Language Fair strives to save dying languages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Language Fair strives to save dying languages
Efforts to support traditional speakers
http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=4421

SANTE FE NM
5/11/2004

On May 15, the Fifth Native Youth Language Fair and Poster Contest will
honor living languages and the young people who are keeping them alive.
The Youth Language Fair will begin at 10 a.m. in the gymnasium of the
Santa Fe Indian School and will feature young people performing,
singing or conversing in their original Tribal languages. Additionally,
children and teens will draw posters and comic strips to illustrate
this year’s theme, “Learning from Our Elders.”

The fair is the brainchild of the Santa Fe-based Indigenous Language
Institute (ILI), which serves as a national center that supports Tribes
around the country in preserving original languages. Of the 300
languages that existed when Columbus came to the Americas, it’s
estimated that only 175 survive, with only 50 being learned by
children. If the situation does not change in the next 50 years, only
20 languages could survive.

The Youth Language Fair recognizes young people who are helping to
preserve their original language and culture. It is open for children
preschool to 19 years of age.

Back for the fifth time as master of ceremonies will be actor Wes Studi,
a Cherokee speaker and star of PBS’ hit mysteries, “Thief of Time” and
“Skinwalkers.”

The language fair started small with just a handful of children
participating and grew to more than 200 children taking part in
language presentations in 2002, and some 450 participating in the
language fair, poster contest and powwow.

However, as donations to nonprofits dried up around the country, the ILI
had to halt the language fair in 2003 because it had no money to stage
the popular event, said director Inee Yang Slaughter.

“Those were tough times,” Slaughter said. “But we have a renewed vision
and solid seed money to put on the fair, so we are back stronger than
ever.”

The language fair has attracted participants from as far away as North
Carolina, and also has given birth to language fairs in other parts of
the country, including the Oneida and Comanche nations.