Qlispe: A Word for Home (fwd link)

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Sun 7 June

COVER STORY
Qlispe: A Word for Home

Salish isn’t just a language of words and grammar. It’s a bridge between
generations — a link to culture and identity — and for the Kalispel, it’s
dangerously close to being lost forever.

Kevin Taylor
The Pacific Northwest Inlander
USA

The one place you can reliably go to hear Salish spoken is a funeral. Old
aunties and grandmothers gather to talk of the dead and sing over their bodies.
So it was last Saturday during a ceremony for Sue Finley, a matriarch of the
Kalispel Tribe. Family and friends came from as far away as Montana to place a
headstone on Finley’s grave in a little cemetery overlooking the Pend Oreille
River and the mountains beyond. Afterward, Finley’s family gave away her
possessions and hosted a feast in her honor.

Tribal members Francis Cullooyah and JR Bluff brought out the big hide drum and
launched into an honor song for Finley in Salish, or “the language,” as they
call it. A few others joined in.

There is a certain irony that Salish is often relegated to funeral services —
because the language itself is in danger of dying. It’s more than just the
language, though: Salish connects the Kalispel to their culture and their
identity.

Access full article below:
http://www.inlander.com/content/newscommentary_disappearance_salish_language