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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=goodtracks@peoplepc.com
href="mailto:goodtracks@peoplepc.com">goodtracks@peoplepc.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=goodtracks@peoplepc.com
href="mailto:goodtracks@peoplepc.com">goodtracks@peoplepc.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:57 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Article from Indian Country Today</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face="arial, sans-serif" size=2>Jimm G. GoodTracks has sent
you an Article from the Indian Country Today website.</SPAN> <BR><FONT
face="arial, sans-serif" size=2></SPAN><BR><BR>
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<TD colSpan=2><FONT face="arial, sans-serif" size=2><B>Ho-Chunk
tribe members try to revive Native language</B></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD colSpan=2><FONT face="arial, sans-serif" size=2>by: The
Associated Press</FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD colSpan=2><FONT face="arial, sans-serif" size=1>© Indian Country
Today February 04, 2008. <I>All Rights Reserved</I></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD colSpan=2><FONT face="arial, sans-serif" size=2>BARABOO, Wis.
(AP) - Georgia Lonetree missed speaking her Native language so much
that she used to drive around Arizona looking for roadside objects
she could name in Ho-Chunk. <BR><BR>The teacher at an American
Indian boarding school returned to Wisconsin, and said hearing her
tribe's language again was overwhelming. <BR><BR>''It sometimes
brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat when I'd hear my
elders pray,'' she said. <BR><BR>Lonetree now teaches Ho-Chunk to
high school students in Wisconsin Dells and Black River Falls. Only
a handful of students participate, but she's hopeful the program's
popularity will grow. <BR><BR>''The people of the big voice'' have
reached a crossroads with the deaths of three elder Ho-Chunk
language teachers in the last year. The tribe is launching an effort
to revitalize the dying language. <BR><BR>One of the recently
deceased elders, William O'Brien of Mauston, had been working with
German linguists to create a Ho-Chunk lexicon, an inventory of the
tribe's vocabulary, tribal leaders said. <BR><BR>Others will try to
carry on his effort, but his colleagues say O'Brien's death was a
huge loss to the tribe. O'Brien moved away from Wisconsin, but
returned years later, staying fluent in Ho-Chunk. <BR><BR>''That was
a big boost to see that somebody spending many years away from here
was still able to retain their language,'' said Richard Mann,
manager of the Ho-Chunk Nation's Language Division. <BR><BR>Mann
said his parents spoke in Ho-Chunk to him, and that's all they spoke
even though they allowed him to respond in English. <BR><BR>''There
were a few that spoke English, but by and large, back then, when
somebody was speaking English, they'd say, 'Oh, the white man must
have come in the door.' They'd make fun of them,'' Mann said.
<BR><BR>After touting language preservation as part of his platform,
recently elected Ho-Chunk President Wilfrid Cleveland proclaimed
2008 the year of the Ho-Chunk language. <BR><BR>Cleveland's staff
members are taking daily classes, and nation officials are
encouraging tribe members to speak Ho-Chunk more in their personal
lives and at work. <BR><BR>Mann said a language CD is also under way
and an interactive Web site lets tribe members learn from home. Mann
said he hopes the proclamation will get the tribe's youth
interested. <BR><BR>''Within the last four or five decades, the
language has slowly dropped off,'' Mann said. ''But once that's
gone, we're gone as a people. Fortunately, we've got some young
people that are really trying hard to learn, so it's up to us to
teach them.'' <BR><BR>It's estimated that only about 200 of the
6,800 members of the Ho-Chunk Nation speak the language, said
Ho-Chunk spokesman Anne Thundercloud.</FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD colSpan=2><FONT face="arial, sans-serif" size=1>Please visit the
<A href="http://www.indiancountry.com">Indian Country Today</A>
website for more articles related to this
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