[lg policy] Hopi Teens Worry About Loss Of Culture

Thu Dec 31 18:43:27 UTC 2009

Hopi Teens Worry About Loss Of Culture
December 29, 2009

Listen to the Story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2
All Things Considered

29, 2009

For nearly 1,000 years, the Hopi people have lived on the same three
mesas, land now considered part of northeastern Arizona. For all that
time, they have been speaking the Hopi language, which is slowly
dying. There are many hurdles standing in the way of preserving Hopi,
including, for Hopi teens, the choice between preserving their culture
and adopting a modern lifestyle.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

>>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

This year, the boys' cross country team at Hopi Junior Senior High
School won its 20th consecutive Arizona state championship. But on the
Hopi reservation in the high plains of Northeastern Arizona, teens are
worried about losing more than races. Fewer and fewer young people
there can speak Hopi. And many worry that with the language they'll
also loose their culture. Youth Radio brings us this story from Hopi
Junior Senior High School in Keams Canyon, Arizona. It's called Last
Words.

Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)

Mr. AUSTIN COOCHYAMPTEWA: Since the beginning we have been taught
about the end. When our language dies, we are told that the world will
begin dying with it.

Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)

Mr. ALRYE POLEQUAPTEWA: We have a prophecy that one night lost
brothers will awaken from the dead, then they'll draw a line from one
end of the village to the other. One by one they will line us up and
then they will ask us, (Foreign language spoken). Are you Hopi? Can
you speak the Hopi language? And if you cannot respond back in fluent
Hopi, they will place us on the right side of the line. And soon after
that they will cut our throats. This is what we call our judgment day.

Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)

(Soundbite of people shouting)

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: This is our school, the Hopi Junior Senior High
School. Our Hopi language is dying and me and most of my friends are
struggling to speak it.

Ms. LEANDRA CALNIMPTEWA: When I talk to my friends we speak English,
we don't like speak our Hopi language. Because some of my friends
aren't Hopi, others are, but they don't really know how to speak it.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: This problem isn't new to our generation.

Ms. ELOISE COOCHYAMPTEWA: I'm 66 years old.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: Hopis stopped learning our language..

Ms. COOCHYAMPTEWA: I wasn't allowed to speak my language.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: �when they were punished for speaking it in schools.

Ms. COOCHYAMPTEWA: You're afraid, you're ashamed and you're crying and
they tell you to stop crying and hit you but how can you stop crying
when they hit you.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: That's what happened to my grandmother, Eloise
Coochyamptewa.

Ms. COOCHYAMPTEWA: Eloise Coochyamptewa.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: She stopped teaching her children...

Ms. COOCHYAMPTEWA: I regret it now.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: �to protect them from suffering the same
humiliation that she had to endure when she was in school.

Ms. COOCHYAMPTEWA: I remember holding on to a fence, just crying, and
then my dad will be dragging me to the classroom. It was so scary to
sit there. That's what happened to me. That's why I didn't teach my
kids.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: Remember the part, remember when we were sitting
there doing laundry and I asked you, how do you say this, how do you
say that, what's the word for up, down, where did you go, things like
that.

Ms. COOCHYAMPTEWA: Oh yeah. And I told him even if you can't pronounce
it right, at least I'll know what you're trying to say. You know, that
way, I can help you, I can correct you. I just hope it don't die,
don't die, because that's the only thing we have right now is our
language and our ceremonies but it's not too late. It's not too late.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: At our school there's only one student who is
fluent in Hopi.

Ms. ROCHELLE LOMAYAKTEWA: His name is Alrye Polequaptewa.

Mr. PAUL QUAMAHONGNEWA: And everyone calls him Hopi boy.

Ms. LOMAYAKTEWA: Hopi boy.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: Hopi boy.

Mr. POLEQUAPTEWA: (Foreign language spoken) You never forget a
language that you first learn.

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: The thing that makes Alrye different from everyone
else is that his parents forced him to speak Hopi.

Mr. POLEQUAPTEWA: I learned the language from my parents when I was
just a (Foreign language spoken), a little baby. That's all they talk
to me in was Hopi. And Hopi, it was supposed to be the first language
you'll ever learn.

Ms. LOMAYAKTEWA: Some people made fun of Alrye when we were younger
because he had a traditional haircut and spoke the language so well.

Mr. POLEQUAPTEWA: Number one Hopi boy coming through the door, I
guess, they admired me, but I thought they were like teasing me.

Mr. QUAMAHONGNEWA: I kind of looked up to him because he knew Hopi and
I started to learn words from him and I started learning and learning
and learning and learning. It just started popping in my head and I
started getting an idea of what people were talking about.

Mr. POLEQUAPTEWA: Later on as I wondered, why be like them when I can
be myself and be different. And then I did that and I became a role
model.

(Soundbite of song)

Unidentified Group: (Foreign language spoken)

Mr. COOCHYAMPTEWA: The land of the Hopi is the center of the universe.
We have lived on these three mesas for generations and all that while
are people that have been speaking the Hopi language but now everybody
says our language is dying.

Unidentified Group: (Foreign language spoken)

SIEGEL: Our story Last Words was produced by Youth Radio.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122018480
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