Making Policies Reality The rhetoric from tribal, national, and international levels is great, but drawing from the Irish and other international experiences, American Indian tribal governments should be wary of tribal language requirements in schools without first establishing local parental support for such requirements. The grass-roots support for the Native American Languages Act in the United States is matched by the grass-roots support of Celtic languages in Great Britain and Ireland, but that support does not necessarily translate into support for compulsory native-language instruction. The Navajos ran into this problem with their 1984 policies. At the White House Conference on Indian Education in 1992, Navajo president Peterson Zah noted, We took it to the Tribal Council, promulgated new rules, and announced a new law. The wishes of the Navajo people were finally put into writing, a statement of principle that we can all support. However, the different kinds of schools that we had on the reservation didn't necessarily buy what the Navajo Nation government wanted the local school districts to do because those local districts had their allegiance to the state. They had their allegiance to the federal government. So, we now have a situation where we have a policy that is not in force. (1992, p. 397). There is an urgent need for developing a comprehensive plan and broad community support, including that of local schools, before the base of spoken language becomes irretrievably lost. To assist in such a comprehensive effort, Brandt and Ayoungman (1989) offer a highly detailed but locally adaptable set of "Exercises for Language Planning" in an Appendix to their "practical guide" for language renewal and maintenance. The exercises include twelve activities that allow local communities to become immersed in the language renewal process: (1) dispelling myths about language learning and bilingualism; (2) identifying the values underlying the language; (3) recognizing beliefs associated with language use and bilingualism; (4) articulating the future desired by the community; (5) setting goals based on the desired future; (6) examining current community practices as they relate to the chosen goals; (7) establishing an information network to promote the goals; (8) recruiting individuals and groups to achieve the goals; (9) determining the key factors regarding language loss, maintenance, or renewal; (10) focusing on the unique functions of the local language; (11) developing language and educational policies; and, finally, (12) implementing a practical, comprehensive plan. The Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs (OBEMLA) Roundtable on stabilizing indigenous languages that was held in November, 1994, in Flagstaff, Arizona, is a step towards helping tribes develop comprehensive plans for tribal language maintenance and renewal. The conference discussed rationale, policy, planning, research, community issues, and K-Adult education. In the following sections we outline additional approaches that experience has shown can help turn the rhetoric of native-language renewal into actual programs in and out of school that will impact the lives of children. Early Childhood Programs As Fishman (1991) indicates, everything points to the need to focus efforts on getting parents and young children involved in native-language renewal. The intergenerational transmission of native languages in the home is the key to native-language survival. To the extent that there is a genetic predisposition to language, which may well include personal or cultural traits (shyness, for example), this predisposition can be strengthened both pre- and post-natally, primarily by the mother talking and singing often to the child in the native language, by exposing the child pre- and post-natally to frequent conversations held with others in the native language, and by participating as often as possible in community gatherings where the child can experience ethnic activities. Language nests can offer strong support to families in the effort to preserve native languages. Language nests were developed by the Maori of New Zealand to help preserve their culture and language. They are community-based day-care centers staffed with Maori elders who speak to the children in the Maori language. Language nests preserve the Maori language that was dying out, provide a valuable service to working parents, and, most importantly, strengthen the cultural values associated with the traditional Maori extended family (Fleras, 1989). Starting in 1982, Maori grandparents volunteered to run day-care centers featuring an immersion program in the Maori language. With grassroots support these "nests" expanded rapidly till in 1988 there were 521 centers with 8,000 children, 15% of the Maoris under 5 years old. In an informal, extended-family, childcare setting, Maori preschoolers are saturated with Maori language and culture (Fleres, 1989). Language renewal among adults is also being carried on in New Zealand through the use of week-long immersion classes at Maori cultural centers (Nicholson, 1990). With university help, language nests are also being successfully pioneered in Hawaii with native Hawaiian children (Wilson, 1991). These programs link together elders and children, strengthen family values, and develop language skills. More consideration needs to be given to the strengths of the "language nest" approach in planning United States early childhood education programs. If we follow the advice of former secretary of education William Bennett (1987), to teach English to language-minority children "as quickly as possible," and by implication the culture that goes with the English language, we will further break down the American Indian cultures and family structures. Elementary and Secondary Education Schools can build on the native-language skills that native families and language nests develop in children. An example of a school that is maintaining an Indian language is Rock Point Community School in Arizona. At Rock Point, reading and writing are taught first in Navajo. In kindergarten, two-thirds of the instruction is in Navajo with the rest of the time spent teaching students oral English. In grades 1-3, half the instruction is in English and half in Navajo. In the upper grades about one-fourth of the instruction is in Navajo with the rest in English. By teaching content-area subjects in the early grades in Navajo, Rock Point students are not held back in those subjects until they learn English. In the secondary school both 7th and 8th-grade students have a full year of Navajo studies in Navajo plus a quarter of Navajo writing. In grades 9-12 students have a half year of Navajo studies in Navajo plus a quarter of Navajo writing each year (Reyhner, 1990). Teachers at Rock Point have had to personally produce much of the material they use to teach in Navajo. A Title VII (bilingual education) funded Junior Research Program (JRP) in the elementary school and a Title V (Indian education) funded Applied Literacy Program (ALP) in the secondary school develop literacy skills in Navajo and English. Students write for newspapers and booklets that then become reading material for other students. In ALP students take Navajo writing, English writing, computer skills, and performance (speech and drama). Each quarter, an award-winning, bilingual school newspaper is produced. Hands-on instructional approaches are used because they lend themselves to adaptation by teachers for Navajo language instruction more readily than exclusively textbook approaches. McLaughlin (1990) in a study of literacy on the Navajo Reservation found that three out of four of the community members questioned, reported reading Navajo language articles in a school newspaper. The Navajo language is used as the language of instruction in the high-school Navajo social-studies classes. In addition to teaching tribal history, geography, and government, time is also spent on Navajo clanship where students learn how they are related to other Navajos and the duties they owe to their clan relatives. Thus, through the school's curriculum, community and family cohesiveness is reinforced. One of the important factors in the success of the Rock Point Community School curriculum is that students are encouraged and required to talk and write a lot in both Navajo and English. Besides Navajo, the only other native language that is still used extensively over a wide area in the United States is Central Yup'ik Eskimo in Alaska. Some 22 widely scattered villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta are served by the Lower Kuskokwim School District with offices in the city of Bethel. Bethel has 4000 inhabitants; the villages average 500 inhabitants. The language dominance of children entering school in these villages ranges from Yup'ik-only to English-only, with some of the villages in various stages of language transition. Yup'ik is taught in all 22 village schools as well as the three schools in Bethel. Three different programs have been developed to respond to the children's broad-spectrum language needs. Four villages where the children are English-dominant teach Yup'ik for one period a day (Yup'ik as a Second Language Model). Four other villages, although Yup'ik-dominant, have adopted an all-English curriculum with Yup'ik used for half to one period a day (Bilingual/Bicultural Model). The remaining 14 Yup'ik-dominant villages provide all subject-matter instruction for Grades K-2 in Yup'ik, while English instruction increases from 30 minutes a day in kindergarten to 90 minutes a day in Grade 2. Although English becomes the main language of instruction from Grade 3 on, instruction in Yup'ik is continued for one period a day (Yup'ik as a First Language Model) The Yup'ik as a First Language Model is essentially the Primary Eskimo Program that was developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the early 1970s when the village schools were run by the BIA. By 1979, at the end of a five-year study, the program evaluators concluded that "this bilingual program has demonstrated a level of effectiveness beyond most expectations and beyond the proven levels of achievement for the majority of bilingual programs of its type in the country (Tennant, 1979, p. 49). Although the program has weakened somewhat over the years owing to a high rate of teacher turnover in rural Alaska and the lack of intensive training that is required to maintain such a complex program, a comprehensive evaluation of the program in 1990 concluded that "the bilingual program of the Lower Kuskokwim School District, and its predecessor, the BIA Primary Eskimo Program, have already made great progress toward achieving equity and excellence in Yup'ik and English education (Henze et al., 1990, p.82). Unfortunately, beyond the few examples given above, there is little to give hope that American Indian communities and their languages will not continue to lose ground as reservations become less and less isolated from the dominant culture particularly through the introduction of television to even the most remote areas. The Maori, Rock Point, and Yup'ik successes indicate that the native-language-maintenance programs need to be given more attention by American Indian tribal governments and educators as a possible way to help implement the spirit of the Native American Languages Act. College Efforts The tribal college movement began in 1968 with the founding of Navajo Community College. Since then this movement has grown till in 1994 the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) listed 31 members. Lionel Bordeaux, a long time tribal college president and one of the leaders of the tribal college movement noted that "cultural preservation is really the foundation of the tribal colleges" (1991, p. 12). Courses in tribal languages are a mainstay of tribal college curriculums. Recently, Sinte Gleska University and Oglala Lakota College started four-year teacher-education programs, and now Navajo Community College and Haskell Indian Junior College are developing four-year teacher-education programs. Except for Haskell, an intertribal college, tribal language and culture requirements are integral to these teacher education programs. In contrast to the old assimilationist approaches to Indian education, tribal colleges are formulating a multicultural/ecological educational approach. Oglala Lakota College's "Philosophical base of the teacher education program" states: We believe that by learning a second way of life, without forsaking reverence due to one's primary group, personal understanding between individuals and cross-cultural understanding between groups will be enhanced. This approach to life needs to be integrated into all areas of education that affect Indian students on and near the reservation. (Oglala Lakota College, p. 1) On the Rosebud Reservation a Tribal Education Code was enacted in 1991 to get culturally appropriate instruction for Lakota children (Knowles, Gill, Beauvais, & Medearis, 1992). The Vice President of Navajo Community college told a group of teachers in 1992, We are developing the teacher education program within the natural education processes of the culture, and we wish to be respected as we observe the critical issues and power dealing with this type of development. . . . We believe that the knowledge of Navajo culture, language and S'a' ah Naagh'ai Bik'eh Hozh'o'on is necessary for anyone involved in the Teacher Education Program. We are attempting to set this development programmatically within our knowledge system so that it addresses real issues facing real people through a living curriculum and pedagogy. . . . Our traditional cultural roots are now being nourished and nurtured into full growth of amplifying our philosophy, S'a ah Naagh'aa'i Bik'eh H'ozh'o'on through comprehensive curriculum and pedagogical transformation. (Lewis, 1992, pp. 1-2) Classroom Suggestions Brandt and Ayoungman give practical advice on renewing aboriginal languages in their 1989 special theme issue, "Language is a Gift from the Creator," of the Canadian Journal of Native Education, which focuses on language renewal. They warn parents and educators not to "'teach' their children ëIndianí by giving them isolated words such as the names of foods, colors, or numbers." Instead they recommend that family members simply talk to their children all the time in the language . . . using the normal strategies of talking to children, asking them questions, telling them what to say in natural functional situations, such as 'Ask your grandma to give you some food,' or expanding their productions. (1989, 45) Hinton (1990/91) emphasizes the amount of time that adults wanting to learn their ancestral language must spend and the need adults have to overcome inhibitions about making mistakes and playing with language. She also emphasizes that one need not study the grammar of an Indian language to learn it and that immersion rather translation is the best way to learn an Indian language. Teachers seeking ideas on how to restore native languages or to teach English as a Second Language would do well to study Krashen and Terrell's (1983) "Natural Approach" to language acquisition because the translation approaches used in the past have shown little success. In addition, the ideas in the second edition of John Oller, Jr's. Methods That Work (1993) are excellent. Oller's edited book includes chapters by Krashen and other leaders in the field of language education. The "Natural Approach" incorporates language-teaching principles that have proven successful in other methodologies as well. Lozanov's Suggestopedic Approach to language learning, for example, has gained worldwide attention for both its success and its novel departure from the cognitive emphasis in most classrooms (Lozanov, 1978; Lozanov & Gateva, 1988; Stevick, 1980, pp. 229-259). The Berlitz "Method," with its demonstrated commercial success on an international scale, is another proven approach to language teaching. The "Method" used to teach any of the languages offered by Berlitz schools is not published but is taught privately to the instructors who will teach students one on one or in small groups. So effective is the Method that the only other prerequisites to becoming a Berlitz teacher are (1) the language to be taught must be the teacher's mother tongue, and (2) the teacher must have completed an elementary school education in that mother tongue. The Method is based on a cycle of statements and questions that always rotate around three objects, statements, or situations. The real or realistic content of the questions keeps the student(s) focused, and the use of three distinct contexts keeps the student(s) from parroting responses. The learning cycle begins with three statements that in the beginning may focus on three simple, real objects: paper, pencil, book. The questioning then rotates from negative to positive responses and then back to statements (Pencil? No. Book? No. Paper? Yes.). In short order, the cycle of statements and questions becomes quite complex (Is Mr. Berlitz going to London? No. Mr. Berlitz is not going to London. Is Mr. Berlitz going to Paris? No. Mr. Berlitz is not going to Paris. Where is Mr. Berlitz going? Mr. Berlitz is going to Rome. . . . Is Mrs. Berlitz going to Rome? No. . . . Is Miss Berlitz going to London? and so forth). In a Berlitz language lesson, consequently, the teacher models the target language half the time by asking questions and the student(s) spend the other half of the class time answering the questions in the target language. For the first 30 lessons, students rely totally on oral instruction by modeling the teacher's pronunciation of the target language. Although Berlitz language classes are intense, partly because they are expensive, they teach language well and they teach it fast. The intensity of the Berlitz Method perhaps cannot be maintained in educational settings with large numbers of students, but many of the valuable principles that make the Method work can be built into any effective language-teaching program. The use in classrooms of cooperative-learning techniques where the students question each other is another way of increasing the amount of time students speak the target language. In mixed classrooms where different students are fluent in different languages, this peer tutoring could be very effective. Although they may motivate students differently, the Krashen, Lozanov, and Berlitz approaches to language teaching incorporate five principles that need to be addressed, with varying degrees of emphasis, in any language-teaching program: 1. Putting primary emphasis on communication, not grammar 2. Using context that is real or at least realistic 3. Processing content of high interest to the learner 4. Adjusting the pace of instruction to the students' progress -moving from simple to complex (generally speaking) -emphasizing speaking over speaking correctly -putting comprehension before completion 5. Correcting students through modeling Since learning styles vary across cultures and even between individuals within those cultures, it would be simplistic to conclude that any one method "fits all." But all three approaches mentioned above have been proven to be widely successful in their own contexts and with their own emphases. Consequently, familiarity with the principles that have made these approaches successful will increase the likelihood of maintaining and renewing native languages. By not focusing on grammar or vocabulary, such as conjugating verbs or memorizing the names of numbers, colors, and animals, students acquire language skills they can use immediately. The timely, positive feedback that students gain from early, successful use of the new language boosts their desire to learn. The judicious teaching of grammar, however, can be helpful. The contributors to Ronald M. Barasch and C. Vaughn James's book Beyond the Monitor Model (1994) note, examining especially European sources, that what is good teaching in the Natural Approach is not new with Krashen, and they comment on what Waldemar Marton refers to as the "anti-pedagogical" aspects of Krashen's theories. Like the Whole Language Approach, Krashen talks more about creating an "acquisition" environment rather than specific teaching strategies. Wilga Rivers recommends a more "interactive approach" where, besides providing comprehensible input in a low anxiety environment, teachers also correct grammar based on the level of the students understanding. As Ian Dunlop, another contributor, puts it, "explanations of grammar help as long as those explanations are understandable, do explain and do not confuse, and are at the linguistic level of the student" (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 217). Without that explanation there is evidence that students' errors will "fossilize" with the result that while they will be able to get by in the language they will never achieve near-native fluency. As stated by Carlos Yorio, "What the immersion program evidence shows is that in the best of all possible acquisition-oriented classroom situations, comprehensible input and full emphasis on meaning result in fluency but not in accuracy." (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 132). There is some evidence of this from the Canadian French immersion classrooms. Teresa Pica, Richard Young, and Catherine Doughty also note the importance of interaction plus "redundancy in input" in second language instruction. Pica notes that "a number of studies have shown that a priori adjustments to input in the form of paraphrase and repetition of linguistic constituents, simpler syntax, and commonly used words have a facilitating effect on L2 comprehension of texts or lecturettes [mini-lessons], compared to their unadjusted counterparts" (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 183). She also states that students need more "opportunities to initiate interaction, seek clarification [ask questions], or signal for help with comprehension" (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 185). Peter af Trampe argues that some of Krashen's dislike of grammars results from their written-language bias. The last thing beginning language users can use is a complicated grammar produced by linguists, but they can use simplified oral-language-oriented grammar. We mentioned previously the parallels between Krashen's Natural Approach and the Whole Language Approach to literacy. They both downplay direct instruction in favor of providing a language rich environment that will motivate students. While this fits in with some of the recent research in cognitive psychology and the constructivist theory of learning, taken to the extreme it severely limits the role of teachers. Basically, teachers would only provide high-interest, low-anxiety, language-rich environments for students. The more conservative approach advocated by the contributors to Beyond the Monitor Model adds a valuable teaching function to this environment. Curriculum and Materials Development in the Schools Although the school alone cannot revive or maintain a language--that is primarily a prerogative of the family and the speech community--the school can be a force and a focal point for language maintenance or renewal. Since the school teaches subject matter in a well-planned, methodical, and regularly-scheduled way, it can strongly reinforce a community's efforts to promote native-language use. Furthermore, when a local language is taught alongside other formal school subjects, it takes on an importance equal to those other subjects. This message to the students may be subliminal, but it is, nonetheless, an important one. For a language to be taught effectively in the school, more than a methodology is needed. The way the language will be taught must be mapped out concretely in a curriculum or course of study. This curriculum, in turn, must be supported by appropriate materials. What specific curriculum and materials evolve for a particular program depends on a number of factors that must be reviewed, discussed and decided upon by the local community working with principals, teachers, and bilingual aides (see Brandt and Ayoungman's Exercises for Language Planning outlined earlier). This process can be accelerated with the help of a facilitator who has wide experience with many different kinds of native-language programs. From this careful planning, an ideal language-teaching model can emerge. This "showroom" model may never be driven off the dealer's lot, because there always seems to be some gap between the ideal and the affordable. Cost notwithstanding, however, it is still important to begin with the ideal program because this will allow the planning group to prioritize the scope of the program within whatever funding can be allotted to it. Very often supplemental federal funds can be gotten to help establish a language-teaching program. Here again, it is helpful for the committee to consult with someone who knows what funds are available and how to apply for them. For any effort to be successful, however, it cannot depend entirely on discretionary federal funding such as Title VII. A commitment of regular school-budget dollars must be made to achieve program permanence. Bilingual education, once implemented, does not need to be appreciably more expensive than monolingual education. It does, however, require that a substantial number of certified teachers need to be bilingual and have special training in teaching languages. One of the important decisions that often needs to be made in native-language programs is whether to focus solely on speaking skills or to include literacy. If we assume literacy to mean more than merely some written aid to learning the language itself, we consequently assume the need for a viable orthography, that is, a writing system designed with the user rather than the scholar in mind and based, at least for the most part, on the Roman alphabet that everyone learns in school. More even than a practical orthography, literacy assumes literature. Including literacy as a language-teaching goal, assumes a commitment to develop reading material for children and adults in the target language. Literacy is an admirable goal: it involves local speakers in developing written materials; it documents for future generations the language and the knowledge the language conveys; it provides the community with a sense of pride in their people and their language; and, at the same time, it gives the student a powerful language learning tool. An example of a successfully implemented language-maintenance program can be found on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait some 150 miles off the west coast of Alaska, but only 40 miles from the Siberian mainland. This large, windswept, treeless island is home to two Eskimo villages of about 600 people each: Gambell and Savoonga. Both villages have schools with grades K-12 run by the Bering Strait School District. The dominant language of the school-entry children in these two villages is Siberian Yupik (Note: Central Yup'iks use an apostrophe to indicate a glottal stop in the word "Yup'ik;" St. Lawrence Islanders do not). This is one of four Eskimo languages in Alaska and it is spoken only on this island and on the nearby coast of Siberia. In recent years the inhabitants of the island have begun to call their language St. Lawrence Island Yupik rather than Siberian Yupik. Because the children's first language is Yupik, every classroom K-8 has a Yupik-speaking aide. In addition to team teaching with the certified teacher, there was a long tradition that the aide in each classroom would teach 30-45 minutes a day in Yupik. Since there was no scope or sequence for the Yupik instruction, no teacher knew what any other teacher had taught. As a result, the children each year learned more than they ever wanted to know about a favorite cultural topic: seals. In order to improve the language-teaching program, the school district in 1983 sought the help of a consultant to work with the school staff. A needs assessment indicated that ideally the children should be taught in Yupik for the first few years in school, while they learned English as a second language gradually in a non-traumatic way. Ideally, they needed a program similar to the Yup'ik as a First Language model in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta. With only 300 students on the island, however, compared to 3000 in the Lower Kuskokwim School District, the ideal program gave way to fiscal reality. Consequently, the time frame for the language program remained the same: 30-45 minutes of instruction a day. With the help of an initial Title VII bilingual education grant, the school district developed a K-12 scope and sequence for the cultural content of the classes taught in Yupik, created a Yupik reading program, consolidated existing reading materials for the elementary level, and created three hard-cover volumes of local history and lore in both Yupik and English for high-school students. A current Title VII grant is allowing the local materials development center staff to develop five full-length readers in Yupik and English for use in grades 4-8. This program in the school is thus helping the community to maintain the language through a strong literacy program and helping to counteract the ever mounting influence of English-language television in nearly every home. Other Considerations While it is natural to go to tribal elders for help in learning and teaching tribal languages, it is really young parents who can create the home environment for the intergenerational transmission of tribal languages. In addition, when young people are recruited to become actively involved in native-language maintenance and renewal, there is an expectation that this interest can bear fruit for another half century, long after today's elders are gone. Using tribal elders and other native speakers to actually teach tribal language in schools has a history going back at least to the early seventies. This history indicates that while these acknowledged experts can teach language in an informal situation--at home, in early-child-care settings, and on field trips--teaching language in a school classroom is another thing altogether. Teaching to relatively large groups of children in classroom settings requires knowledge of how to motivate and keep discipline as well as the knowledge of second-language-teaching techniques of Krashen and others discussed above. Tribal members, however, often meet this advice with skepticism. Among Indians there is a history of suspicion of non-Indian, native-language efforts based on the history of native-language use by non-Indians. Missionaries learned the language and developed writing systems for the purpose of spreading Christianity, not preserving Indian languages. Anthropologists and linguists studied tribal languages for purely academic and professional reasons that had little or no benefit to Indian people. Government officials sometimes became interested in tribal languages so that they could be used to sell to the people unpopular government policies such as stock reduction on the Navajo reservation in the 1930s. Any outsiders seeking to offer advice or help to maintain native languages need to be aware that their efforts will not be met uncritically. What is needed is a partnership of what Watahomigie and Yamamoto (1987) have described as action linguists working with curriculum developers, tribal elders, tribal young adults, and teachers. Native language and cultural revival will not be accomplished by tribal officials and school administrators going to Washington to testify for various bills. In fact, their failure to "mind the store" back home can further discredit Indian education. What is needed is the aforementioned partnership with curriculum and language experts to develop high quality classroom teaching methods and materials. Otherwise, "native-language experts" and local certified teachers who speak the language who go into the classroom with high expectations put on them by the community will be struggling against odds that for most will be insurmountable. The result will be that students will learn neither native languages nor the three "Rs" well. Conclusion If community-based, native-language, early-childhood programs can be developed and linked to two-way or maintenance bilingual programs in public and BIA funded schools, there is hope that American Indian families can be strengthened and native languages can be revived and maintained while English-language skills are developed. Indian students need an environment both inside and outside of school where they can develop and use native and English-language skills. The home is an obvious place to use the native language, but some tribes have also started radio and television stations with native-language programming. While students need environments where they can use English in conversation, they need to be taught that it is not necessary to give up a tribal language for English. It is not only all right to be bilingual, but it is better than being monolingual. A shift in language education policy over the past quarter century has helped promote this message. The message has come at a critical juncture for the maintenance or renewal of many American Indian and Alaska native languages. Editor's Note: This article is an extension of a paper that was presented by Jon Reyhner (1993a) at Lake Superior State University's Native American Studies Conference in 1991 and was published in the proceedings of that conference the following year. The section on Fishman's work is adapted from Reyhner (1992), and the critique of Krashen's work is condensed from Reyhner (1993b). References Baker, C. 1988. Key issues in bilingualism and bilingual education. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters. Barasch, R.M., & James, C.V. 1994. Beyond the Monitor Model: Comments on Current Theory and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Bennett, William. 1987. Schools that work: Educating disadvantaged children. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office. Brandt, E. A., & Ayoungman, V. 1989. Language renewal and language maintenance: A practical guide. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 16(2), 42-77. Cahape, P., & Howley, C. B. 1992. Indian nations at risk: Listening to the people. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural and Small Schools. Crawford, James. 1992. Hold your tongue: Bilingualism and the politics of "English only." Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Fishman, Joshua A. 1991. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon, Avon, England: Multilingual Matters. Fleres, A. 1989. Te Kohanga Reo: A Maori language renewal program. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 16(2), 78-88. Henze R. C., & Vanett, L., 1993. To Walk in Two Worlds--Or More? Challenging a Common Metaphor of Native Education, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 24(2), 116-134. Henze, R. C., et al., 1990. An exploratory study of the effectiveness of the Lower Kuskokwim School District's bilingual program. Oakland, CA: ARC Associates, Inc. Hinton, L. 1990/91. How to learn your language. News from Native California, 5(1), 34-36. Indian Health Service. 1990. Trends in Indian Health 1990. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Indian Nations at Risk Task Force. 1991, October. Indian nations at risk: An educational strategy for action (Final report of the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. Knowles, T., Gill, J., Beauvais, A., & Medearis, C. 1992) Teacher education and the Rosebud Tribal Education Code. Tribal College, 4(2), 21-23. Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. 1983. The Natural Approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Hayward, CA: Alemany. Krauss, Michael. 1992. Statement of Mr. Michael Krauss, representing the Linguistic Society of America; president, Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; Director, Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. In Hearing before the Select Committee on Indian Affairs United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session on S. 2044 to assist Native Americans in assuring the survival and continuing vitality of their languages, June 18, 1992 (pp. 18-22). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. (Senate Hearing 102-809 on the Native American Languages Act of 1991). Leap, W. L. 1982. Roles for the linguist in Indian bilingual education. In R. St. Clair & W. Leap (Eds.), Language renewal among American Indian tribes: Issues, problems, and prospects. Rosslyn, VI: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Lewis, T. 1992. Speech presented on October 15, 1992 at the First Annual Symposium on Language , Culture and Education: Empowerment Through Partnership, Tuba City Public Schools, Tuba City, AZ. Littlebear, D. 1990. Keynote address: Effective language education practices and native language survival. In J. Reyhner (Ed.), Effective language education practices and native language survival (pp. 1-8). Choctaw, OK: Native American Language Issues. Lozanov, G. 1978. Suggestology and outlines of suggestopedy. New York: Gordon & Breach. Lozanov, G., & Gateva, E. 1988. Foreign language teachers suggesopedic manual. New York: Gordon & Breach. McLaughlin, B. 1987. Theories of second-language learning. New York: Edward Arnold. McLaughlin, D. 1990. The sociolinguistics of Navajo literacy. Journal of Navajo Education, 7(2), 28-36. McNiel, D. & Tennant, E., eds. 1979. Parí Pakurú: An introduction to spoken Pawnee. Pawnee, OK: The Pawnee Tribal Business Council. Navajo Division of Education. 1985. Navajo Nation: Educational policies. Window Rock, AZ: Navajo Division of Education. Nicholson, R. 1990. Maori total immersion courses for adults in Aoteaora/New Zealand. In J. Reyhner (Ed.), Effective language education practices and native language survival (pp. 107-120). Choctaw, OK: Native American Language Issues. Nicodemus, L. 1975. Snchitsu'umshtsn: The Coeur d'Alene Language: A Modern Course. Plummer, ID: The Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Northern Ute Tribe. 