Oneida Nation makes plan to help members learn Oneida (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Posted on Sun, Apr. 11, 2004
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/8409203.htm

Oneida Nation makes plan to help members learn Oneida
Associated Press

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Oneida Nation is planning to sign a charter this
week outlining a broad language immersion strategy in an attempt to
help preserve their dying language.

"Our language defines our culture and its important we remember our
language and our culture," said Brian A. Doxtator, a member of the
Oneida Language Charter Team that developed the plan to help members
become fluent in the Oneida language.

The team consists of 13 members, two of which are serving on the Oneida
Language Revitalization Program and others from the nations human
resources, gaming, education and administrative branches.

As called for by the charter, the Oneida Nation has hired a linguist
fluent in the Oneida and Mohawk languages who can assist tribal members
in learning the Oneida language.

Oneida culture outlines a formula for remembering history while making
decisions for the future.

"We have to look back seven generations to see what our people did,"
said Dr. Carol Cornelius, area manager of the Oneida Cultural Heritage
Department.

She said today's decisions are made with an eye toward the interests of
tribal members seven generations from now.

The charter's objective, in accord with Oneida culture, states that in
seven generations the Oneida people and the Oneida organization will
speak the Oneida language, Cornelius said.

Under the plan, to be signed Wednesday, the Oneida Nation will form a
teacher certification program and the Oneida Business Committee will
send communications to 3,000 government employees informing them the
Oneida language is the tribe's official language.

Long-range objectives to get the nations 15,000 members scattered across
the globe to speak fluent Oneida are on the horizon, Doxtator said.

Members of the Oneida tribe living on or near the reservation near Green
Bay number 5,000.

The charter team is a tool to expand bilingual learning, an objective
that was present in the establishment of the Oneida Language
Revitalization Program in 1995.

Under the program, elders fluent in the Oneida language teach the
language to younger adults.

The program was initiated after a survey found only 25-30 elders who
learned the Oneida language as their first language were alive.

Lavinia Webster, the first elder in the program, recently died,
Cornelius said.

Now, two of the teachers, at the ages of 82 and 85, are working 20 hours
a week with the program, Cornelius said.