Anumpa Achukma/Good News
Language Loss Can Be Reversed
2006.04
This is a newsletter dedicated to reporting the successes in revitalizing endangered languages worldwide. Share your good news with us by sending us an article about your program or current activity in revitalizing an endangered language.
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Permeation
The third weekend of May, Buffalo State University and the Seneca Nation (Seneca-Niagara Casino/Hotel) co-hosted the 13th annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium. Indigenous people from around the world attended this conference. All the keynote speakers represented various Iroquois nations—the Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Onandaga Nations. Six Maaori presenters shared various language programs and activities, including the impact of Maaori television on language revitalization, immersion teacher education, the first Maaori monolingual dictionary, interactive lessons online, reading comprehension in Maaori, and a community based project. The Maaori are always looking for more and more ways to use their language.
There were presenters from all over the US, Canada, and South America. One of the most entertaining presenters was Amis, an indigenous group from Taiwan. He led us all in traditional songs to illustrate his point of using traditional songs as a way to help strengthen indigenous language use. He had a beautiful singing voice! One of the nicest things about this symposium was the presence of babies and young people. One group of young people traveled from Newcomb High School, New Mexico, with their teacher to present their language program.
On Saturday evening, the casino, located at Niagara Falls, hosted us at a traditional dinner, followed by traditional Haudenosaunee social dancing. All ages participated. Two of the best dancers were a great-grandmother and a toddler, who danced the entire time. Large numbers of young people danced and a surprising number also sang. The beat and dance steps were intricate, and the beat permeated the hall until all of us were tapping our feet in time.
For photos go to http://nmdreamin.blogspot.com
Dancing is a good analogy for language learning—most people need a certain amount of input to get the right rhythms and movements of a dance (or a language). By the end of two hours, most of us were able to duplicate the foot movements just by observing the dancers and hearing the beat.
For more information about Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium contact Jon Reyhner.
Acoma Pueblo, located 60 miles west of Albuquerque, NM, on a high mesa, one of the oldest, continuously inhabited villages in North America, with a population of about 2800 is experiencing that permeation of language. Teenagers who began schooling as toddlers in their own Keres language are now visiting with elders, staying connected to their own community and culture through language.
For
more information about the Acoma program contact Dr. Chris Sims at simsacoma@aol.com.
National
Indian Education Association
110 Maryland Avenue, N.E.
Suite 104
Washington, D.C. 20002
P: (202) 544-7290 / F: (202) 544-7293
June 2, 2006
Broadcast #06-029
National Indian Education Association Urges Congress to Pass Native American
Language Immersion Legislation
WASHINGTON – June 2, 2006
President Wilson Issues Unprecedented Call To Action For Indian Country To
Defend Our Sacred Native Languages
On the heels of his moving testimony to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
concerning the rapid decline of Native languages, President Wilson calls for
all of Indian Country to rally around pending legislation that would support Federal
funding for Native American Immersion Programs.
Wilson stated that the pending bills represent our best and possibly our last
hope in revitalizing our Native languages. He also added,
“The fierce urgency of now cannot be overstated. We have denied and been
denied, through apathy and indifference, the sacred birthright of generation
after generation of Indian children. This must end. We owe our children an
opportunity to express themselves in the languages used here since the
beginning of time. A thousand generations have carried on these languages
before us, and now it comes down to this defining place in history where we
will decide if our languages and cultures are to be relegated to the cluttered
dust bin of history; or if history will record that when Indian Country was
faced with this decisive moment, it chose to act, it chose to stand up, it
chose to carry on, and it chose to honor its sacred legacy that so many lived
and died for. Our generation truly has a date with destiny and on July 12th we
will take together, with one motion, a significant step toward destiny. We will
speak together with one voice, saying that Native languages have a pla! ce in
Indian Education and Indian Education is incomplete without inclusion of our
languages.”