1985. Ute language policy. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 9(2), 16-19. Oglala Lakota College. (n.d.). Philosophical base of the teacher education program. (Photocopied document obtained from Oglala Lakota College) Oller, John W., Jr. 1993. Methods That Work: Ideas for literacy and language teachers, 2nd edition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council. 1984. Yaqui language policy for the Pascua Yaqui tribe: Policy declaration. Tucson, AZ: Tucson Unified School District. Platt, J. 1989. Some types of communicative strategies across cultures: Sense and sensitivity. In O. Garcia & R. Otheguy, English across cultures--Cultures across English (pp. 13-29). New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. Ramirez, D. 1992. Executive summary. Bilingual Research Journal, 16(1), 1-62. Reyhner, J. 1990. A description of the Rock Point Community School bilingual education program. In Jon Reyhner (Ed.), Effective language education practices and native language survival (pp. 95-106). Choctaw, OK: Native American Language Issues. Reyhner, J. (1992). Review of Joshua Fishman's Reversing Language Shift. Bilingual Research Journal, 16(3), 148-152. Reyhner, J. (1993a). Maintaining and renewing native languages in the schools. In T. E. Schirer & S. M. Branstner (Eds.), Native American Values: Survival and Renewal (pp. 47-56). Sault Sainte Marie, MI: Lake Superior State University. Reyhner, J. (1993b). Second language acquisition. NABE News, 17(3), 25. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. 1992. Public hearings: Overview of the first round. Ottawa, Canada: Author. Scollon R., & Scollon, Suzanne, B.K. 1981. Narrative, Literacy and Face in Interethnic Communication. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Stevick, E. 1980. Teaching languages: A way and ways. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Tennant, E. 1979. Final Evaluation Report: Primary Eskimo Program, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bethel, Alaska. Albuquerque, NM: Educational Research Associates, Inc. Tennant, E. 1993. The "Eye of Awareness": Probing the Hidden Dimension of Bilingual Education. In Proceedings of the Third National Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student Issues. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education: Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs. Watahomigie, L. J., & Yamamoto, A. Y. 1987. Linguistics in action: The Hualapai bilingual/bicultural education program. In D. D. Stull & J. J. Schensul, Collaborative research and social change: Applied anthropology in action (pp. 77-98). Boulder, CO: Westview. Wilson, William H. 1991. American Indian bilingual education: Hawaiian parallels. NABE News, 15(3), 9-10). Wong Fillmore, L. 1991. A question for early-childhood programs: English first or families first. NABE News, 14(7), 13-14 & 19. (Reprinted from Education Week) Zah, P. 1992. Major presentation of Peterson Zah, President Navajo Nation. In White House Conference on Indian Education, The final report of the White House Conference on Indian Education (Vol. 2) (pp. 396-99). Washington, D.C.: Author. From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 21:31:02 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:31:02 -0800 Subject: teaching Language In Day Care PDf Message-ID: attached-or email me for a copy -- André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: language.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 98212 bytes Desc: Unknown Document URL: From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Wed Nov 26 17:17:02 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 09:17:02 -0800 Subject: New Book In-Reply-To: <3FC3C4DA.2AB55A25@ncidc.org> Message-ID: Hi Andre, I looked up the Indigenous Children's services unit and found this information, Indigenous Children's Services Unit Description:- The Indigenous Children's Services Unit (ICSU) is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services to provide training, support, advice, resources, and referrals to Commonwealth funded Aboriginal, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander Children's Services, particularly those in rural and remote areas. The unit is currently working on language resources for Wik Mungkan, Meriam Mir and Torres Strait Creole. Email:- icsu at ballyhoo.com.au Street Address:- 2/15 Castlemaine Street, Kirwin 4817 Phone Number:- (07) 4723 4088 From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Wed Nov 26 17:48:50 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 09:48:50 -0800 Subject: New Book In-Reply-To: <200311261717.hAQHH3BA001376@darkwing.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Hi again, I found the parent organization website at http://www.qcoss.org.au/ Queensland council of social services David From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Wed Nov 26 19:15:48 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 11:15:48 -0800 Subject: Fwd: AEQ CALL FOR PAPERS: INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES & EDUCATION In-Reply-To: <000501c3b440$16ecf340$da89df80@cas.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:02:23 -0700 From: Tsianina Lomawaima Subject: AEQ CALL FOR PAPERS: INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES & EDUCATION Colleagues, Please see the attached Call for Papers and disseminate to those who may be interested. (And consider submitting a paper yourself!) Several outstanding guest editors have agreed to work with us on this theme issue, and we all look forward to readers' feedback and contributions. Please share this Call, especially, with potential contributors from Indigenous communities. Thank you! Teresa L. McCarty, Ph.D. Professor and Codirector, American Indian Language Development Institute Editor, Anthropology and Education Quarterly Call for Papers: Anthropology & Education Quarterly THEME ISSUE: Indigenous Epistemologies and Education Self-determination, Anthropology, and Human Rights In this special issue, AEQ will focus on educational issues impacting members of the world¹s 300 million Indigenous peoples, particularly as education relates to Indigenous epistemologies, self-determination, and human rights. We seek critical ethnographic analyses of new paradigms in Indigenous education that confront the challenges of educational self-determination and human rights. Papers may focus on community-based education, language education, or other contemporary expressions of these issues at the pre-K­college level. Recognizing that anthropology and anthropologists have historically been complicit in colonizing projects that have undermined Indigenous epistemologies and education rights, what might the present and future bring? What are the unique contributions of educational anthropology to Indigenous self-determination? What new territories--physical, social, political, linguistic, and cultural--are being charted to promote Indigenous education and human rights? Papers should be theoretical as well as empirical, and should engage education practice and policy. We encourage article-length manuscripts of no more than 35 pages, as well as briefer, 10-15 page manuscripts suitable for Reflections on the Field and Reflections from the Field. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed. Manuscripts must be received by March 15, 2004 for a theme issue planned for spring 2005. Contributors should adhere closely to the "Information for Authors" at the back of the most recent AEQ. Pre-submission inquiries can be directed to aequart at u.arizona.edu. Submit 5 blinded copies and 1 identical electronic copy to: Teresa L. McCarty, Editor University of Arizona, College of Education Room 512, 1430 E. 2nd St., Box 210069, Tucson, AZ 85721 (520/621-1052); aequart at u.arizona.edu. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 27 19:47:45 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 12:47:45 -0700 Subject: Exhibition examines indigenous education (fwd) Message-ID: Exhibition examines indigenous education Publish Date:11/28/2003 Story Type:National Affairs; Byline:Cecilia Fanchiang http://publish.gio.gov.tw/FCJ/current/03112822.html         An exhibition and seminar to explore indigenous education on the island was held Nov. 22-23. Academics and educators were invited to the two-day event at which several research papers were presented, posters were put on display, and teaching materials, atlases, historical documents, Taiwanese food and musical works were exhibited.         The event was organized by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and sponsored by the Cabinet's Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), the Council for Hakka Affairs (CHA) and the Taipei Municipal Teachers College.         By showcasing local food, art and music--all of which can be used as instructional materials by enterprising teachers--organizers aimed at putting a new face on aboriginal education in Taiwan.         "I hope this seminar will lead to a breakthrough that helps distract pubic attention from the ongoing debate over what is an appropriate written system for aboriginal languages and help people see the broader value of appreciating the presence of indigenous cultures," said Education Minister Huang Jong-tsun in his opening address.         Huang said indigenous education--an issue completely divorced from the question of independence or unification, he stressed--is not an invention of Taiwan but a global cultural movement.         "Indigenous education should not be restricted to area-based education," agreed CHA Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan.         Participants in the meeting did not restrict their discussions to local issues. Speakers evaluated indigenous education systems and shared practices for developing localized curriculums from countries such as China, the United States and Japan. Papers presented at the seminar attempted to provide insights into proper ways to design a history curriculum and implement mother-tongue education.         Topics included the nativization of history studies, the Curriculum Alignment program, a comparison of social-education curriculums from different countries and case studies highlighting problems with adopting romanization systems in native Taiwanese language education.         Liu Yung-pin, CHA vice chairman, expressed his concern over the gloomy prospects for local dialects in Taiwan, most of which are under serious threat of being extinguished. Liu said all of Taiwan's local dialects, such as the Hakka and Hoklo languages, are gradually vanishing. He suggested that mother tongues should be taught in school as early as kindergarten.         CIP Vice Chairman Pu Chung-cheng, who is a member of the Tsao aboriginal tribe, said his council has plans to rescue the linguistic heritage of indigenous languages and prevent them from vanishing through assimilation. Starting in 2007, the CIP will have aboriginal students provide certification as proof of their heritage if they want to receive preferential treatment in entrance examinations. Meanwhile, indigenous people must pass the CIP's Aboriginal Language Skill Certification Test before becoming civil servants. According to education officials, the MOE is working with the CIP in lending students the necessary assistance.         The two-day seminar opened with a concert dubbed "Our Songs" in which ethnic music was highlighted. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 27 19:55:33 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 12:55:33 -0700 Subject: Apaches pack premier of 'The Missing' (fwd) Message-ID: Apaches pack premier of 'The Missing' By Ellis Neel/ Staff Photographer/ Writer Nov 26, 2003, 11:59 am http://www.alamogordonews.com/artman/publish/article_1955.shtml Ellis Neel/ Daily News - Jay Tavare, who plays Kayitah in director Ron Howard's latest movie "The Missing," attends a screening of the film at the White Sands Mall Tuesday night. Director Ron Howard’s latest film, “The Missing,” was screened in Alamogordo at the White Sands Mall with a “special Apache Premier” to a packed house of Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches Tuesday. Producer Daniel Ostroff, Jay Tavare, who plays Kayitah, an Apache medicine man and Tommy Lee Jones’ sidekick, and Yolanda Nez, who played a captive girl in the film, were on hand for the screening. The invitation states the premier was held “in honor of and with respect for Mrs. Elbys Hugar and Mr. Berle Kanseah, advisers and translators for the film.” Howard chose the Allen 5 Theater because “it’s the closest theater to the home of our two advisers and translators,” said producer Daniel Ostroff. “It was his (Howard’s) first impulse.” Kanseah and Hugar, who live on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, were instrumental in the film’s realism, teaching actors the Chiricahua Apache language and helping with their dialogue. There was a world premier in New York and another in Santa Fe, but “emotionally, this is it,” Ostroff said. “This is the best. “They advised us,” Ostroff said of the translators. “Ron had always wanted to make a western and make one in a classic place (like New Mexico).” Kanseah and Hugar were contracted because in the world the actors in the story inhabited, the people they would have seen were the Chiricahua. “They were the only free Indians left,” Ostroff said. “(It’s) not a film about Indians and they weren’t a dominant aspect. (The characters in the story) would have encountered Apaches (and we wanted to get it right).” The film, a story about a man played by Tommy Lee Jones who leaves his family to live with the Indians, is a thriller which blends classical western and supernatural elements. “It’s the first time I’ve seen an Apache portrayed in such a three-dimensional way,” Tavare said. “I think Ron Howard has really struck a chord (with the even, unbiased portrayal of the Apache).” Tavare has Native American blood running through his veins. His mother was a White Mountain Apache. “Elbys is a great-granddaughter of Cochise,” Tavare said. “It was an honor to have a princess working with us to capture the language. It truly is an impossible language to master.” Only 300 people in the world can speak fluent Chiricahua Apache, Tavare said. “And three of them were on the set of the film. The film is ground breaking in many ways. It’s a must-see movie. Anytime you break stereotypes ....” Yolanda Nez, a Farmington native and 2002 graduate of Farmington High School, plays the captive girl in the movie. Nez, an experienced rodeo competitor, says she tried out for the part because she was “at the point in life where I wanted to experience (different things). I think it’s a great opportunity.” Hugar says she “always took (her) language as something that’s been given to us, as Chiricahua Apaches. I respect the language a lot. Doing the translating, I learned from the anthropologist ... (We) worked together many times. We came up with two (Chiricahua Apache/English) dictionaries. I like my job translating Indian to English. We’re losing our language. A lot of these young children, when they start school, they know the English already.” It was different for Elbys as a child because she learned Apache first and had difficulty learning English, she said. Before the screening, Hugar offered a greeting to Ron Howard: “Well, first, I want to say a big fat hello to him,” then spoke a message first in Chiricahua Apache and then in English. “One of these days I will see you again, and in the meantime, God bless you and take care of you and I’ll see you again.” Copyright © 2003 Alamogordo News, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Fri Nov 28 12:55:26 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 06:55:26 -0600 Subject: Fwd: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? Message-ID: This was posted to the Unicode list just now - I repost to ILAT in case anyone would have an answer or be interested in the question... DZO ----- Forwarded message from "D. Starner" ----- Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 03:14:34 -0800 From: "D. Starner" Reply-To: "D. Starner" Subject: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? To: "unicode at unicode.org" At Distributed Proofreaders , we scan, OCR and proof material for Project Gutenberg. We've started to process the Annual Report of the Bureau of American ethnology, from 1879 to 1930. The first volume has an article called "Illustration of the method of recording Indian languages", which has text in Omaha. This cased text has Latin Capital Letter Turned T and Latin Capital Letter Turned K, clearly as the uppercase version of the Latin Small .... As can probably be guessed by people who have read enough old linguistics material, the text has no indication of the phonetic values. Has anyone else seen these characters, and could provide material for a submission? How about the Latin Letters Tresillo and Cuatrillo? Any movement on that front? Oh, yes, pictures of the characters: due to the miracles of modern technology, I can include them in plain text, but you'll have to stand on your head (-: T K -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm ----- End forwarded message ----- From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 28 18:39:29 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:39:29 -0700 Subject: =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?School_Zone:_Abbott=92s_helping_to_preserve_One?= =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?ida_speech_=28fwd=29?= Message-ID: Posted Nov. 28, 2003 School Zone: Abbott’s helping to preserve Oneida speech -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 349 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 83302 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- For 30 years, Cliff Abbott, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, has helped preserve the Oneida language. B.A. Rupert/PRess-Gazette UWGB professor has taught the language for about 30 years By Cynthia Hodnett chodnett at greenbaypressgazette.com He’s a professor of information and computer sciences and Native American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. But Clifford Abbott’s resume also includes 30 years of teaching the Oneida language to students on campus and Oneida people off campus. “The work that I do with the Oneidas gives me an opportunity to spend (time in) a different world outside of academics,” he said. “It’s very refreshing.” Spoken for hundreds of years, the Oneida language was nearly silenced during the relocation of Indian tribes across the country during the 1800s and early 1900s. Many children were taken from reservations and placed in government boarding schools, causing many to abandon their native tongue. Now, many tribal members are learning the language. Abbott, 56, said he first became interested in the Oneida language while attending graduate school. It was there that he met a researcher who studied the history of the language. Some words have several different meanings, he said. Those who are fluent in the language say the language also has more than 50 pronouns. “The language is amazingly complex,” Abbott said. “I would have sworn that when I first studied it in graduate school that people actually studied it at one time.” In the 1970s, Abbott worked with other tribal members with a program developed to train Oneida teachers for jobs in local school districts and tribal schools. His work continued into the 1990s with a group of Oneida speakers to develop a 700- plus page Oneida language dictionary. Abbott is currently involved in a number of projects with the tribe including teaching a linguistics class and helping tribal members design a program to certify Oneida language teachers. Amelia Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Gaming Commission and former director of the tribe’s Bilingual/Bicultural Program, recalls Abbott’s work in translating stories form Oneida elders from their native tongue into English and from English into Oneida. Many of those stories are contained in pamphlets used in tribal schools, she said. “His work is invaluable to us,” Cornelius said. “He was a very easy person, a very understanding person who was diligent in his work.” -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3411 bytes Desc: not available URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 28 18:42:21 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:42:21 -0700 Subject: =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?Re:_School_Zone:_Abbott=92s_helping_to_preserve?= =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?_Oneida_speech_=28fwd=29?= In-Reply-To: <337F6024-21D2-11D8-94B8-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: ...here is the link. http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_13371734.shtml On Nov 28, 2003, at 11:39 AM, phil cash cash wrote: > Posted Nov. 28, 2003 > > School Zone: Abbott’s helping to preserve Oneida speech > > > For 30 years, Cliff Abbott, a professor at the University of > Wisconsin-Green Bay, has helped preserve the Oneida language. B.A. > Rupert/PRess-Gazette > UWGB professor has taught the language for about 30 years > > By Cynthia Hodnett > chodnett at greenbaypressgazette.com > > He’s a professor of information and computer sciences and Native > American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. > > But Clifford Abbott’s resume also includes 30 years of teaching the > Oneida language to students on campus and Oneida people off campus. > > “The work that I do with the Oneidas gives me an opportunity to spend > (time in) a different world outside of academics,” he said. “It’s very > refreshing.” > > Spoken for hundreds of years, the Oneida language was nearly silenced > during the relocation of Indian tribes across the country during the > 1800s and early 1900s. > > Many children were taken from reservations and placed in government > boarding schools, causing many to abandon their native tongue. Now, > many tribal members are learning the language. > > Abbott, 56, said he first became interested in the Oneida language > while attending graduate school. It was there that he met a researcher > who studied the history of the language. > > Some words have several different meanings, he said. Those who are > fluent in the language say the language also has more than 50 > pronouns. > > “The language is amazingly complex,” Abbott said. “I would have sworn > that when I first studied it in graduate school that people actually > studied it at one time.” > > In the 1970s, Abbott worked with other tribal members with a program > developed to train Oneida teachers for jobs in local school districts > and tribal schools. His work continued into the 1990s with a group of > Oneida speakers to develop a 700- plus page Oneida language > dictionary. > > Abbott is currently involved in a number of projects with the tribe > including teaching a linguistics class and helping tribal members > design a program to certify Oneida language teachers. > > Amelia Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Gaming Commission and former > director of the tribe’s Bilingual/Bicultural Program, recalls Abbott’s > work in translating stories form Oneida elders from their native > tongue into English and from English into Oneida. Many of those > stories are contained in pamphlets used in tribal schools, she said. > > “His work is invaluable to us,” Cornelius said. “He was a very easy > person, a very understanding person who was diligent in his work.” -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3654 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sat Nov 29 02:42:11 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 03:42:11 +0100 Subject: Fw: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? Message-ID: Here are two follow-ups to the questions re particular letters used in some transcriptions of some native American languages. There were other postings but not a whole lot more info so I'll leave the issue with this. DZO 1. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Constable" To: Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 6:02 PM Subject: RE: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? > -----Original Message----- > From: unicode-bounce at unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce at unicode.org] On Behalf > Of D. Starner > Has anyone else seen these characters, and > could provide material for a submission? I looked through a lot of materials back in the spring for phonetic symbols, and didn't record any instances of these. > How about the Latin Letters Tresillo and Cuatrillo? Any movement > on that front? I've had them on my list of things to propose. I was trying to find more samples of tresillo to get a better idea of range of typographic variation, and had just started on that when that work got interrupted by other life events such as moving. I still need to follow up on that. > Oh, yes, pictures of the characters... Some samples of cuatrillo and tresillo can be found at http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=RecentCuatrilloUse Peter Peter Constable Globalization Infrastructure and Font Technologies Microsoft Windows Division 2. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Constable" To: Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 8:27 PM Subject: RE: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? > -----Original Message----- > From: unicode-bounce at unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce at unicode.org] On Behalf > Of jameskass at att.net > Aren't these turned letters (and several others) used in the Fraser > script? They sure are. Peter Peter Constable Globalization Infrastructure and Font Technologies Microsoft Windows Division From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Nov 1 16:10:06 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 09:10:06 -0700 Subject: Native language taught on Wind River Reservation (fwd) Message-ID: Native language taught on Wind River Reservation http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=303719 LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - Teaching the native language to students on the Wind River Indian Reservation seems to help establish cultural pride that can be passed on to future generations, according to a University of Wyoming anthropologist. Pam Innes, a linguistic anthropologist, said the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone languages are being taught to 3-5 year-olds in preschool Head Start programs. The language instruction continues through high school. Because fewer American Indian children speak their native languages at home, there is concern that native languages on the Wyoming reservation and those elsewhere are dying. A response has been language education combined with the teaching of cultural traditions and history. ''Language and culture are so entwined that to lose one seriously compromises the strength of the other,'' Innes said. ''My work has been an attempt to help tribes retain their language.'' Some students can how hold conversations in their native languages and have also developed or maintained an interest in traditional culture, such as by forming dancing, singing and drumming groups. However, the interest tends to wane among some students as they progress into high school. ''In some cases, the classes don't appear to be igniting the students' interest and keeping them focused, but that may be more reflective of the total school situation and social structure than an indication of the teachers' abilities or materials being taught,'' Innes said. Yet Innes said the classes yield a variety of benefits. Students who are taught native craftwork show potential as artists, for example, and students also are introduced to spiritual and political leaders. ''And there is the intangible facet of pride. Where these classes have instilled confidence to do well in the world, the experience offers them positive reinforcement that may give them an edge,'' she said. From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Sat Nov 1 20:29:19 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 12:29:19 -0800 Subject: Yaqui youth celebrating their culture, byte by byte =?utf-8?q?=28fwd=29?= In-Reply-To: <1067630776.c9c56001d17d9@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Hi Phil, Rolland, I found this news document at the Pasqua news site. I believe the answer then is, its at New Pasqua; http://www.pascuayaquitribe.org/news/times/pdf/intel.pdf David ------------------- > hi rolland, sorry i don't know where it is located, but i do know there > is an old and new pascua yaqui. later, phil > >> > > > Phil...do you know if that is New Pasqua or Old Pasqua? > > > > ---- > > wahjeh > > rolland nadjiwon > > > > > From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 2 17:14:00 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 10:14:00 -0700 Subject: Grupos =?iso-8859-1?b?aW5k7WdlbmFz?= se extinguen en Chile (fwd) Message-ID: Grupos ind?genas se extinguen en Chile http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/learn_english/newsid_3226000/3226817.stm Two indigenous groups in Chile have died out and another two are in danger of extinction, according to a major new report by twenty-five experts that was overseen by former president Patricio Aylwin. The report also recommended greater autonomy for the people of Easter Island. At the extreme south of Chile, ethnic groups and languages are being wiped out. The reporters found two indigenous groups, the Aonikenk and the Selk'am had disappeared and another two are close to extinction. One group, the Kawesqar, has just twenty people left and the other, the Yagans, seventy. One Yagan woman who travelled more than two thousand kilometres north to Santiago for the formal ceremony told the BBC there are only two people left who spoke their language fluently. The report recommended an urgent census and new programmes to try to save their culture and language. The study also called for the three thousand Rapa Nui people of Easter Island to be given greater autonomy under the umbrella of Chilean sovereignty. On the key issue of land rights, it called for a mechanism to study ansestral links to the land. It said public property should be handed back to its original owners. Clinton Porteous, BBC, Santiago From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 4 19:59:53 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 11:59:53 -0800 Subject: Poster Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: /Harley%20Disk/Temporary%20Items/nsmail65.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 61419 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: itg03.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 61419 bytes Desc: Document URL: From fnkrs at UAF.EDU Wed Nov 5 00:36:58 2003 From: fnkrs at UAF.EDU (Hishinlai') Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 15:36:58 -0900 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= 2003) INDIANS AND CASINOS Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= [INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European "tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal for ordinary Americans to open? Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question 3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= at tommclaughlin at pivot.net From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Wed Nov 5 14:25:22 2003 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:25:22 -0500 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Hi, everyone. I've only skimmed the message below, but it makes me sad to see such misinformation about us being published in newspapers .... McLaughlin shows a total lack of knowledge about our (and his own) history. Do we need to respond as a group to this kind of message, or should we simply view Tom McLaughlin as an extremely misinformed person and ignore him? Resa -----Original Message----- From: Hishinlai' [mailto:fnkrs at UAF.EDU] Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 7:37 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Indians & Other Things Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= 2003) INDIANS AND CASINOS Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= [INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European "tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal for ordinary Americans to open? Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question 3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= at tommclaughlin at pivot.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 5 16:51:13 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:51:13 -0700 Subject: Omaha language classes keep culture alive (fwd) Message-ID: Omaha language classes keep culture alive By KRYSTAL OVERMYER / DN Staff Writer November 05, 2003 http://www.dailynebraskan.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/11/05/3fa87b511b58a [photo inset: In an office cluttered with American Indian texts and memorabilia, Mark Awakuni-Swetland explains the marriage of his adopted language and culture through a message in his hand.] To demonstrate, he forms an L-shape with his elbow, and his fingers straighten toward the ceiling. On one side of the hand, he says, you have the palm. On the other, there's the knuckled top. The two sides are different, he says, but nonetheless connected. "How can you separate the two?" he said. "They're tied together in a way you cannot separate." Like the language he teaches, Awakuni-Swetland, lecturer of anthropology and Native American studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is bound to his students and they to the culture, community and future of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. His Omaha classes are meant to revive the culture of the tribe through language, an oral tradition slowly becoming silent as its native speakers pass away. "The belief for many is that the loss of language is a loss of culture -- a unique identity," he said. But teaching a language that is disappearing among its speakers is difficult. These days, the first language American Indian children learn on the Omaha reservation is English. "How do you revive a language," he said, "when even the parents don't speak it?" Among the Omaha people, Awakuni-Swetland and his crew of students are a bit of an anomaly. Awakuni-Swetland is the white man in the tribe -- once a white boy merely interested in American Indian things, now a white professor teaching a Native American language. His students -- some American Indian, some white -- are outsiders, their presence sometimes considered an intrusion on tradition. The Omaha people can trace their ancestry in Nebraska back to the 1700s, the longest of any tribe in Nebraska. They are proud of their traditions, and it takes time for some to accept that white, college-aged students are learning and sometimes teaching their language, said Jessica Waite, a junior anthropology major. "Like everything, it's always nerve-racking the first time you go," she said, speaking of the class's visits to the Indian Culture Center in Lincoln. "You're pretty much the only white person there." Waite, whose ancestors were part of the Ogallala and Sioux tribes, said she was looking for a connection to the American Indian community when she signed up for the Omaha classes. She knew she and the other students were not just fulfilling a language requirement, but keeping the language alive for the tribe. "Most classes are consumptive," Awakuni-Swetland said. "You go in and consume a lecture or notes, regurgitating something as a paper. "In this case, your job is to learn the language while producing materials that will last beyond you." His first cohort of students to complete the program created an Omaha-English language cookbook. Waite's class, set to finish its four-semester cycle of classes this spring, will publish a how-to manual on constructing teepees. "If you know English, you can learn how to read and speak Omaha just from this book," Awakuni-Swetland said. The pinnacle of the classes' work, Waite said, came in April when the group organized a traditional "hand game" for the Indian Culture Center. When the students spoke in Omaha, it was one of the first times Waite said she felt accepted. "After they heard us speaking their language, it really felt like they were coming around to accepting us and realizing how important this course was at UNL," she said. The students realize, she said, they are among the few carriers of the Omaha language. "When we first started, Mark told us there were probably about 40 fluent speakers left," she said. "It kind of feels good that we're working to keep this language alive." True to the Omaha tradition, Awakuni-Swetland is awash with relatives. He has no Native American ancestors, save those who came through his adoption. In high school in the 1970s, he took Omaha classes from a woman who later would become his adopted grandmother. After that, her relatives became his -- including an 87-year-old brother and a daughter older than he. "Even though they're all technically fictive, they are relationships that came through my adoption," he said. "And through that, I have relationships with all of their relatives." The Omaha people don't use blood to distinguish relationships, he said. The relationship determines the term -- whether a close friend or mentor becomes a sister or uncle or brother. Alberta Canby, a 73-year-old Native speaker who assists in the classroom, calls Awakuni-Swetland her nephew; he calls her his aunt. "When he calls me Auntie, it makes me feel like he's one of my children," she said. The students in the class, she said, have become like her Omaha children, too. Some students speak, she said, as if they'd known the language before. And tribal council members were amazed, Awakuni-Swetland said, at the students' April celebration. On campus, the students are the ambassadors of the Omaha people. "It's something that makes the Omaha seem like real people, not just artifacts in a museum," he said. For now, though, Waite is simply grateful for the family the class has given her. The classes are purposefully small, with about 15 students each cycle. Because the class moves in a two-year cycle, the students take class together for four semesters. The next group of students will begin the program in fall 2004. After three semesters, the group is tightly knit, Waite said. They barbecue at Awakuni-Swetland's home; they go to their elders, the speakers in their classes, for advice. She has found the language cannot be separated from the Omaha culture and the relationships it has provided. "These people may not be my blood relatives," she said, "but they are my family."