Beloved language preservationist dies (fwd)

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Beloved language preservationist dies
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040406-102216.shtml

Associated Press

RUIDOSO -- Berle Kanseah, a longtime Apache tribal council member and
language preservationist who helped Tommy Lee Jones learn Chiricahua in
the film, "The Missing," died here early Monday of cancer.

Kanseah, 65, had undergone surgery last month and died in a local
hospital Monday with a large group of his relatives and friends around
him, said Daniel Ostroff, producer of "The Missing" and a friend of
Kanseah who was also at the hospital with the family.

"He was a leader of the Chiricahua Apaches on the Mescalero
reservation," said Scott Rushforth, a New Mexico State University
anthropology professor who also worked on "The Missing," which was
directed by Ron Howard.

Kanseah had been a member of the Mescalero tribal council for over 30
years. Chiricahuas have lived with the Mescaleros ever since ending
their imprisonment with Geronimo in 1913.

"Among (Berle Kanseah's) last messages to the people was the importance
of Apache cultural and linguistic heritage. He recommended to the
people that they maintain their traditional ways," Rushforth said.

Kanseah was the grandson of Jasper Kanseah, the youngest warrior in the
Naiche-Geronimo band of Chiricahuas, who was with Geronimo and Naiche
when they surrendered in 1886 and was deported with them to Florida.

With Kanseah's death, Ostroff said, "we have lost a whole library. ...
Berle embodied the best human values, which are the traditional Apache
values of humility, generosity and family."

For "The Missing," Kanseah had been a technical adviser helping actors,
including Jones, learn the Chiricahua language. Only about 300 people
still speak it, said Apache scholars.

"There's a generation gap that's growing," Kanseah told the Associated
Press last year. "We need to enforce the home and not lose our way of
life, which is our language."

Funeral arrangements were pending with the LaGrone Funeral Chapel in
Ruidoso.

Copyright © 2001 El Paso Times.