Bush Signs `Esther Martinez' Bill (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Bush Signs `Esther Martinez' Bill

Written by Bruce Daniels - ABQnewsSeeker
Thursday, 14 December 2006
http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1914&Itemid=2

Native Languages Preservation Act named for Tewa storyteller killed in
Sept.

A bill that will create more language restoration programs for Native
American families and language immersion programs for Native American
young people has been signed into law by President George W. Bush,
members of New Mexico's congressional delegation announced in a joint
news release.

The Esther Martinez Native Languages Preservation Act -- named for the
Ohkay Owingeh storyteller and linguist Esther Martinez, killed in a car
crash in September as she returned from being honored in Washington,
D.C. -- was introduced by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., as a way to
assist the survival of native languages.

The bill passed the House in September and was approved in the Senate
earlier this month with the support of the entire New Mexico
delegation, the release said.

Only about 20 of more than 300 pre-colonial indigenous languages are
expected to remain by the year 2050, the release said. As of 1996, some
175 of those languages remained but are being lost at an estimated rate
of 12 languages every three years.

Martinez had just received a National Heritage Fellowship award in
Washington when she was killed in a car crash in Espanola on her way
home to Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, according to earlier reports . She was 94
years old.

A 44-year-old Nambe man, Jaime Martinez-Gonzalez, was the driver of the
other vehicle and was arrested at St. Vincent Hospital where he was
being treated for injuries he received in the crash and charged with
involuntary manslaughter, according to earlier news reports .

Espanola police found an empty bottle of tequila on the passenger-side
floor of Martinez-Gonzalez's pickup truck and officers smelled a strong
odor of alcohol coming from both the driver and the inside of the truck.