Indigenous languages key to cultural identity (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Web posted June 12, 2005

Indigenous languages key to cultural identity
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/061205/opi_20050612023.shtml

[photo inset - Ernestine Hayes, Edge of the Village]

Language and culture are so deeply interrelated that when one is
compromised, the other is profoundly weakened. This truth is
undoubtedly the central reason why punishing indigenous people for
speaking their own languages is an essential step in the colonial
process. When children are taught the name of something that appears in
their world, they learn about that object's importance, and they learn
the nature of their relationship to that thing. Cultural knowledge is
transmitted in the practice of naming some things and ignoring others,
in the custom of speaking of some things with reverence and others with
ridicule, and in the various ways in which things are measured. A
culture is preserved and transmitted to the next generation by teaching
children how to define and how to enter their world.

Language does not only express a thought, it contributes to formation of
that thought. Measurement of time is a clear example of this principle.
In many indigenous cultures, time is fluid and divided into relatively
unstructured components. In European-based cultures, however, time is
divided into countable sections, and when the natural reality cannot be
dismissed, adjustments such as leap year are made as though they are a
reasonable step in a rational process. As far as concepts of time are
concerned, members of indigenous cultures traditionally rise in the
morning, eat when they feel hunger, and go to bed when they feel the
need for sleep. On the other hand, members of minute-counting cultures
traditionally rise at the hour the alarm is set to go off, eat at noon
and at six o'clock, and go to bed after the 11 p.m. news. This
seemingly superficial lifestyle inconsistency expresses a difference in
perception that begins when children are learning to talk and are taught
the words for time.

Our everyday language is steeped in the standards and mores of the
prevailing culture. In the English language, this fact is clearly
demonstrated by such expressions as "white lie," "white hat," and
similar terms that symbolize good, and "blackball," "blackmail," and
similar terms that symbolize the opposite. Such cultural messages are
so embedded that they are hardly noticed. That is the function of
culture and of language: to communicate values at implicit levels and
to shape our perception of and relation to everything in our world.

The Native languages of Southeast Alaska are among the world's most
endangered. The grandparents of Alaska Natives who are college-age
today were punished for speaking their Native language. Few young
people speak their Native language today, and the languages are not
generally being taught in the home as a child's mother tongue. The
situation is desperate, and little time is left in which to save these
beautiful languages that express an extraordinary way to see our world.

Language programs are offered by various Native entities in Southeast
Alaska. Goldbelt Corporation and Sealaska Corporation both have
programs that encourage and support Native languages, as no doubt other
Native corporations also do at formal and casual levels. Those programs
demonstrate the commitment of Native leaders and decision makers to
preserve and revitalize this fundamental expression of culture.

Elementary, intermediate, and advanced Tlingit, as well as elementary
Haida, appear on the fall schedule of classes at the University of
Alaska Southeast. These classes will be taught by Native language
speakers who are not only fluent in the language but who also
understand the worldview communicated by the language: the syntax and
grammar, the cultural references, the embedded subtexts. These teachers
are familiar with the importance of community and respect, they
recognize the significance of ceremony, and they value both tradition
and transformation. They are sure to provide a meaningful learning
experience to Native and to non-Native students.

It is important to show support for language programs at the university
level. The indigenous language program at our local university can help
save a way of expressing the world. Sign up for a class today.

• Ernestine Hayes is assistant professor of English at the University of
Alaska Southeast, and a member of the Wolf House of the Kaagwaantaan
clan.