American Indians Say English Only Policy Diminishes Tribal Languages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

American Indians Say English Only Policy Diminishes Tribal Languages

AP - 3/11/2007 12:55 PM - Updated 3/11/2007 12:56 PM
http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=122166

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ As he visits public schools and colleges where his
native Choctaw Indian language is taught, Terry Ragan is as likely to
greet people with ``Halito! Chim achukma?'' as he is with its English
equivalent: ``Good morning! How are you?''

The state's very name is a Choctaw word meaning land of the red people,
and many of Oklahoma's 37 federally recognized tribes are fighting to
save native tongues from extinction years after the end of organized
efforts to stamp out their languages and cultures.

That's why English-only legislation pending in the Oklahoma Legislature
and directed primarily at Hispanic immigrants has been so distasteful
to American Indian leaders in this, Oklahoma's centennial year.

The bill points up divisions that continue to exist more than a century
after Indians were force-marched to the state and given land, only to
see it taken away by settlers _ an event re-enacted every year by
schoolchildren across the state.

``If you go to English only, what are we going to call the state of
Oklahoma?'' said Ragan, a former school superintendent and director of
the Choctaw Nation's language program. ``Even town names in the state
will have to be named differently.

``With that type of thinking, we're going to have to change a whole lot
of things.''

Supporters of English-only legislation say it could eventually end
bilingual state government documents, such as driver's license tests,
and force Latino and Asian immigrants to learn English and assimilate
into American society.

English-only legislation has been adopted in 28 states and measures are
pending in 12 states, said Rob Toonkel, director of communications for
U.S. English, Inc. of Washington, D.C. A similar measure has been filed
in Congress.

The national English only movement does not want to deprive American
Indians of their native languages but is aimed at standardizing
government documents into a single language as a symbol of unity for
immigrant populations.

``It's very much an assimilation issue,'' Toonkel said. ``We should make
sure they become part of the country.''

But assimilation is a charged word for many American Indians, whose
ancestors were forced from their traditional lands and sent on the
Trail of Tears in the 19th century.

English-only restrictions were imposed in what was then known as Indian
Territory to expunge tribal languages and culture, said Kirke
Kickingbird, an Oklahoma City attorney and member of the Kiowa tribe.

``That whole era was really about assimilation,'' he said.

Indian men were forced to cut their hair and change their clothes and
Indian children were herded off to boarding schools away from the
influence of their parents.

Even the unassigned lands set aside for Indian tribes were eventually
carved up for settlement in land runs beginning in 1889, events that
led to Oklahoma's statehood in 1907.

Every year, school children throughout the state dress up as pioneers
and stage pretend land runs to learn about the state's history.

Organizers of a year-long centennial celebration said it would unite
Oklahomans, but some tribal leaders said they feel alienated.

``We're just not going to celebrate it in our nation,'' said A.D. Ellis,
principal chief of the 55,000-thousand-member Muscogee Nation.

``I think they should respect the Indian people of Oklahoma,'' Ellis
said. ``They should respect that part we played in making the state of
Oklahoma. This is a native American state.''

Chad Smith, chief of the 250,000-thousand member Cherokee Nation, the
largest American Indian tribe in the United States, said the state's
image is harmed when cultural differences are not embraced.

``There's a message sent to those outside of Oklahoma that we're
intolerant, we're colloquial and we want to isolate ourselves from the
rest of the world,'' Smith said.

``To our tribes it says that if there's an official language, your
language is secondary and all other languages are secondary,'' said
Smith, who has also been an outspoken critic of use of Indian mascots
and names by athletic teams.

Bill Anoatubby, governor of the 38,000-member Chickasaw Nation, said
language is a fundamental aspect of any culture.

``Oklahoma is a unique state born from and formed by a variety of
cultures,'' Anoatubby said. ``The English only bill ignores the very
fabric that makes up the framework of what is Oklahoma.''

Wyman Kirk, a member of the Cherokee tribe and director of a four-year
degree program in the Cherokee language at Northeastern State
University in Tahlequah, Okla., said he believes the English only
proposal is a waste of politicians' time.

``We don't have to worry about people not learning English,'' Kirk said.

Supporters point out that the legislation includes language to prevent
it from interfering with the teaching or learning of American Indian
languages. But critics said a government policy on language could
impede efforts to revive tribal languages.

The Intertribal Wordpath Society, a nonprofit group based in Norman,
Okla., estimates that only about 9,000 people are fluent in the
Cherokee language and 4,000 in the Choctaw language.

Fewer than a dozen people are fluent in other American Indian languages,
including those of the Osage, Pawnee and Chiricahua Apache tribes,
according to the group.

Kirk said that lack of understanding, or ``uhnigvga'' in Cherokee, may
be at the heart of the policy.

``Anything new tends to scare people,'' Kirk said. ``If anything, I
think people probably need to be exposed to more languages.''

Alice Anderton, a former linguist at the University of Oklahoma and
executive director of the Intertribal Wordpath Society, said a
xenophobic fear that immigrants will somehow change society may be to
blame for the policy.

``We feel it's fine for everyone to speak English, but its also
important for people to speak other languages,'' Anderton said. She
said English only policies are divisive and exclude people from other
cultures.

``This whole idea of English uniting us is bogus,'' Anderton said. ``The
truth is people are divided by a thousand things _ different politics,
different religions.''

``We have absolutely nothing against English. It's great if people speak
English,'' she said. ``But it's great if people speak English plus some
other language of heritage.''