[EDLING:1988] Oklahoma: Cultural preservation group draws attention to disappearing languages

[Francis M. Hult]

Native Times

Losing the Native tongue
Cultural preservation group draws attention to disappearing languages


Up until a few months ago there were six people still fluent in Euchee. Then 
one died, dropping the number to five. The average age of the speakers is 
currently 85, said Richard Grounds, the head of the Euchee language program 
and a language preservation and anthropology professor at the University of 
Tulsa.

“You try to raise the visibility of language by connecting people-matching 
elders and youngsters,” Grounds tells the Native American Times. 

Grounds and several dozen other people attended the Intertribal Wordpath 
Society’s 9th annual celebration of languages spoken by Oklahoma tribes. The 
event, held Oct. 20th at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in Norman, comes 
with the stark knowledge that there are too few speakers left and that 
languages once thriving are now in danger of disappearing altogether.

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