Under the leadership of Joe Garcia, President of the National Congress of
American Indians, Native language revitalization has become NCAI’S number one
education priority. Other national Tribal leaders have weighed in as well. Tex
Hall, the co-chair of the NCAI and NIEA Tribal Leader’s Education Task Force,
added,
“Here’s a mission we actually can accomplish. It’s time for Indian Country to
show the rest of the Nation just how proud we are of our culture. We can do
this by getting Congress to pass a Native American Language Protection Bill.”
Events surrounding the Summit include an opening assembly on Capitol Hill from
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The assembly will feature Congressional guests, a
special presentation for the Code Talkers, and dissemination of advocacy
materials on the pending Immersion Bills. Hill visits to key Congressional
Offices will take place from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m., and a staff briefing will be
held on the Senate side in the afternoon. The Summit will conclude with an
evening reception at the Museum of The American Indian co-hosted by the
National Indian Gaming Association honoring the Code Talkers, and the Native
Language Revitalization movement.
The Summit is free, but registration is required. This will help us secure
appropriate Hill visits for our members.
We urge our elders, educators, tribal leaders, cultural practitioners, youth,
veterans, and all those concerned with the future of Native Languages to
attend.
Updated information will be made known as details are worked out such as hotel
information, speakers in attendance, and exact locations. A flier, in text
format, will follow this broadcast. A formatted flier will be posted on our
website for downloading, printing and dissemination.
For more information, please contact NIEA at 202-544-7290 or at niea@niea.org.
Working with Changing Attitudes toward Indigenous Language Revitalization: A Practical Approach (Oneroa Stewart oneroa.stewart@boppoly.ac.nz)
Here in Āotearoa New Zealand we have a very good system available to those who want to begin their children’s Māori language retention at the earliest possible age. We call it kohanga Reo, the language nests. Even though all the teachers make it a rule to only work in te reo Māori and so positively influence the desired outcomes for language retention, many of the children will respond in English. So yes, it is a battle of will, but it does show that the children have no problem with the English language. Many parents (and some teachers) think the children's third language (a sort of pigeon between English and Māori is so impure that they withdraw their children). This phenomenon of mixture babble is only temporary and is well described by the likes of Jim Cummins (at the Ontario Institute of Bilingual Education). Our children have the remarkable ability of “linguistic detectiveness.”
So all throughout our system on early childhood and elementary schools the restoration of the language is encouraged. Apart from the cognitive benefits of the language the children also quickly learn the social and cultural aspects that is demonstrated by better attendance and thus better achievement. However, when it comes time to move on to high school the parents seem to often intervene in the children's desire to continue learning in and with the Māori language. It is at this point of schooling when the parents are calling “enough - it is time to concentrate on English.” Bad mistake. Two reasons: first the children's ' language development remains stunted at this critical age level of early maturation and the drop-hip-hop-out culture kicks in by default.
There are two major mistaken assumptions that are difficult to deal with. First, the high school teachers think that the students don’t want their parents too close to them. Second, the parents in turn think their children are great at their language but poor in English. The solution then is to get teaches, parents and students together in the same room, not to preach and lecture, but to demonstrate how wrong their assumptions are. For some years now I have been making myself available to Māori language teachers in our local high schools and offer to set simple written language tests for the freshmen students.
The first part involves the teacher calling a meeting of the parents. I facilitate the meeting by asking the parents to check the test and most important I ask the parents to predict a score for their own children. We collect all these predictions (along with the teachers’ “guess”) and put them away in care of the principal. Next the students sit the ten minute test. Then we call back the parents to do the actual marking and scoring. Now, how do you think the parents predictions were in compared with the real results? You guessed it – totally the opposite. The teachers also had big problems as they tended to mark softly compared with the strict standards of the parents. So teacher scores where high and parent marks were low (so as a side issue we had to do a lot of teacher correction to raise their standards - sounds ironic ).
