More on Changes in the Choctaw Language

While working on the Choctaw language, I encountered an interesting phenomenon: There are two forms for the possessive for body parts. One form, the sa form is the most prevalent, and it indicates a kind of intrinsic possession. Another form that is used by some speakers is the am form. This kind of possession is used with things that are owned and are separate from the person. You would use this second form for a car--a- ka.  I am wondering if the am form is an older form whose usage has begun to die out.

These two uses bring to mind differences in spiritual beliefs. In Christianity, body and soul are considered somewhat inseparable while the body is living. I think that is the basis for the belief in the resurrection of the body. In examining the language, it appears that the belief is that people are primarily bodies that have something called a soul. This contrasts with traditional pre-Christian beliefs of some American Indian groups that each of us is the spirit, and the spirit has the body. And, of course, other religions, perhaps most notably Buddhism, recognize the each person is a spirit that can be freed from the bounds of a body without the body dying.

There are two words in Choctaw for spirit, one of which is connected more with the body and the other usually referring to spirits that roam without bodies. Since Choctaws have been Christianized for hundreds of years, it is difficult to reconstruct those earlier beliefs, but it appears that these two systems represent a language change that also represents a change in thinking among many Choctaw speakers.

Language Change and Metaphors in the Choctaw Language

Language Change and Metaphors in the Choctaw Language

There are three recent historical events that have affected change in the Choctaw language: contact with Europeans and particularly American missionaries in the early 1800’s, removal of the Choctaw from their ancestral homeland in the 1830’s, and the loss of physical sovereignty as the result of the Dawes Act and subsequent statehood for the former “Indian Territory”.

First contact with Europeans occurred when DeSoto and his merry band strolled through Southeast U.S. Two words were borrowed from the Spanish, wak (cattle/cow) from vaca and katos (cat) from gatos. During the U.S. colonial period, the Choctaw and other Southeastern Nations were courted by many European nations, and the word shupo (hat) was borrowed from the French. Europeans brought new animals that needed new names. Sheep became chukfi ulhpoa (foraging rabbit), goats became issi kosoma (smelly deer), horses became issuba (like a deer), and mules are issuba haksobish falaia (long eared horses).The advent of conversions to Christianity caused the creation of many new words. Some words are transliterations of the English words, such as  Kilaist (Christ) or Chihowa (Jehovah). Other new words include ubai anumpuli chukka (the house of the word from heaven) for church and holisso aiithana (the place of learning from books) for school.

Removal split the Mississippi Choctaw into two groups with about 2/3 removing to what is now Oklahoma (then, it was outside the formal boundaries of the U.S.). The removed Choctaw formed themselves into a republic, establishing its own schools. This would have been a strong period for the Choctaw because they achieved 80% literacy in the Choctaw language during this time. There were newspapers, parts of the Bible, textbooks, official documents, poetry, and personal letters written in Choctaw during this time. In the meantime, the Mississippi Choctaw sunk into poverty as sharecroppers and without the benefit of any literacy. While still mutually intelligible, there are noticeable differences between Mississippi Choctaw and Oklahoma Choctaw.

Literacy ended in Choctaw when the nation status of the Choctaw was terminated through legislation and U.S. policy changes toward American Indians. Choctaw children then were schooled in English. This change in the language of education may have affected the language in other ways. For one, most modern Choctaw speakers are unable to read and understand the Choctaw of the 19^th century. For example, the early name for Saturday was nitak hollo nakfish, the little brother of the holy day (Sunday). Today that is Satiti, a transliteration of Saturday. Bed has changed from topa to anusi (place for sleeping). The word hullo, which is related to holitopa (holy), and originally meant “reverence for something holy,” has been extended to express feelings for other people. This extension from one realm to another represents a metaphor.

The universality of metaphors as a way to create new meanings for old words is well represented in Choctaw. Essentially, Choctaws make metaphors in the same manner as speakers of other languages. For example, they use simile, issuba (issi holba/like a deer) and personification, nipi balit (balilit) kania (the meat ran away—said when a piece of meat falls on the floor), and oklhili nukshoblit pisa, they want to frighten the darkness.

