Restoration of a native tongue (fwd)

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Restoration of a native tongue
http://www.marionstar.com/news/stories/20030601/localnews/404504.html

KENTON -- Imagine having to depend on someone of another race to help
you speak in your native tongue.

For Georgia Adams, wife of Mingo Chief Mike Adams, that's a reality.
It's also the reason behind a massive effort to restore a language
rapidly in danger of becoming extinct.

Adams is working with Bowling Green State University linguist Sheri
Wells-Jensen and her husband Jason Jensen on a project funded by a
$5,000 BGSU Partnerships for Community Action grant. The project aims
to re-introduce as many Mingos to the language as possible.

"Our Mingo people have been praying for a long time that we can get our
language back," said Adams, who works with her husband to re-forge
communications between the widely dispersed tribal members. "This
particular project makes it possible by finding ways to put language
back in the hands of the people."

The project came about with the help of linguist Jordan Lachler, who
spent 10 years learning the Mingo language from Thomas McElwain of West
Virginia. McElwain, one of fewer than five fluent speakers left,
learned it from his grandmother.

The Jordans meet weekly at Bowling Green with graduate students and as
many Mingos as can attend to study the language. They are preparing to
hold a language immersion camp and train a small group of Mingo Indians
in June who will be "language keepers," given the task of sharing their
knowledge with other members of the tribe.

The language will be passed on through music and games, through the use
of Mingo stories written and recorded by McElwain about a character
called Rabbit. The key, Wells-Jensen said, is to make it fun.

The process is made difficult because of the complexity of the sounds,
which include double vowels, glottal stops and nasal sounds. The syntax
is also different with no adjectives and the ability of one word to
express many qualities such as male, female, single or multiple.

The group also struggles with the concept of teaching it to a native
group living in contemporary society, where the language will not be
widely used. "It's very frustrating because in order for a language to
be alive, to be used, it really must be relevant to what you do," said
Adams, who said this lessens the motivation to learn the language.
"This learning, it's a great struggle. It's frustrating we can't have
it quicker.

"It feels unfair in a way, inaccessible. It's so important to understand
who we are."

The Mingo Indians, who split off from the Iroquois Six Nations, migrated
into the Ohio country in the mid-1700s and built homes along the banks
of the Scioto River. Members later dispersed under pressure of settlers
and militia who attacked their homes and killed their families, forcing
many to flee or take refuge with Christian and Amish families who would
shelter them.

Many hid their native identities in the early 1800s for fear of removal
to reservations. According to McElwain's research, the trend continued
into the latter half of the 19th century as a result of the Indian wars
of the western United States. The exception was Mingos using it as a
means of communication with the Seneca Indians who set up a lumber
trade in Pittsburgh and drew Mingos who came from the surrounding areas
of Ohio and West Virginia to sell barrel hoops.

"Mingo didn't quietly disappear because people thought English was
better," said Adams. "It was forced out of people. Folks here a couple
generations ago were forced into boarding schools" and punished for
speaking their language.

The project is receiving strong support from the tribe, even though some
older members concede it will be the younger ones who learn Mingo and
keep it alive. "When you go out and hear your tongue spoken, it's
unbelievable," said Sandra Marshall, known by her Native American name
Moon Shadow.

Wells-Jensen said Mingo shares traits of other indigenous languages that
are in danger of becoming extinct. She estimates that if nothing's
done, 93 percent of the 6,300 languages spoken on Earth will be gone
within 100 years.

It's a phenomenon that she said linguists have just become aware of
during the last 20 years. It also puts Wells-Jensen, who's usually in
the position of teaching English as a secondary language to migrant
workers, in a scenario where she's actually teaching an indigenous
language to a group of people who know English.

Wells-Jensen said both projects have the same goal, community building.
"To me teaching language is peace making, bringing people closer
together," she said. "If you teach the dominant language to people who
don't have it, you have a responsibility to do the opposite. We can't
afford to lose it."

When asked, she admitted there is a sense of irony to American Indians
having to rely on others to pass on their own language, especially a
language suppressed by white colonists and boarding schools.

"It's our responsibility as human beings to take care of one another,"
she said. "We can't undo what our ancestors have done. But because of
what they've done, we have a responsibility to make things better."

Reporter Kurt Moore: 740-375-5151 or kdmoore at nncogannett.com

Originally published Sunday, June 1, 2003