Native communities fighting to keep traditional languages alive (fwd link)

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Native communities fighting to keep traditional languages alive

BY JAMIE KOMARNICKI, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
OCTOBER 10, 2009

TSUU T'INA NATION, Alta. -- Late-morning sun pours down on a group of children
in a clearing on the Tsuu T'ina Nation, just west of Calgary.

Two native leaders kneel in the grass, tying together spruce teepee poles with
twine. A large piece of canvas rests nearby.

Before all their eyes, the skeleton of a buffalo springs to life.

The teepee's towering structure represents the buffalo's silhouette, storyteller
Gerald Meguinis explains to the youth, switching back and forth effortlessly
between English and Tsuu T'ina words.

In the past, when such shelters were built, it was as if the disappearing
buffalo had returned, he says.

Like the beast that was once nearly wiped out from the Canadian plains, the
language of the Tsuu T'ina people is also vanishing.

Access full article below:
http://www.leaderpost.com/life/Native+communities+fighting+keep+traditional+languages+alive/2092058/story.html