Language Is Life
Andre Cramblit
andrekar at NCIDC.ORG
Thu Apr 20 07:11:34 UTC 2006
Language Is Life©
André P. Cramblit Karuk Tribe

I recently attended the Language Is Life Conference LILC) at the
Marin Headlands Institute. This was the 7th biannual symposium
sponsored by the Advocates for Indigenous Language Survival
(www.aicls.org). The Advocates for Indigenous California Language
Survival is an organization devoted to implementing and supporting
the revitalization of indigenous California languages. Its mission is
to assist California Indians in language maintenance and renewal.
Members of Native Language Programs from throughout California (and
one group from Vancouver BC) came to the LILC to learn about
innovative renewal projects, share strategies for success,
difficulties encountered, and gather with other American Indians who
feel that language revitalization is the foundation of our cultural
survival.
Representatives from about 30 Tribal and community groups gathered to
learn from one another. Many sessions were held to help explain what
different people are doing in their own areas. One session I
attended that particularly intrigued me was on a new gizmo called the
Phrasealator® (www.ndnlanguage.com). These devices show a lot or
promise for helping Tribes document and learn languages. It was
initially developed for field use in enemy territory for the
military. It has been adapted to record Elders saying phrases in
their Tribal languages to be used on a portable device for
individuals to access as needed.
Some Tribes showed videos they have developed where youngsters have
merged their skill with technology and traditional story telling
techniques. Others acted out plays of situational conversations they
have learned. Many talked about the importance of the Master-
Apprentice program and how it has positively impacted the growth of
language learning through one on one exposure. Sometimes the old
technology is still the best.
I did a presentation with the Karuk Language Programs that discussed
our latest efforts at bringing language to the people. After
recently completing a major revision of our Dictionary (http://
corpus.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~karuk/karuk-lexicon.html) the
members of the Karuk language Restoration Committee (KLRC) searched
for a way to make our curriculum and teaching approaches available to
more Karuk people. At nearly 4000 members the Karuk Tribe is the
second largest tribe in California, but many of our people live far
away from our aboriginal territory. With a recently funded three
year grant from the Administration for Native Americans the KLRC is
embarking on a novel Distance Learning program. We are looking to
combine Internet, video, and other hi-tech tools to assist us in
teaching the language to more members.
The LILC was great weekend full of laughter, learning and positive
energy. The comments I heard mainly were that it was a rejuvenating
shot in the arm to reenergize people as they went home to work on the
daunting task of bringing back the language. I heard a quote once
and cannot recall the author but the gist of it was: “if you no
longer speak your language you are not a member of your tribe but
rather a descendent of the people.” The LILC is one of the valuable
tools in helping us maintain that link to our past and keep us all
members.
André Cramblit (andrekar at ncidc.org) is an enrolled member of the
Karuk Tribe of California and is also of Tohono O'odham blood. His
family are traditional dance owners and come from the center of the
Karuk World at Katimíin. He is at present the Operations Director of
the Northern California Indian Development Council (www.ncidc.org), a
non-profit that meets the community development needs of American
Indians throughout California. He is a founding member of the Karuk
Language Restoration Committee and currently serves as Chairman. He
lives with his wife Wendy and children Kyle and Leah in Northern
California and dreams of winning the lottery so he can work on
language restoration full time. http://www.ncidc.org/karuk/index.html
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