How Maria Hinton has kept her culture alive (fwd)

[Phil Cash Cash]

How Maria Hinton has kept her culture alive
One of the last native-speaking elders takes a look back

By Monique Balas
News-Chronicle
http://www.gogreenbay.com/page.html?article=120912

Her Oneida name is "She Remembers."

A more fitting name for Oneida Nation elder Maria Hinton would be hard
to find, for it is thanks to Hinton that the Oneidas can remember, too:
Their stories, their language, their culture.

One of only 20 remaining native-speaking elders in the Oneida Nation
("Maybe less, maybe less," she mused as she thought about those who
have since passed), Hinton, 93, spoke recently about what it means to
learn those things that need to be remembered.

"Oneida language is culture. It's just our way," she said. "It all goes
together. You don't say, 'I'm teaching your culture,' you're teaching
the language. That's the way I feel."

Prim but with plenty of spunk, the Oneida matriarch was raised by her
grandmother and didn't learn English until she was 10. "She remembers"
were the instructional words Hinton's grandmother would say when Hinton
was supposed to be learning.

"When I was growing up, and my grandmother used to teach me things, she
didn't say, 'Now, this is culture, now this is the language.' She just
taught me."

So it was an odd twist of fate that Hinton would be named "She
Remembers" in Canada, at the age of 46.

Over the next 40 years, Hinton would grow into that name and make it her
own.

When a movement in the 1970s for Oneidas to get back in touch with their
linguistic roots starting from the elementary-school level, Hinton
would find herself being asked to help.

"Because my brother and I were native speakers, well, then they put
their attention on us," Hinton said.

So in 1973, at the age of 63, the former teacher thought nothing of
going back school to pursue her bachelor's degree in linguistics
through the University of Wisconsin System (she spent two years in
Milwaukee before coming to Green Bay to receive her degree at UWGB in
1979).

That's how she ended up becoming one of the founders and first teachers
at the Oneida Nation Turtle Elementary School, one of 185 Bureau of
Indian Affairs-funded schools nationwide that integrates native
American language and culture into the primary school curriculum, said
Sheri Mousseau, school administrator of the Oneida Nation School
System.

When they opened the school in 1980, Hinton taught language and culture
to kindergartners and spent some time teaching middle-schoolers as
well; the Turtle School serves children from kindergarten through
eighth grade. Hinton also spent time as a language curriculum developer
at the school, where she taught the Oneida language to teachers.

"A lot of us look to her as a role model and mentor," said Mousseau, who
taught special education in the classroom next to Hinton's and has
known her for more than 20 years.

"With her determination and willingness to mentor, to unconditionally
provide support for anyone who wanted to learn, it's like the passion
that a teacher has for a classroom, she had that passion for teaching
her craft, teaching her language, the Oneida language."

Hinton's ability to remember was a key reason why she, along with her
late brother, Amos Christjohn, was a natural person to ask when the
Oneida Grants Office offered $18,000 for the compilation of an Oneida
dictionary.

The dictionary is one of the Oneida's most tangible representations to
keep the language alive and a valuable tool for linguists.

Hinton and Christjohn worked daily over the course of two years to put
the book together. Now sold at the Turtle School, the reference work is
requested nationally and as far away as Russia.

In addition to the dictionary, Hinton has also put together several
translations of Oneida short stories and is currently working on
another. But for now, she has other concerns to keep her occupied.

Her 30-year-old great-grandson (she has 22 great-grandchildren in all)
is expected to be coming back from Iraq later this month. He has been
deployed there with the U.S. Army for nearly two years and Hinton is
planning a big homecoming celebration at her home.

Although she wishes he weren't in the military, she said he wants to be
there to help people who are less fortunate than he is.

"It makes you feel good to think he has that attitude," Hinton said.