traditions of assimilation...

[rrlapier at AOL.COM]

I do not have time to discuss this in full right now. But it has been our experience (at Piegan Institute) that within our community the last stronghold of first language speakers is among the fundamentalist Christians (holy rollers) and Catholic communities. Why? I could provide a long historical answer. But I won't right now.



However, individuals from these communities have been the most helpful in revitalizing the Blackfeet language, working with our children, recording old stories, translating for us, etc.



So the opposite is true in our community. It is within the devout Christian sects that the Blackfeet language continues and does not have an assimilationist agenda. 

Each Indian community has its own unique history. 



Rosalyn LaPier




-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Smith <rzs at WILDBLUE.NET>
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Sent: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 9:41 am
Subject: Re: [ILAT] traditions of assimilation...



Hi David,

I think you raise an important topic towards revitalization.
Unfortunately people are easily made defensive about their own beliefs
This makes it difficult to discuss errors and offer possible solutions. 
I personally don't know one Native American who "hates" Christ.
But its the multitude forms of   _ianity we have had so much difficulty with.

One I have found so damaging are forms of "Replacement Theology"
Which is basicly an attempt to reshape people by presenting
as "The Truth" a different foreign paradigm , from creation to afterlife.
We cannot automaticly doubt the sincerity of such proselytizers
because often they themselves are "the converted" and go to extraordinary
lengths and sacrifice to bring what they have been taught is "the gospel"

I confess i didn't read the entire book.But i glimpsed through an account of
early Christian missionaries first encountering Hawaiians and I learned something. 
These European Christians had just sailed completely around S. America, were
suffering from scurvy, and food poisoning,and basicly were dying of malnutrition.
When they finally encountered the people of the island joyfully welcoming
them from their dugouts and on the beaches,the missionaries burst into tears
from the deck of the ship. Why were they weeping?
Because the islanders were "naked" and unaware their "sinful" condition.

We may be tempted to snicker today, but this isn't the point at all.
I think we should recognize this as what happens when two 
extremely different paradigms collide.Problems happen when one group 
comes with a belief that it must completely CHANGE the other group.
New creation stories, new values, new parables, new ideologies. 
Islanders must now be taught about sheep,and of course ,camels,
or they will never understand the Good Shepherd or understand
how hard it is to put a camel through the Eye of the Needle.

When a societies paradigms expand, its simply healthy education. 
Language expands and new ideas are added to what already exists.
I don't know of any indigenous people wishing to return to a stone age.
But when paradigms replace other paradigms,as in culture and theologies
Language itself begins to change from the inside out.

just some thoughts to toss out there....
Richard Zane Smith




On 2/16/08 2:03 PM, "David Lewis" <David.Lewis at GRANDRONDE.ORG> wrote:


I for one appreciate more dialogue about how Christians and other sects have contributed to the assimilation of Native peoples, which in turn has contributed to the extinction or near-extinction of many native languages. I too will use this in my classes.

David G. Lewis
Manager, Cultural Resources Department
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde




-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of Mark Sicoli
Sent: Sat 2/16/2008 12:49 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] traditions of assimilation...

Thank you Phil, well said.  The nationalist myth is based on a pervasive
ideology where a single language is taken (or given) as the symbol of a
singular identity.  The one language=one nation association goes back to
nation-state building in Europe and the practices of linguistic
unifications, like in Spain, France, and Italy, and other such places
where vernacular languages were ideologically "erased" in the formation of
national unities.  These served as models for nation building in the
Americas and the ideology is real prominent in Mexico where I work, and
where language shifts from indigenous languages to Spanish are currently
occurring at unprecedented rates.  The same basic ideology is at work
equating one language with one individual, which serves to work against
bilingualism and bilingual education, thus facilitating language
abandonment rather than bilingual maintenance.  For these reasons I agree
that this is a worthwhile discussion for this list.

Mark


On Sat, February 16, 2008 9:02 pm, phil cash cash said:
> For the language advocates (LA) it might be worthwhile to point out these
> "assimilationist" agendas are all founded on a nationalist myth.  In
> today's
> contemporary context, this nationalist myth states that our societies are
> or
> can become linguistically, culturally homogenous.  When in reality, this
> may
> be impossible.Â
> And as Richard points out so well, the nationalist myth (in what ever
> manifestation it may take) supports other agendas as well.Â
> Phil
> UofA
>
>


--
Mark Sicoli Ph.D.
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Postbus 310
6500 AH Nijmegen
The Netherlands






________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever.  Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20080221/f5712e88/attachment.htm>