language as property, follow-up

[Lance Foster]

"Rankin, Robert L" wrote:

> Yeah, I know of several cases of this sort ot thing. Actually, as you
> no doubt know, this is an old story in Americanist linguistics, going
> back a century or more.  A lot of the Berkeley linguists especially
> began to think of languages as "their" languages.  It was both selfish
> and paternalistic.  I've always lectured my students against such
> proprietary thoughts; it takes a whole team of good linguists to
> document a language thoroughly. I don't think that one person working
> alone could ever do it justice.

I totally agree.... for "secret knowledge" the tribes had their
"shaman's language." Language must live and grow to live and grow... One
person cannot do the work.. plus it is always good to have a difference
in opinion because that is how new directions and corrections of
inaccuracies are made. I am always very happy to have more people
working with Chiwere, as many as possible.... professional and
avocational, tribal and nontribal... I only stress the necessity to
share and compare data/findings and truthfulness in how one protrays
themselves as a linguist, tribal, nontribal whatever.. integrity in
language work is reflected by the integrity of the language worker..
integrity reflects integrity.

I am perhaps most frustrated by the lack of published material that I
can point interested tribal folks to.. Jimm's work is good and I look
forward to his final versions.. I look forward to Louann's work in a
published and accessible form... I would like to see much more
available.. perhaps re-analysis of Marsh's work and other texts...
perhaps CD-ROMs of elders' speaking the language, or songs. There are so
many interested in our membership, and there is not a lot I can point
them to.

I have several times offered to join in such collaborative efforts with
other Chiwere students.. I make the offer again, in a spirit of
collegiality, collaboration and sharing, for the good of the language,
the people, and our ancestors who have passed on. I will continue to
make such offers until I myself have gone from this world.. otherwise
how can I face those who will meet me there, who may say, "Why did you
stop trying?"

I would suggest linguists always remember that accessibility to their
work by tribal members at least should be INTEGRAL to any study. Not
just at some magical future publication date, but an ongoing cycle
DURING work... we all pass on someday, and many have gone on sometimes
before their time, and the people and the language suffer for it. I
would ask all people on this list to consider this request.. to make
ongoing research accessible to the people of the communities.


--
Lance Michael Foster
Email: ioway at earthlink.net
-------------------------
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Baxoje Ukich'e: The Ioway Nation (http://www.ioway.org)
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