UNL professor aims to rescue disappearing Omaha language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

UNL professor aims to rescue disappearing Omaha language

By Travis Coleman
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/08/25/local/10054256.txt

Adorned with several Native books and Omaha beadwork, the office of Mark
Awakuni-Swetland has two photographs prominently displayed:

Those of Charles and Elizabeth Stabler, his adoptive grandparents from
the Omaha Tribe.

"(They) made a place for me in this community," Awakuni-Swetland said.

Awakuni-Swetland, a non-Native, now fights to preserve the Omaha
language as aprofessor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

When taken in by his adoptive family and the Omaha Tribe, he was
introduced to the Omaha language and culture at community events,
ceremonies and the dinner table.

"(The culture is) fed to you as much as the food."

He and Omaha elders and instructors are trying to reverse 150 years of
loss - of language, of culture, of people.

Awakuni-Swetland said the language of the Omaha began to fade when they
were moved onto the reservation in 1855. Missionary and boarding
schools carefully watched the Omaha people.

"They routinely punished children for behaving in any Native custom,"
including speaking the language, he said.

An entire generation lived in fear of its own culture and made the
decision to pass down English, not Omaha, to their children, he said.

During the 1940s, few children were taught Omaha. Those who did learn
the language often were told by their non-Native teachers that speaking
Omaha was a bad thing.

"We've seen the impact of the mainstream educational system, which has
routinely denigrated nonmainstream culture," he said.

Awakuni-Swetland learned the language in 1971, when he took an Omaha
language course in Lincoln taught by his adoptive grandmother,
Elizabeth Stabler.

The class began with 20 students, most of them university age.

Within three weeks, all of the students except Awakuni-Swetland had
dropped out.

"The fact that I showed an interest in the language made me acceptable,"
Awakuni-Swetland said.

He helped Stabler compile a limited dictionary of Omaha vocabulary,
published in 1977.

Twenty-seven years later, the work, Umonhon iyea of Elizabeth Stabler,
is still used as a source book at Omaha Nation Public Schools in Macy.

Stabler's husband, Charles - a Native American Church "roadman," or
minister - introduced Awakuni-Swetland to the Omaha Tribe. He was
formally adopted into the tribe in 1977, after Charles Stabler had
asked permission from several members.

In August 1999, he was asked to come to UNL to teach an Omaha language
class. After asking permission of the tribal council, elders and other
Omaha, he began teaching four years ago.

"The majority (of Omaha) were in favor of the language being taught
here," Awakuni-Swetland said. "(They thought it would be) a good
opportunity for non-Indians to learn about the early inhabitants of the
state - as well as a welcoming environment for their own children
coming here."

He is in the same position his grandmother was more than 30 years ago:
trying to pass an endangered language to the next generation.

"The students have been generally pleased," Awakuni-Swetland said. "But
the students who have been most difficult (to teach) have been the
Omaha students."

Some Omaha feel pressure to get good grades and absorb their cultural
language in the distinctly non-Native environment of a college
classroom. Their families push them to learn it instead at home, with
other tribe members, from their elders.

Awakuni-Swetland enjoys having people of all cultures in his classes.
His goal is to "show students how they can be exposed to a culture
that's not theirs - so they can come to understand it and co-exist with
it," he said.

"And in the end, become a better human being."

Reach Travis Coleman at 473-7211 or tcoleman@;journalstar.com.