Tribal elder co-writes book to help save language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Wed July 21, 2004

Tribal elder co-writes book to help save language

By Karen Klinka
The Oklahoman
http://www.newsok.com/article/1281735/?template=news/main

NORMAN - At an age when many people are content to rest on past
accomplishments, Creek/Seminole elder Linda Alexander, 87, still is
working to preserve the language and culture of her ancestors.

Alexander, along with two co-authors, has written "Beginning Creek," a
college-level textbook on the language and culture of the
Mvskoke-speaking peoples, the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole Indians.

The book was published earlier this year by the University of Oklahoma
Press.

Alexander's co-authors are her daughter, Bertha Tilkens, a consultant
who helps translate and administer health questionnaires to Muscogee
and Seminole people for OU's College of Nursing, and Pamela Innes,
assistant professor of linguistic anthropology at the University of
Wyoming at Laramie, who works with American Indian communities on
issues of language revitalization and maintenance.

Until her retirement several years ago, Alexander taught Mvskoke
language classes at OU and at Oklahoma State University campuses in
Stillwater and Tulsa.

During a recent interview from her home in Norman, Alexander said she
helped write the book in order to keep the Mvskoke language alive.

"I did not want my language to fade away," Alexander said. "It's getting
to the point where a lot of full-blooded Creek and Seminole Indians are
getting educated in so many other things, but they aren't learning
their own language.

"And there are very few elderly Indian people left who know the language
and are still able to explain things," she said.

The walls of Alexander's living room display some prime examples of fine
Oklahoma Indian art. On a tall shelf behind her favorite chair, dozens
of photographs offer silent proof that Alexander, the mother of six, is
the matriarch of a family that includes 31 grandchildren, 31
great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Alexander said she hopes Creek, Seminole and other Indian students
attending college can use her book to study the Mvskoke language as a
way of fulfilling their "foreign" language requirement for graduation.

The 256-page volume begins with a basic overview of Creek history and
language, then each chapter introduces readers to a new grammatical
feature, vocabulary set and series of conversational sentences.

Accompanying the book are two compact discs that provide translation
exercises from English to Mvskoke and from Mvskoke to English, and help
to reinforce new words and concepts.

The two audio CDs also present examples of ceremonial speech, songs and
storytelling, and include pronunciations of Mvskoke language keyed to
exercises and vocabulary lists in the book.

Alexander and Tilkens, both fluent Mvskoke speakers, also contributed
brief essays on Creek culture and history, with suggestions for further
reading.

In addition to writing a book, Alexander also serves as a resource for
OU music professor Paula Conlon, who teaches world music, Indian music
and ethnomusicology classes at both the graduate and undergraduate
levels.

Conlon, who is not Indian, is doing research on contemporary stomp
dancing in Oklahoma. Alexander has served as a tour guide for many of
the OU professor's visits to some of the state's 17 sacred stomp
grounds.

"I know Linda has learned things from me," Conlon said, "but she's
taught me so many things about the Indian way. She's a treasure."

Alexander also has taught Conlon how to strap turtle-shell rattles to
her legs and "shake shells" at stomp and corn dances.

"Linda and I go to stomp dances together, and stomp dances often can
last all night or until 2 a.m.," Conlon said. "On the way back from
them, Linda will tell me Creek stories to keep me awake while we're
driving.

"Fortunately, she has lots of stories."

A favorite is Alexander's Creek story of how the turtle got the cracks
in its shell, Conlon said.

Whenever she can, Conlon tries to write down Alexander's stories or to
record them.

Alexander approves of that.

"I'm not the type of person who says, 'That's a secret,'" Alexander
said. "If you die and nothing gets out, then there's no record of the
things you do know.

"How can people learn if you don't tell them?"