Tututni (was...Re: A failure of communication)

[hzenk at PDX.EDU]

Quoting "David D. Robertson" <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU>:


> The latest issue I've received of the SSILA Newsletter (XXI:3 October 2002)
> notes the language revival efforts of the Lower Rogue River Athabaskans or
> Tututni.  They were one of the many groups removed to Grand Ronde about 150
> years ago.  To briefly quote, "a few elders retain some knowledge of the
> traditional language, and one of them, Gilbert Towner...this past summer,
> spent two weeks near Agness on the Rogue River sharing Tututni with about a
> dozen learners at a workshop...."
>

Slight factual adjustment to this:  No Tututni speakers were ever at Grand
Ronde that I've heard of.  SW Oregon Athapaskan dialects constituted a majority
language at Siletz, which means that Siletz had something that Grand Ronde
lacked--a majority tribal language.  There were still Tututni speakers at
Siletz at least into the 70s and 80s, I believe (I don't know the particulars).
The "Rogue Rivers" of Grand Ronde spoke Takelma, one of those "Oregon Penutian"
languages.  I've heard of some recent work debunking the grouping of Kalapuyan
and Takelma into the same language family.  Anyone know anything about that?
Henry