Siraya update

[Rudy Troike]

The government response to the peaceful Siraya demonstration is sad, and
certainly inadequately informed. It would be useful to compile information
on precedents in the US, where tribal groups have been recognized, even
though they had completely lost their languages. This has happened at the
state level in California and (I think, Texas) and at the federal level.

Regrettably, with the continuing dormancy of indigenous languages worldwide,
ethnic identity will be less and less based on linguistic criteria. The
argument for legal identity of an ethnocultural community should not be
dependent on current language use. This completely ignores the historic
basis for the claim.

    Rudy

    Rudy Troike