Doyle backs funds to save languages (fwd link)

[phil cash cash]

Published - Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Doyle backs funds to save languages
By Jason Stein / Lee Newspapers

MADISON — Gov. Jim Doyle said he supports bringing back a state program to help
Wisconsin tribes preserve their endangered native languages.

The Democratic governor said last week through aides that he’s willing to
include money for the program in his next budget — as he has unsuccessfully in
the past — if state tribes request the funding. Tribal leaders responded that
they strongly backed such a move.

“The tribes themselves work hard at this, and I applaud them for that, but I do
think that it’s part of who we are in Wisconsin and that’s why I support it,”
Doyle said last month of the state’s role in language preservation efforts.

A three-day series by the Wisconsin State Journal last week found that only
about one-half of 1 percent of state tribal members — about 300 aging men and
women — are native speakers of the state’s five Indian languages. Several state
tribes are down to a handful of elderly native speakers.

Access full article below:
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/06/11/news/z07doyle.txt