traditions of assimilation...

[Therese Carr]

Thankyou Phil for your beautiful, thoughtful/intelligent and gentle 
words
Therese Carr

On 01/03/2008, at 3:53 AM, phil cash cash wrote:

> It is nice to see a thread take on a life of its own here and in other 
> discussions.  I just want to add a continuing comment. 
>
> First, as it has been noted, it seems that the reasoning in support of 
> the Oklahoma English-only legislation is a bit historically shallow.  
> That is--it is historically shallow to claim that a "tradition of 
> assimilation" exists without a proper understanding of history and how 
> such overt assimilative ideologies have been directly linked to 
> colonization. 
>
> This history, particular to North America, is one that is linked to US 
> government reservation policies designed to assimilate indigenous 
> populations into the US mainstream.  Early reservation schools and 
> later boarding schools instituted bilingual education as an 
> assimilative, de-ethnicization program.  Too, many of these early 
> schools were run by religious organizations/groups (or former military 
> personel who were once "Indian fighters") as authorized by US 
> legislation.  Canadian indigenous peoples may have had it worse as 
> this type of assimilative agenda extended well into modern times.   
>
> It is certainly an understatement to say that indigenous peoples 
> experienced increased human abuses as a result of these this 
> assimilative agendas (based upon education, religion, race).  In the 
> same vein, there are some on this list who would like to see us 
> inventory such abuses.  As an indigenous person, however, I find it 
> particularly curious on the call or constant need to inventory such 
> past injustices ("because that is what they did to you").  This 
> tokenizing effect seems too non-random to me. Sometimes I feel that 
> the constant inventoring of injustices tends to relegate the people or 
> persons with a colonized history to an unchanging state of suffering 
> with no healing in sight.  The reason why I say this is because I have 
> personally participated in and witnessed REAL healing in my 
> community.  Yes, healing is and can be transformative.  But all of you 
> know this already. 
>
> What has yet to be addressed here is the notion of indigenization 
> whereby cultures 'indigenize' culture elements as a form of 
> revitalization.  Create something new or familiar from something 
> alien.  (This happened in much of our religious history as the 
> former.)    
>
> Be that as it may, speakers of indigenous langauges are constantly 
> confronted by the narrow views of others and the "tradition of 
> assimilation" notion is just one example.  As an advocate of language, 
> this must be addressed (hence this email/discussions...thank you).
>
> As a forum, we want and need more multi-vocal dialogues on "what is" 
> and "what can be" concerning indigenous languages/technology.  Too, 
> discussions unmasking injustices can be done in ways that facilitate 
> critical, intelligent thought as well as healing. 
>
> Life always,
>
> Phil Cash Cash
> UofA & ILATmg
>
therese