? From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 5 16:53:55 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:53:55 -0700 Subject: Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language (fwd) Message-ID: Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language Associated Press http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2003/11/05/build/state/25-blackfeet.inc Jesse DesRosier begins each high school day like a lot of kids. The eighth grader hangs up his coat, pulls off his muddy boots and lopes into his classroom, raising a hand in greeting. Then he opens his mouth, and out comes a small miracle. "Oki, aahsaapinakos!" Hello, good morning! Bantering easily in the drawn-out vowels and clipped endings of a nearly extinct language, Jesse and his 35 classmates are the first fluent Blackfoot speakers in more than two generations. Here at the Nizipuhwahsin, or Real Speak School, on the Blackfeet Reservation in far northwestern Montana, the kids spend all day speaking their ancestral tongue. From kindergarten through eighth grade, they study math, reading, history and other subjects in Blackfoot. "Some people think our language is dead, but it's not," DesRosier tells Smithsonian magazine contributor Michelle Nijhuis. "We still have our language and we're bringing it back." What's at stake is more than words. Filled with nuance and references to Blackfeet history and traditions, the language embodies a culture. "The language allows kids to unravel the mysteries of their heritage," says Darrell Kipp, director of the school and one of its founders. The Blackfoot language, also known as Piegan, has been in danger of disappearing for nearly a century. From the late 1800s through the 1960s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs forced tens of thousands of Native Americans into English-only government boarding schools. Taken hundreds of miles from the reservations, the children were often beaten for speaking native languages, and were sent home ashamed of them. As adults, they cautioned their own children to speak English only. Over the decades, many tribal languages fell silent. Of the 300 languages spoken in North America at the time of European settlement, 150 have disappeared completely, and only a handful of the survivors are acquiring new speakers. By 1980, the remaining Blackfoot speakers were more than 50 years old, and Blackfoot was headed down the well-worn road to oblivion. But in 1982, Darrell Kipp, now 59, a Harvard graduate and technical writer, moved back to the reservation's windblown plains after a 20-year absence. He met up with Dorothy Still Smoking, who had also returned, in 1979, after earning a master's from the University of South Dakota, to become a dean at the reservation's community college. Both wanted to learn the language they occasionally heard but rarely spoke as children. "There was always a missing piece in my life," says Still Smoking, "and that was the cultural component. The language contains everything -- our values and wisdom, our outlook on the world." In 1987, Kipp, Still Smoking and a fluent Blackfoot speaker named Edward Little Plume founded the nonprofit Piegan Institute, dedicated to restoring Blackfoot and other tribal languages. Because many on the reservation still associated their language with humiliating experiences at boarding school, the institute was controversial. To calm the waters, the founders made a video about tribal elders' experiences with the language and distributed 2,000 copies among the reservation's 7,000 residents. The video did the trick. Today, demand for the few openings at the school, where tuition is $100 a month, has parents signing up their toddlers, and the school's large, airy classrooms explode with activity. Supporters say the impact runs deep. "This is a way to heal the identity of confusion that so many of our students go through," says Joyce Silverthorn, a tribal educator and member of the Montana Board of Public Education. In Indian country, where the frequency of suicide among adolescents is more than double the national rate, such confidence can be, literally, a lifesaver. From ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US Wed Nov 5 16:59:21 2003 From: ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US (Sarah Supahan) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 08:59:21 -0800 Subject: Indians & Other Things In-Reply-To: <98732C3B53A0D311A5C20090273ABE5313F68C4A@ECUMAIL2> Message-ID: Perhaps many individual AND group responses to the NEWSPAPER is in order. It is totally inappropriate, inaccurate and unacceptable. Sarah On Wednesday, November 5, 2003, at 06:25 AM, Bizzaro, Resa Crane wrote: > Hi, everyone. I've only skimmed the message below, but it makes me > sad to > see such misinformation about us being published in newspapers .... > McLaughlin shows a total lack of knowledge about our (and his own) > history. > > Do we need to respond as a group to this kind of message, or should we > simply view Tom McLaughlin as an extremely misinformed person and > ignore > him? > > Resa > > -----Original Message----- > From: Hishinlai' [mailto:fnkrs at UAF.EDU] > Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 7:37 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Indians & Other Things > > > Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you > imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > > By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October > 30,= > 2003) > > INDIANS AND CASINOS > > Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada > and in > New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. > What's up > with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters must > decide > next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= the > airways > are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= > > Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" > or > "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good > for > Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one > of the= > ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a > casino,= > or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the > money.= > > [INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO > THEM. > THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES > PORTRAY THEM > TO BE.] > > Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and > robbed > of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories of > how, > before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been > conquering and > robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European "tribes", if > you > will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and savagery. Indians > were > fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to them. They weren't > all > the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray them to be. The > story of > who ended up controlling most of North and South America is one of > survival > of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest > Indian > tribes. Aside from that difference, the only other distinction is that > many > descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling > guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any > remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the > Pequakets > or any of their descendants felt about massacring or torturing > surrounding > tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these formerly-dominant > tribes > have any reparations or giveback programs that I'm unaware of? Please > inform > me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just assume that it's only modern, > white, > liberal Democrats who are so wracked by guilt over the sins of their > ancestors that they wish to force the rest of us to make amends > whether we > want to or not. > > Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several > states, but > I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back to > a > hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and trout > out of > season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going to > Shaw's and > Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have among the > highest > rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's true at least > for the > ones who continue to live apart from mainstream American society on > reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of course, plays right > into > Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= the party base > during > the last few decades and it should come as no surprise that outgoing > President Clinton granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian > tribes that would then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media > coverage > of these last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on > Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary > stealing > furniture from the White House. > > When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that > people > purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to get > clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending > in the > federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated > back in > the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of > land in > the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a > combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. > Thirty > years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and > this > doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations > within the > United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we > consider > it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation > and > the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other > foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal > for > ordinary Americans to open? > > Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on > Question 3. > (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > > Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be > reached= > > at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Wed Nov 5 18:25:11 2003 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rr Lapier) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 13:25:11 EST Subject: Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language (fwd) Message-ID: In a message dated 11/5/2003 9:55:51 AM Mountain Standard Time, cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU writes: > Blackfeet children immersed in history, culture of language > > Associated Press > http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2003/11/05/build/sta > te/25-blackfeet.inc > > I believe this is a reprint of the Smithsonian Magazine article. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Wed Nov 5 19:01:56 2003 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 12:01:56 -0700 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Typical one-sided, knee-jerk, finger-pointing, simplistic rhetoric. Unfortunately, in my experience, this point of view is not uncommon, particularly among the political right. The most amusingly stupid point made is that "Native Americans were not nice to each other." Well, surprise, they are human beings, and human beings are known for sometimes doing nasty and brutal things to each other. If one takes this argument to its logical extention, you could say "Well, the Jews in Europe sometimes were not nice to each other, so who can blame Hitler?" In my experience, as a white American, this "they were not nice to each other" point of view is surprisingly popular among the more boneheaded whites. I can remember, going home to rural Puget Sound, and hearing a white, Norwegian-American fisherman (my mother's family is also comprised of white, Norwegian-Americans) talking about how mean Native Americans were to each other, implying, I guess, that no-one should bother to be nice to them. My way of countering it was saying "Hey, look at OUR ancestors! They were some of the most violent and brutal people in history. Do you hear Indians walking around talking about how terrible those Vikings were?" So, how to counter this particular point of view? Flood the newspaper with letters. Don't act particularly outraged, don't question the author's right to be an idiot, but use logic and facts to explain clearly why his point of view is nonsense. In particular, point out the WORLDWIDE movement (not at all confined to liberal Democratic Americans!) to recognize, compensate, and otherwise show proper respect for native peoples. You might also point out that the author has every right to blather from, say, a barroom stool, but that does not mean that newspapers are compelled to print trash. But, remember, the more rational WE sound, the more that people like this author will sound like fanatical, ignorant morons. We have history on our side, these people do not. Hishinlai' wrote: >Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you >imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > >By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= >2003) > >INDIANS AND CASINOS > >Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada >and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. >What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters >must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= >the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= > >Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or >"Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for >Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= >ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= >or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= > >[INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO >THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES >PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] > >Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and >robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories >of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been >conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European >"tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and >savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to >them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray >them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South >America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger >than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only >other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered >Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors >did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the >Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt >about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their >lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback >programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll >just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so >wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force >the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. > >Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several >states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go >back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and >trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going >to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have >among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's >true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream >American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of >course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= >the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no >surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to >several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino >licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because >attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of >him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. > >When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that >people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to >get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending >in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated >back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of >land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a >combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty >years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this >doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within >the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we >consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki >Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any >other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be >illegal for ordinary Americans to open? > >Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question >3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > >Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= > >at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > > > From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Wed Nov 5 19:37:11 2003 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 12:37:11 -0700 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: By the way, here is the e-mail for the editor of The Conway Daily Sun: Adam at mountwashingtonvalley.com Have some fun with this one, I know I will. There should be any number of people in this listserve who can neatly and civilly tear the author to shreds, and you might open a few minds while your at it. Living in the SW, surrounded by so many positive examples of Native Americana, I just personally find it amazing that one could write such a lengthy article, and only dwell only on things like alcohoism, "nursing victimhood," and the fact that, historically, Native Americans displayed the universal human tendency to not always be able to get along. Not to mention that a TEACHER (shudder) should know the other sides of the story. Hishinlai' wrote: >Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you >imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > >By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October 30,= >2003) > >INDIANS AND CASINOS > >Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada >and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other state. >What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? Maine voters >must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to open one here and= >the airways are full of ads trying to influence Maine voters on Question 3.= > >Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" or >"Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be good for >Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. Not one of the= >ads I've seen addresses the question of why only Indians can open a casino,= >or why they would even want to. We can only assume it's just for the money.= > >[INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO >THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES >PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] > >Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and >robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are stories >of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes had been >conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. European >"tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for cruelty and >savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as Europeans were to >them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers Disney movies portray >them to be. The story of who ended up controlling most of North and South >America is one of survival of the fittest. Europeans were simply stronger >than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside from that difference, the only >other distinction is that many descendants of Europeans who conquered >Indians have since been feeling guilty about what their remote ancestors >did. I've never read about any remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the >Comanche, the Iroquois, the Pequakets or any of their descendants felt >about massacring or torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their >lands. Do these formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback >programs that I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll >just assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so >wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to force >the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. > >Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several >states, but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go >back to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and >trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll going >to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, they have >among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the country. That's >true at least for the ones who continue to live apart from mainstream >American society on reservations and nurse their victimhood. This, of >course, plays right into Democrat party politics. Victim groups have become= >the party base during the last few decades and it should come as no >surprise that outgoing President Clinton granted federal recognition to >several obscure Indian tribes that would then be able to apply for casino >licenses. Media coverage of these last-minute deals was thin because >attention was focused on Clinton's selling of presidential pardons and of >him and Hillary stealing furniture from the White House. > >When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that >people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able to >get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was pending >in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty negotiated >back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned vast tracts of >land in the state. It was eventually settled with the Indians receiving a >combination of millions in cash and several thousand acres of land. Thirty >years later, Indians still get a high rate of public assistance and this >doesn't make sense to me. If tribes claim to be sovereign nations within >the United States, how can they qualify for welfare programs? Should we >consider it foreign aid? Are they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki >Nation and the United States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any >other foreign nation open casinos in the United States that would be >illegal for ordinary Americans to open? > >Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question >3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > >Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be reached= > >at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > > > From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Wed Nov 5 20:11:10 2003 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 15:11:10 -0500 Subject: Indians & Other Things Message-ID: Thanks, Matthew, for so clearly expressing a path that's useful for pointing out the problems of printing such "trash." Resa -----Original Message----- From: Matthew Ward [mailto:mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US] Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 2:02 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: Indians & Other Things Typical one-sided, knee-jerk, finger-pointing, simplistic rhetoric. Unfortunately, in my experience, this point of view is not uncommon, particularly among the political right. The most amusingly stupid point made is that "Native Americans were not nice to each other." Well, surprise, they are human beings, and human beings are known for sometimes doing nasty and brutal things to each other. If one takes this argument to its logical extention, you could say "Well, the Jews in Europe sometimes were not nice to each other, so who can blame Hitler?" In my experience, as a white American, this "they were not nice to each other" point of view is surprisingly popular among the more boneheaded whites. I can remember, going home to rural Puget Sound, and hearing a white, Norwegian-American fisherman (my mother's family is also comprised of white, Norwegian-Americans) talking about how mean Native Americans were to each other, implying, I guess, that no-one should bother to be nice to them. My way of countering it was saying "Hey, look at OUR ancestors! They were some of the most violent and brutal people in history. Do you hear Indians walking around talking about how terrible those Vikings were?" So, how to counter this particular point of view? Flood the newspaper with letters. Don't act particularly outraged, don't question the author's right to be an idiot, but use logic and facts to explain clearly why his point of view is nonsense. In particular, point out the WORLDWIDE movement (not at all confined to liberal Democratic Americans!) to recognize, compensate, and otherwise show proper respect for native peoples. You might also point out that the author has every right to blather from, say, a barroom stool, but that does not mean that newspapers are compelled to print trash. But, remember, the more rational WE sound, the more that people like this author will sound like fanatical, ignorant morons. We have history on our side, these people do not. Hishinlai' wrote: >Is this for real? or am I over-reacting? If so, as a teacher, could you >imagine what he says to his students? Hishinlai' > >By: Tom McLaughlin (printed in The Conway Daily Sun, Thursday, October >30,= >2003) > >INDIANS AND CASINOS > >Let's see if I understand this. They're legal for everybody in Nevada >and in New Jersey, but only Indians can open casinos in any other >state. What's up with that? Is it some form of Affirmative Action? >Maine voters must decide next week whether to allow Maine's Indians to >open one here and= the airways are full of ads trying to influence >Maine voters on Question 3.= > >Driving toward Portland, I see sign after sign imploring me "Vote Yes" >or "Vote No." Commercials on one side proclaim why a casino will be >good for Maine and the other side counters that it would not be good. >Not one of the= ads I've seen addresses the question of why only >Indians can open a casino,= or why they would even want to. We can only >assume it's just for the money.= > >[INDIANS WERE FULLY AS NASTY TO ONE ANOTHER AS EUROPEANS EVER WERE TO >THEM. THEY WEREN'T ALL TH E PEACE- LOVING TREE- HUGGERS DISNEY MOVIES >PORTRAY THEM TO BE.] > >Every American has heard the story of how Indians were conquered and >robbed of their land by settlers from Europe. Less often told are >stories of how, before Europeans came to the Americas, Indian tribes >had been conquering and robbing each other constantly in the same ways. >European "tribes", if you will, could not out do Indian tribes for >cruelty and savagery. Indians were fully as nasty to one another as >Europeans were to them. They weren't all the peace-loving tree-huggers >Disney movies portray them to be. The story of who ended up controlling >most of North and South America is one of survival of the fittest. >Europeans were simply stronger than the strongest Indian tribes. Aside >from that difference, the only other distinction is that many >descendants of Europeans who conquered Indians have since been feeling >guilty about what their remote ancestors did. I've never read about any >remorse to the Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanche, the Iroquois, the >Pequakets or any of their descendants felt about massacring or >torturing surrounding tribes and robbing them of their lands. Do these >formerly-dominant tribes have any reparations or giveback programs that >I'm unaware of? Please inform me if they do. Meanwhile, I'll just >assume that it's only modern, white, liberal Democrats who are so >wracked by guilt over the sins of their ancestors that they wish to >force the rest of us to make amends whether we want to or not. > >Indians have ben exempt from some fish and game laws in several states, >but I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps they might be inclined to go back >to a hunting and gathering way of life if they could take deer and >trout out of season. It doesn't seem very likely though that they'll >going to Shaw's and Hannaford's any time soon. As a minority group, >they have among the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide in the >country. That's true at least for the ones who continue to live apart >from mainstream American society on reservations and nurse their >victimhood. This, of course, plays right into Democrat party politics. >Victim groups have become= the party base during the last few decades >and it should come as no surprise that outgoing President Clinton >granted federal recognition to several obscure Indian tribes that would >then be able to apply for casino licenses. Media coverage of these >last-minute deals was thin because attention was focused on Clinton's >selling of presidential pardons and of him and Hillary stealing >furniture from the White House. > >When I first moved to Maine back in the 70's, realtors told me that >people purchasing property in many parts of the state might not be able >to get clear title because of the Indian Land Claims case, which was >pending in the federal courts. Because Congress didn't approve a treaty >negotiated back in the 1790's, various tribes claimed they still owned >vast tracts of land in the state. It was eventually settled with the >Indians receiving a combination of millions in cash and several >thousand acres of land. Thirty years later, Indians still get a high >rate of public assistance and this doesn't make sense to me. If tribes >claim to be sovereign nations within the United States, how can they >qualify for welfare programs? Should we consider it foreign aid? Are >they simultaneously citizens of the Abenaki Nation and the United >States? Whats going on? Would we let citizens of any other foreign >nation open casinos in the United States that would be illegal for >ordinary Americans to open? > >Until I get answers to these questions, I intend to vote no on Question >3. (side note: Question 3 is "should gaming be allowed?") > >Tom McLaughlin is a teacher who lives in Lovell, Maine. He can be >reached= > >at tommclaughlin at pivot.net > > > From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Wed Nov 5 21:32:50 2003 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rr Lapier) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 16:32:50 EST Subject: Hawaiian immersion saved the language Message-ID: Here is an article from Pila. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Pila Wilson Subject: Fwd(2): Hawaiian immersion saved the language Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 09:28:55 -1000 Size: 4009 URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Thu Nov 6 17:43:00 2003 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (MM Smith) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 11:43:00 -0600 Subject: Fwd: Indigenous Conference In Oaxaca, Mexico, Panelist Needed Message-ID: Begin forwarded message: > > Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 15:06:34 -0800 (PST) > From: "Luis M. Trujillo" > Subject:Indigenous Conference In Oaxaca, Mexico, Panelist > > My name is Luis M. Trujillo, I have recently graduated from Stanford > University and I am working as assistant to the director of the center > in Oaxaca called Centro de Estudios y Desarollo de Lenguas Indigenas > de Oaxaca, created in 1999 to research and develop news ways of > improving the indigenous education in Oaxaca. Our center is hosting is > second international congress, either the first week of December or > the second, that will be determined in the next up coming days. > > We are looking for a panelist that can speak about the role of > technology in the preservation, teaching of indigenous languages. If > this message can be posted, maybe a member of the list might know > someone. I have some people in mind at Stanford, but rather would like > to get other points of view. > > Luis > Tel. 01152(951) 549-4409 > Apartado Postal 410 > Oaxaca, Oaxaca > C.P 68000 > From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Nov 6 19:12:20 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 11:12:20 -0800 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Din=E9?= Message-ID: Let's ensure Navajo language passes on to future generations By Lucille Mescale Hunt Eagle Air Med Summer has been great and memorable. Now it is time to get ready for winter activities. In coordinating our efforts for such activities, verbal language is one very important tool of communication. Verbal language comes in various tongues and is so powerful that it motivates us to act or react to everything we do. As children, we learn to speak a language at a very young age and cannot even remember how we first learned to say a word or words. Verbal language begins with data input of words from our parents and those around us. When our brain received sufficient input we began to make sounds in an effort to communicate with words. In the traditional Navajo way, a baby's first laugh is considered its first word and is celebrated with a prayer and a feast of traditional foods along with natural salt, which represents old age. At the celebration everyone wishes the baby a long and prosperous life reaching into old age, and the baby blesses you with the same wish. My grandparents and parents taught me that our language is our life. How we speak to others and how we speak of others represent our integrity. They taught me to speak well of others and not say anything unkind because the gods that are listening will take away blessings. Navajo is my first language but I am still learning new words. Every region on the reservation has its own dialect. I didn't know this until I visited my aunt in Arizona. One day she asked me to wash the spoons (adee' t??ngis). I understood her to mean wash the spoons only. I wondered why she would ask me to wash the spoons and not the dishes. I obeyed and washed the spoons. When she returned she asked me why I hadn't washed the spoons to which I gladly replied that I had washed the spoons. She was puzzled and asked me if I understood Navajo. Before I could answer her she explained to me that "adee' t??ngis" means to wash the dishes. I chuckled and told her that to me ?d??' means spoon. She asked me how I say dishes. I told her it is, _eets'aa'. She thought that was a funny way of saying dishes because to her it meant all the pots and pans in her house. I told her that to me adee' meant a gourd dipper. Now my aunt teases me that I don't understand Navajo. A dialect in a language often tells what region a person is from. I was born and raised in eastern Navajo and therefore speak in the eastern Navajo dialect. When I started school, I began to learn English words by associating Navajo words with new words in English. For example, when I learned the word for Kool-aid, I called it t??l-aid. Because Kool-aid was made with water I associated the Navajo word for water, t?, and I pronounced it t??l-aid. Another word was flashlight. In those days flashlights were made out of metal and not plastic. Because it was made out of metal I called it b??sh- light (metal-light). It was not until about the second year in school that I started to construct easy sentences in English. At school I was exposed to television, books, the telephone and the phonograph or record player for the first time. These are types of communication media. The English data input began for me as soon as I started school. Today I am very grateful I can communicate in both the Navajo and English languages. I want to encourage all of you who speak the Navajo language to honor yourselves by speaking Navajo as your dominant language. The Navajo language is a beautiful language with its unique sounds and tones. It is a very descriptive language. It was even used in winning the Second World War. Tell your stories in Navajo, make someone laugh by telling your jokes in Navajo, speak Navajo in your home and in public, value your heritage by speaking Navajo, and empower yourself by such a Navajo experience. Navajo is a very hard language to learn. There are many books written for learning the language, but there are very few 24-hour source speakers to learn from. A source speaker is a person who is available for the learner to speak with in the language being learned. In order to learn a language there must be a fluent speaker with whom you exchange dialogue. Otherwise the input data of your language will always be limited. Language is one of those things were you "use it or lose it." The majority of our children are growing up knowing very little Navajo or none at all. I know this because most of my nephews and nieces speak only English and in some cases poor English. It is because we are not 24-hour source speakers for them. I realize that not all Navajos speak fluent Navajo but in preserving our language, we who speak fluent Navajo need to recommit ourselves to living our language. We need to be available for our children to learn our sacred language. Many grow up wishing they could speak and carry on a conversation with their grandparents who speak no English at all. And grandparents wish they could share their sacred traditional stories and songs with their grandchildren. The traditional stories are more meaningful and have their greatest impact when they are told in Navajo. It would be so sad if one day in the future we read in the newspaper that the last Navajo language speaker has died. It would read on to say that the once great and powerful Navajo language is now extinct. This could happen in 50 or more years if we don't do something about it. It is not too late to speak our Navajo language and pass it on to our children and grandchildren. Too much responsibility is being placed on the schools to teach our children the Navajo language. The schools are doing an excellent job in trying to help preserve our heritage but it is not enough for us to depend on the schools to teach our children our language. The schools should only serve as a support group to family efforts. I appreciate and commend those who have a strong desire learn and practice often to communicate in basic Navajo. There are many elderly Navajo people who do not speak English. They need our help to interpret and translate for them because they utilize the health services and other public vendors on the reservation. May we serve with dignity and respect no matter how little or how much we are able to speak in the Navajo language. (Lucille Mescale Hunt operates Eagle Air Med that is based throughout the Navajo Nation.) From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 05:27:00 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 22:27:00 -0700 Subject: Red tape can't fix national wound (fwd) Message-ID: Red tape can't fix national wound JAMES TRAVERS Nov. 6, 2003. 