Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Publishes Language Dictionary (fwd link)

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Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Publishes Language Dictionary

The Earth Times
Posted : Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:29:24 GMT
Author : Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians
Category : Press Release

SANTA YNEZ, Calif., April 21  /PRNewswire/ -- The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash
Indians unveiled its newly-published language dictionary, "The Samala-English
Dictionary -- A Guide to the Samala Language of the Ineseno Chumash People," at
a dictionary launch party Friday evening at the tribe's Chumash Casino Resort.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080421/LAM073)

"The dictionary launch party last week marked a special occasion for our tribe
and one in which we will be talking about for decades to come," said Vincent
Armenta, Tribal Chairman of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. "Our
tribe's dream to publish a dictionary of our language came true.  It represents
just the beginning of our journey to revitalize our language."

In 2003 Chairman Armenta directed his staff to research the steps required to
begin resurrecting the tribe's native language.  Since the last known Samala
speaker passed away in the 1960s, learning the language from tribal elders was
not an option for the tribe.  Instead, research led the tribe to Richard
Applegate, Ph.D.

While a graduate student at UC Berkeley in the 1960s, Applegate spent countless
hours in the basement of Dwinelle Hall at UC Berkeley combing through boxes of
documents from John Peabody Harrington, a linguist and ethnologist who
specialized in the native people of California.

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