Preserving Native American Languages (fwd)

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Preserving Native American Languages

KOTV - 10/27/2006 10:23 AM - Updated 10/27/2006 4:01 PM
http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=113231

Imagine being the last person on the planet who speaks your language.
It's hard to picture with something as common as English, but that's
exactly what elders of many Oklahoma Indian tribes are potentially
facing. With native speakers of many tribal languages dying off, there
is a growing fear that the words will die with them. News on 6 reporter
Heather Lewin has more on one local effort to save history.

Members of the Euchee Nation are learning the ancient language of their
people. 82-year old Henry Washburn is not only the one person in a room
who speaks fluent Euchee. He's the only man left in the world. "I'm the
only man. It doesn't feel too good to me. I wish there was others."

He says Euchee dates back before recorded memory, it was his first
language as a child. "The Euchee people came here in what you call the
removal days on the Trail of Tears." After forced relocation by the US
government, the Euchee way of life, like many other tribes, slowly
began to die. "A lot of our tribe went to the government school years
ago and they were punished for speaking their own language."

But the Euchee Language Project is bringing it back. Richard Grounds
with the Euchee Language Project: "We feel like this is the most
critical issue in Indian Country. What we lose is an enormous amount of
knowledge, irreplaceable knowledge, knowledge that's only carried in the
language."

Knowledge that was never written down because Euchee is an oral
tradition without an alphabet. The project uses letters familiar to
English speakers to help them make the proper sounds, but organizers
say a Euchee alphabet is not the goal. Richard Grounds: “Sometimes the
written form is almost like a barrier because people are trying to say
it, to pronounce it syllable by syllable and the rhythm’s gone, the
music's gone."

Grounds is also making digital recordings with Washburn to preserve the
proper sound. Washburn spends every day at the center helping preserve
the past. Henry Washburn: "It really makes me feel good because they're
here to learn and they should learn, if they don't the language will be
all gone."