So by actual demonstration we were able to convince the high setting parents (who expected their own children's language to be close to their own standard) that the students Māori language ability was not so good. To stop the learning at this point of time would kill any hope of intergenerational transmission. So they agreed – te reo Māori was to continue as a priority language in the curriculum. We continue with the parents regularly coming into the high school classrooms to mark the student work. And what does the principal do with all those predictions. He comes back into the next meeting to give the candy prize to the parents who were the closest. And he loves to see his teachers and parents working on literacy learning. And when teachers and parents like to work with each other the students can’t invent any excuses to escape academic and social progress. They have even decided to have no-TV nights in their homes so to get on with homework. Mean as!
But in the meantime over here our masters within the Ministry of Education, along with many researchers, have convinced themselves of a new twist on the old blame the victim deficit theory. Formerly they blamed the students economic and social background for their poor progress in school. Now it's hip to blame the culturally ignorant white middle class teachers. The cycle of blame goes on.
What my research has demonstrated is that parents, when given the space and opportunity, are the biggest moderators for teacher change-behaviour (except of course on pay-day) and best motivators for success of their students in all schools.
The Oneida Language Charter Team 2003
The Oneida Language Charter Team was designed as a
tool to expand bilingual learning. The mission of the Charter Team was to
“identify immediate needs and develop mid-range and long-range plans to keep
our language alive and implement the Business Committee’s four resolutions as
they relate to the Oneida language.”
Under the charter’s plan, the Oneida Nation would form
a teacher certification program and the Oneida Business Committee would send
communications to 3,000 Oneida tribal employees informing them that the Oneida
language is the tribe’s official language.
On April 3, 2004, a community meeting was held at the
Norbert Hill Center in Oneida, Wisconsin to honor our Oneida speaking elders
who worked so diligently through the years to help keep the Oneida language
alive. Oneida Business Committee representatives, Brian Doxtator, Trish King,
and Paul Ninham were on hand to present a plaque designating Oneida Elders as
our “National Treasures”. They also
presented individual awards to elder speakers, past and current, who had been
instrumental in keeping the language alive and well. Those present were Hudson
Doxtator, Loretta Webster, Maria Hinton, and Vera Wilson. Those not present
received their awards at a later date.
On April 14, 2004, the Oneida Language Charter Team,
which included 13 representatives from across our nation, officially signed the
completed Oneida Language Charter.
The hope was that if there were speakers that we had not yet reached through our surveys, that they would come forward to help in preserving our identity as a people.
Part of the purpose of the Language Charter Team was
to encourage positive involvement in the revitalization of our very complex,
very descriptive, yet vibrant Oneida language, keeping it alive for those who
will follow us.
Elders at Tekalu.tatu
As small children, many of us remember hearing our
parents and our grandparents speaking the language or of learning a few
phrases, but very few of us grew up with Oneida as our first language as our
grandparents did. As a child, I remember with warmth, the sound of my mother at
the back door, calling “swatekhuni” and we’d all come running because we
knew it was time to eat. And after the meal, we’d never think of leaving the
table without a “yaw^?ko, mama, yaw^?ko.”
It is imperative that our little ones are offered that same opportunity
to be able to hear the Oneida language spoken in our homes.
For more information about the Oneida Language Program contact Judy Jourdan, JJOURDA1@oneidanation.org
Original Contemporary Mohawk Music
Looking
for contemporary songs with lyrics in a native language set to toe-tapping,
familiar tunes, then check out Rarennenha:wi/He carries a song,a
collection of songs in Mohawk. Tekahiónhake, Wolf Clan, dedicates this collection to this grandson so that
this beautiful language continues. For more information about this album go to http://www.tewaterennoten.com.
Nahuatl Language and Culture Workshops
Mapitzmitl offers these workshops. You can contact him at pazehecatl@hotmail.com. You can view video footage and photographs of Kalpulli Ehecatl (Community of the Wind) at http://kalpulliehecatl2.blogspot.com.
Send your success story to us at holabitubbe@gmail.com
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Ho Anumpoli! is a New Mexico non-profit organization. For more information about us, go to http://www.oocities.org/hoanumpoli
For previous issues of Anumpa Achukma, go to http://www.oocities.org/hoanumpoli/anumpa.html
George Ann Gregory, Ph.D.
Choctaw/Cherokee
Fulbright Scholar