Learning the language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Learning the language

© Indian Country Today November 01, 2005. All Rights Reserved
Posted: November 01, 2005
by: Staff Reports / Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411838

[Photo courtesy University of Wyoming -- Wayne C'Hair (right), from the
Wind River Indian Reservation, and Skott Vigil, a University of Wyoming
graduate student from Berthoud, Colo., chat informally at a weekly
after-class gathering. C'Hair, who at age 60 is thought to be the
youngest fluent Northern Arapaho speaker, teaches Northern Arapaho
language at UW.]
Language course preserves Northern Arapaho culture

LARAMIE, Wyo. - More than a dozen University of Wyoming students, their
family members and friends sit outside on a pleasant Friday night in
September. They eat their fill of traditional American Indian foods and
swap stories of their upbringings, career goals, and even Dallas Cowboy
football. It doesn't feel like it, but they are in a class.

The Wyoming Council for the Humanities, and additional financial support
from the College of Arts and Sciences and the American Indian Studies
Program, have enabled UW this year to offer eight credit hours of
Northern Arapaho language instruction through the Department of Modern
and Classical Languages.

Course instructor Wayne C'Hair travels from the Wind River Indian
Reservation to Laramie to teach the class for eight consecutive
weekends the first half of each semester. Students go to class for four
hours on Fridays and then have a meal together which they all prepare
and share. The class meets for an additional 3.5 hours Saturday
mornings.

Northern Arapaho was offered in 2003, but its new association with the
language department means that when completed with a grade ''C'' or
above, the class now fulfills the College of Arts and Sciences' foreign
language requirement.

''We support this type of course,'' said Klaus Hanson, former languages
department head. ''This certainly represents a new opportunity for
interested students, who now can learn a foreign language that is in
fact much 'closer' in significance to Wyoming students in particular.''

Jenny Ingram, WCH publications and development coordinator, agreed and
noted that the grant committee felt the relationship added strength to
the program.

According to Ingram, the grant proposal, submitted by AIS Program
Director Judy Antell, was a perfect fit for a narrow WCH grant line
earmarked for language preservation projects in Wyoming involving
Wyoming Indian languages.

The funds for the grant were generated from a 1994 project between the
Arapaho Nation and Walt Disney Company. The unlikely pair teamed up to
dub the animated classic ''Bambi'' into Northern Arapaho and
distributed videotapes throughout the reservation. The profits were
given back to the Arapaho Nation to help continue language preservation
efforts.

''Combined with the two other language preservation grants WCH awarded
this

summer, we have now expended all the funds for the grant line, so we are
no longer in the 'Bambi' business,'' Ingram said. ''But we hope this
grant will serve as seed money for the Northern Arapaho language
program and spark interest for future sources of funding.''

Class member Yolanda Hvizdak, an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho
Nation studying women's and American Indian studies at UW, said she is
thankful for the course and hopes the university is able to offer it
every year.

''I think it's important for us to have that connection while we're here
going to school - to still be able to stay in touch with our culture and
our traditions.

''Hopefully we can learn our language and be able to speak it and
communicate with our elders. We need to go back home and teach it to
our little ones so they don't lose it. The language is almost gone.
It's up to our generation to bring it back.''

C'Hair is trying to help his people do just that. He cites new
technology introduced to the reservation 40 years ago as the reason for
the decline in the Native language.

''When I was a kid, I would go to my grandma and grandpa's house and
grandma would cook us something like frybread or a berry gravy. Then
we'd form a circle and she would tell us these Arapaho legends and we
would use our imagination,'' he explained. ''But then later on, when
electricity and television came to the homes, the kids, they put the
language and the culture aside for what they thought was more
exciting.''

C'Hair, who at age 60 is thought to be the youngest person fluent in
Northern Arapaho, said that without the language, Arapaho people are in
danger of losing their cultural identities because the two are
inseparable.

''The language is who you are. If you speak Arapaho, you are Arapaho.
You speak Shoshone, you are Shoshone. It is very important that our
kids get their language back because they are not complete without
it,'' he said.

Northern Arapaho language is taught at the three reservation schools,
and C'Hair, an Arapaho elder who teaches Arapaho language and culture
at Central Wyoming College, the Wind River Tribal College and St.
Stephens Indian School, is happy to have the opportunity to teach the
class at UW.

''I want our kids to bring the language back, and keep it going, but I
also want non-Native students and people at UW to be aware that the
language is still spoken and to try and understand our way of life.
Arapahos are still here and this was our land at one time,'' he said.

Both Native and non-Native students should benefit from the class, which
aims to reflect and preserve the culture of the Arapaho Nation,
according

to Antell.

''Language is a vital expression of culture and this project promotes
cultural learning through the use of traditional stories, songs, games
and expressions of the Arapaho people,'' Antell said, noting the
dinners provide a perfect opportunity to add depth to the classroom
experience.

Hvizdak agreed, saying, ''One of the things we do back home is eat
together. This is really good that we have this sense of community.
That really means a lot, because this is how it would be if we were
back at home.''