01:00?AM http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1068073811434&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795 If time is the best healer, politicians, lawyers and bureaucrats are surely the worst. That will become sadly evident as the federal government unveils a startlingly cold, badly flawed program to compensate only those former students of aboriginal residential schools who are willing and able to prove they were abused beyond the norms of the times. However well intended, the nearly $2 billion resolution process Public Works Minister Ralph Goodale is expected to announce as soon as today is too defensive, too legalistic and too bureaucratic to close a national wound. Along with a previous apology, the expected 12,000 applicants who manage to wade through a 55-page form and the pain of a hearing can expect awards that, depending on the severity of beatings or the frequency of sexual assaults, will range from a low of $5,000 to more than $200,000. But in most cases those settlements will be reduced by 30 per cent because the Catholic Church is sidestepping responsibility, claiming the Orders that operated the schools were independent and are now extinct or penniless. Adding insult to injury, there will be no compensation for loss of language and culture suffered by the surviving 90,000 aboriginal children who, for almost 100 years, were torn from their families and communities. Fearing added liability and more years of ugly wrangling, the federal government is specifically avoiding more inclusive solutions that would have put higher value on reconciliation and less on clearing the cases from an already overloaded judicial system. Nowhere is that approach more obvious, or more disturbing, than in the decision to attach a point system and price tags to abuses that shattered lives. Former students who prove they were raped, sodomized, forced to perform oral sex or beaten more frequently and ferociously than their peers will get bigger cheques. It's all contained in a brutally specific list of sexual and physical abuses that should be required reading in a country that too often assumes its moral superiority. The inescapable truth detailed in careful, almost clinical language is that adults took shocking advantage of children whom the state and four churches trusted them to protect. While today's announcement attempts to address that breach of trust as well as that stain on the country's past, it falls far short. In too closely following legal precedents, it puts too little weight on national culpability and fails to recognize that a soul can be as easily destroyed by one incident as by many. That puts daunting pressure on adjudicators to add a human face to a complex, high-risk process that aboriginals and others will be sorely tempted to dismiss as mean-spirited. Those 40 or so former judges and legal experts now confront the formidable challenge of giving this system credibility by tilting it away from the federal government and back toward the victims. Even so, the risks are enormous. There is real danger that fragile people will be damaged again and then left to cope with fresh emotional scars as well as unaccustomed cash. That Ottawa is now weaving a supporting safety net is proof enough that some former students may not be able to relive the past safely. A lesser danger is that aboriginal groups whose concerns are already well documented will assess the system with a few test cases before walking away. If they are disappointed, or worse, the government will be left with a costly white elephant in the form of the first totally new federal department in decades, one that will consume about half the projected budget, and courts swamped by thousands of emotional, complex and costly cases. What's most dispiriting is that there are alternatives to this alternative. A government notoriously generous to its corporate friends should have searched its conscience and found a more humane model for its most vulnerable citizens. Borrowing from South Africa, it could have opted for more truth, reconciliation and healing. Instead, politicians are allowing themselves to be led by lawyers and bureaucrats instead of their hearts. A process focused on attaching a specific cost to each time a child is molested or assaulted misses important parts of the point. It misses that rapidly aging victims need to put this behind them at least as much as they need money. It misses that what happened at residential schools dripped like acid from generation to generation, destroying families and communities. Most of all, it misses that a country that tried to assimilate a people by attacking their language and culture, by forcing their children into strange and distant schools, must now err on the side of those it hurt, or hide its head in shame. James Travers is a national affairs writer. His column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. jtravers at thestar.ca. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 06:07:16 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 23:07:16 -0700 Subject: Australasian Language Technology Association (link Message-ID: Australasian Language Technology Association http://www.alta.asn.au/index.html fyi...a link of interest, phil UofA, ILAT From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 17:12:34 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 10:12:34 -0700 Subject: Fighting life in the margins (fwd) Message-ID: Fighting life in the margins By Samantha Santa Maria Medill News Service http://www.norway.org/newsofnorway/news.cfm?id=675 For centuries, the Samis of Norway were seen as reindeer herders nomadically wandering the frozen northern lands of Finnmark, surviving in their tepees during winter?s polar nights and summer?s midnight suns. But Norway?s largest ethnic group is no longer a people stuck in time. About 90 percent of the 40,000-strong population lives in the cities. Many of those still in the north have given up the nomadic life and are locked in a decades-old struggle to decide how they can put their land to use. What has made Norway wake up to these new realities is the Sami media that many in the community and country credit for the recent resurgence in Sami culture and language. Unlike most indigenous media -- such as Native American radio and newspapers -- the Samis have gone even further, transforming their alternative voice into a powerful political lobby group. Despite being heavily subsidized by the government, they remain critical advocates for Sami rights. Dissimilarities However, the initial use of this media was to coerce a persecuted ethnic group to shun its heritage and history and to become more Norwegian. Sociologist Dr. Mariann Lien of the University of Oslo theorizes that the rise of the pro-eugenics Labor Party in the 1950s capitalized on Norwegians? tendency to avoid racial and culture dissimilarities. As a result, Sami children were taken away from their parents and sent to Norwegian-language schools; a law directed toward the Samis was passed prohibiting the sale of land to anyone who couldn?t speak Norwegian. In 1946, Sami radio was inaugurated but used mainly as a propaganda device. Media's role ?Radio programs often told Samis to forget who they were, including their language, to become more Norwegian,? said Nils Johan Heatta, the current head of Sami Broadcasting. ?But that backfired; the people rebelled and listened to the radio to remind themselves of their language and culture.? Today, Sami media have been credited in helping the community set up its own parliament. Its dogged support of Sami land rights for over 20 years will soon see the motion get the nod of the Norwegian government later this year, officials said. Struggling newspapers But despite these successes, Sami media, particularly the three biweekly newspapers, face the same problem seen by the Native American media here: funding. And the complaints about how mainstream media cover their issues are many. Despite government subsidies, the three Sami newspapers are struggling. Their small readerships ? averaging circulations of about 2,000 ? make it a tough sell for advertisers. Low salaries have forced many journalists out of Sami newsrooms. One of them is Torkel Rasmussen, who was with ?Min Aigi? (?Our Time?). ?I was fed up working for a poor company where we hardly ever had resources to do good enough journalistic work,? Rasmussen said. "Bored" But if the Native American experience is anything to go by, mainstream media hasn?t proved to be the better alternative. ?You get thrown into this great blender of journalism and often you, and your interests, get marginalized,? said Mary Annette Pember, executive director of the Native American Journalists? Association. She speaks from experience. ?I was unhappy in the mainstream media, spiritually deprived and extremely bored,? Pember added. Having to choose between poor-paying jobs at indigenous media, or market rates at mainstream media, both young Samis and Native Americans are choosing the former. Rasmussen, now a teacher with the new Sami journalism school in Kautokeino, said there are 15 students graduating this year and most are bound for Sami radio and television production jobs. Small numbers In the U.S., Pember said, young Native Americans prefer tribal newspapers and radio because they are interested in their own people and culture. However, this has given rise to another problem: under-representation in mainstream media newsrooms. Last year, the American Society of Newspaper Editors polled two-thirds of the nation's daily newspapers and found only 307 of 54,414 newsroom employees ? a 0.5 percent penetration rate in a population where 1 percent are Native Americans -- were Native American. There are no corresponding numbers in Norway but a check in the Oslo newsroom of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation ? the country?s largest broadcaster ? found a few Vietnamese and even an African-American woman, but not a single Sami. "Biased media" Rasmussen sees this as a major problem. ?Norwegian media are biased,? he said. ?In most of their stories there is a clear ?We vs. Them? view.? ?Norwegian media is mostly concerned with conflicts, sensational stories or curiosities in their coverage of Sami issues,? Rasmussen added. But help may be on the way ? at least in Norway. Anders Eira, state secretary at the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, is working to increase the government subsidies for the three newspapers so that by 2005, they become full-fledged dailies. A Sami from a traditional reindeer herding family in Karajsok, Eira wants to build upon the contributions Sami media has made, believing that the more frequently Sami voices are heard, the greater the importance that is attached to them. Visibility For radio and television, expansion is in the cards. Heatta said Sami programming would be given more airtime next year. He is especially targeting children and teenagers, with children?s television programs and radio programs where teenagers can send in their dedications via text messaging. ?One of the challenges of a minority culture is to make themselves visible,? Eira said. ?Sami media has done that. Now the task is to not lose, but gain ground.? From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 7 17:17:27 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 10:17:27 -0700 Subject: Supreme Court hands down ruling on language rights (fwd) Message-ID: Supreme Court hands down ruling on language rights Thu Nov 6 18:48:33 2003 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/06/language031106 From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Fri Nov 7 17:56:19 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 09:56:19 -0800 Subject: Bringing Yagan back Message-ID: Re: CHILE posting Unless there is some other speaker I have not heard of, Yagan now has only one fluent speaker, Cristina Calderon. Her sister Ursula, also fluent, died early in the year. I've been working nonstop to compile and re-edit materials related to the Yagan language (also spelled Yahgan, Yakan, Iakan, Jagan, etc., as well as alternate name (Kuta) Yamana), with an eye towards the creation of teaching materials as well as archiving. So far as I know mine is now the most comprehensive collection anywhere. Materials (published or manuscript) produced during the late 19th century include a number of grammars of varying degrees of coverage- in the 20th century work was much more intermittant and spotty. Very little has been done with regard to syntax, pragmatics, prosody- I'm hoping to pursue this when I go down to Ukika (Isla Navarino, in Chilean Tierra del Fuego). The language is highly unusual areally- its morphosyntactic type more resembles many languages of North America in what Delancey has termed the "bipartite stem belt"- Yagan has instrument/bodypart manner prefixes, pathway/location suffixes, and a great deal of verb serialization of other types. Yet it is largely case marking. The phonology is mostly on the lenis side, lacking in glottalized occlusives and resonants one often sees in languages further north. It also shares with its next door neighbor Kawesqar an extensive pattern of geographical marking on nouns and verbs. While Greenberg put Yagan in with his "Andean" stock (and there are some tantalizing hints in that direction), there are actually much closer historical linkages again with North America, especially it would appear with Salishan. While likely to raise an eyebrow this claim is no more unusual than that proposed by Sapir regarding the relation between Algonkian and Ritwan (Yurok, Wiyot) in California. Sea coasts are easier to traverse in any case. And there used to be a language group (now extinct, with little data about the lexicon, grammar extant) just north of Kawesqar, where the inhabitants possessed the woolly dog, just as did the Salishan groups. I don't draw any conclusions here- just an interesting coincidence. Bringing Yagan back from the brink will be no easy task. But it is one I am willing to attempt. Any advice or help (for instance recommendations for models for the creation of teaching materials) would be appreciated. Thanks. ...Jess Tauber --- phonosemantics at earthlink.net From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 9 08:19:18 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 09:19:18 +0100 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, impotence and/or rage" (at the site http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor the official languages used in school). Further research found that another author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is "a radical impoverishment of human relations." My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and language policy. I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of many years of observation and not formal research (which should not depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and community life. Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net *Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - d?veloppement http://www.bisharat.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 9 21:00:47 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 14:00:47 -0700 Subject: Keeping Their Word (fwd) Message-ID: Keeping Their Word By Andrew Metz STAFF CORRESPONDENT http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-mohawk1109,0,6803089.story?coll=ny-statenews-headlines Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, N.Y. -- There's a small school in the far north of New York where English is a foreign language. The tongue taught here is Mohawk. And though the 64 students at the Akwesasne Freedom School learn math and history and reading, their real purpose is their people's cultural survival. "My grandmothers and aunts got spanked if they talked Mohawk at school. That's how we lost our language," said a 12-year-old pupil, whose name is a thicket of letters -- Tehrenhniserakhas, pronounced De Lon Ni Zeh Lakas -- that means "He Puts Two Days into One." "Now we have a better sense of our language than probably any other kids." In a last chance to reverse the consequences of American policies that sought to obliterate Indian identity, the school is immersing children in traditional language and customs and counting on them to emerge the faithkeepers of the new century. With most fluent speakers in their twilight years and few families maintaining Mohawk traditions at home, the intensive teaching on this reservation that spreads over the Canadian border begins before kindergarten and concludes at eighth grade. Mohawk is the only language allowed except for the final two years, during a crash catch-up in English to prepare for public school. "We saw what happened to one generation that lost their culture, lost their history, lost their language," said Sheree Bonaparte, Tehrenhniserakhas's mother, who 25 years ago was one of the first teachers at the school -- the forerunner to immersion programs that have been blossoming around the country. "We decided that we didn't want to raise American children or Canadian children. We wanted to raise Mohawk children." Out of the limelight, these schools -- as many as 50 nationwide -- have become vanguards of a dramatic change in Indian education building since the 1970s, when U.S. officials and Indians began trying to redress a history of forced assimilation dating to the 19th century. Where Indian children were once shipped to federal boarding institutions to be purged of their native ways, schools around the country are now steeped in tribal history and heritage. "Our generation, we were punished for speaking Mohawk. Now we are getting paid to teach it," Lillian Delormier, a third- and fourth-grade teacher, said with amusement, as she watched her students race around the playground, their language flying like sparks through the air. "When I was brought up, all this was a no-no." The linguistic revival is at the core of broad efforts by Indian people to uplift their communities, yet it is also an act of desperation, as native languages are vanishing and taking with them irreplaceable traditions. By 1900, amid the boarding school era, only about 400 Indian languages were in use on the continent. Today, there are around 185, most precariously close to extinction. Linguists and Indian educators predict that many will vanish in less than 50 years. "The tribal languages are the libraries of information for each tribe. They contain the genesis, the cosmology, all the oral histories," said Darrell Kipp, a leader in the immersion movement and founder of the Piegan Institute, a center on his Blackfeet reservation in Montana dedicated to preserving native languages. "They are a blueprint for how to look at the world." The Mohawks may be in better shape than other New York tribes, with as many as 2,000 to 3,000 speakers out of roughly 12,000 on the reservation. The Senecas, however, estimate that fewer than 100 people are fluent, while other members of the Iroquois Confederacy, such as the Oneidas and Onondagas, have hardly anyone able to converse. "This is a survival school. I want to survive as a Seneca for a little while longer," said Dar Dowdy, who six years ago founded the Seneca's Faithkeeper's School. "Our old people tell us that when you lose your language, you're nothing, you're just a social security number." The immersion programs, most of which are privately or tribally funded, are considered by many experts the surest way to stem the onslaught of cultural illiteracy, imparting an Indian perspective on everything from geography to botany. Because of this intense focus, students can be set back in mainstream subjects, particularly English, when they enter public schools. But after some quick catch-up they usually excel: four of the five Indians inducted into the National Honor Society in the local high school last year had attended the Freedom School. "It may take us a couple of weeks to catch up to their work at the beginning of the year," said Tsiehente, (pronounced Jeh Hon Deh) Herne, 13, an eighth-grader. "But after that we zoom past them." The schools also lure parents back to the classroom to reclaim their complex native tongue. The Mohawk language has similar cadences to English but uses only 11 of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Its vocabulary is florid, atavistic and evolving in real time to incorporate the modern world. "Out of everything I learned at Cornell, nothing compares to this, maybe neurology," said Iotenerahtatenion, (pronounced Yo De Neh La Da Den Yo) Arquette, an environmental researcher and veterinarian, who is one of about 20 mothers studying in the Freedom School's adult program. The language renewal push is also permeating public schools that serve most native children, even as educators continue to contend with deficiencies in mainstream Indian education. Federally funded schools and public districts are now routinely incorporating native language and traditions into their curricula. The U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs are spending tens of millions of dollars on improving student performance and training teachers. On the Canadian side of this reservation, one elementary school offers immersion from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade. "Every single book, every single resource material we have to make for ourselves," said Margaret Cook-Peters, who develops Mohawk studies at the Akwesasne Board of Education. New York's Salmon River School District offers language and culture at both its high school and elementary levels and has recently started an advanced Mohawk class. The district is also running a summer program for teachers around the state on Iroqouis history. In the district's St. Regis Mohawk primary school ? entirely Indian, 452 students, pre-kindergarten to sixth grade ? there is a distinctly native aesthetic, from a mosaic at the entrance depicting the Mohawk creation story to murals in the cafeteria of the clan system. Still, administrators and teachers acknowledge that the Mohawk classes held every other day at best can open students' eyes. "In this situation and this setting I can't take a non-native speaker and make them a speaker," said Irving Papineau, the principal, a graduate of the school. "My primary responsibility is to make sure they meet their academic standards. We've got our hands full." At the Freedom School, there is no such calculation. Mohawk is first, from the moment the students flop onto benches at 9 a.m. Quiet envelops the hall, then the young Indians together welcome the day with the "Words Before All Else," an homage to the natural world meant to bring their minds into focus as one. "There was a process to get rid of us, but it didn't work," Elvera Sargant, the school manager, said as another day commenced and students scattered to their classes. "This is where you learn where you came from and who you are." Copyright ? 2003, Newsday, Inc. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 9 21:03:04 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 14:03:04 -0700 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?b?kUxvc3M=?= of Language and =?iso-8859-1?b?Q3VsdHVyZZIoZndkKQ==?= Message-ID: ?Loss of Language and Culture? Schools tried to wipe out identity by Andrew Metz STAFF CORRESPONDENT November 9, 2003 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stside093532795nov09,0,4484123.story?coll=ny-statenews-headlines It began in Carlisle, Pa. with the philosophy: Kill the Indian and save the man. This was the pedagogical mission of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the model for a system of forced assimilation that plucked children from reservations and tried to wipe out their native language and identity. Founded in 1879 by Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, the government school was the alma mater to more than 10,500 American Indians during its 39-year existence, notably Olympic champion Jim Thorpe. For most Indian people, though, it remains the grim touchstone of an era where their tribal ways were shocked out of them. "Carlisle was considered the elite of the off-'rez [off-reservation] boarding schools because the father of them was the one who developed the policy," said Barbara Landis, the school's biographer for the Cumberland County Historical Society. "It was his experiment and Carlisle was the site of that first experiment." While some children were shipped away by relatives or tribal officials who hoped they'd escape the despair of reservation life, many were forcibly enrolled in the schools by the government. Upon arrival at Carlisle or the scores of institutions it spawned in the United States and Canada through the turn of the century, students were stripped of their traditional dress, bathed, clothed in Western garb and made to cut their hair. Pratt's intention was deprivation from all things native and total immersion in white society, a "baptism," as he once was quoted as saying in an address to Baptist ministers. "I believe in immersing Indians in our civilization," he said, "and when we get them under, holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked." In the years following the U.S. military's defeat at the Little Bighorn, the schools became a key weapon in the campaign against the Indians, imposing an ethnic oppression that has traumatized native people even decades after most of the institutions closed or converted into more palatable places of learning. Carlisle was shuttered in 1918, however, the Bureau of Indian Affairs still funds several dozen residential schools. "There is still a legacy from boarding schools," said Carmen Taylor, executive director of the National Indian School Board Association. "All the way from a lack of parenting to feelings of oppression, to say nothing of the loss of language and culture." Copyright ? 2003, Newsday, Inc. From miakalish at REDPONY.US Mon Nov 10 00:06:00 2003 From: miakalish at REDPONY.US (MiaKalish@RedPony) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 17:06:00 -0700 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: Dear Don: There is lots of this kind of research, but mostly you find it in education, specifically related to environments and student success, and, you find it in Health, particularly with regard to the impact that attempts to eradicate their language and culture has had on Native Americans. You find the small, bright glimmers in qualitative research on the success of reinstituting Native culture and religion in AA. Good luck, Mia Kalish ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Osborn" To: Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 1:19 AM Subject: Language impoverishment I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, impotence and/or rage" (at the site http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor the official languages used in school). Further research found that another author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is "a radical impoverishment of human relations." My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and language policy. I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of many years of observation and not formal research (which should not depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and community life. Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net *Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - d?veloppement http://www.bisharat.net From susangehr at SISQTEL.NET Mon Nov 10 04:11:00 2003 From: susangehr at SISQTEL.NET (Susan Gehr) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 20:11:00 -0800 Subject: Sean's assessment of FirstVoices In-Reply-To: <20031028071010.B81C32CBA0@listserv.arizona.edu> Message-ID: >> What exactly is FirstVoices? It's an easy-to-use, secure, cost-effective >> web-based tool that enables any language group to develop its own >> authentic and authoritative archiving and language reference resource from >> within its own community. > > Regrettably, it's also junk. You're better off using, well, absolutely > anything else. > > -- > Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ I'm also interested in how you came to your opinion of FirstVoices. I shopped around several different technology-based tools for documenting our languages before settling on Shoebox for documentation & analysis. I do recall having a brief exchange with the FirstVoices folks to get some more information. -- Susan Gehr Karuk Chi Nuuchuuphi Project Karuk Tribe of California P. O. Box 1016 Happy Camp, CA 96039 USA Karuk Language Resources on the Web: http://www.karuk.org/ From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 10 16:54:16 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 08:54:16 -0800 Subject: Proclamation For Elders Message-ID: RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS COUNTY OF Humboldt County Courthouse WHEREAS, the Northern California Indian Development Council will be hosting the 22nd Annual Inter-Tribal Gathering and Elders Dinner on November 15, 2003 at Redwood Acres in Eureka from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; and WHEREAS, the Gathering is an annual event established to honor all Elders, regardless of ethnicity. It is an opportunity to pay respect to all Elders, our link to the past and bridge to the future; and WHEREAS, the Elders Dinner will be served from noon to 4:00 p.m. and will feature the traditional Salmon cooked over and alder wood fire as well as a full turkey dinner; and WHEREAS, last year, over 1200 meals were served with 600+ being given away to community Elders. The overall attendance was in excess of 3500 people; and WHEREAS, there will be a special honoring and gifting of all Elders in attendance; and WHEREAS, demonstrations of traditional Tribal dances will be performed throughout the day and a Pow Wow Demonstration will begin at 4:00 p.m. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors hereby commends the Northern California Indian Development Council, Inc. for sharing the Native communities' long tradition of respect for the gift of Elders with the community through their sponsoring of the 22nd Annual Northwest Inter-Tribal Gathering and Elders Dinner -- Andr? Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com) COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY TO THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN INDIANS/NATIVE AMERICANS/ALASKAN NATIVES & HAWAIIAN ISLANDERS. To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 10 17:42:00 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 09:42:00 -0800 Subject: Island Speak (language) Message-ID: I did not say that the article I forwarded did, but My understanding is yes it is happening but you might check with the people themselves: http://www.k12.hi.us/~waianaeh/waianhi/hawaiian.html http://www.punahou.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=506 http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/o-linkpage.html http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/language/olelo.htm http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/stabilize/additional/hawaiian.htm Julia Sallabank wrote: > Dear Andre > > I am interested in the development of language revitalisation movements. You > say that 'Hawai'ian immersion saved the language', and what has bee achieved > is certainly impressive, but do the children who have been taught Hawai'ian > speak the language out of school, and will they raise children speaking it? > > Many thanks > > Julia > From gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 10 17:56:10 2003 From: gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Garry Forger) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 10:56:10 -0700 Subject: Ed Media conferece In-Reply-To: <1060704059.641700cad417a@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: This conference happens next June in Switzerland. There is a specific track for Indigenous Languages and Technology Topics inlcude: 7. Indigenous Peoples & Technology: This topic provides information on the issues and applications related to indigenous peoples and technology. Submissions are invited on the following non-exclusive list of topics * The Internet's effects on linguistic diversity * Promoting indigenous language development via discussion & chat * Multimedia support of language & culture * Exploring language with digital resources * Cultural attitudes and technology acceptance * Modifying computers to meet minority language requirements * Oral tradition meets voice dictation * Voice over IP, net meetings and collaborative thinking * Asynchronous, reflective discourse * On-line dictionaries and language development More info at http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/topics.htm -- Garry J. Forger, MLS Technology Coordinator The University of Arizona Learning Technologies Center 1077 N. Highland Ave Tucson, AZ 85721-0073 gforger at u.arizona.edu http://www.ltc.arizona.edu/ Phone 520-626-7761 Fax 520-626-8220 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Mon Nov 10 18:25:42 2003 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 11:25:42 -0700 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: I'm sorry that I can't point you to any studies, but I wanted to comment that I wonder if there are not two separate things going on here: First, there is the phenomenon of people who fail to learn the official language used in school sufficiently well, yet the non-use of their own mother tongues in education and other contexts means that they lack vocabulary to use those languages for many contexts. (It is not, of course, that the mother tongues cannot develop, or have not developed the sufficient vocabulary, but if ones education is in another language, one might not be able to use ones own mother tongue in certain contexts). At any rate, the result is people who, in some sense, do not speak any language fluently. One context I've read about this phenomenon is in Hong Kong, a decade or more ago--many high school students were not particularly fluent in English, especially in terms of grammar, but, while Cantonese remained the language they would use at a native level of fluency for nearly all social functions, they were unable to discuss many school subjects in it, since as it was not used in education past a certain level in some schools. This was actually one of the arguments used when the decision was made to make Cantonese the main medium of instruction in HK--I think the argument was something to the effect that it would be better to gain complete fluency in Cantonese and to learn English more as a foreign language, rather than to have people who had deficiencies in both languages. I've also seen this in Taiwan, where people who lacked anything near native-like fluency in Mandarin Chinese also had a low level of advanced vocabulary in the own mother tongues, and here in Northeastern New Mexico, where many native speakers of Spanish express insecurity about their ability in English, yet they clearly lack the vocabulary in Spanish to discuss certain subjects. Immigrants everywhere may have the some problem--they do not achieve native-like fluency in the language(s) of the countries they have moved to, yet they may also lack sufficient fluency in their own native languages, largely because their acquisition of vocabulary largely stopped after they immigrated. Second, when you have languages in a totally different situation--languages that are truly on the brink, often with only a small number of older people who speak it natively, you see not only the loss of vocabulary, but also the seeming loss and simplification of grammatical structures. Of course, all languages are known to change in this way, even the healthiest ones, but in these cases of dying languages, it does not seem that you are dealing with a change in which one structure is replacing another, but with a situation where the structures are not being replaced, and the language may actually be losing its expressiveness. This is something that, despite popular perceptions of language being "in decline," does not normally happen to any language. Indeed, this real loss of expressiveness seems to only occur when a language is truly dying. To me, the first phenomenon is an excellent argument for mother-tongue education, and the second is a subject of study for linguists, as well as a warning sign of language death. It is certainly possible that certain individuals might be affected by both at the same time, but I do believe that they are separate issues. In many situations in Africa, where people who speak large and otherwise fairly healthy indigenous tongues, yet are educated in colonial languages such as French, English or Portuguese, then probably the first issue is relevant, but for those who speak dying languages (which are, as I understand, usually replaced by larger African languages, not by the colonial languages) the second might apply as well. Don Osborn wrote: >I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John >Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, >impotence and/or rage" (at the site >http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new >take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African >context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor >the official languages used in school). Further research found that another >author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is >"a radical impoverishment of human relations." > >My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a >language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression >and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what >may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have >broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and >language policy. > >I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of >many years of observation and not formal research (which should not >depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I >would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on >language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and >community life. > >Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net >*Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative >*Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - d?veloppement >http://www.bisharat.net > > > From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 10 19:45:22 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 11:45:22 -0800 Subject: Loss Of Language Message-ID: 'Loss of Language and Culture' By Andrew Metz STAFF CORRESPONDENT It began in Carlisle, Pa. with the philosophy: Kill the Indian and save the man. This was the pedagogical mission of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the model for a system of forced assimilation that plucked children from reservations and tried to wipe out their native language and identity. Founded in 1879 by Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, the government school was the alma mater to more than 10,500 American Indians during its 39-year existence, notably Olympic champion Jim Thorpe. For most Indian people, though, it remains the grim touchstone of an era where their tribal ways were shocked out of them. http://www.newsday.com/ny-mohawk-side1109,0,5398756.story?coll=ny-top-headlines From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Tue Nov 11 06:53:06 2003 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 20:53:06 -1000 Subject: Island Speak (language) In-Reply-To: <3FAFCDE7.4C8876FC@ncidc.org> Message-ID: I can't point you to any specific documents at this time, but as the parent of an immersion child, with whom I have only spoken Hawaiian since she was an infant (she's now 12), and being very active in the programs from the support side, I can tell you that yes, many of the children do use the language out of the school, and beyond graduation. The oldest Hawaiian immersion graduates are only around 23 right now, and they are not numerous at this point, but a few do have children, and the ones I know that do are using the language with their children. It's their choice whether or not to pass it on, and hopeful as the number of graduates reaching adulthood and starting their own families increases, this will be the rule and not the exception. It will probably be a few years before their children will start showing up in our immersion preschools in sufficient numbers to tell for sure. I can tell you this as well - a number of our immersion graduates are back in the schools teaching the next generation and working in the offices that develop curriculum and provide other support services to the schools. If that isn't an indication of how they feel about the perpetuation of the language I don't know what is. Aloha, Keola andrekar at ncidc.org writes: >I did not say that the article I forwarded did, but My understanding is >yes it >is happening but you might check with the people themselves: > >http://www.k12.hi.us/~waianaeh/waianhi/hawaiian.html >http://www.punahou.