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<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 06 August 2007 - Volume 03</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: Language maintenance<br><br>Dear Lowlanders,<br><br>This morning I had a chance encounter and conversation with a visitor from a Blackfoot reservation in Montana, and inevitably we brushed on the subject of language.
<br><br>I have traveled through Blackfoot country both on the US side (Montana) and on the Canadian side (Alberta). It struck me how spread out the population is and how remote some of their locations area, and I imagined that this would be difficult with regard to communication but also possibly favorable with regard to language and culture preservation.
<br><br>The lady I spoke with made it clear that her people are used to wide open country and long-distance traveling, and for many of them the international border is merely a technicality. This means that there is a fair bit of ethnic cohesion and communication despite the physical and political conditions. Furthermore, there has been a softening of earlier tribal divisions within this Blackfoot (
<span style="font-style: italic;">Nitsitapii</span>) confederacy: North Peigan (<span style="font-style: italic;">Aapatohsipiikanii</span>), South Peigan (<span style="font-style: italic;">Aamsskaapipiikanii</span>), Kainai (
<span style="font-style: italic;">Kainaiwa</span>, "Blood") and Siksika (<span style="font-style: italic;">Siksikawa</span>, Blackfoot proper), the South Peigan living in Montana, all others in Alberta.<br><br>She told me that she does not speak her ancestral language and is a monolingual English speaker, which is typical. She described the typical story of linguistic neglect, discouragement and prohibition, including punishment for using the language in school. This is not unheard of in our Lowlands language area either, as most of you know. Therefore, most speakers are old and even ancient.
<br><br>She further told me that there is now a movement striving to bring back the language, mostly through courses, though it is not clear if it has been introduced as a part of ordinary school curricula. (There are indications that this is the case on the Canadian side,
e.g., <a href="http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/aborigin/blackfoot.asp"></a></span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" href="http://tinyurl.com/28emny">tinyurl.com/28emny</a><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
, and a private school in Great Falls, Montana, </span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" href="http://tinyurl.com/ys9lsf">tinyurl.com/ys9lsf</a><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">.) <br><br>One of her uncles happens to teach the language in Great Falls. Apparently the experience has been that most or sometimes even all of his students are "white." She smiled, grinned perhaps. I asked her how she herself felt about that. She had to think for a little while. I suspect she wanted to find something socially acceptable to say. Then she said something to the effect that she guessed her uncle had a point when he said, "Just as long as
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">some</span>one's learning it ..."<br><br>I think this is not irrelevant to issues related to Lowlands minority languages, their maintenance and activism. The "racial" issue isn't really important. We might boil it down to saying that there is often more interest among people whose ancestral languages they are not. Reactions to this among people whose ancestral languages they are tend to be mixed, and sometimes the enthusiasm on the part of these "outsiders" is dampened by attitudes among the actual heirs, including heirs that choose
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> to know or use the languages.<br><br>What are your thoughts about this?<br><br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br></span>
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