Learning a language solo or through instruction

I have started keeping a daily journal in Choctaw, which really stretches my understanding of the language. The only dictionary was published in the 1800’s, and some of those words are not used by the Oklahoma Choctaw in present time. Most of the published materials are from the 1800’s in a language that most present day Choctaws cannot understand. My instructor goes over what I write and corrects the vocabulary and sentence structure. It feels like my understanding is beginning to take off. Part of the outcome of working with my instructor is that I now understand what the texts are trying to tell me. Most of the material written for the teaching of Choctaw was developed without linguistic input, and that has hindered the clarity of the descriptions of the language. Leroy, my instructor, and I are working on clearing up some of those descriptions. We have started with the sound system to see if we can give people clearer information.

In addition to writing, I try to read aloud some Choctaw daily. This helps to build my vocabulary. I also listen to recorded Choctaw to help me with comprehension. Comprehension precedes speaking. The result is that I feel more comfortable with Choctaw now.

Another language I have been learning is Scottish Gaelic from an online BBC program. I don’t really have too much time to devote to it, but then I don’t have to be in a big hurry either. I have been on Unit 3 for several weeks now. I have listened to all the little conversations while looking at the text. I have copied the texts. Now, I am just listening to the transcripts to be sure that I can understand what they are saying. I almost have the whole thing. Just to test myself, I want back to what I had copied, and I was able to read it aloud and understand what I was reading. Also, I know some of the phrases—meaning that I can say them. One of the most interesting things about Scottish Gaelic is the prosody of the spoken language, so I have been working on duplicating that as well. I want to thank Alasdair for letting me read his paper because that gave me a little insight into some of the grammar.

While these efforts may not make me a fluent speaker, they are providing me with some basic language that would help me with learning more in an immersion setting. I recall that even with the little bit of in-class instruction in Navajo last fall, I was able to get the gist of a conversation among a Navajo family who had come for the feast day at Jemez. I find the results encouraging for people who  may be studying a language on their own.

Still Waters Revisited

In my further discussions with my Choctaw instructor regarding the line in Psalms 23 about “still waters,” he reads that line as “the edge of the water”—oka ontulaka, with ontulaka meaning “the edge of something.” He also stated that he thought that Byington tried to translate directly from the Hebrew to Choctaw. There is a source (Holisso Anumpa Tosholi: English and Choctaw Definer) that shows how Byington did his translations with some samples. However, the samples show English to Choctaw, not Hebrew to Choctaw.

I did look at various translations of the Hebrew Psalms 23 (http://www.hebrewoldtestament.com/B19C023.htm), but I cannot find that particular wording anywhere. That line is variously translated as “still waters” (KJV, American Standard Version, Darby’s English Translation, Noah Webster Bible, and World English Bivle). It is translated as “quiet waters” in two versions (Bible in Basic English and Young’s Literal Translation) and as water of refreshment in Douay Rheims Bible, which translates that entire line this way: “He hath brought me up, on the water of refreshment.”

My translation of the Choctaw makes the ka on the end of ontulaka as a grammatical particle indicating the location and the ontula as a participle meaning “stranded” (according to Byington dictionary). However, if my Choctaw instructor is correct, Byington’s translation significantly differs in meaning from the original, shifting the meaning from the imagery of the condition of the water to the location of where the person is being lead.

My Choctaw instructor reads that line to mean to “rest on the edge of water,” but that is problematic too as he and I discussed early 19^th century Choctaw notions of water, which included stories of water monsters, not to mention mosquitoes, snakes, and other unpleasant creatures that often live by water in the Southeastern part of the U.S.  It occurs to me that this line might have been more meaningful to a Choctaw of the early 1800’s if the line had been simply rendered as  “he leads me to water.”

Still Waters

Yesterday, my Choctaw language instructor and I had an interesting discussion about Byington's translation of the 23rd Psalm. Previously, I had mentioned that his translation of the English "still waters," which he writes as oka ontvla, literally translated as stagnant water. (I have since looked at my notes and that is stranded water, which I apparently translated into stagnant water. ) My own research had given me the information that there were two Bibles that were popular in Byington's time, so I called the Global Bible Society to see if anyone had more information. Byington was a Congregationalist (now he is referred to as Presbyterian), and I did try to ascertain what role the beliefs of the Congregationalist church might have played in his translations.

My Choctaw language instructor translated Byington a bit differently, scanning it as oka afoha as a place to rest near the water--it is peaceful, no one is fishing or doing anything around there. I did point out that he was looking at the Psalm with modern eyes and wondered what it might have meant to a Choctaw of the early 1800's. Choctaws like other Southeastern Indians must have had numerous stories related to bodies of water, and water would have figured prominently in their ceremonies. Monsters with magical powers lived in water, for example. It is almost impossible to go back, however, and obtain clear data about those times and the thinking. Christianity and the Removal happened to the Choctaw. Stories about specific rivers, streams, or lakes no longer had any meaning or place in a new religion and land.

