Nearly lost Language

[Andre Cramblit]

Learning an almost lost language
The few Mono Indians remaining who speak their tongue are passing it  
down to children to preserve culture.
By Charles McCarthy / The Fresno Bee
10/14/07 22:24:12
Source: Barbara Burrough
NORTH FORK -- Just uphill from an authentic cedar tepee -- or "nobi"  
in Mono -- four children sat down for a lesson in a language on the  
cusp of being lost.

Volunteer teacher Barbara Burrough, one of the few people left who  
still speaks Mono, held up a cue card with the word "kah-why-you."
"Horse," the youngsters said.
Next was "moo-nah."
"Mule," they said.

Burrough's mother, 81-year-old Gertrude Davis, smiled as she watched  
the recent lesson unfold.

"I speak it, and I have no one to talk to, because no one knows how  
to speak the language or understand it," she said.

In classrooms, Mono cultural sites and private homes in the North  
Fork area, Burrough and a few others are working hard to change that,  
one child at a time.

Before contact with Spanish and English-speaking cultures in the  
1800s, an estimated 5,000 spoke Mono in a territory that stretched  
from the San Joaquin River south to the Kern River. Today, Burrough  
estimates that no more than 17 Mono around North Fork can converse in  
the native tongue -- and not all of them are fluent.

It's unclear how many others outside the North Fork area might still  
know the language.

North Fork Mono Rancheria Tribal Council Treasurer Maryann McGovran's  
son Cody, 13, has been one of Burrough's pupils for about two years.  
She said she isn't fluent in Mono, but she knows a few words.

Preserving the language is important, she said at tribal  
headquarters, because the language reflects the culture.

"It's the heart of our tribe," she said. "It shows who we are and  
what our people are about."

Mono is among 50 Native American languages in California that are  
considered endangered, said Leanne Hinton, professor emeritus in the  
linguistics department at the University of California at Berkeley.  
Another 50 already have disappeared since the early 1800s, she said.

"When you lose a language, it's a symptom of losing a whole culture,"  
said Hinton, who has written three books devoted to endangered  
languages.
But saving a language is no easy task -- especially when so few  
people still speak it.

A nearby tribe -- the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians  
near Coarsegold -- also is trying to save its language. The  
Chukchansi are preserving tribal words and songs with state-of-the- 
art electronic translators inspired by military technology.

Tribal elders demonstrated the device last month. The "Phraselator"  
stores Chukchansi words electronically. When a person speaks into the  
device in English, it responds with the Chukchansi translation.  But  
at $3,000 apiece, the devices aren't in the Mono Rancheria budget --  
at least not yet.
Burrough's sister, North Fork Rancheria tribal vice chairwoman Elaine  
Bethel-Fink, said the Phraselator sounds like something the Mono  
should look into.

"We'd have to find the source of the dollars to do that," Bethel-Fink  
said. The Chukchansi paid for the devices with a federal grant.
Mono tribal officials say the decline of the language -- and  
traditional culture -- began as early as the 1810s with the arrival  
of outside cultures and languages.

A series of broken treaties, land grabs and the integration of much  
North Fork Mono tribal land into the Sierra National Forest left the  
native residents little choice other than to join mining, lumber and  
agricultural economies.

In school, children were discouraged from speaking Mono. As late as  
the 1970s, Native American children in Bureau of Indian Affairs  
boarding schools were punished for speaking their native languages,  
said Andre Cramblit, Northern California Indian Development Council  
operations director and chairman of the Karuk tribal language  
restoration committee.
Burrough said that her family escaped boarding school because her  
grandmother told her children to hide whenever a car came up their  
driveway.

"That's why we were able to hang on to our language," Burrough said.
The North Fork Rancheria Tribal Council does not have the funds for a  
formal program to preserve the Mono language, said council Chairwoman  
Jacquie Davis-Van Huss. The 1,652-member tribe relies on volunteers  
like Burrough and the support of educators who incorporate Mono  
lessons into programs in public schools.

Burrough teaches children as part of its Indian Education Program in  
North Fork Elementary School. Such programs also provide for  
classroom tutoring in subjects other than language and culture for  
Native American kids, Principal Stuart Pincus said.

The California Department of Education lists the North Fork  
Elementary School program as one of eight such programs statewide  
that it sponsors for schools where at least 10% of the students are  
Native American. The courses, intended for children in grades  
kindergarten through fourth, are designed to increase reading,  
language and math skills, along with self-esteem.

Another such effort is being coordinated in Fresno County's Sierra  
Unified School District by Gretchen Cox, the district's community  
liaison for its Indian Education Program. Cox estimated that there  
are about 250 youngsters eligible for Indian education in the district.

Cox blends Mono language instruction into a program that includes  
tutoring at Auberry and Sierra elementary schools, Foothill Middle  
School and Sierra High School, as well as cultural field trips, a  
drum group and a high school Indian Club. There also are homework  
centers at the Cold Spring and Big Sandy rancherias.

Cox said that most of the youngsters she is teaching about Mono  
language and culture already are two generations removed from it. Cox  
has invited parents to a series of Mono classes starting in November.

"It's important to know where you came from ... to have that sense of  
self," said Cox, 29, who learned Mono language and culture from her  
grandmother and others in North Fork but said she still is learning.  
She claims Chukchansi as well as Mono ancestors.

For Burrough, the effort is a labor of love.
"With learning the language, you learn the culture," the 57-year-old  
Burrough said. "And with the culture, you learn respect. With  
respect, you learn to love the land and each other."

Burrough often holds outdoor classes on the rural property of  
Kendrick Sherman, a tribal elder who died in late September. The  
Sherman family has dedicated the property to the future of the Mono  
nation, Burrough said.
Nine-year-old Antonio Beihn, a North Fork Elementary School student,  
said he signed up for the off-campus program because he is half-Mono  
and it's his culture.

"If it was lost, we wouldn't have what we have right now," he said.