<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style=""><A href="http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/may/14native.htm"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/may/14native.htm</SPAN></FONT></A></DIV><DIV style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><H1 style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="6"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 20px;">Author preserves dying language</SPAN></FONT></H1><H3 style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.7px; font-weight: bold; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11.7px;">Over 1,000 words translated from Odawa to English</SPAN></FONT></H3><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11.7px;"><INFO style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "></INFO></SPAN></FONT><P class="byline1"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">BY CRAIG McCOOL</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><A href="mailto:mccoolrecordeagle@sbcglobal.net"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#993300">mccoolrecordeagle@sbcglobal.net</FONT></SPAN></FONT></A></P><DIV class="photo-horiz-right"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#993300"><IMG src="cid:B764A359-0107-4249-BF5F-A651D53E22F0@local"></FONT> </SPAN></FONT><SPAN class="photo_byline"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;">Special to the Record-Eagle/Kevin Johnston</SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"> <BR style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Ray Kiogima, co-author of the book "Odawa Language and Legends," the Odawa Bands Governmental Center in Harbor Springs.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">HARBOR SPRINGS — Ray Kiogima rarely gets a chance anymore to talk with others in his native language.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">The number of people who speak Odawa has dwindled over the years. Now, Kiogima said, you could count on a single hand the number of locals who are fluent in the old language.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">"In the tribe, we've probably got four people besides me," Kiogima said. "I used to enjoy talking Odawa to people who were fluent in it, but they die off."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Kiogima, 73, an elder with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, has done something about it, recently publishing a book containing Odawa/English translations of more than 1,000 common words and hundreds of phrases. The book, "Odawa Language and Legends," is the culmination of decades of work.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">It is the only known instance in which the regional Native American language has been translated to English. Kiogima broke down the Odawa words — historically spoken but rarely written — to their syllable sounds, then transcribed them, phonetically, into English equivalents.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Ah-nee, for example, means "Hello." There is no Odawa word for Goodbye, Kiogima, said. The closest thing is Bah mah pee: "Later."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">The language of the Odawa people is apparent everywhere in northern Michigan. The word Cheboygan, for example, comes from the Odawa phrase Zhah boo guhn, or "The way through."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">But while traces of the language are ever-present, the heart of the language is dying, said Carla McFall, who runs the Little Traverse Bay Band's language preservation and revitalization program.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">"Ray's generation is the last generation that is fairly fluent," McFall said. "This is the very last chance" to preserve the language.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Kiogima — Ki means 'land'; Ogima means 'boss' or 'ruler' — lived as a teenager in Harbor Springs with his grandmother, who spoke little English and insisted her grandson become fluent in Odawa.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">"She told me right out that if I was going to live with her and talk to her, I was going to talk Odawa," Kiogima said.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">His five brothers also learned Odawa, but only Kiogima retained the knowledge into adulthood. He taught his own children a few words, but realized that, by-and-large, the younger generation would never learn the language.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">"I thought, if we can write it, we can preserve it, and that's what I want," he said. "It's always been a dream of mine, to have it written down. We want to get it to the younger crowd."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Preserving and resurrecting the language is important, said McFall.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">"A people is defined by its language," she said. "Without it, we lose a lot. Not just the language, but culturally as well."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Kiogima offered an analogy: "It would be like a person without a home or a man without a country," he said. "He would be lost."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Translation?</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">"Kah mah-buh duh yah zeen gojibi wah daht."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">"This man has nowhere to live."</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>