Grants fund program preserving tribal languages (fwd)

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Thursday, October 27, 2005

Grants fund program preserving tribal languages

Thursday, October 27, 2005
http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=45184&TM=81931.56

[Inez Reeves coached Jeremiah Farrow on the Umatilla dialect for two
years. Now Farrow is learning the Walla Walla dialect as part of the
Master-Apprentice Program from two other elders. Staff photo by Kathy
Aney]

MISSION Jeremiah Farrow and Linda Sampson have become human sponges.

The pair spends at least five hours each day soaking in language lessons
in a quest to prevent one of their tribes languages from going extinct.
The pair studies with native speakers who are well into their 80s.

Of the 2,525 members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, only 44 remaining elders speak the three native languages
fluently. But things are changing.

The tribe received grants totaling $585,000 from the Nathan and Violet
David Foundation, the Lannan Foundation and the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services for Native Americans to preserve the tribal
languages, Umatilla, Cayuse/Nez Perce and Walla Walla. In addition to
the Master-Apprentice teams, students at Nixyaawii School receive
language instruction. At the end of three years, apprentices may become
licensed as teachers of the Cayuse/Nez Perce, Umatilla and Walla Walla
languages.

Farrow and Sampson are passionate about bringing their native languages
back from the brink.

There are only a handful of speakers left, Farrow said. To lose it in
our generation would be bad.

Its been the best year of my life, the most enlightened, Sampson said.
Its opened my eyes.

Both apprentices chose the Walla Walla dialect for study since its the
closest to extinction and the least documented of the three. Other
apprentices are studying the other two dialects.

Both Farrow and Sampson gave up their jobs to join the program. Sampson
taught Head Start classes and Farrow worked at Tamastslikt running the
front desk and working with artifacts.

Farrow has already spent seven or eight years laboring to learn all
three dialects by attending language classes at Tamastslikt and working
with master speaker Inez Reeves to learn the Umatilla language.

Reeves, 80, is a short, round woman with a bright smile and an intense
desire to see her native languages flourish. She remembers speaking the
Umatilla dialect since she and her two brothers were small children.

There was no English speaking allowed at home, she said. My mother,
father and my aunt talked the Umatilla language, so we had to learn.

When it came time to raise her own two children, she required them to
learn the language as well. Reeves has tutored three apprentices,
including Farrow for two years.

Jeremiah is a good student, she said.

Eventually, Farrow started feeling intense wear and tear on his brain
and decided to devote his time to only one language for a while.

It was information overload, so I started focusing on the Walla Walla
dialect, he said. Its the closest to extinction.

The Nathan and Violet David Foundation paid $30,000 to fund a pilot
project where Farrow and Sampson would learn the Walla Walla language
from master speakers Edith McCloud and Cecelia Bearchum. Other grant
money will allow the pair to study for about two years.

Sampson and Farrow carry journals and tape recorders with them wherever
they go to capture words, definitions and proper usage. A dictionary
listing the languages collected words doesnt exist yet, though Tribal
Linquist Noel Rude is creating one.

The training is rigorous. Some of the guttural sounds are hard to
reproduce. The language uses four vowels and 34 consonants and verbs
that have 33 different tenses.

Its rich in morphology, Farrow said.

The journals also contain photos taken on a number of treks to the woods
where the master teachers identify important plants used in Indian
dishes and medicines. Together, they baked bread from the root of the
coush plant and made medicinal preparations.

There are parts of the culture you just dont understand unless you know
the language,

Four mornings each week, Farrow and Sampson help McCloud and Bearchum
teach high school language classes at Nixyaawii School. Students may
choose any one of the three languages for study. Sampson looks to the
program to spark renewed interest in learning tribal languages,
something she believes is crucial.

Every tribe has the same goal  keeping their language going, she said.
You can preserve it, but youve got to transfer it to your kids.