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=506 >http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/o-linkpage.html >http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/language/olelo.htm >http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/stabilize/additional/hawaiian.htm > > > > >Julia Sallabank wrote: > >> Dear Andre >> >> I am interested in the development of language revitalisation >movements. You >> say that 'Hawai'ian immersion saved the language', and what has bee >achieved >> is certainly impressive, but do the children who have been taught >Hawai'ian >> speak the language out of school, and will they raise children speaking >it? >> >> Many thanks >> >> Julia >> ======================================================================= Keola Donaghy Hawaiian Language Curriculum and Technology Coordinator Native Hawaiian Serving Institution Program University of Hawai'i at Hilo keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nhsi Kualono http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/ ======================================================================= From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 12 17:32:09 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 10:32:09 -0700 Subject: Maori radio goes global (fwd) Message-ID: Maori radio goes global http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0311/S00230.htm Listeners of Maori Radio will welcome the ability to tune into their local iwi station on the internet according to Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia. Irirangi.net is being launched in Wellington this afternoon. This new vehicle opens up a wide range of possibilities for the many dedicated listeners of Maori Radio as well as potential new audiences," said Parekura Horomia. "This technology will allow whanau hapu and Iwi living outside of their tribal areas to listen to news and events at home. "It will also open up Maori Radio to the global market via the internet. Maori living abroad will now be able to find their own iwi stations on the net while others living abroad will have access to indigenous Aotearoa programming." Earlier this year Te Mangai Paho commissioned a survey of almost 28 thousand Maori which found that half of those living in areas covered by Maori radio were tuning in on a regular basis. Maori Radio has led the broadcasting industry. In the past New Zealand artists struggled to get airplay on mainstream radio while Maori stations instituted self imposed quotas to ensure local artists were given higher airplay priority. "13 years on we now see acts like Moana Maniapoto making a huge impact on the international scene. Hopefully Irirangi net will provide opportunities so that other Maori artists can launch long and successful careers," said Parekura Horomia. ******* Maori Language Radio WAI 11 Te Reo Maori Claim In 1986, the Waitangi Tribunal responded to a claim lodged by Huirangi Waikerepuru and Nga Kaiwhakapumau i te Reo (Inc) asking that the Maori language receive official recognition. In reference to Article II of the treaty, the tribunal established that the Maori language is a taongait is plain that the language is an essential part of culture and must be regarded as a valued possessio. This means that the Crown has an obligation to guarantee exclusive and undisturbed possession of this taongaThe word guarantee imposes an obligation to take active steps within the power of the guarantor, if it appears that the Maori people do not have or are losing, the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of the taonga (1986 Report of the Waitangi Tribunal into the WAI 11Te Reo Maor Claim) The Crown and Maori accept that the language is now in aperilous stat. In regard to broadcasting, the tribunal stated: If we were to conclude that the Maori language has been harmed by the predominance of English on radio and television, and if we were to conclude further that Article II of the Treaty promises that the Maori language was not only to be guaranteed but to be protected by the Crown by virtue of the provisions of the Treaty, then we could well conclude that the Minister has "omitted to do" an act within the meaning of section 6 of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, viz. that he has omitted to exercise his power to give a direction under Sec 20 by which that harm could be alleviated. This we say would give us the statutory right to intervene in this matter. But before we exercise our authority we must consider the concurrent jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Tribunal and the Royal Commission In its widest sense the Treaty promotes a partnership in the development of the country and a sharing of all resources. It is consistent with the principles of the Treaty that the language and matters of Maori interest should have a secure place in broadcasting. If there is any impediment in the statute that governs the Broadcasting Corporation, then it is the statute itself that must be called into questio. The tribunal went on to recommend to the Minister of Broadcasting thatin the formulation of broadcasting policy, regard be had [to the Crows obligation] to recognise and protect the Maori language, and that the Broadcasting Act 1975 (section 20) enables this to be done so far as broadcasting is concerned Broadcasting Assets Case Further imperative for the Crown to be proactive came in 1989 when the Government proposed to transfer the assets of the Broadcasting Corporation (BCNZ) to the newly formed state owned enterprises, Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand. On the basis of the Tribunas findings in WAI 11, the Maori Council and Nga Kaiwhakapumau challenged this transfer in the High Court and the Court (Justice McGechan) subsequentlyordered the Crown to submit a scheme of protective reservations as to transmission and production facilitie. Maori Radio Maori radio has a vital role to play in the regeneration of the Maori language. Because it is portable and easy to access, radio makes the language widely accessible to learners, fluent and non-speakers of te reo. Iwi Maori radio stations were established in the period 1989-94 through New Zealand on Air, which included an initial capital grant to each station of $100,000 and from then on, an annual sum of $200,000 (+GST) . Te Mangai Paho assumed responsibility for funding all stations in 1994. The average level of funding budgeted for Maori radio services until the end of 2002 is $9.2 million per year. This includes operational funding for 21 stations as well as a range of other services such as distribution, coverage extension, audience surveys and incentive funding. This compares with the average funding for Radio New Zealand of around $21 million per year. The figure of $200,000 was determined by NZ On Air in 1990. In 1994, TMP sought two separate views from industry on what would be reasonable costs to operate a Maori radio station effectively. Both sources provided estimates and explanations totalling $400,000 $450,000. Despite progressive increases in the quantity and quality of te reo radio programmes, the level of funding for the operational costs of Maori radio stations has not substantially increased since the stations were established more than 10 years ago. Taking into account the shared services and other industry costs, the stations currently receive an average of around $320,000 per year to meet their operational requirements. ENDS From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Nov 12 19:42:52 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 11:42:52 -0800 Subject: Maori radio goes global (fwd) Message-ID: Sung to the Tune of Mexican Radio by Wall Of Voodoo I feel a cool breeze on my shoulder Off the river at the reservation border I have my walkman and check the station I listen for Tribal News of the Native nations I hear the talking of the DJ Is it Hopi, Maybe Hoopa, perhaps Lakota Sometimes even Bellagana (sp?) Can't understand just what does he say? I'm on an Indian radio I'm on an Indian radio I dial it in and tune the station They talk about Council business, and commodity allocations There is a tourney on the next Rez Guess its time for a road trip journey I'm on an Indian radio I'm on an Indian radio I wish I was in Albuquerque Dancing at the Midnight Rodeo I call my request in on the phone Can~Rt We hear "One Eyed Ford" I want to taste some food from home Maybe Salmon, even deer meat, Mutton stew just doesn~Rt cut it There is the guy, with no teeth That I met at the 49er Can't understand just what does he say? I'm on an Indian radio I'm on an Indian radio Radio radio... From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 14 17:18:49 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 10:18:49 -0700 Subject: Scholars resuscitate dead languages (fwd) Message-ID: Scholars resuscitate dead languages Tech advances help illustrate how Arabs preserved ancient wisdom http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/11.13/01-archimedes.html By Jenny Attiyeh Special to the HNO "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth," said Archimedes in a boastful claim about the marvelous properties of the lever. He was the first to prove mathematically that this seemingly simple device could lift great loads, if only the weight-bearing plank were positioned properly on its pivot. Building on this principle, Archimedes went on to invent machines capable of performing previously unimaginable tasks and ushered in a new era of mastery and achievement for ancient Greece in the third century B.C. Today, a team of Harvard scholars in the Department of the Classics is leveraging 21st century technology to achieve wonders of its own. The aptly named Archimedes Project, now in its third year, aims to investigate the history of mechanics with new, penetrating tools that can, with a click or two of a mouse, peel back time and reveal heretofore hidden truths. The goal of this academic research project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and conducted in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, is to develop advanced computer technology that will help scholars mine myriad scientific texts in a variety of languages, but also to connect the dots between them. In this way, it can broaden the scope of scholarship, but also sharpen the scholar's ability to probe deeply into the past, thereby shedding new light on generally accepted assumptions. "Now what we can do is take into account a vastly wider range of evidence, and that changes the picture quite considerably," explained Mark Schiefsky, an assistant professor of the classics at Harvard and the principal investigator of the Harvard team. "It changes our idea of what mechanics was like in antiquity, in such a way that it makes it seem both much more complicated and more modern than one might have thought." In other words, Archimedes, Aristotle, and their ilk were far more advanced in their thinking than we generally give them credit for. They were truly ahead of their time. And Schiefsky and his team plan to prove it. But for that you need sharp, smart tools, which are the chief responsibility of Malcolm D. Hyman, a research associate with the project. "What we want to do is to get scholars to be able to see the big picture," said Hyman. "This is a complex tradition. We have all these different languages, and we have lots of texts. By using this technology, what we hope to do is to allow people to work with a mass of material that they would otherwise not be able to work with." In some ways, the technology driving the Archimedes Project resembles the sophisticated computer programming used more often in the hard sciences, where computers are designed to decode genes, or map complex chemical structures. But the Archimedes team intends to prove that such techniques can also bear fruit in the humanities and the softer sciences. "It's a new direction for the study of the past and its future," said Elaheh Kheirandish, a Harvard lecturer and the third member of the Archimedes Project team. "It's very young, and there's no question that it's uncommon, but there are very interesting projects that use humanities and technology." So far, the Archimedes Project technology can perform a variety of impressive feats, including automatic morphological analysis - which means that each word in a text, be it Greek, Arabic, or Latin, can be linked to its root form in the dictionary. This is a godsend for scholars who want to study primary sources in their original languages, but need a little extra help in mastering them. A key software program for the project is called Arboreal. It facilitates linguistically complex searches, and also allows for the annotation and creation of data. In this way, you can scribble in the margins, as it were, of the ancient text inhabiting your computer screen. "What's novel about Arboreal is the integration of all these linguistic tools into one package," explained Hyman, who created it. "It's new in scale - there is no existing tool, actually, that will serve scholars working in the type of texts that we're working on. Arboreal is the first." But it is nonetheless insufficient. Eager for more, the Archimedes team is in the process of acquiring yet another instrument for its forensic research, called latent semantic indexing. This technology uses statistics to characterize and identify texts by determining the structure and meaning of words, how frequently they are used, and in what context. In this way, for example, the identity of an anonymous author can be discovered, and translations can be distinguished from original content. With such tools, the Archimedes Project members can start to ask, and answer, questions that have until now been too unwieldy or time-consuming to tackle. In particular, the Archimedes team hopes to go back in history and re-create important ancient Greek texts, which were known to have existed but have since disappeared. "For the first time I feel that there is the possibility of reconstructing lost fragments," said Kheirandish, speaking of missing documents by Archimedes, which are referred to in later texts on mechanics. "The technology gives you a range of vocabulary in a magnitude that is unimaginable. The fact that you have the linkage of all these roots, the morphology, the connections, allows you to reconstruct something almost on the spot." In many cases, these lost Greek texts can only be reconstructed through careful analysis of a handful of critically important Arabic translations, which are the only copies of these works to have survived. During the early Middle Ages, while much of Europe stagnated, Arabic culture, with its headquarters in Baghdad, flourished. Starting in the ninth century A.D., caliphs and viziers funded an extensive and systematic translation movement, which transferred to their own time the ancient wisdom of the Greeks, thereby preserving many crucial texts, which would have otherwise perished. "It's a process of transformation, where Greek originals are transformed into Arabic sources, which are then used for further development," Schiefsky said. "In those days, they really did appreciate what the Greeks had achieved and tried to bring it into their own language." Certain Arabic translations - such as one by Qusta Ibn Luqa of a document called "The Mechanics" by Heron of Alexandria, a first century A.D. Greek scientist - are key texts for the Archimedes Project team as it sets out to reconstruct, to translate in reverse, missing Greek documents. In particular, Schiefsky and Kheirandish, who reads both Arabic and Persian, are working on a section of this text in which references to Archimedes' definition of the "center of gravity" appear. "Archimedes apparently invented the concept of center of gravity. It persists throughout the entire history of mechanics, and one of the important things about this text is that it gives us insights into the introduction of this concept," explained Schiefsky. "So if one can reconstruct from this an actual argument of Archimedes that belongs to some lost work, that would be quite helpful." Although Archimedes' notion of the center of gravity does not anticipate Newton's breakthrough 20 centuries later, it does reveal sophisticated abstract thinking on weights and balances. Archimedes realized that the entire weight of an object could be regarded as concentrated at a single point - its center of gravity. This concept, which is still accepted today, is essential in designing mechanical systems. Such third century B.C. thinking was precocious, and according to Schiefsky, "extremely modern" on the part of Archimedes. It's Schiefsky's hope that the Archimedes Project will be able to not only reconstruct Archimedes' original argument on this concept, but also, in time, rescue from neglect dozens of Greek texts, which currently exist only as Arabic translations. "This will take years of work from all three of us, and beyond, to actually get to where we want to be," explained Kheirandish. "But one must not shy away from these things. Three years back when we started, where we are today would have been unthinkable." Academic research of this nature is usually slow and painstaking, but the Archimedes team is betting that their technology has the potential to transform this process. "We're taking off in leaps and bounds," said Schiefsky. "We're not trying to do everything by hand. This one little example on the center of gravity is only the first of the many results we could expect when we actually apply the full resources of modern technology to these questions - which has never been done. So what we can expect, I think, is really extremely impressive." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 14 17:22:50 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 10:22:50 -0700 Subject: Canadian fund gives P40 000 to develop languages (fwd) Message-ID: Canadian fund gives P40 000 to develop languages 13 November, 2003 http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20031113&i=Canadian_fund_gives_P40_000_to_develop_languages Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) has given RETENG: Multicultural Coalition of Botswana P39 600 to develop writing systems for five local languages ? Sebirwa, Setswapong, Sesubiya, Setsiretsire and Sekgalagadi, which currently have no written materials. According to a news release, CFLI is a small grants fund administered by the World University Service of Canada in Gaborone, and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The money will also be used to conduct a feasibility study for establishing a community radio station to promote the use of local languages and record a CD of traditional music produced by a youth group. The release quotes RETENG secretary general Lydia Nyathi Ramahobo as saying it is important for Batswana to know that their languages could be written. She said about 10 more languages of Botswana would still need to be developed and more materials for the developing languages generated. Ramahobo described the fund as an invaluable contribution to this development process and the enhancement of democracy and cultural rights in Botswana. RETENG aims to promote and preserve the linguistic and cultural diversity of Botswana's heritage. It also seeks to cultivate an appreciation, knowledge and understanding of unity in diversity and tolerance for multiculturalism as key elements in national development. Three workshops have been conducted at Bobonong, Manxotae and Hukuntsi as part of the language development initiative. BOPA ? From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 16 22:59:46 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 15:59:46 -0700 Subject: One Man's Goal: For a Tribe to Pray in Its Own Language (fwd) Message-ID: November 15, 2003 One Man's Goal: For a Tribe to Pray in Its Own Language By KATIE ZEZIMA http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/15/national/15RELI.html?ex=1069563600&en=9fe3d95d870be6b5&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ANGOR, Me. ? The automated voice is flat and monotonous, but Allen Sockabasin says he hears the words and prayers of his ancestors through the speakers of the Macintosh computer on his desk. Mr. Sockabasin, a member of the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe, has spent more than a decade trying to save its language. Though the tribe has been Roman Catholic since Jesuit missionaries from France arrived in northern Maine 400 years ago, few of its members today know how to pray in their native language. In fact, fewer than 600 people in the Passamaquoddys' indigenous land ? eastern Maine and the adjacent region of Canada ? now speak Passamaquoddy or Maliseet, a dialect. And of those who do, fewer still can pray in the language, in part because most prayers were taught their ancestors in either Latin or English, by the Jesuits and the Anglicans who followed. The 58-year-old Mr. Sockabasin is trying to change all that. Having previously recorded his translations of songs and poems from English to Passamaquoddy (pronounced pass-eh-meh-KWAD-ee), he is now translating the rosary and recording it on compact discs that he plans to distribute to schools and churches in eastern Maine and the adjoining Canadian province, New Brunswick. The project is the first in which the prayers have been translated into the native language, professionally recorded (in a local studio) and distributed. "It's really sad when a young person tells you he doesn't know how to pray," Mr. Sockabasin, the H.I.V. coordinator for an Indian health clinic, said in an interview at his office here. "It's sad when a native speaker feels like he doesn't know how to pray. In Indian country, its all made up as you go along." Most of those who still speak Passamaquoddy at all are aging, now over 50. Some tribal members say the language is dying out because many parents simply want their children to learn English so that they can pursue education and better jobs, and so leave rural Maine. Tribal elders tried to preserve Passamaquoddy orally through the years, but English often seeped in, tainting it. Linguists have studied the language since the 1970's, but members of the tribe say they have not benefited from the research, which has for the most part been scholarly and, they say, not focused on helping Indian communities. So they have started their own programs, at schools and community centers. The prayer project, however, is the most moving, they say. One tribal member, Brenda Commander, who for three years has run a language program in the Indian community of Houlton, Me., said she first heard a prayer in Passamaquoddy last year, at a funeral. The words took on a different meaning. "I just can't even describe it," Ms. Commander said. "I felt inspired. It made me really emotional." Mr. Sockabasin lives in another Indian community, Pleasant Point, on the Bay of Fundy about 25 miles from the Canadian border. The Rev. Frank Morin, the pastor of St. Ann's parish there, hopes parents will use Mr. Sockabasin's disc to teach children both culture and religion. Father Morin says the Passamaquoddy prayers are audible reminders of parents and grandparents who spoke the language. Francis Nicholas, 75, a deacon at St. Ann's, says parishioners want to worship in Passamaquoddy. "Everybody wants to be baptized," Mr. Nicholas said. "Everybody wants to be taken to the church when they die and be buried by a priest. One should be able to pray in their own language, I think, and you've got to pass that on to the younger generation." Mr. Sockabasin, who grew up speaking Passamaquoddy, decided in the late 1980's to translate songs and poems, and record the results. He has now recorded seven discs of translated poems, prayers and songs, including "Amazing Grace." He says he pays for his projects with donations and grants; the discs are free. Mr. Sockabasin works with the aid of a computer program that reads back written text. He types letters that he believes will translate orally to Passamaquoddy. Then, when the computer speaks them back to him, he tinkers with those that sound awry to his ear, and tries again. Once a rough translation is complete, he takes the printed word, reads it aloud and adds correct inflections. Once an accurate translation is complete, he records it. He also teaches the language to anyone who is interested in learning it. "If I can teach a computer how to sound out a Passamaquoddy word," he said, "I certainly can teach native children how to sound the words." Still, translating Passamaquoddy is complicated, because unlike English, it groups sets of ideas into single words. Dr. Robert Leavitt, professor of education at the University of New Brunswick and director of its Mi'kmaq-Maliseet Institute, tells of the difficulty encountered by a group of linguists who tried to translate "thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory" into Passamaquoddy. The word they first used, Dr. Leavitt said, made it "sound like God had been working out at the gym," conveying a vision of physical strength rather than authoritative power. But Mr. Sockabasin knows the hurdles well: it was still the mid-1990's when he started work on the rosary. His hope is that through his work, young people will find more meaning in the prayers they say each week in church. "I know when I say `my creator' in my language, there is no other definition," Mr. Sockabasin said. "It's who made me." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 17 17:51:50 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:51:50 -0700 Subject: Survey to help save Aboriginal tongues (fwd) Message-ID: Survey to help save Aboriginal tongues http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/sa/metsa-17nov2003-2.htm Posted: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 9:29 ACST A national survey of Aboriginal languages will be undertaken in an effort to stop a further deterioration of traditional dialects. It is thought that one Indigenous language is lost each year and the survey will aim to develop a policy for their preservation. University of South Australia lecturer Bill Edwards says Aboriginal languages are slowly dying because of modern pressures. "With all the pressures of globalisation and media and television, some of the younger ones in communities, even where languages are strong, are now tending to speak with English or a mixture of English and their Indigenous language," he said. "The experts have made some fairly pessimistic predictions because of these changes that are happening in even remote Aboriginal communities." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 17 17:54:10 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:54:10 -0700 Subject: Languages that are lost in time (fwd) Message-ID: Languages that are lost in time http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,7897586%255E2682,00.html 18nov03 THE death of hundreds of traditional indigenous Australian languages is a symptom of the decay of Aboriginal culture, a South Australian academic says. "This is an important matter of identity for these people who have lost much of their culture," Bill Edwards, adjunct lecturer in Aboriginal Studies at the University of South Australia, said yesterday. He claimed that traditional languages were an "identity marker" for Aboriginal people. His comments coincide with the announcement of a national survey of indigenous languages undertaken by the Federal Government. The last major survey was conducted by linguists Patrick McConvell and Nicholas Thieberger two years ago. They said that Aboriginal languages had declined from more than 250 ? incorporating about 600 dialects ? when Australia was first settled by Europeans, to the point where only about 17 are now regularly in use. "Globalisation is a bit of a buzz word for it, but it's that whole influence of young (Aboriginal) people watching TV, films and videos," Mr Edwards said. "A lot of older people are still speaking the languages quite well. "A few old people use a few words on occasions such as greetings and ceremonies, but younger people only hear a handful of words." For Mr Edwards, the extinction of Aboriginal languages erases a wealth of history from Australia's national consciousness. "If we lose any language we are losing human understanding about the world," he said. "This is more than just a loss of words, it is a loss of intuition and a loss of understanding." Mr Edwards said the survey would play an important role in trying to preserve Aboriginal languages. There were about 6000 languages still being spoken worldwide with around half of those now under threat of being lost within the next 25 years, he said. "Languages with less than 10,000 speakers are particularly under threat and all the Aboriginal languages are well within that limit," Mr Edwards said. Even "stronger" languages such as Pitjantjatjara were only spoken by about 2000 to 3000 people. "Aboriginal languages are seen in the worldwide situation as being in extreme danger," Mr Edwards said. From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Nov 17 18:53:09 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:53:09 -0800 Subject: Whistling Your Language Message-ID: Near-Extinct 'Whistling Language' Returns By SARAH ANDREWS, Associated Press Writer SAN SEBASTIAN, Canary Islands - Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a cell phone or the Internet to communicate. Instead, he puckers up and whistles. Cabello is a "silbador," until recently a dying breed on tiny, mountainous La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary Islands off West Africa. Like his father and grandfather before him,Cabello, 50, knows "Silbo Gomero," a language that's whistled, not spoken, and can be heard more than two miles away. This chirpy brand of chatter is thought to have come over with early African settlers 2,500 years ago. Now,educators are working hard to save it from extinction by making school children study it up to age 14. Silbo ?~@" the word comes from Spanish verb silbar, meaning to whistle ?~@" features four "vowels" and four "consonants" that can be strung together to form more than 4,000 words. It sounds just like bird conversation and Cabello says it has plenty of uses. "I use it for everything: to call to my wife, to tell my kids something, to find a friend if we get lost in a crowd," Cabello said. In fact, he makes a living off Silbo, performing daily exhibitions at a restaurant on this island of 147 square miles and 19,000 people. A snatch of dialogue in Silbo is posted at http://www.agulo.net/silbo/silbo.mp3 and translates as follows: "Hey, Servando!" "What?" "Look, go tell Julio to bring the castanets." "OK. Hey, Julio!" "What?" "Lili says you should go get the kids and have them bring the castanets for the party." "OK, OK, OK." Silbo was once used throughout the hilly terrain of La Gomera as an ingenious way of communicating over long distances. A strong whistle saved peasants from trekking over hill and dale to send messages or news to neighbors. Then came the phone, and it's hard to know how many people use Silbo these days. "A lot of people think they do, but there is a very small group who can truly communicate through Silbo and understand Silbo," said Manuel Carreiras, a psychology professor fromthe island of Tenerife. He specializes in how the brain processes language and has studied Silbo. Since 1999, Silbo has been a required language in La Gomera's elementary schools. Some 3,000 students are studying it 25 minutes a week ?~@" enough to teach the basics, said Eugenio Darias, a Silbo teacher and director of the island's Silbo program. "There are few really good silbadores so far, but lots of students are learning to use it and understand it," he said. "We've been very pleased." But almost as important as speaking ?~@" sorry, whistling ?~@" Silbo is studying where it came from, and little is known. "Silbo is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have," said Moises Plasencia, the director of the Canary government's historical heritage department. It might seem appropriate for a language that sounds like birdsong to exist in the Canary Islands, but scholarly theories as to how the archipelago got its name make no mention of whistling. Little is known about Silbo's origins, but an important step toward recovering the language was the First International Congress of Whistled Languages, held in April in LaGomera. The congress, which will be repeated in 2005, brought together experts on various whistled languages. Silbo-like whistling has been found in pockets of Greece, Turkey, China and Mexico, but none is as developed as Silbo Gomero, Plasencia said. One study is looking for vestiges of Silbo in Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places to which Gomerans have historically emigrated during hard economic times. Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to have UNESCO declare it an "intangible cultural heritage" and support efforts to save it. "Silbo is so unique and has many values: historical, linguistic, anthropological and aesthetic. It fits perfectly with UNESCO's requirements," he said. Besides, says Cabello, it's good for just about anything except for romance: "Everyone on the island would hear what you're saying!" From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 18 16:49:48 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 09:49:48 -0700 Subject: New Panther Language Features (link) Message-ID: fyi, i found this intersting Panther note for Mac users... New Panther Language Features http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07439 phil UofA From jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU Tue Nov 18 17:48:25 2003 From: jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU (Gross, Joan) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 09:48:25 -0800 Subject: dialect differences site Message-ID: > Here's a clever site showing differences between French in Quebec > > and in France. > > > > http://www.cyberjean.com/quebec/batman.swf > > > > Joan Gross > > > > > > > > Joan Gross > > Professor of Anthropology > > Oregon State University > > Waldo Hall 222 > > jgross at orst.edu > > (541) 737-3852 > From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Fri Nov 21 16:58:19 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 08:58:19 -0800 Subject: Introduction Message-ID: Hello, just a brief moment to let others know a little bit about me ( or remind you, if you have been around awhile). I am an enrolled member of the Karuk Tribe from the Klamath and Salmon Rivers in NW California. I am the chairman of my tribes language restoration committee (please see http://www.ncidc.org/karuk/index.html) and am an active participant in our Tribal dances and ceremonies. What is your full name? Andr? Pierre Cramblit What State do you reside in? Arcata, CA What nation do you come from? Karuk Tribe Of California (also have Creek & Tohono O'odham blood-Norris Family) Do you have a title or position that will identify you more clearly to others in the group? Operations Director NCIDC http://www.ncidc.org What activities are you involved in that help the American Indians today? Language Preservation, cultural resources, story telling, traditional activities, tribal ceremonies, grant writing, communications (www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo ), education, environmental issues, etc Who are your favorite musical artist/s? (Only Considering Natives) Indigenous, Arigon Starr, Merve George, Native Roots, Who is your favorite author or authors? (Only Considering Natives) Vine Deloria, Louise Erdrich, Heid Erdrich, Diane Burns, Joy Harjo, Lori Arviso-Alvord What is your favorite Native Movie? Pow Wow Highway or Black Robe -- Andr? Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 23 05:45:18 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 06:45:18 +0100 Subject: Languages that are lost in time (fwd) Message-ID: This phrase ... > "A few old people use a few words on occasions such as greetings and > ceremonies, but younger people only hear a handful of words." ... reminds me of some discussions about parental (and larger family) approaches to educating children in multilingual settings (generally involving more widely spoken languages). It is common for parents of different cultures to educate their children in the languages of both, and there are approaches (e.g., one parent, one language) and even support groups to make that work. But the same approaches are apparently not widely known or practiced in communities where less widely spoken languages are involved - with the possible exception of Europe. Or am I mistaken? In much of Africa, it is taken for granted that kids will pick up languages, and in the cases where parents focus on the language issue, my semi-informed impression is that they are as likely to adopt a one-language approach (focusing say on English or French, with the idea this would benefit their children) as anything else. And I know of some African parents abroad who effectively abandon their maternal language in the family. This makes me wonder about educating parents on how kids learn languages and the benefits of a thought-out approach to their children's multilingual learning. In the case of less-spoken languages, has there been any effort to encourage those in a community who speak the mother tongue to focus on using it with the young people on a day to day basis? If all kids hear as they grow up is a smattering of words in greetings and ceremonies, then of course the language will be lost (regardless what we do with technology). There are certainly cultural factors and education policy issues involved, and I haven't really researched this, but I still wonder if techniques used by multilingual families could not be adapted to and more systematically used in minority language communities. Beyond that I had another thought regarding language strategies and that is the comparative difficulties for minority languages in dominant monolingual cultures as opposed to mutlilingual cultures. In the latter people expect to speak and hear more than one language frequently if not daily, so I wonder if the environment is more favorable to ongoing use of maternal languages. (Again this is an area I have not researched personally but thought about from the viewpoint of training Peace Corps volunteers from mostly monolingual backgrounds in the US for living in multilingual Africa.) Of course you can't change the larger social milieu but maybe one missing part of strategies to language in less-spoken language communities is creating this multilingual mindset - in this case that the mother tongue and the dominant language can coexist in the community, and that one can learn both well, switch between them according to context and expressiveness, and be at least as well off if not better than if all one spoke was the dominant language. Sorry if some of this is obvious to the rest of you - there are aspects of the field I am still catching up with. Any comments welcome. Don Osborn Bisharat.net From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 23 08:14:38 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 09:14:38 +0100 Subject: Language impoverishment Message-ID: Thank you, Mia (belatedly). In looking at your response and Matthew's I'm wondering what sort of connections have been made between research in educational, health, and psychological effects on individuals of language impoverishment on one hand and the wider socio-linguistic processes on the other. I realize this goes rather beyond the focus of the group, so I beg your indulgence (and advice where else to take the thread). Having read not long ago a piece that George Packer wrote about the young men in southwestern West Africa involved in the conflicts there, and how they have adopted elements of American pop-culture for image and whatever, it seems clear that beyond having tenous roots, little education (formal or informal), and no hope, they also have no deep knowledge of their maternal language, no significant instruction in any other language, and arguably a very limited range of expression ... pop-culture & violence are manageable media for expressing frustration, hope, and a restrained spectrum of human relations. It would be a huge leap to try to make the case for a socio-linguistic cause for the problems in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and now Cote d'Ivoire (and why there and not elsewhere in the subregion), but I wonder if anyone has tried exploring a "language impoverishment" angle on conflict in changing societies and the psychology of combattants. Thanks... Don Osborn Bisharat.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at RedPony" To: Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 1:06 AM Subject: Re: Language impoverishment > Dear Don: > > There is lots of this kind of research, but mostly you find it in education, > specifically related to environments and student success, and, you find it > in Health, particularly with regard to the impact that attempts to eradicate > their language and culture has had on Native Americans. You find the small, > bright glimmers in qualitative research on the success of reinstituting > Native culture and religion in AA. > > Good luck, > Mia Kalish > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Don Osborn" > To: > Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 1:19 AM > Subject: Language impoverishment > > > I came upon a phrase earlier this year that was used by the author John > Marsden in a workshop: "Language impoverishment can lead to frustration, > impotence and/or rage" (at the site > http://www.pvet.vic.edu.au/boyswebsite/conference.html ). This was a new > take on a phenomenon that I had been thinking a lot about in the African > context (young people who learn neither their maternal languages well nor > the official languages used in school). Further research found that another > author, Walker Percy, wrote that one result of language's impoverishment is > "a radical impoverishment of human relations." > > My thinking is that well before we get to the point of concern about a > language's survival, it starts to lose vocabulary and range of expression > and creativity: it becomes impoverished. But more than being a stage in what > may ultimately end up as extinction, language impoverishment seems to have > broader social and psychological implications beyond cultural survival and > language policy. > > I wrote Mr. Marsden, who kindly replied that his statement was the result of > many years of observation and not formal research (which should not > depreciate the value of such observation I would hasten to add!). But I > would be interested in learning more about research anyone is doing on > language impoverishment in communities and its effects on individual and > community life. > > Don Osborn, Ph.D. dzo at bisharat.net > *Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative > *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - d?veloppement > http://www.bisharat.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 23 17:27:14 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 10:27:14 -0700 Subject: Last fluent speaker of Wampanoag language dies (fwd) Message-ID: Last fluent speaker of Wampanoag language dies; his life is celebrated R.J. HALLIDAY , Gazette Staff Writer 11/23/2003 http://www.tauntongazette.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10558379&BRD=1711&PAG=461&dept_id=24232&rfi=6 FREETOWN -- Hundreds of Native Americans traveled from across New England to the Watuppa Wampanoag Reservation here Friday to celebrate the life of Clinton Neakeahamuck Wixon (Lightning Foot), who passed away Nov. 9 at the age of 72. Known throughout the region as perhaps the last fluent speaker of the native Wampanoag language, Wixon dedicated his life to educating Wampanoag and Ponkapoag youths about tribal traditions, culture and language. He also kept Native American awareness alive by organizing Pow Wows and demonstrations throughout the state in towns such as Brockton, Lakeville, Middleboro, New Bedford, Taunton, Mashpee and on the Boston Common. >From sunrise to sunset yesterday Native Americans from various tribes, many dressed in full regalia, stood in a circle around a Vigil Fire that had been burning in Wixon?s honor for four days. Women stood on one side, men on the other, as they passed around a wooden talking pipe and each eulogized Wixon. Later, his ashes were spread over the Watuppa Reservation and at Ponkapoag Indian Plantation in Canton, the homes of his beloved ancestors. Wixon?s nephew, Darrel of the Nemasket Band, who led a procession of chants and drumming in his uncle?s honor, called Wixon "a legend in his own time." Darrel?s father, Wixon?s only brother, the late Clarence Wixon, Jr. (Chief Red Blanket), was proclaimed by then-Gov. Michael Dukakis as "one of the greatest losses amongst the Native American community in the last 50 years" following his 1990 death. Wind Song, chief of the Assonet Band, said he and Wixon worked to clean up the Watuppa Reservation and make it a place again for Native American services and celebrations. "When this place was a dump, we cleaned it up," he recalled. "Now we have someplace for our ceremonies." Born in Middleboro in 1931, Wixon was an 11th generation direct descendent of the powerful chieftain, Massasoit, the supreme sachem who befriended the Pilgrims in 1620. After serving in the Korean War, Wixon founded perhaps the first modern day nonprofit Indian organization in Massachusetts, the Algonquin Indian Association, anda few years later formed the United Indian Tribes of America. During the 1960s Wixon joined forces with Indian tribes from Maine to Florida to form the Federated Eastern Indian League. Wixon was also a strong voice behind the organization of the National Day of Mourning at Plymouth in 1970, which today is still a stage for Native American awareness and unity during the Thanksgiving holiday. "He was well-respected in his community for always standing his ground with everyone about who he was and where he came from," said Maurice L. Foxx, representative of the state Commission on Indian Affairs. "It?s always tough to lose our elders because they are the ones who teach our culture and language." ?The Taunton Gazette?2003 From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 16:44:22 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 08:44:22 -0800 Subject: LinguaPax Message-ID: Dear colleague, The call for candidates to the Linguapax awards 2004 is open. Kindly communicate the names of your nominees to the secretariat of the Linguapax Institute before the 15th of January 2004 and attach their short biographical note whenever possible. The names of the prize-winners will be made public on February 27, coinciding with the presentation of 2003 Linguapax Awards to Aina Moll and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. The ceremony will take place on the occasion of the II International Mercator Symposium to be held at the University Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona (27-28 February 2004). More information on: http://www.linguapax.org/en/premisLPXang.html Sincerely, -- Josep Cru Institut Linguapax tel. 93 458 95 95 fax. 457 58 51 info at linguapax.org www.linguapax.org From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Tue Nov 25 17:03:18 2003 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rr Lapier) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 12:03:18 EST Subject: Salish Revival Message-ID: Salish revival By JOHN STROMNES of the Missoulian Joshua Brown chats with sisters Siliye, center, and Susseli Pete at the Salish language immersion school in Arlee last week. Brown was recently awarded a 2003 Echoing Green fellowship worth $60,000 over two years to fund the Salish Language Perpetuation Project. Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian Pablo man wins $60,000 grant for language program ARLEE - Joshua Brown has studied such arcane subjects as social linguistics and bilingual education but still isn't fluent in Salish, the native tongue of his Indian tribe. Neither are most Salish Indians on the Flathead Reservation. Salish as a living language is dying fast, Brown said. Only 70 to 80 people are fluent out of some 6,000 enrolled members in the entire tribal confederacy - Pend d'Oreille, Salish and Kootenai. (Salish is by far the largest of the three tribal groups that comprise the Flathead Nation.) Brown aims to revive the language as a living, cultural force with the help of a two-year, $60,000 "social entrepreneurship" award from a foundation in New York City. The Pablo resident, who has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Montana, is a founder of the Salish language-immersion school, Nk(w)usm (One Fire) in Arlee. He was recently named one of the world's Top 10 Emerging Social Entrepreneurs for 2003 by Echoing Green, a nonprofit group started by the venture-capital investment firm General Atlantic Partners. Competition for the fellowship is tough. Brown said he went through a rigorous written competition against more than 100 other hopefuls, and surprised himself by making the finals last spring. In New York, he went through grueling days of formal interviews with the foundation's selection panel, who themselves were social entrepreneurs recruited from all over the world. From the 25 semifinalists, 10 were chosen to receive the $60,000 grants, Brown said. "It was basically like defending your thesis" for a graduate degree, Brown said of the experience. Since then, he's attended Echoing Green workshops in Greenwich, Conn., and San Francisco addressing social entrepreneurship skills, including, he said, the vital "60-second elevator pitch" in which you explain your program's mission and need to potential donors. Over the past 16 years, Echoing Green has invested $21 million in seed money to more than 370 individuals who the organization defines as "talented yet unproven social entrepreneurs dedicated to addressing the root causes of social challenges" and "visionaries who will develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems ... (and) who will work to close deeply rooted social, economic and political inequities to ensure equal access and to help all individuals reach his/her potential." So the grant is a pretty big deal for a low-key, gentle, soft-spoken, bespectacled 29-year-old from the Flathead Reservation, Brown agreed. An attorney for the Eastern Montana Self-Help Law Project also was a winner. That project uses technology, volunteer attorneys, paralegals and lay community members to help people represent themselves in court in civil proceedings. Brown started thinking about becoming a social entrepreneur - although not in those exact terms - several years ago when his friend and mentor Clarence Woodcock, a beloved Salish elder, editor, linguist and cultural leader, died. Brown had learned much from Woodcock, including language skills, spiritual and cultural traditions, while in high school in St. Ignatius. When Woodcock died, Brown was an undergraduate majoring in environmental sciences at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo. This field of study would almost surely get him a good job with the resource-rich Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes when he graduated. But with Woodcock dead, Brown realized that his easy access to a fluent Salish speaker and cultural leader had been cut off forever. "When he died, I realized that I took a lot of things for granted," Brown said. So he changed his academic major, his goals and his outlook on life. "Ever since then, I have studied history, linguistics and education," he said. While at college, he started thinking about how to revive Salish as a useful, vital, living tongue among the Salish people on the reservation. Deliberate repression of the Indian language by religious and civil authorities for two generations - now referred to politely as "the boarding school experience" in tribal cultures throughout the western United States - had severely eroded the language by the time Brown was born. Salish was rarely spoken by anyone outside the home, and then usually only among elders. Brown's parents, for example, spoke little Salish at home. He remembers learning Salish words and phrases from his great-grandparents and great uncles. At St. Ignatius High School, he attended Salish classes, but they were only "enrichment" courses of study, designed to familiarize students with the local Salish cultural tradition, not language fluency. That kind of instruction will never save Salish from extinction, Brown said. "Public schools are never going to save the Salish language ... they can't and should not be expected to do it by themselves," he said. "The Salish community should take the lead and possibly partner with schools and other entities to move away from enrichment programs only, and discover solutions that will really produce people who are highly fluent in at least the Salish and English languages." Last year, Brown and others sought support from the tribal government to do just that, starting Nk(w)usm (One Fire) in Arlee for children ages 2 to 5. There is no requirement that parents or children be enrolled tribal members, only that parents maintain an active interest in the school, helping with school repairs, maintenance, fund-raising and the like, and that the children attend regularly. The tribal government encouraged the venture, providing $170,000 in funding last year, and $200,000 this year for staff and operations. The school recruited and hired fluent Salish speakers, mostly older tribal members, and supplemented them with younger folks, like Brown, who had academic training and teaching expertise. The school now has 17 students - seeds for the future of the Salish language, Brown and others hope. The Echoing Green grant will allow Brown to form a nonprofit group to expand and elaborate on the mission of the school, working in tandem with it, he said, to revive Salish as a spoken, used and useful language and as a tool for cultural revival. Brown said the formal structure of the nonprofit, tax-exempt Salish Language Perpetuation Project he will form with the $60,000 grant is a work in progress. But he foresees a collaboration between a variety of tribal and nontribal entities and individuals. The tribal government, especially the CSKT Education Department, is vital to its success, as is Salish Kootenai College, local public elementary and secondary schools and UM. It is not too late to revive Salish, he contends. Other aboriginal people - the Maori of New Zealand, for example, and the native cultures of Hawaii - have had success reviving languages within those societies, Brown said. "Language is the foundation of society and the fundamental key that connects generations through time. The Salish Language Perpetuation Project will ensure that our language and heritage do not become extinct," he said. Echoing Green warns fellowship recipients that entrepreneurship is fraught with risk, success is never guaranteed, and there may not be a steady job at the end of the rainbow. Brown has accepted the risks. "I want Salish to be the language of our community, the language of the heart of the Salish people," he said. Reporter John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jstromnes at missoulian.com Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 17:35:54 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 09:35:54 -0800 Subject: Americas Message-ID: MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICAN PEN "CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION" Dear PEN Colleagues: The "Americas" Congress, which will take place in Mexico City from November 22- 28, 2003, is the first World Congress of Writers of the new millennium to be held on the American Continent. The Congress theme, "Cultural Diversity and Freedom of Expression", gives us the opportunity to work on two essential aspects of PEN's core mission. The first is respect for the human rights of those whose medium is the word, and, in particular, the written word, deployed either in creative writing or through daily narratives and testimonies. The second is respect for sovereignty and cultural diversity, which is so essential in the face of the increasingly antidemocratic tendencies that threaten to dominate the world. The trend towards economic globalization challenges us to avoid cultural homogenization and safeguard diverse ways of life and languages, many of which, as with minority indigenous languages, are already in danger of disappearing. Mexico was selected as the site for this Congress because it is a country where different cultures have cohabitated and coexisted. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Mexican philosopher Jos? Vasconcelos imagined the existence of the Cosmic race, a product of the crossbreeding of all peoples. It now seems that new communication technologies have outrun us so that the ideal of a completely mixed-race humanity living in equality, free from the intolerances that often lead to war and conflict, has been replaced by a "globalized humanity" whose characteristics are social injustice and cultural homogeneity. Near the end of the 20th Century, we realized that perhaps the main cause for the economic and spiritual underdevelopment of many nations has been the lack of respect for the cultural and economic rights of the individual. That is why, through this Congress, we wish to call attention to the fact that human development cannot be achieved as long as we continue to push cultural, educational and economic rights into oblivion, and that it is urgent and necessary to view these as civil and political rights. Through this Congress, we are attempting to call upon humanity to reflect on its values and its visions as they are expressed, in their highest form, in written and spoken language. The loss of this cultural treasure would impoverish us and deny us the opportunity to use our knowledge of our past in order to shape not only one unique future, but the newest and best futures possible. The 69th PEN International Congress- World Congress of Writers 2003, seeks to show the world that tolerance and respect can only survive through the free expression of diversity. Mar?a Elena Ruiz Cruz President, Mexican PEN -- There's nothing like the old songs, but what's the good if you can't remember them. Mem. Mem. Memory. William H. Gass http://www.kirogi.demon.nl/index.htm http://www.lucashusgen.net/index.html -- Andr? Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Nov 25 17:47:19 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:47:19 -0700 Subject: FEL Call for Proposals for 2004 (fwd) Message-ID: The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for projects of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation, protection or promotion of one or more endangered languages. Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in endangered language communities who may not have access to Ogmios, the Internet or e-mail. Form for Submissions There is a form that defines the content of appropriate proposals, which is accessible at the Foundation's website: http://www.ogmios.org It may also be obtained from me at the address below. All proposals must be submitted in this form, to ensure comparability. Deadline The time-limit for proposals in the current round will be 18 January 2004. By that date, proposals and supporting testimonials must reach me at the address below. The FEL Committee will announce its decision before the 31st of March 2003. Here are four points to note especially, the first two of them new this year. 1. The form now contains a new question, enquiring on the potential for further work, after completion of a first grant. This material will serve both to support the current application in the selection process, and also to provide the Foundation with arguments in their quest for further funds to supplement existing projects in the future. 2. Where possible, work undertaken within endangered language communities themselves will be preferred in the selection. FEL is prepared to comment on draft proposals from communities or community linguists, and suggest weaknesses and potential remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft proposals - clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no later than 31 December 2003. 3. The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and it is not anticipated that - in the first instance - any award will be greater than US $1,000. Smaller proposals stand a better chance of funding. 4. The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF, the Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly possible (and has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be? partially funded by both FEL and ELF. -------------------------------------------------------------- Nicholas Ostler Foundation for Endangered Languages UK Registered Charity 1070616 http://www.ogmios.org Batheaston Villa, 172 Bailbrook Lane Bath BA1 7AA England +44-1225-85-2865 fax +44-1225-85-9258 nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2725 bytes Desc: not available URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Nov 25 18:04:08 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:04:08 -0700 Subject: Indigenous language book to keep culture alive (fwd) Message-ID: [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s996391.htm] Last Update: Tuesday, November 25, 2003. 10:00am (AEDT) Indigenous language book to keep culture alive A new book is helping young Indigenous children learn some of the languages that will help maintain ties with their culture into adulthood. Indigenous Children's Services Unit project development officer, Andrew Burns, says the book, Language - Our Right, Our Identity, is being used in more than 120 Indigenous child care services in Queensland. Mr Burns says the approach helps young Indigenous children become truly bi-lingual and move easily between their traditional language and English. "What we're actually looking at is trying to implement Indigenous languages into the early childcare curriculum, the reason being it's a lot easier for a child to learn certain concepts within their home or native language than it is to learn English, because it is a well-known and proven fact that English, within itself, is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn." ? 2003 Australian Broadcasting Corporation -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1546 bytes Desc: not available URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 21:08:42 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:08:42 -0800 Subject: New Book Message-ID: sorry could not find the isbn number or a publisher but did run across the attached article Julia Sallabank wrote: > Dear Andre > > Do you have any more details of the book, such as publisher and ISBN number, > so that interested people can get hold of it? > > Many thanks > > Julia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Andre Cramblit" > To: > Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 6:26 PM > Subject: New Book > > > Indigenous language book to keep culture alive > > > > A new book is helping young Indigenous children learn some of the > languages > > that will help maintain ties with their culture into > > adulthood. > > > > Indigenous Children's Services Unit project development officer, Andrew > > Burns, says the book, Language - Our Right, Our > > Identity, is being used in more than 120 Indigenous child care services in > > Queensland. > > > > Mr Burns says the approach helps young Indigenous children become truly > > bi-lingual and move easily between their traditional > > language and English. > > > > "What we're actually looking at is trying to implement Indigenous > languages > > into the early childcare curriculum, the reason being > > it's a lot easier for a child to learn certain concepts within their home > > or native language than it is to learn English, because it is a > > well-known and proven fact that English, within itself, is one of the > > hardest languages in the world to learn." -- Andr? Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ntsub2.doc Type: application/msword Size: 145920 bytes Desc: Unknown Document URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 21:26:55 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:26:55 -0800 Subject: Maintaining language Message-ID: Maintaining and Renewing Native Languages Jon Reyhner Northern Arizona University Edward Tennant Educational Research Associates Abstract This article reviews research on maintaining and renewing American Indian languages. A rationale is given for the importance of maintaining tribal languages in terms of Native students' cross-cultural understanding. Then Joshua Fishman's theoretical paradigm for reversing language shift is summarized and tribal and national language policies are reviewed. Early childhood, elementary, secondary, and tribal college native language efforts are described along with Navajo and Yup'ik examples of school-based native-language maintenance/renewal efforts. Based on the research of tribal native-language renewal efforts and current research on second language teaching, specific suggestions are given for maintaining and renewing native languages. In 1992 Dr. Michael Krauss, President of the Society for the study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and Director of the Alaska Native Language Center, testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. In his testimony, he estimated that in 1492 here were 300 or more native languages spoken in North America and that 190 of these 300 plus languages are still spoken or remembered by native North Americans. However, of the 155 of these 190 languages in the United States only about 20 are still spoken by people of all ages and thus fully vital. Even these few languages, including Navajo and Crow, are threatened as fewer and fewer children are learning them in the home. Many non-Indians and some Indians see no tragedy in the loss of these languages, but as this country becomes more and more dominated by concern about crime and the breakdown of traditional families, many Indians and some non-Indians see the perpetuation of native languages as vital to their cultural integrity. The reason for this is, that in addition to speech, each language carries with it an unspoken network of cultural values. Although these values generally operate on a subliminal level, they are, nonetheless, a major force in the shaping of each person's self-awareness, identity, and interpersonal relationships (Scollon & Scollon, 1981). These values are psychological imperatives that help generate and maintain an individual's level of comfort and self-assurance, and, consequently, success in life. In the normal course of events these values are absorbed along with one's mother tongue in the first years of life. For that reason, cultural values and mother tongue are so closely intertwined in public consciousness that they are often, but mistakenly, seen as inseparable. For the majority of young Natives today, culture and language have, in fact, been separated. As a result, most of these young people are trying "to walk in two worlds" with only one language. This is a far more complex and stressful undertaking than the "two worlds" metaphor would suggest (Henze & Vanett, 1993). Across two cultures the preferred etiquette for behaving or communicating in a particular situation may be starkly different. Using the same language across the two cultures often poses a challenge to both sense and sensitivity (Platt, 1989). Giving young Natives the opportunity to keep or learn their tribal language offers them a strong antidote to the culture clash many of them are experiencing but cannot verbalize. If along with the language, they learn to recognize the hidden network of cultural values that permeates the language, they will add to the knowledge and skills required to "walk in two worlds." They will learn to recognize and cope with cross-cultural values that are often at odds with each other, and they will begin to adopt more comfortably the cultural value that is appropriate for a particular cultural situation (Tennant, 1993). The revival and preservation of minority languages is not a hopeless cause. Successful efforts towards indigenous language renewal and maintenance are to be found around the world. Examples are to be found in the revival of Hebrew in Israel, French in Quebec, and Catalan in Spain (Fishman, 1991). Even in the United States with its emphasis on conformity, small groups such as the Hutterites and Hasidic Jews have been able to maintain their languages and cultures. In this article we will bring to bear experience from both international and local tribal efforts to describe "what works" in language renewal efforts. It should be noted that in seeking to preserve their cultural heritage, tribes are not rejecting the importance of English-language instruction for their children. Littlebear, a Northern Cheyenne advocate for bilingual education, sees "our native languages nurturing our spirits and hearts and the English language as sustenance for our bodies" (1990, p. 8). In addition, the results of the latest U.S. Department of Education study of bilingual education programs show that native-language use in schools does not hurt children (Ramirez, 1992). Such research tends to use English-language standardized test scores as a measure of success. If such research also focused on objectives such as strengthening American Indian families, there can be little doubt that bilingual programs utilizing and developing native-language fluency produce superior results. This is supported by the findings in the Department of Education study that parents were most satisfied with having their students learn both English and their home language and wanted their children to stay in bilingual programs longer (Ramirez, 1992). Joshua Fishman's Theoretical Paradigm Joshua Fishman (1991), a world renown expert on sociolinguistics, sees minority-language maintenance embedded in a more general attempt to maintain traditional cultures. He asks minority-language activists to "view local cultures (all local cultures, not only their own) as things of beauty, as encapsulations of human values which deserve to be fostered and assisted (not merely 'preserved' in a mummified sense)" (p. 33). Fishman works from three value positions: 1) The maintenance and renewal of native languages can be voluntary 2) "'Minority rights' need not interfere with 'majority rights,'" and 3) "Bilingualism is a benefit for all" (pp. 82-84). Fishman postulates a continuum of eight stages of language loss with stage eight being the closest to total extinction and stage one being the closest to dynamic survival. Partly as a result of years of concerted U.S. government language suppression, many American Indian tribes, such as the Salish and Kootenai in Montana, are in Fishman's eighth stage where only a few elders still speak the tribal languages. The languages of these tribes are on the verge of extinction. Other tribes are in stage seven where only adults beyond child-bearing age still speak the tribal language. In stage six, there is still some intergenerational use of languages in the homes. In stage five the language is still very alive and used in minority communities, and even on a voluntary basis in schools. According to Fishman, "Stages 8 to 5 constitute the minimum context for reviving native languages. Language revitalization efforts at these stages can be done inexpensively and do not need the cooperation of the dominant group. Stages four through one deal with giving the minority language a legal status, including minority-language use in schools, the workplace, and in government. Efforts to bring about such legal changes can evoke reactions from the majority population such as those of the "English-Only" movement (Crawford, 1992). In stage four, the minority language is required in elementary schools (here it is important to have it as a language of instruction rather than as a second language to be learned). In stage three, it is used among employees (but not by