Native Tongue (fwd)

Sun Feb 15 17:20:28 UTC 2004

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2004/02/15/build/state/50-nativetongue.inc

Native Tongue: Falls schools offer unique opportunity

Associated Press

GREAT FALLS - Students in Klane King's language classes here enjoy
reciting everyday phrases they've learned in Blackfeet and listen
eagerly as their teacher tells them how American Indian songs, games
and dances came to be.

It's a heady experience for King, who learned Blackfeet from his parents
as a preschooler in southern Alberta, only to have boarding school
teachers try to drum it out of him.

"I almost forgot the basics of my native tongue," he said.

Sharing the language

But King had the last say.

After college, he came home to the Blood Reserve, as reservations are
known in Canada, and started a video production company specializing in
features about Blackfeet elders and legends. Teachers used many of
those videos in classrooms of the reservation schools, which had
reformed and stressed the importance of Blackfeet culture and language.

Since mid-January King has been teaching an introductory Blackfeet class
at both Great Falls and C.M. Russell high schools.

It is believed to be the only Indian language class being taught at a
nonreservation Montana high school.

The Great Falls district offered a similar introductory class to the
Cree language three years ago. It was dropped after three semesters
when enrollment tapered off.

This semester, 23 GFH students and 11 CMR students are taking the
Blackfeet language class.

"Any way you can help Native American kids identify with their culture,
you've given them another incentive to stay in school," said Assistant
Superintendent Dick Kuntz. "And if we get them coming to school every
day, they'll do better in their other subjects, too."

The district has reduced its Indian dropout rate from a sky-high 80
percent to a state low 10 percent in the 30 years it has had an Indian
Education Program featuring tutoring and home counseling, Kuntz said.
But that's still about four times the dropout rate for the entire
student body.

Great Falls High School Principal Fred Anderson said school officials
hope to sustain interest this time by adding more advanced classes if
enough students want to keep going.

"I think it's an excellent class that will provide an opportunity for
both Native American and other students to increase their cultural
awareness," Anderson said.

"The Blackfeet language is a window to another culture," added Deanne
Leader, director of the Indian Education Program. "Without the words,
you can't understand a group's customs and beliefs."

Just the beginning

The new language class is not all that the district is doing. This year,
Great Falls sophomores are required to take a Montana civics class
divided evenly between tribal government and nontribal government. Next
fall, high school students can take an optional class that gives an
overview of the history and culture of Montana's 11 Indian tribes.

"I'm glad to see them start teaching the language here," said Jewell
Snell, 65, who with her husband, Frank, is raising four school-age
grandchildren.

"A lot of people my age never had the chance."

"I learned a little bit of Blackfeet from my mother and aunts, but not a
lot," said parent Mary Marceau, 37. "I think Indian kids should be able
to learn their language and cultural background, but it's harder in an
urban setting off the reservation."

Her son, Great Falls High sophomore Chi Marceau, 15, is among the
students taking the language class.

"I knew a few Blackfeet words, but am learning a lot more," Chi said.
"It's easy the way Mr. King teaches with repetition and stories."

Learning the differences

One-quarter of the Blackfeet language students at both schools are
non-Indian.

One is Hanneke Stubbe, 18, a Dutch exchange student at GFH.

"I really like languages and in Europe we're required to take four," she
said. "I want to become an anthropologist and this class is great,
because I'm learning about a culture I knew nothing about."

GFH senior Josh Werkheiser, 17, also is a language buff, and said it's
not hard to learn a new language once you realize that internal English
rules do not apply.

King stressed that Blackfeet should be spoken "in a flat and low tone,
with no musical lilts up and down."

There are other differences between English and Blackfeet, too, he said.

"In the United States and Canada people almost seem to panic when there
is a lapse in conversation," he said. "In Blackfeet, it's common to
pause every now and then, maybe take a swig of coffee, and let
companions absorb what's been said."

King also thinks the Blackfeet language has more specific nouns, with
some words taking the place of whole sentences in English.

For instance, the word "iniwa" means buffalo. When Blackfeet add a long,
tongue-twisting suffix, the word signifies "the buffalo are rumbling
toward you with their back, dew claws clicking."

You can almost feel the dust and better scramble for cover.

Reviving one's native tongue

But King, 50, was at the tail end of the similar Canadian and U.S.
government practices of sending Indian kids to boarding schools where
they were directly or indirectly discouraged from using their own
language.

Starting when he was 6, he spent weekdays at a boarding school across
the reservation from his home. Teachers demanded that students speaking
Blackfeet place their hands on the table, where their wrists were
smacked with rulers.

He said they drove the colorful language from his lips, and almost from
his memory, but not from his heart.

King attended college in Edmonton, Alberta, picking up degrees in
Canadian studies and native communication, including broadcast and
video production skills. But the instructors who spoke a native
language were Cree, he said.

When he returned home, he remembered how rich his native tongue and
traditions were when he began making videos of tribal elders.

King moved to Great Falls in 2000, where he has been a volunteer
cameraman for the public access television channel and a disk jockey
for KGPR, the public radio station.

He jumped at the chance to teach Blackfeet when Kuntz approached him. He
demonstrated he was fluent in the language to Blackfeet tribal
officials, a requirement to get his education certificate from the
state.

King has several goals for his students.

He wants to teach them enough conversational Blackfeet so they can walk
up to tribal elders and politely chat. He also will teach them a few
Blackfeet meditations, thanking the Creator and asking for blessings.

Last week, King chanted his brief, eloquent personal song for the
students, suggesting if they listen carefully they can catch a rhythm
and make their own song to see them through adversity.

"Mine is a really sweet and calming little ditty that came to me one
time," he said, quipping: "And there's no copyright infringement
worries to prevent me from singing it over and over."