Kiowa language expert Alecia Gonzales named to USAO Alumni Hall of Fame (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Kiowa language expert Alecia Gonzales named to USAO Alumni Hall of Fame
http://www.chickashanews.com/viewarticle.php?id=3666

 EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a four-part series about homecoming
and honoring the distinguished individuals named to the USAO Alumni Hall
of Fame this fall.

 Known for her lifelong devotion to teaching and preserving the Kiowa
language, author and educator Alecia Keahbone Gonzales will be named to
the USAO Alumni Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 5.

 Im speechless, Gonzales said Tuesday. This is an overwhelming honor. I
am so grateful. I love to share the ways of my people, the Kiowa, she
said.

 Gonzales work has made her a celebrity of sorts for her knowledge and
enthusiasm about Kiowa history. In fact, visitors to the new
Smithsonians National Museum of the American Indian in Washington
hear Gonzales voice in recorded segments on an audio tour. Museum
officials chose only one voice to represent each of five geographic
areas in America. For the central United States, they chose
Gonzales.

 With the 2001 release of her Kiowa language textbook, the first of its
kind in America, Gonzales may have secured the Kiowa language's future
and created a veritable template for other Native
American tribes to use for sustaining their own languages.

 Gonzales teaches Kiowa language classes at the University of Science
and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) in Chickasha, where she approaches the
Kiowa language from a bicultural viewpoint using two distinctly
different languages. She also teaches at Anadarko High School.

 She takes pride in training student interns at the college who can
assist in teaching the Kiowa language.

 The title is Thaun Khoiye Tdoen Gyah: Beginning Kiowa Language, which
illustrates the book's relationship between the Kiowa and English
languages. Beginning Kiowa Language was published by USAO
Foundation. Copies of the textbook are available at the USAO Campus
Bookstore, 405-574-1304.

 Born in Ft. Cobb, the Kiowa-Apache author and teacher was surrounded by
a mixture of Kiowa and American cultures. She was Apache Tribal Princess
as a young girl. In the 1950s, Gonzales presented The
Lord's Prayer in Indian sign language on the first color television
broadcast of The Dave Garraway and Arlene Francis Show. In 1962,
President John F. Kennedy presented her with a lifesaving award.
She graduated from the Oklahoma College for Women (now USAO) with a
bachelor of arts degree in 1965, then obtained her master of arts
degree at Southwestern State College in 1974.

 Gonzales has been a speech pathologist, a dean of student services, a
guidance counselor, and always an educator. She has also been a member
of various groups, such as the Oklahoma Federation of
Indian Women, the National Education Association, the Caddo County
Education Association, and she was the 1993-94 recipient of the Indian
Woman of the Year award.

 In recent years, Gonzales has taken legendary Kiowa folk songs and is
giving them life through childrens storybooks. Printed by USAO, these
bilingual childrens books include Little Red Buffalo Song,
A Mother Birds Song, and Grandma Spiders Song. They are available in the
USAO Bookstore and from Anadarko Daily News and the Apache Tribal Smoke
Shop in Anadarko.

 Readers see the story in both Kiowa and English shown parallel to one
another. For non-native speakers, a special CD-ROM is included that
features the author reading the story in both languages.

 The two remaining books in the collection, Grandmothers Song and The
Prairie Dog Song are set for release in 2006. After that, Gonzales
hopes to publish a Kiowa vocabulary textbook with audio CD.

 I didn't do all this myself, Gonzales said. I have the educational
background, I have the know-how to do it, but if it weren't for the
people in my life, the Kiowa and non-Kiowa, I wouldn't have been
able to do it, she said. She credits her aunts and uncles, who served as
my working dictionary, she said.

 After the death of her parents and other elders, Gonzales says she
realized the language would die without a systematic, written method of
teaching it.

 I was nurtured by my grandparents into education, Gonazales said. They
believed deeply in the value of education, especially the tribal form
of education. This was the seed from which weve grown
todays high-tech preservation of language. Today we publish a CD that
helps people learn to hear and speak the language.

 Gonzales sees herself not so much as a pioneer but as a contributer to
a long tradition of preserving the language. Her heroes include Parker
Mackenzie of the Mountain View area, who assisted John P.
Harrington in early preservation of the Kiowa language in the 1920s.

 Harringtons work eventually earned him the doctorate, Gonzales said. My
work is using Harringtons work and my experience as a child to assist
others in carrying forward our great language.

 Probably her greatest influence, she said, came from her grandfather,
Tennyson Berry, a longtime resident of Caddo County. He was a musician
and was a protege of John Philip Sousa, Gonzales said. He
was a debater in the Ivy League schools and made friends with men who
became lawyers and senators, people he could call on to help regarding
government-tribal relations. He was probably the most
significant influence of my life.

 Another great influence came from her grandmother, Annie Jones, of
Verden. She taught me cultural aspects and critical skills: beading,
tanning hides, and cooking, as well as the moral standards of
our tribe, Gonzales recalled.

 Four other individuals will be honored at Homecoming. Author and
actress Claire Clemons Cowan and educator Ann OBar also will be
inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame. The Outstanding Young Alumni
Awards will be given to artist-educator Brandon Wood of Tuttle and
teacher Susan Wyant of Purcell.