supervisors). In stage two, government offices use the language. Finally in stage one, higher levels of government use the language. Fishman shows through studies of various minority-language efforts worldwide how successful efforts to restore minority languages move the language from higher number stages to lower numbered stages with the most critical move being from stage five to four. Fishman notes how the emphasis on individual rights in modern western democracies detracts from the recognition of minority group rights. He maintains that, The denial of cultural rights to minorities is as disruptive of the moral fabric of mainstream society as is the denial of civil rights. Civil rights, however, are focused on the individual, while cultural rights must focus on ethnocultural groups. Such groups have no recognized legal standing in many Western democracies where both establishment capitalist thought and anti-establishment Marxist thought prophesies [sic] the eclipse of culturally distinct formations and the arrival of a uniformized, all-inclusive 'modern proletarian' culture. (p. 70) He defends the need to recognize "cultural democracy" as a part of general democracy and to see efforts to preserve and restore minority languages as societal reform efforts that can lead to the appreciation of the beauty and distinctiveness of other cultures as well as one's own. He also emphasizes that efforts to restore minority languages should be "facilitating and enabling" rather than "compulsory and punitive." Bilingualism should be viewed as life enriching and a bridge to other cultures. Fishman's position is echoed in smaller studies such as Colin Baker's (1988) review of compulsory and voluntary efforts to revive Celtic languages in the British Isles. Important factors Fishman finds in successful efforts to maintain minority languages include the need for sacrifice, self-help, self-regulation, and the establishment of boundaries for language use. He logically locates the key to minority-language preservation in the intergenerational transmission of the language in the home by families, not in government policies and laws. This thought is reinforced by Littlebear (1990) who emphasizes the importance of family involvement in these efforts. Fishman writes "The road to societal death is paved by language activity that is not focused on intergenerational continuity" (p. 91). He cautions against putting too much effort and reliance on native-language media, schools, and governmental efforts. Policies, such as those embodied in the Native American Language Act of 1990, and native-language radio stations can make a friendlier environment for minority languages, but they are no substitute for grass roots efforts focused on use of the language in homes. Outside of homes, minority-language use in early childhood centers, such as the Maori and Hawaiian language nests (described later in this paper), and in pre- and post-natal programs for young mothers is important. In the community, minority-language use can also take place in cooperative markets, employment centers, recreational centers, legal aid services, credit unions, and so forth. Fishman also points out the need for teachers who teach subject matter in the home language and who are tolerant and accepting of different dialects. Fishman asserts "it doesn't pay to force a written standard, much less a spoken one, on an adamantly unwilling or seriously ailing speech community" (p. 345). Lastly, social boundaries must be developed that give minority languages an exclusive role in traditional family and community social activities. Fishman's central issue of the book as we see it is the same one brought up by Lilly Wong Fillmore in her article "When Learning a Second Language Means Losing the First" in the September 1991 issue of Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She expresses a deep concern that an English-language emphasis in early childhood education will separate language-minority children from their parents. This separation leads to family breakdown (specifically parent-child communication problems) and identity problems for these students as they reach their trouble-filled teenage years. That breakdown has had disastrous consequences for American Indians who, for example, die from alcohol related causes at a rate 4.3 times the national average (Indian Health Service, 1990). These tragic social costs have been recognized by Republicans and Democrats alike in the family values debate during the 1992 presidential campaign and by all Americans in our concern about what is happening to our nation's youth. Tribal, National, and International Policies In recognition of the positive values it embodies, native-language renewal has received support through policies, legislation, and pronouncements at the tribal, national, and international levels. In the last few years tribal governments have been acting to protect and preserve their languages. One of the first of these was the Northern Ute Tribe whose Tribal Business Committee passed resolution 84-96 in 1984 declaring, the Ute language is a living and vital language that has the ability to match any other in the world for expressiveness and beauty. Our language is capable of lexical expansion into modern conceptual fields such as the field of politics, economics, mathematics and science. Be it known that the Ute language shall be recognized as our first language, and the English language will be recognized as our second language. We assert that our students are fully capable of developing fluency in our mother tongue and the foreign English language and we further assert that a higher level of Ute mastery results in higher levels of English skills. (Northern Ute, 1985, p. 16) The resolution also requires Ute language instruction from preschool through twelfth grade, encourages "pre-service training in Ute language theory and methodology for teachers," and requires three credits of inservice training in Ute language for teachers within one year of employment (Northern Ute, 1985, pp. 16-18). Another tribal language policy passed by the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council in 1984 holds that "Our ancient language is the foundation of our cultural and spiritual heritage" and declares that "all aspects of the educational process shall reflect the beauty of our Yaqui language, culture and values" (Pascua, 1984, p. 1). The same year the Navajo, living on the nation's largest reservation, passed an education code that recognized the importance of the Navajo language (Navajo, 1985). Although tribal policy and support are critical factors in language maintenance or renewal, they cannot of themselves without comprehensive planning and broad cooperation ensure that a formal language program will be successful. In 1974 the Coeur d'Alene tribe in Idaho commissioned the development of a modern writing system, language course, and dictionary for their language. These were completed the following year (Nicodemus, 1975). Today, twenty years later, the interest in the language remains strong. However, because there was no comprehensive program of implementation and because there are now so few adult speakers of the language, the renewal effort has been limited to elementary school children learning just a few words here and there. The Pawnee Tribe in Oklahoma developed a similar language-teaching program in 1979 (McNiel & Tennant). Of the eleven speakers of Pawnee who contributed to the course, only one is alive today and the tribal office estimates that there are only five to ten speakers of the language still living. Occasional courses in Pawnee are offered by the tribal library. The number of attendees at the 1994 course ranged from 10-15. One participant noted that in spite of strong motivation it is difficult to learn even simple conversation "because there really is no one to talk to." Although it is theoretically possible for an individual to learn a nearly extinct language through private effort with the help of a well planned, systematic approach (see Hinton,1990/91), the number of people with the level of motivation and persistence needed to succeed in such an effort remains small. At the national level, native-language maintenance received support from the passage of the Native American Languages Act, Title I of Public Law 101-477, in 1990. Congress noted in this Act that "the status of the cultures and languages of Native Americans is unique and the United States has the responsibility to act together with Native Americans to ensure the survival of these unique cultures and languages." The Act makes it the policy of the United States to "preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native American languages" and recognized "the right of Indian tribes and other Native American governing bodies to use the Native American languages as a medium of instruction in all schools funded by the Secretary of the Interior." Furthermore, the Act declares that "the right of Native Americans to express themselves through the use of Native American languages shall not be restricted in any public proceeding, including publicly supported education programs." In addition, the final report of the U.S. Secretary of Education's Indian Nations at Risk Task Force in 1991 set as one of its ten national goals the maintenance of native languages and cultures. The Task Force gathered testimony at seven regional public hearings and at the annual conference of the National Indian Education Association, made 30 school site visits, and commissioned 21 papers from national experts on American Indian/Alaska Native education on subjects such as current conditions, funding, dropout prevention, curriculum, and other relevant areas of concern (see Cahape & Howley, 1992). In the transmittal letter accompanying the Final Report, the Task Force's co-chairs, former Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell and former Alaska Commissioner of Education William G. Demmert, Jr., wrote: The Task Force believes that a well-educated American Indian and Alaska Native citizenry and a renewal of the language and cultural base of the American Native community will strengthen self-determination and economic well-being and will allow the Native community to contribute to building a stronger nation--an America that can compete with other nations and contribute to the world's economies and cultures. (Indian Nations at Risk Task Force, 1991, p. iv) The Task Force found that "schools that respect and support a student's language and culture are significantly more successful in educating those students" (p. 16). Overall, their final report gives strong support for linguistically and culturally appropriate education for American Indian and Alaska Native students and echoes the Native American Languages Act in calling for the maintenance and renewal of native languages and cultures. The experience Canada has had with Indian reserves, residential schools, and assimilationist policies parallels recent U.S. experience. Public hearings held in 1992 by the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples brought forth concerns similar to those of U.S. Natives. There was a call for more aboriginal control of education; more aboriginal teachers; more native language, culture and history in schools; and for cross-cultural training and education programs (Royal Commission, 1992). Worldwide, the survival of indigenous peoples and their cultures is a resurgent and compelling political issue. The breakup of the Soviet Union is one example of the strong claims minorities make for self-determination. Elsewhere, Kurds, Basques, and other indigenous groups demand independence. The continued poverty and social problems of these minority groups are linked to their political disempowerment and minority status. Minority children everywhere are filled with the idea through mass media and schools that the dominant culture reflects the way things ought to be. But their elders remind native children of the reality that they are not and can never be white. The United Nations recognized both the predicament and aspirations of indigenous minorities by declaring 1993 the International Year for the World's Indigenous People. The current policy of Indian self-determination in the United States, while not perfect, approaches the ideal of freedom and cultural democracy envisioned in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Making Policies Reality The rhetoric from tribal, national, and international levels is great, but drawing from the Irish and other international experiences, American Indian tribal governments should be wary of tribal language requirements in schools without first establishing local parental support for such requirements. The grass-roots support for the Native American Languages Act in the United States is matched by the grass-roots support of Celtic languages in Great Britain and Ireland, but that support does not necessarily translate into support for compulsory native-language instruction. The Navajos ran into this problem with their 1984 policies. At the White House Conference on Indian Education in 1992, Navajo president Peterson Zah noted, We took it to the Tribal Council, promulgated new rules, and announced a new law. The wishes of the Navajo people were finally put into writing, a statement of principle that we can all support. However, the different kinds of schools that we had on the reservation didn't necessarily buy what the Navajo Nation government wanted the local school districts to do because those local districts had their allegiance to the state. They had their allegiance to the federal government. So, we now have a situation where we have a policy that is not in force. (1992, p. 397). There is an urgent need for developing a comprehensive plan and broad community support, including that of local schools, before the base of spoken language becomes irretrievably lost. To assist in such a comprehensive effort, Brandt and Ayoungman (1989) offer a highly detailed but locally adaptable set of "Exercises for Language Planning" in an Appendix to their "practical guide" for language renewal and maintenance. The exercises include twelve activities that allow local communities to become immersed in the language renewal process: (1) dispelling myths about language learning and bilingualism; (2) identifying the values underlying the language; (3) recognizing beliefs associated with language use and bilingualism; (4) articulating the future desired by the community; (5) setting goals based on the desired future; (6) examining current community practices as they relate to the chosen goals; (7) establishing an information network to promote the goals; (8) recruiting individuals and groups to achieve the goals; (9) determining the key factors regarding language loss, maintenance, or renewal; (10) focusing on the unique functions of the local language; (11) developing language and educational policies; and, finally, (12) implementing a practical, comprehensive plan. The Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs (OBEMLA) Roundtable on stabilizing indigenous languages that was held in November, 1994, in Flagstaff, Arizona, is a step towards helping tribes develop comprehensive plans for tribal language maintenance and renewal. The conference discussed rationale, policy, planning, research, community issues, and K-Adult education. In the following sections we outline additional approaches that experience has shown can help turn the rhetoric of native-language renewal into actual programs in and out of school that will impact the lives of children. Early Childhood Programs As Fishman (1991) indicates, everything points to the need to focus efforts on getting parents and young children involved in native-language renewal. The intergenerational transmission of native languages in the home is the key to native-language survival. To the extent that there is a genetic predisposition to language, which may well include personal or cultural traits (shyness, for example), this predisposition can be strengthened both pre- and post-natally, primarily by the mother talking and singing often to the child in the native language, by exposing the child pre- and post-natally to frequent conversations held with others in the native language, and by participating as often as possible in community gatherings where the child can experience ethnic activities. Language nests can offer strong support to families in the effort to preserve native languages. Language nests were developed by the Maori of New Zealand to help preserve their culture and language. They are community-based day-care centers staffed with Maori elders who speak to the children in the Maori language. Language nests preserve the Maori language that was dying out, provide a valuable service to working parents, and, most importantly, strengthen the cultural values associated with the traditional Maori extended family (Fleras, 1989). Starting in 1982, Maori grandparents volunteered to run day-care centers featuring an immersion program in the Maori language. With grassroots support these "nests" expanded rapidly till in 1988 there were 521 centers with 8,000 children, 15% of the Maoris under 5 years old. In an informal, extended-family, childcare setting, Maori preschoolers are saturated with Maori language and culture (Fleres, 1989). Language renewal among adults is also being carried on in New Zealand through the use of week-long immersion classes at Maori cultural centers (Nicholson, 1990). With university help, language nests are also being successfully pioneered in Hawaii with native Hawaiian children (Wilson, 1991). These programs link together elders and children, strengthen family values, and develop language skills. More consideration needs to be given to the strengths of the "language nest" approach in planning United States early childhood education programs. If we follow the advice of former secretary of education William Bennett (1987), to teach English to language-minority children "as quickly as possible," and by implication the culture that goes with the English language, we will further break down the American Indian cultures and family structures. Elementary and Secondary Education Schools can build on the native-language skills that native families and language nests develop in children. An example of a school that is maintaining an Indian language is Rock Point Community School in Arizona. At Rock Point, reading and writing are taught first in Navajo. In kindergarten, two-thirds of the instruction is in Navajo with the rest of the time spent teaching students oral English. In grades 1-3, half the instruction is in English and half in Navajo. In the upper grades about one-fourth of the instruction is in Navajo with the rest in English. By teaching content-area subjects in the early grades in Navajo, Rock Point students are not held back in those subjects until they learn English. In the secondary school both 7th and 8th-grade students have a full year of Navajo studies in Navajo plus a quarter of Navajo writing. In grades 9-12 students have a half year of Navajo studies in Navajo plus a quarter of Navajo writing each year (Reyhner, 1990). Teachers at Rock Point have had to personally produce much of the material they use to teach in Navajo. A Title VII (bilingual education) funded Junior Research Program (JRP) in the elementary school and a Title V (Indian education) funded Applied Literacy Program (ALP) in the secondary school develop literacy skills in Navajo and English. Students write for newspapers and booklets that then become reading material for other students. In ALP students take Navajo writing, English writing, computer skills, and performance (speech and drama). Each quarter, an award-winning, bilingual school newspaper is produced. Hands-on instructional approaches are used because they lend themselves to adaptation by teachers for Navajo language instruction more readily than exclusively textbook approaches. McLaughlin (1990) in a study of literacy on the Navajo Reservation found that three out of four of the community members questioned, reported reading Navajo language articles in a school newspaper. The Navajo language is used as the language of instruction in the high-school Navajo social-studies classes. In addition to teaching tribal history, geography, and government, time is also spent on Navajo clanship where students learn how they are related to other Navajos and the duties they owe to their clan relatives. Thus, through the school's curriculum, community and family cohesiveness is reinforced. One of the important factors in the success of the Rock Point Community School curriculum is that students are encouraged and required to talk and write a lot in both Navajo and English. Besides Navajo, the only other native language that is still used extensively over a wide area in the United States is Central Yup'ik Eskimo in Alaska. Some 22 widely scattered villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta are served by the Lower Kuskokwim School District with offices in the city of Bethel. Bethel has 4000 inhabitants; the villages average 500 inhabitants. The language dominance of children entering school in these villages ranges from Yup'ik-only to English-only, with some of the villages in various stages of language transition. Yup'ik is taught in all 22 village schools as well as the three schools in Bethel. Three different programs have been developed to respond to the children's broad-spectrum language needs. Four villages where the children are English-dominant teach Yup'ik for one period a day (Yup'ik as a Second Language Model). Four other villages, although Yup'ik-dominant, have adopted an all-English curriculum with Yup'ik used for half to one period a day (Bilingual/Bicultural Model). The remaining 14 Yup'ik-dominant villages provide all subject-matter instruction for Grades K-2 in Yup'ik, while English instruction increases from 30 minutes a day in kindergarten to 90 minutes a day in Grade 2. Although English becomes the main language of instruction from Grade 3 on, instruction in Yup'ik is continued for one period a day (Yup'ik as a First Language Model) The Yup'ik as a First Language Model is essentially the Primary Eskimo Program that was developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the early 1970s when the village schools were run by the BIA. By 1979, at the end of a five-year study, the program evaluators concluded that "this bilingual program has demonstrated a level of effectiveness beyond most expectations and beyond the proven levels of achievement for the majority of bilingual programs of its type in the country (Tennant, 1979, p. 49). Although the program has weakened somewhat over the years owing to a high rate of teacher turnover in rural Alaska and the lack of intensive training that is required to maintain such a complex program, a comprehensive evaluation of the program in 1990 concluded that "the bilingual program of the Lower Kuskokwim School District, and its predecessor, the BIA Primary Eskimo Program, have already made great progress toward achieving equity and excellence in Yup'ik and English education (Henze et al., 1990, p.82). Unfortunately, beyond the few examples given above, there is little to give hope that American Indian communities and their languages will not continue to lose ground as reservations become less and less isolated from the dominant culture particularly through the introduction of television to even the most remote areas. The Maori, Rock Point, and Yup'ik successes indicate that the native-language-maintenance programs need to be given more attention by American Indian tribal governments and educators as a possible way to help implement the spirit of the Native American Languages Act. College Efforts The tribal college movement began in 1968 with the founding of Navajo Community College. Since then this movement has grown till in 1994 the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) listed 31 members. Lionel Bordeaux, a long time tribal college president and one of the leaders of the tribal college movement noted that "cultural preservation is really the foundation of the tribal colleges" (1991, p. 12). Courses in tribal languages are a mainstay of tribal college curriculums. Recently, Sinte Gleska University and Oglala Lakota College started four-year teacher-education programs, and now Navajo Community College and Haskell Indian Junior College are developing four-year teacher-education programs. Except for Haskell, an intertribal college, tribal language and culture requirements are integral to these teacher education programs. In contrast to the old assimilationist approaches to Indian education, tribal colleges are formulating a multicultural/ecological educational approach. Oglala Lakota College's "Philosophical base of the teacher education program" states: We believe that by learning a second way of life, without forsaking reverence due to one's primary group, personal understanding between individuals and cross-cultural understanding between groups will be enhanced. This approach to life needs to be integrated into all areas of education that affect Indian students on and near the reservation. (Oglala Lakota College, p. 1) On the Rosebud Reservation a Tribal Education Code was enacted in 1991 to get culturally appropriate instruction for Lakota children (Knowles, Gill, Beauvais, & Medearis, 1992). The Vice President of Navajo Community college told a group of teachers in 1992, We are developing the teacher education program within the natural education processes of the culture, and we wish to be respected as we observe the critical issues and power dealing with this type of development. . . . We believe that the knowledge of Navajo culture, language and S'a' ah Naagh'ai Bik'eh Hozh'o'on is necessary for anyone involved in the Teacher Education Program. We are attempting to set this development programmatically within our knowledge system so that it addresses real issues facing real people through a living curriculum and pedagogy. . . . Our traditional cultural roots are now being nourished and nurtured into full growth of amplifying our philosophy, S'a ah Naagh'aa'i Bik'eh H'ozh'o'on through comprehensive curriculum and pedagogical transformation. (Lewis, 1992, pp. 1-2) Classroom Suggestions Brandt and Ayoungman give practical advice on renewing aboriginal languages in their 1989 special theme issue, "Language is a Gift from the Creator," of the Canadian Journal of Native Education, which focuses on language renewal. They warn parents and educators not to "'teach' their children ?Indian? by giving them isolated words such as the names of foods, colors, or numbers." Instead they recommend that family members simply talk to their children all the time in the language . . . using the normal strategies of talking to children, asking them questions, telling them what to say in natural functional situations, such as 'Ask your grandma to give you some food,' or expanding their productions. (1989, 45) Hinton (1990/91) emphasizes the amount of time that adults wanting to learn their ancestral language must spend and the need adults have to overcome inhibitions about making mistakes and playing with language. She also emphasizes that one need not study the grammar of an Indian language to learn it and that immersion rather translation is the best way to learn an Indian language. Teachers seeking ideas on how to restore native languages or to teach English as a Second Language would do well to study Krashen and Terrell's (1983) "Natural Approach" to language acquisition because the translation approaches used in the past have shown little success. In addition, the ideas in the second edition of John Oller, Jr's. Methods That Work (1993) are excellent. Oller's edited book includes chapters by Krashen and other leaders in the field of language education. The "Natural Approach" incorporates language-teaching principles that have proven successful in other methodologies as well. Lozanov's Suggestopedic Approach to language learning, for example, has gained worldwide attention for both its success and its novel departure from the cognitive emphasis in most classrooms (Lozanov, 1978; Lozanov & Gateva, 1988; Stevick, 1980, pp. 229-259). The Berlitz "Method," with its demonstrated commercial success on an international scale, is another proven approach to language teaching. The "Method" used to teach any of the languages offered by Berlitz schools is not published but is taught privately to the instructors who will teach students one on one or in small groups. So effective is the Method that the only other prerequisites to becoming a Berlitz teacher are (1) the language to be taught must be the teacher's mother tongue, and (2) the teacher must have completed an elementary school education in that mother tongue. The Method is based on a cycle of statements and questions that always rotate around three objects, statements, or situations. The real or realistic content of the questions keeps the student(s) focused, and the use of three distinct contexts keeps the student(s) from parroting responses. The learning cycle begins with three statements that in the beginning may focus on three simple, real objects: paper, pencil, book. The questioning then rotates from negative to positive responses and then back to statements (Pencil? No. Book? No. Paper? Yes.). In short order, the cycle of statements and questions becomes quite complex (Is Mr. Berlitz going to London? No. Mr. Berlitz is not going to London. Is Mr. Berlitz going to Paris? No. Mr. Berlitz is not going to Paris. Where is Mr. Berlitz going? Mr. Berlitz is going to Rome. . . . Is Mrs. Berlitz going to Rome? No. . . . Is Miss Berlitz going to London? and so forth). In a Berlitz language lesson, consequently, the teacher models the target language half the time by asking questions and the student(s) spend the other half of the class time answering the questions in the target language. For the first 30 lessons, students rely totally on oral instruction by modeling the teacher's pronunciation of the target language. Although Berlitz language classes are intense, partly because they are expensive, they teach language well and they teach it fast. The intensity of the Berlitz Method perhaps cannot be maintained in educational settings with large numbers of students, but many of the valuable principles that make the Method work can be built into any effective language-teaching program. The use in classrooms of cooperative-learning techniques where the students question each other is another way of increasing the amount of time students speak the target language. In mixed classrooms where different students are fluent in different languages, this peer tutoring could be very effective. Although they may motivate students differently, the Krashen, Lozanov, and Berlitz approaches to language teaching incorporate five principles that need to be addressed, with varying degrees of emphasis, in any language-teaching program: 1. Putting primary emphasis on communication, not grammar 2. Using context that is real or at least realistic 3. Processing content of high interest to the learner 4. Adjusting the pace of instruction to the students' progress -moving from simple to complex (generally speaking) -emphasizing speaking over speaking correctly -putting comprehension before completion 5. Correcting students through modeling Since learning styles vary across cultures and even between individuals within those cultures, it would be simplistic to conclude that any one method "fits all." But all three approaches mentioned above have been proven to be widely successful in their own contexts and with their own emphases. Consequently, familiarity with the principles that have made these approaches successful will increase the likelihood of maintaining and renewing native languages. By not focusing on grammar or vocabulary, such as conjugating verbs or memorizing the names of numbers, colors, and animals, students acquire language skills they can use immediately. The timely, positive feedback that students gain from early, successful use of the new language boosts their desire to learn. The judicious teaching of grammar, however, can be helpful. The contributors to Ronald M. Barasch and C. Vaughn James's book Beyond the Monitor Model (1994) note, examining especially European sources, that what is good teaching in the Natural Approach is not new with Krashen, and they comment on what Waldemar Marton refers to as the "anti-pedagogical" aspects of Krashen's theories. Like the Whole Language Approach, Krashen talks more about creating an "acquisition" environment rather than specific teaching strategies. Wilga Rivers recommends a more "interactive approach" where, besides providing comprehensible input in a low anxiety environment, teachers also correct grammar based on the level of the students understanding. As Ian Dunlop, another contributor, puts it, "explanations of grammar help as long as those explanations are understandable, do explain and do not confuse, and are at the linguistic level of the student" (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 217). Without that explanation there is evidence that students' errors will "fossilize" with the result that while they will be able to get by in the language they will never achieve near-native fluency. As stated by Carlos Yorio, "What the immersion program evidence shows is that in the best of all possible acquisition-oriented classroom situations, comprehensible input and full emphasis on meaning result in fluency but not in accuracy." (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 132). There is some evidence of this from the Canadian French immersion classrooms. Teresa Pica, Richard Young, and Catherine Doughty also note the importance of interaction plus "redundancy in input" in second language instruction. Pica notes that "a number of studies have shown that a priori adjustments to input in the form of paraphrase and repetition of linguistic constituents, simpler syntax, and commonly used words have a facilitating effect on L2 comprehension of texts or lecturettes [mini-lessons], compared to their unadjusted counterparts" (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 183). She also states that students need more "opportunities to initiate interaction, seek clarification [ask questions], or signal for help with comprehension" (Barasch & James, 1994, p. 185). Peter af Trampe argues that some of Krashen's dislike of grammars results from their written-language bias. The last thing beginning language users can use is a complicated grammar produced by linguists, but they can use simplified oral-language-oriented grammar. We mentioned previously the parallels between Krashen's Natural Approach and the Whole Language Approach to literacy. They both downplay direct instruction in favor of providing a language rich environment that will motivate students. While this fits in with some of the recent research in cognitive psychology and the constructivist theory of learning, taken to the extreme it severely limits the role of teachers. Basically, teachers would only provide high-interest, low-anxiety, language-rich environments for students. The more conservative approach advocated by the contributors to Beyond the Monitor Model adds a valuable teaching function to this environment. Curriculum and Materials Development in the Schools Although the school alone cannot revive or maintain a language--that is primarily a prerogative of the family and the speech community--the school can be a force and a focal point for language maintenance or renewal. Since the school teaches subject matter in a well-planned, methodical, and regularly-scheduled way, it can strongly reinforce a community's efforts to promote native-language use. Furthermore, when a local language is taught alongside other formal school subjects, it takes on an importance equal to those other subjects. This message to the students may be subliminal, but it is, nonetheless, an important one. For a language to be taught effectively in the school, more than a methodology is needed. The way the language will be taught must be mapped out concretely in a curriculum or course of study. This curriculum, in turn, must be supported by appropriate materials. What specific curriculum and materials evolve for a particular program depends on a number of factors that must be reviewed, discussed and decided upon by the local community working with principals, teachers, and bilingual aides (see Brandt and Ayoungman's Exercises for Language Planning outlined earlier). This process can be accelerated with the help of a facilitator who has wide experience with many different kinds of native-language programs. From this careful planning, an ideal language-teaching model can emerge. This "showroom" model may never be driven off the dealer's lot, because there always seems to be some gap between the ideal and the affordable. Cost notwithstanding, however, it is still important to begin with the ideal program because this will allow the planning group to prioritize the scope of the program within whatever funding can be allotted to it. Very often supplemental federal funds can be gotten to help establish a language-teaching program. Here again, it is helpful for the committee to consult with someone who knows what funds are available and how to apply for them. For any effort to be successful, however, it cannot depend entirely on discretionary federal funding such as Title VII. A commitment of regular school-budget dollars must be made to achieve program permanence. Bilingual education, once implemented, does not need to be appreciably more expensive than monolingual education. It does, however, require that a substantial number of certified teachers need to be bilingual and have special training in teaching languages. One of the important decisions that often needs to be made in native-language programs is whether to focus solely on speaking skills or to include literacy. If we assume literacy to mean more than merely some written aid to learning the language itself, we consequently assume the need for a viable orthography, that is, a writing system