Language STruggle

[Andre Cramblit]

 Tribes struggle to keep languages alive  As population ages, the spoken
word of Indian ancestors is beginning to die off

By Doug Abrahms Desert Sun Washington Bureau May 26th, 2003

WASHINGTON -- The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians had to hire an outside
linguist last year to help preschoolers learn the Luiseno language because
the only native speakers left in the tribe were in their 70s and 80s.

"We can~Rt use them as resources because they~Rre too frail," said Gary
DuBois, director of the Temecula tribe~Rs cultural resources program. "We~Rre
running against time."

The Pechangas are spending $200,000 from their casino profits to fund a
preschool language-immersion program that they plan to expand into
kindergarten, and perhaps to later grades. Fewer than 10 of the tribe~Rs
1,500 members speak Luiseno.

The Pechangas~R situation is typical for California tribes, said Leanne
Hinton, chairwoman of the University of California at Berkeley linguistics
department. More than 85 native languages were once spoken in the Golden
State. Today, 35 languages have no native speakers and each of the other 50
are only spoken by a handful, she said.

"Here in California we have 50 languages ... almost all of them are spoken
by people over 60," Hinton said. "As soon as the kids stop speaking it,
essentially it~Rs a dead language."

Many American Indians and educators worry that tribes throughout the nation
are in a race against time to save their languages -- a vital part of
American Indian culture -- before they die off with tribal elders.
Consider:

 A 1997 study by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians found 3 percent of
children under 6 could speak the language.

 Only an estimated 2,000 Ojibwes, or Chippewas, out of more than 100,000 in
the United States speak the language.

 About 80 percent of the nation~Rs 175 existing Indian languages will
disappear in the next generation if nothing is done because the vast
majority of speakers are older than 60, according to one study.

But tribes are taking steps to revive their languages, with the help of
funds from gambling or the government. Some tribes are spending their
casino profits on preschools where children are immersed in their native
tongue. And Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has sponsored a bill to provide
more funds to language-immersion schools.

Language revitalization started in the 1970s in Hawaii, where the Aha
Punanan Leo language organization brought together preschoolers with island
elders. The children then were moved into language-immersion schools.
Members of the first senior class, who speak both Hawaiian and English,
graduated in 1999.

Federal funds could help

Inouye~Rs bill would provide roughly $10 million a year to help fund private
school efforts to teach Indian languages and provide money for teacher
training. Inouye has introduced similar legislation in previous
congressional sessions that failed to pass.

Congress passed legislation in the early 1990s that funded language
revitalization programs but these short-term grants leave programs in a
constant hunt for funds, said Mary Hermes, an education professor at the
University of Minnesota in Duluth. She also is a board member and parent at
the Waadookodaading Ojibwe language-immersion school in Hayward, Wis.

American Indians blame the government for eradicating their languages by
pushing them off their lands, removing children to English-speaking
boarding schools, and barring them from talking in school in their native
tongue. Governments in New Zealand and Canada have acknowledged their roles
in eradicating native languages and have provided funding to tribes, Hermes
said.

"It is really the responsibility of the government that we~Rre in this
situation," Hermes said. "We~Rre not asking for money because of the harm
suffered. We~Rre asking for efforts to revitalize our language."

Reasons to save languages

Cindy LaMarr heads Capitol Area Indian Resources, a nonprofit group in
Sacramento that offers cultural and academic programs for area Indian
youth. She believes bringing back the languages that American Indians have
used for centuries to pass on their culture and history will give Indian
children more confidence and a better education. LaMarr, president-elect of
the National Indian Education Association, said few studies have been done
on the relatively new language-immersion schools to back up her belief.

"To me, it~Rs pretty much a no-brainer: If you feel good about your culture
and identity, then you will feel better about yourself," said LaMarr. Her
parents were taken from the Pit River reservation in northern California to
boarding schools in Riverside and Carson City, Nev.

"Language is essential to the continuance of our cultural and spiritual
traditions and is an acknowledgement of our gift from the great creator,"
she said.

Torres Martinez in Thermal

California Indian groups might seek legislation to help fund
language-immersion schools, she said, because the state~Rs tribes have so
few native speakers left.

Some California tribes have started master-apprentice programs where a
native speaker teaches an instructor who then can teach classes. But those
programs can be difficult, even when you~Rre learning the language from your
mother.

Faith Morreo, language program coordinator at the Torres Martinez tribe in
Thermal, was part of a group that met with her mom, Tina, several times a
week to learn Cahuilla. But it was difficult fitting the classes into daily
life, Morreo said.

"We started out with a big group," she said, "but we got burned out."

The Torres Martinez tribe, which has 14 native speakers among its 600
members, hopes to start a day-care center next fall that will include some
teaching of Cahuilla, she said.