grassroots programs

[Rudy Troike]

I like the thought of 're-branding', and incorporating language into a
different context. There is often funding for collecting 'oral history',
for example, which of course necessarily involves language. Collecting
native terms for aspects of the environment, as a means of discovering
changes in flora and fauna, can be a basis for funding. Some years ago,
I worked with some programs which were aimed at bilingual vocational
training. One program on the Rosebud Sioux reservation, which aimed at
training people in building trades, using Lakota and English, had the
remarkable effect of reaching one man who had never completed a training
program before, and was regarded by the community as a hopeless case (all
the previous programs offered before had been in English). Even younger
community members were impressed that he had completed the course, got
a job, and set up a savings account in the bank for the first time in
his life. Validating the language in non-traditional contexts can be a
powerful way of demonstrating that it is not just a relic of the past
which is irrelevant in the present, or has only emotional value. And
people can gain useful (and even marketable) skills in the process,
while making the language relevant to their daily lives.

    Rudy Troike
    University of Arizona