designed with the user rather than the scholar in mind and based, at least for the most part, on the Roman alphabet that everyone learns in school. More even than a practical orthography, literacy assumes literature. Including literacy as a language-teaching goal, assumes a commitment to develop reading material for children and adults in the target language. Literacy is an admirable goal: it involves local speakers in developing written materials; it documents for future generations the language and the knowledge the language conveys; it provides the community with a sense of pride in their people and their language; and, at the same time, it gives the student a powerful language learning tool. An example of a successfully implemented language-maintenance program can be found on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait some 150 miles off the west coast of Alaska, but only 40 miles from the Siberian mainland. This large, windswept, treeless island is home to two Eskimo villages of about 600 people each: Gambell and Savoonga. Both villages have schools with grades K-12 run by the Bering Strait School District. The dominant language of the school-entry children in these two villages is Siberian Yupik (Note: Central Yup'iks use an apostrophe to indicate a glottal stop in the word "Yup'ik;" St. Lawrence Islanders do not). This is one of four Eskimo languages in Alaska and it is spoken only on this island and on the nearby coast of Siberia. In recent years the inhabitants of the island have begun to call their language St. Lawrence Island Yupik rather than Siberian Yupik. Because the children's first language is Yupik, every classroom K-8 has a Yupik-speaking aide. In addition to team teaching with the certified teacher, there was a long tradition that the aide in each classroom would teach 30-45 minutes a day in Yupik. Since there was no scope or sequence for the Yupik instruction, no teacher knew what any other teacher had taught. As a result, the children each year learned more than they ever wanted to know about a favorite cultural topic: seals. In order to improve the language-teaching program, the school district in 1983 sought the help of a consultant to work with the school staff. A needs assessment indicated that ideally the children should be taught in Yupik for the first few years in school, while they learned English as a second language gradually in a non-traumatic way. Ideally, they needed a program similar to the Yup'ik as a First Language model in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta. With only 300 students on the island, however, compared to 3000 in the Lower Kuskokwim School District, the ideal program gave way to fiscal reality. Consequently, the time frame for the language program remained the same: 30-45 minutes of instruction a day. With the help of an initial Title VII bilingual education grant, the school district developed a K-12 scope and sequence for the cultural content of the classes taught in Yupik, created a Yupik reading program, consolidated existing reading materials for the elementary level, and created three hard-cover volumes of local history and lore in both Yupik and English for high-school students. A current Title VII grant is allowing the local materials development center staff to develop five full-length readers in Yupik and English for use in grades 4-8. This program in the school is thus helping the community to maintain the language through a strong literacy program and helping to counteract the ever mounting influence of English-language television in nearly every home. Other Considerations While it is natural to go to tribal elders for help in learning and teaching tribal languages, it is really young parents who can create the home environment for the intergenerational transmission of tribal languages. In addition, when young people are recruited to become actively involved in native-language maintenance and renewal, there is an expectation that this interest can bear fruit for another half century, long after today's elders are gone. Using tribal elders and other native speakers to actually teach tribal language in schools has a history going back at least to the early seventies. This history indicates that while these acknowledged experts can teach language in an informal situation--at home, in early-child-care settings, and on field trips--teaching language in a school classroom is another thing altogether. Teaching to relatively large groups of children in classroom settings requires knowledge of how to motivate and keep discipline as well as the knowledge of second-language-teaching techniques of Krashen and others discussed above. Tribal members, however, often meet this advice with skepticism. Among Indians there is a history of suspicion of non-Indian, native-language efforts based on the history of native-language use by non-Indians. Missionaries learned the language and developed writing systems for the purpose of spreading Christianity, not preserving Indian languages. Anthropologists and linguists studied tribal languages for purely academic and professional reasons that had little or no benefit to Indian people. Government officials sometimes became interested in tribal languages so that they could be used to sell to the people unpopular government policies such as stock reduction on the Navajo reservation in the 1930s. Any outsiders seeking to offer advice or help to maintain native languages need to be aware that their efforts will not be met uncritically. What is needed is a partnership of what Watahomigie and Yamamoto (1987) have described as action linguists working with curriculum developers, tribal elders, tribal young adults, and teachers. Native language and cultural revival will not be accomplished by tribal officials and school administrators going to Washington to testify for various bills. In fact, their failure to "mind the store" back home can further discredit Indian education. What is needed is the aforementioned partnership with curriculum and language experts to develop high quality classroom teaching methods and materials. Otherwise, "native-language experts" and local certified teachers who speak the language who go into the classroom with high expectations put on them by the community will be struggling against odds that for most will be insurmountable. The result will be that students will learn neither native languages nor the three "Rs" well. Conclusion If community-based, native-language, early-childhood programs can be developed and linked to two-way or maintenance bilingual programs in public and BIA funded schools, there is hope that American Indian families can be strengthened and native languages can be revived and maintained while English-language skills are developed. Indian students need an environment both inside and outside of school where they can develop and use native and English-language skills. The home is an obvious place to use the native language, but some tribes have also started radio and television stations with native-language programming. While students need environments where they can use English in conversation, they need to be taught that it is not necessary to give up a tribal language for English. It is not only all right to be bilingual, but it is better than being monolingual. A shift in language education policy over the past quarter century has helped promote this message. The message has come at a critical juncture for the maintenance or renewal of many American Indian and Alaska native languages. Editor's Note: This article is an extension of a paper that was presented by Jon Reyhner (1993a) at Lake Superior State University's Native American Studies Conference in 1991 and was published in the proceedings of that conference the following year. The section on Fishman's work is adapted from Reyhner (1992), and the critique of Krashen's work is condensed from Reyhner (1993b). References Baker, C. 1988. Key issues in bilingualism and bilingual education. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters. Barasch, R.M., & James, C.V. 1994. Beyond the Monitor Model: Comments on Current Theory and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Bennett, William. 1987. Schools that work: Educating disadvantaged children. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office. Brandt, E. A., & Ayoungman, V. 1989. Language renewal and language maintenance: A practical guide. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 16(2), 42-77. Cahape, P., & Howley, C. B. 1992. Indian nations at risk: Listening to the people. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural and Small Schools. Crawford, James. 1992. Hold your tongue: Bilingualism and the politics of "English only." Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Fishman, Joshua A. 1991. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon, Avon, England: Multilingual Matters. Fleres, A. 1989. Te Kohanga Reo: A Maori language renewal program. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 16(2), 78-88. Henze R. C., & Vanett, L., 1993. To Walk in Two Worlds--Or More? Challenging a Common Metaphor of Native Education, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 24(2), 116-134. Henze, R. C., et al., 1990. An exploratory study of the effectiveness of the Lower Kuskokwim School District's bilingual program. Oakland, CA: ARC Associates, Inc. Hinton, L. 1990/91. How to learn your language. News from Native California, 5(1), 34-36. Indian Health Service. 1990. Trends in Indian Health 1990. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Indian Nations at Risk Task Force. 1991, October. Indian nations at risk: An educational strategy for action (Final report of the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. Knowles, T., Gill, J., Beauvais, A., & Medearis, C. 1992) Teacher education and the Rosebud Tribal Education Code. Tribal College, 4(2), 21-23. Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. 1983. The Natural Approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Hayward, CA: Alemany. Krauss, Michael. 1992. Statement of Mr. Michael Krauss, representing the Linguistic Society of America; president, Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; Director, Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. In Hearing before the Select Committee on Indian Affairs United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session on S. 2044 to assist Native Americans in assuring the survival and continuing vitality of their languages, June 18, 1992 (pp. 18-22). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. (Senate Hearing 102-809 on the Native American Languages Act of 1991). Leap, W. L. 1982. Roles for the linguist in Indian bilingual education. In R. St. Clair & W. Leap (Eds.), Language renewal among American Indian tribes: Issues, problems, and prospects. Rosslyn, VI: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Lewis, T. 1992. Speech presented on October 15, 1992 at the First Annual Symposium on Language , Culture and Education: Empowerment Through Partnership, Tuba City Public Schools, Tuba City, AZ. Littlebear, D. 1990. Keynote address: Effective language education practices and native language survival. In J. Reyhner (Ed.), Effective language education practices and native language survival (pp. 1-8). Choctaw, OK: Native American Language Issues. Lozanov, G. 1978. Suggestology and outlines of suggestopedy. New York: Gordon & Breach. Lozanov, G., & Gateva, E. 1988. Foreign language teachers suggesopedic manual. New York: Gordon & Breach. McLaughlin, B. 1987. Theories of second-language learning. New York: Edward Arnold. McLaughlin, D. 1990. The sociolinguistics of Navajo literacy. Journal of Navajo Education, 7(2), 28-36. McNiel, D. & Tennant, E., eds. 1979. Par? Pakur?: An introduction to spoken Pawnee. Pawnee, OK: The Pawnee Tribal Business Council. Navajo Division of Education. 1985. Navajo Nation: Educational policies. Window Rock, AZ: Navajo Division of Education. Nicholson, R. 1990. Maori total immersion courses for adults in Aoteaora/New Zealand. In J. Reyhner (Ed.), Effective language education practices and native language survival (pp. 107-120). Choctaw, OK: Native American Language Issues. Nicodemus, L. 1975. Snchitsu'umshtsn: The Coeur d'Alene Language: A Modern Course. Plummer, ID: The Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Northern Ute Tribe. 1985. Ute language policy. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 9(2), 16-19. Oglala Lakota College. (n.d.). Philosophical base of the teacher education program. (Photocopied document obtained from Oglala Lakota College) Oller, John W., Jr. 1993. Methods That Work: Ideas for literacy and language teachers, 2nd edition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council. 1984. Yaqui language policy for the Pascua Yaqui tribe: Policy declaration. Tucson, AZ: Tucson Unified School District. Platt, J. 1989. Some types of communicative strategies across cultures: Sense and sensitivity. In O. Garcia & R. Otheguy, English across cultures--Cultures across English (pp. 13-29). New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. Ramirez, D. 1992. Executive summary. Bilingual Research Journal, 16(1), 1-62. Reyhner, J. 1990. A description of the Rock Point Community School bilingual education program. In Jon Reyhner (Ed.), Effective language education practices and native language survival (pp. 95-106). Choctaw, OK: Native American Language Issues. Reyhner, J. (1992). Review of Joshua Fishman's Reversing Language Shift. Bilingual Research Journal, 16(3), 148-152. Reyhner, J. (1993a). Maintaining and renewing native languages in the schools. In T. E. Schirer & S. M. Branstner (Eds.), Native American Values: Survival and Renewal (pp. 47-56). Sault Sainte Marie, MI: Lake Superior State University. Reyhner, J. (1993b). Second language acquisition. NABE News, 17(3), 25. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. 1992. Public hearings: Overview of the first round. Ottawa, Canada: Author. Scollon R., & Scollon, Suzanne, B.K. 1981. Narrative, Literacy and Face in Interethnic Communication. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Stevick, E. 1980. Teaching languages: A way and ways. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Tennant, E. 1979. Final Evaluation Report: Primary Eskimo Program, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bethel, Alaska. Albuquerque, NM: Educational Research Associates, Inc. Tennant, E. 1993. The "Eye of Awareness": Probing the Hidden Dimension of Bilingual Education. In Proceedings of the Third National Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student Issues. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education: Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs. Watahomigie, L. J., & Yamamoto, A. Y. 1987. Linguistics in action: The Hualapai bilingual/bicultural education program. In D. D. Stull & J. J. Schensul, Collaborative research and social change: Applied anthropology in action (pp. 77-98). Boulder, CO: Westview. Wilson, William H. 1991. American Indian bilingual education: Hawaiian parallels. NABE News, 15(3), 9-10). Wong Fillmore, L. 1991. A question for early-childhood programs: English first or families first. NABE News, 14(7), 13-14 & 19. (Reprinted from Education Week) Zah, P. 1992. Major presentation of Peterson Zah, President Navajo Nation. In White House Conference on Indian Education, The final report of the White House Conference on Indian Education (Vol. 2) (pp. 396-99). Washington, D.C.: Author. From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Tue Nov 25 21:31:02 2003 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:31:02 -0800 Subject: teaching Language In Day Care PDf Message-ID: attached-or email me for a copy -- Andr? Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: language.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 98212 bytes Desc: Unknown Document URL: From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Wed Nov 26 17:17:02 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 09:17:02 -0800 Subject: New Book In-Reply-To: <3FC3C4DA.2AB55A25@ncidc.org> Message-ID: Hi Andre, I looked up the Indigenous Children's services unit and found this information, Indigenous Children's Services Unit Description:- The Indigenous Children's Services Unit (ICSU) is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services to provide training, support, advice, resources, and referrals to Commonwealth funded Aboriginal, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander Children's Services, particularly those in rural and remote areas. The unit is currently working on language resources for Wik Mungkan, Meriam Mir and Torres Strait Creole. Email:- icsu at ballyhoo.com.au Street Address:- 2/15 Castlemaine Street, Kirwin 4817 Phone Number:- (07) 4723 4088 From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Wed Nov 26 17:48:50 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 09:48:50 -0800 Subject: New Book In-Reply-To: <200311261717.hAQHH3BA001376@darkwing.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Hi again, I found the parent organization website at http://www.qcoss.org.au/ Queensland council of social services David From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Wed Nov 26 19:15:48 2003 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 11:15:48 -0800 Subject: Fwd: AEQ CALL FOR PAPERS: INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES & EDUCATION In-Reply-To: <000501c3b440$16ecf340$da89df80@cas.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:02:23 -0700 From: Tsianina Lomawaima Subject: AEQ CALL FOR PAPERS: INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES & EDUCATION Colleagues, Please see the attached Call for Papers and disseminate to those who may be interested. (And consider submitting a paper yourself!) Several outstanding guest editors have agreed to work with us on this theme issue, and we all look forward to readers' feedback and contributions. Please share this Call, especially, with potential contributors from Indigenous communities. Thank you! Teresa L. McCarty, Ph.D. Professor and Codirector, American Indian Language Development Institute Editor, Anthropology and Education Quarterly Call for Papers: Anthropology & Education Quarterly THEME ISSUE: Indigenous Epistemologies and Education Self-determination, Anthropology, and Human Rights In this special issue, AEQ will focus on educational issues impacting members of the world?s 300 million Indigenous peoples, particularly as education relates to Indigenous epistemologies, self-determination, and human rights. We seek critical ethnographic analyses of new paradigms in Indigenous education that confront the challenges of educational self-determination and human rights. Papers may focus on community-based education, language education, or other contemporary expressions of these issues at the pre-K?college level. Recognizing that anthropology and anthropologists have historically been complicit in colonizing projects that have undermined Indigenous epistemologies and education rights, what might the present and future bring? What are the unique contributions of educational anthropology to Indigenous self-determination? What new territories--physical, social, political, linguistic, and cultural--are being charted to promote Indigenous education and human rights? Papers should be theoretical as well as empirical, and should engage education practice and policy. We encourage article-length manuscripts of no more than 35 pages, as well as briefer, 10-15 page manuscripts suitable for Reflections on the Field and Reflections from the Field. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed. Manuscripts must be received by March 15, 2004 for a theme issue planned for spring 2005. Contributors should adhere closely to the "Information for Authors" at the back of the most recent AEQ. Pre-submission inquiries can be directed to aequart at u.arizona.edu. Submit 5 blinded copies and 1 identical electronic copy to: Teresa L. McCarty, Editor University of Arizona, College of Education Room 512, 1430 E. 2nd St., Box 210069, Tucson, AZ 85721 (520/621-1052); aequart at u.arizona.edu. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 27 19:47:45 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 12:47:45 -0700 Subject: Exhibition examines indigenous education (fwd) Message-ID: Exhibition examines indigenous education Publish Date:11/28/2003 Story Type:National Affairs; Byline:Cecilia Fanchiang http://publish.gio.gov.tw/FCJ/current/03112822.html ????????An exhibition and seminar to explore indigenous education on the island was held Nov. 22-23. Academics and educators were invited to the two-day event at which several research papers were presented, posters were put on display, and teaching materials, atlases, historical documents, Taiwanese food and musical works were exhibited. ????????The event was organized by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and sponsored by the Cabinet's Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP), the Council for Hakka Affairs (CHA) and the Taipei Municipal Teachers College. ????????By showcasing local food, art and music--all of which can be used as instructional materials by enterprising teachers--organizers aimed at putting a new face on aboriginal education in Taiwan. ????????"I hope this seminar will lead to a breakthrough that helps distract pubic attention from the ongoing debate over what is an appropriate written system for aboriginal languages and help people see the broader value of appreciating the presence of indigenous cultures," said Education Minister Huang Jong-tsun in his opening address. ????????Huang said indigenous education--an issue completely divorced from the question of independence or unification, he stressed--is not an invention of Taiwan but a global cultural movement. ????????"Indigenous education should not be restricted to area-based education," agreed CHA Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan. ????????Participants in the meeting did not restrict their discussions to local issues. Speakers evaluated indigenous education systems and shared practices for developing localized curriculums from countries such as China, the United States and Japan. Papers presented at the seminar attempted to provide insights into proper ways to design a history curriculum and implement mother-tongue education. ????????Topics included the nativization of history studies, the Curriculum Alignment program, a comparison of social-education curriculums from different countries and case studies highlighting problems with adopting romanization systems in native Taiwanese language education. ????????Liu Yung-pin, CHA vice chairman, expressed his concern over the gloomy prospects for local dialects in Taiwan, most of which are under serious threat of being extinguished. Liu said all of Taiwan's local dialects, such as the Hakka and Hoklo languages, are gradually vanishing. He suggested that mother tongues should be taught in school as early as kindergarten. ????????CIP Vice Chairman Pu Chung-cheng, who is a member of the Tsao aboriginal tribe, said his council has plans to rescue the linguistic heritage of indigenous languages and prevent them from vanishing through assimilation. Starting in 2007, the CIP will have aboriginal students provide certification as proof of their heritage if they want to receive preferential treatment in entrance examinations. Meanwhile, indigenous people must pass the CIP's Aboriginal Language Skill Certification Test before becoming civil servants. According to education officials, the MOE is working with the CIP in lending students the necessary assistance. ????????The two-day seminar opened with a concert dubbed "Our Songs" in which ethnic music was highlighted. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 27 19:55:33 2003 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil CashCash) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 12:55:33 -0700 Subject: Apaches pack premier of 'The Missing' (fwd) Message-ID: Apaches pack premier of 'The Missing' By Ellis Neel/ Staff Photographer/ Writer Nov 26, 2003, 11:59 am http://www.alamogordonews.com/artman/publish/article_1955.shtml Ellis Neel/ Daily News - Jay Tavare, who plays Kayitah in director Ron Howard's latest movie "The Missing," attends a screening of the film at the White Sands Mall Tuesday night. Director Ron Howard?s latest film, ?The Missing,? was screened in Alamogordo at the White Sands Mall with a ?special Apache Premier? to a packed house of Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches Tuesday. Producer Daniel Ostroff, Jay Tavare, who plays Kayitah, an Apache medicine man and Tommy Lee Jones? sidekick, and Yolanda Nez, who played a captive girl in the film, were on hand for the screening. The invitation states the premier was held ?in honor of and with respect for Mrs. Elbys Hugar and Mr. Berle Kanseah, advisers and translators for the film.? Howard chose the Allen 5 Theater because ?it?s the closest theater to the home of our two advisers and translators,? said producer Daniel Ostroff. ?It was his (Howard?s) first impulse.? Kanseah and Hugar, who live on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, were instrumental in the film?s realism, teaching actors the Chiricahua Apache language and helping with their dialogue. There was a world premier in New York and another in Santa Fe, but ?emotionally, this is it,? Ostroff said. ?This is the best. ?They advised us,? Ostroff said of the translators. ?Ron had always wanted to make a western and make one in a classic place (like New Mexico).? Kanseah and Hugar were contracted because in the world the actors in the story inhabited, the people they would have seen were the Chiricahua. ?They were the only free Indians left,? Ostroff said. ?(It?s) not a film about Indians and they weren?t a dominant aspect. (The characters in the story) would have encountered Apaches (and we wanted to get it right).? The film, a story about a man played by Tommy Lee Jones who leaves his family to live with the Indians, is a thriller which blends classical western and supernatural elements. ?It?s the first time I?ve seen an Apache portrayed in such a three-dimensional way,? Tavare said. ?I think Ron Howard has really struck a chord (with the even, unbiased portrayal of the Apache).? Tavare has Native American blood running through his veins. His mother was a White Mountain Apache. ?Elbys is a great-granddaughter of Cochise,? Tavare said. ?It was an honor to have a princess working with us to capture the language. It truly is an impossible language to master.? Only 300 people in the world can speak fluent Chiricahua Apache, Tavare said. ?And three of them were on the set of the film. The film is ground breaking in many ways. It?s a must-see movie. Anytime you break stereotypes ....? Yolanda Nez, a Farmington native and 2002 graduate of Farmington High School, plays the captive girl in the movie. Nez, an experienced rodeo competitor, says she tried out for the part because she was ?at the point in life where I wanted to experience (different things). I think it?s a great opportunity.? Hugar says she ?always took (her) language as something that?s been given to us, as Chiricahua Apaches. I respect the language a lot. Doing the translating, I learned from the anthropologist ... (We) worked together many times. We came up with two (Chiricahua Apache/English) dictionaries. I like my job translating Indian to English. We?re losing our language. A lot of these young children, when they start school, they know the English already.? It was different for Elbys as a child because she learned Apache first and had difficulty learning English, she said. Before the screening, Hugar offered a greeting to Ron Howard: ?Well, first, I want to say a big fat hello to him,? then spoke a message first in Chiricahua Apache and then in English. ?One of these days I will see you again, and in the meantime, God bless you and take care of you and I?ll see you again.? Copyright ? 2003 Alamogordo News, a Gannett Co., Inc. newspaper. From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Fri Nov 28 12:55:26 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 06:55:26 -0600 Subject: Fwd: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? Message-ID: This was posted to the Unicode list just now - I repost to ILAT in case anyone would have an answer or be interested in the question... DZO ----- Forwarded message from "D. Starner" ----- Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 03:14:34 -0800 From: "D. Starner" Reply-To: "D. Starner" Subject: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? To: "unicode at unicode.org" At Distributed Proofreaders , we scan, OCR and proof material for Project Gutenberg. We've started to process the Annual Report of the Bureau of American ethnology, from 1879 to 1930. The first volume has an article called "Illustration of the method of recording Indian languages", which has text in Omaha. This cased text has Latin Capital Letter Turned T and Latin Capital Letter Turned K, clearly as the uppercase version of the Latin Small .... As can probably be guessed by people who have read enough old linguistics material, the text has no indication of the phonetic values. Has anyone else seen these characters, and could provide material for a submission? How about the Latin Letters Tresillo and Cuatrillo? Any movement on that front? Oh, yes, pictures of the characters: due to the miracles of modern technology, I can include them in plain text, but you'll have to stand on your head (-: T K -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm ----- End forwarded message ----- From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 28 18:39:29 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:39:29 -0700 Subject: =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?School_Zone:_Abbott=92s_helping_to_preserve_One?= =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?ida_speech_=28fwd=29?= Message-ID: Posted Nov. 28, 2003 School Zone: Abbott?s helping to preserve Oneida speech -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 349 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 83302 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- For 30 years, Cliff Abbott, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, has helped preserve the Oneida language. B.A. Rupert/PRess-Gazette UWGB professor has taught the language for about 30 years By Cynthia Hodnett chodnett at greenbaypressgazette.com He?s a professor of information and computer sciences and Native American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. But Clifford Abbott?s resume also includes 30 years of teaching the Oneida language to students on campus and Oneida people off campus. ?The work that I do with the Oneidas gives me an opportunity to spend (time in) a different world outside of academics,? he said. ?It?s very refreshing.? Spoken for hundreds of years, the Oneida language was nearly silenced during the relocation of Indian tribes across the country during the 1800s and early 1900s. Many children were taken from reservations and placed in government boarding schools, causing many to abandon their native tongue. Now, many tribal members are learning the language. Abbott, 56, said he first became interested in the Oneida language while attending graduate school. It was there that he met a researcher who studied the history of the language. Some words have several different meanings, he said. Those who are fluent in the language say the language also has more than 50 pronouns. ?The language is amazingly complex,? Abbott said. ?I would have sworn that when I first studied it in graduate school that people actually studied it at one time.? In the 1970s, Abbott worked with other tribal members with a program developed to train Oneida teachers for jobs in local school districts and tribal schools. His work continued into the 1990s with a group of Oneida speakers to develop a 700- plus page Oneida language dictionary. Abbott is currently involved in a number of projects with the tribe including teaching a linguistics class and helping tribal members design a program to certify Oneida language teachers. Amelia Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Gaming Commission and former director of the tribe?s Bilingual/Bicultural Program, recalls Abbott?s work in translating stories form Oneida elders from their native tongue into English and from English into Oneida. Many of those stories are contained in pamphlets used in tribal schools, she said. ?His work is invaluable to us,? Cornelius said. ?He was a very easy person, a very understanding person who was diligent in his work.? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3411 bytes Desc: not available URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 28 18:42:21 2003 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:42:21 -0700 Subject: =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?Re:_School_Zone:_Abbott=92s_helping_to_preserve?= =?WINDOWS-1252?Q?_Oneida_speech_=28fwd=29?= In-Reply-To: <337F6024-21D2-11D8-94B8-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: ...here is the link. http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_13371734.shtml On Nov 28, 2003, at 11:39 AM, phil cash cash wrote: > Posted Nov. 28, 2003 > > School Zone: Abbott?s helping to preserve Oneida speech > > > For 30 years, Cliff Abbott, a professor at the University of > Wisconsin-Green Bay, has helped preserve the Oneida language. B.A. > Rupert/PRess-Gazette > UWGB professor has taught the language for about 30 years > > By Cynthia Hodnett > chodnett at greenbaypressgazette.com > > He?s a professor of information and computer sciences and Native > American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. > > But Clifford Abbott?s resume also includes 30 years of teaching the > Oneida language to students on campus and Oneida people off campus. > > ?The work that I do with the Oneidas gives me an opportunity to spend > (time in) a different world outside of academics,? he said. ?It?s very > refreshing.? > > Spoken for hundreds of years, the Oneida language was nearly silenced > during the relocation of Indian tribes across the country during the > 1800s and early 1900s. > > Many children were taken from reservations and placed in government > boarding schools, causing many to abandon their native tongue. Now, > many tribal members are learning the language. > > Abbott, 56, said he first became interested in the Oneida language > while attending graduate school. It was there that he met a researcher > who studied the history of the language. > > Some words have several different meanings, he said. Those who are > fluent in the language say the language also has more than 50 > pronouns. > > ?The language is amazingly complex,? Abbott said. ?I would have sworn > that when I first studied it in graduate school that people actually > studied it at one time.? > > In the 1970s, Abbott worked with other tribal members with a program > developed to train Oneida teachers for jobs in local school districts > and tribal schools. His work continued into the 1990s with a group of > Oneida speakers to develop a 700- plus page Oneida language > dictionary. > > Abbott is currently involved in a number of projects with the tribe > including teaching a linguistics class and helping tribal members > design a program to certify Oneida language teachers. > > Amelia Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Gaming Commission and former > director of the tribe?s Bilingual/Bicultural Program, recalls Abbott?s > work in translating stories form Oneida elders from their native > tongue into English and from English into Oneida. Many of those > stories are contained in pamphlets used in tribal schools, she said. > > ?His work is invaluable to us,? Cornelius said. ?He was a very easy > person, a very understanding person who was diligent in his work.? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3654 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sat Nov 29 02:42:11 2003 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 03:42:11 +0100 Subject: Fw: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? Message-ID: Here are two follow-ups to the questions re particular letters used in some transcriptions of some native American languages. There were other postings but not a whole lot more info so I'll leave the issue with this. DZO 1. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Constable" To: Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 6:02 PM Subject: RE: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? > -----Original Message----- > From: unicode-bounce at unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce at unicode.org] On Behalf > Of D. Starner > Has anyone else seen these characters, and > could provide material for a submission? I looked through a lot of materials back in the spring for phonetic symbols, and didn't record any instances of these. > How about the Latin Letters Tresillo and Cuatrillo? Any movement > on that front? I've had them on my list of things to propose. I was trying to find more samples of tresillo to get a better idea of range of typographic variation, and had just started on that when that work got interrupted by other life events such as moving. I still need to follow up on that. > Oh, yes, pictures of the characters... Some samples of cuatrillo and tresillo can be found at http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=RecentCuatrilloUse Peter Peter Constable Globalization Infrastructure and Font Technologies Microsoft Windows Division 2. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Constable" To: Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 8:27 PM Subject: RE: Latin Capital Letter Turned T/K? > -----Original Message----- > From: unicode-bounce at unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce at unicode.org] On Behalf > Of jameskass at att.net > Aren't these turned letters (and several others) used in the Fraser > script? They sure are. Peter Peter Constable Globalization Infrastructure and Font Technologies Microsoft Windows Division