Tribes reclaim languages once spoken in California (fwd link)

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Tribes reclaim languages once spoken in California

By Peter Hecht
phecht at sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009
USA

Standing before a giant mossy rock and two Tsi-Akim Maidu bark houses, Farrell
Cunningham gazes skyward to find the words and spirit imparted to him as a
child.

He directs his outdoor class of about 20 Indian and non-Indian students to the
amber light piercing down into the forest of Nevada County.
"Ekim pokom epinin koyodi kakan" – "the sun is in the sky" – he says in the
Mountain Maidu tongue taught to him on nature walks by a tribal elder named
Lilly Baker.

She died at 96 a few years back. But now Cunningham, 33, is among a small legion
of speakers trying to preserve California's endangered American Indian
languages.

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http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1944799.html