Byington's dictionary does have a word for still water, oklhimpa, so why didn't he use that? Or he could have  described the water as alhobi, "still and without wind." Byington's dictionary, of course, represents a lifetime of work. Perhaps, his translations of Psalms was done before he obtained a complete knowledge of the Choctaw language. Or the words for these ideas in the Byington dictionary may represent changes in the Choctaw language after the advent of Christianity.

My original interest in Psalms was to look for metaphors because these writings are metaphor rich. Part of what was interesting to me was that Byington apparently tried to translate the metaphors in the King James Version literally into Choctaw: There appears to be no effort find an equivalent idea in Choctaw. In contrast, in the Māori language, instead of joining the "body" of Christ, one joins his "canoe." Of course, enforcing the metaphors of the King James Version had a profound affect on the thinking of Choctaw people. Even though they were hearing their own language, that language no longer represented Choctaw ideas.

On my next meeting with my instructor, I will ask him about the ontvla to get his take on what Byington might have meant.

Inertia

There sits the Tagalog language materials on my brother’s desk. They are still unopened even though he has promised his wife that he will learn some of her language before their next visit to the Philippines.  The Irish professor ran into one of his former students on a train in Ireland. After the professor greeted the young man in Irish, the young man leans forward and whispers, “Do you mind if we speak in English,” as he indicated the older woman sitting next to him.

Inertia is resistance to change, and it takes a bit of force to overcome it. Historically, this has certainly been true. Consider the amount of force that was used against American Indian children in boarding schools to overcome their resistance to change. I am certainly not advocating brutality to children to return the use of our own languages. Actually, I am playing a bit with the different meanings of the word force.

Force is the amount of energy it takes to change motion. In a modern, technological world, often times too much energy is expended on just moving bodies over some distance several times a day, usually in some kind of vehicle. Surprisingly, not using a body does not conserve its energy, so people wind up with less energy than when they started. In terms of revitalizing languages, this means that adults come to evening classes with perhaps less energy than they feel they need to overcome this inertia. When the language classes are passive with students perhaps just listening and repeating, adult learners leave without sufficient “power” to make changes.

Power is related to energy and force, of course, but again I am playing a bit with the meanings of words. Power is part of empowerment, and we want our students, regardless of age, to have the power to use the language they learn. We want them revved up when they leave class so that they can overcome the inertia. We want them to leave so revved up that they want to use the language with everyone they see. They so enjoy their own language that they want to share it with everyone. And that is overcoming inertia.

Consider what kind of class that would be to rev up students and have them leave wanting to share their language with the world. It would be more like a fast game of stickball rather than like watching golf, wouldn’t it?

Barriers to Immersioin

Despite the evidence that immersion is the one method that actually produces speakers, many American Indian groups still resist it.  Instead the language is doled out in minute quantities as if it were toxic and too much might be harmful. These teachers make learning their own language as meaningless, difficult, and boring as many subjects taught in school. I have to wonder if this approach is the result of being schooled themselves.

Learning should be a joyful activity, so why are we making it such a chore?

I have to wonder if this joylessness is the result of joyless experiences that teachers have had in their own schooling. And the teachers perpetuate this cycle of joylessness. Teaching without joy could be classified as an abusive activity, and I, for one, would like to end this cycle of abuse. It is self-defeating.

A couple of set backs for indigenous languages

The news on the language revitalization front is not good. First, the Navajo Nation weakened its dedication to preserving its own national identity by no longer requiring the president of that nation to be a fluent speaker of the Navajo language. This change is apparently because many younger Navajos lack fluency themselves.

I know from my teaching of Introduction to Native American  Studies for over twenty years how many Native Americans understand the issues of language and identity or language and sovereignty issues. Despite not having the data needed to understand those issues, the universal lament of the students is not being able to speak their native language: It somehow lessens them in their own eyes and lays their indigenous identity open to doubt.

Of course, giving up the Navajo language as the national language of the Navajo Nation speaks of the triumph of the on-going assimilation policy of the United States. It literally means more American Indians have lost a unique cultural identity.

The second troubling news is that the percentage of Māori language speakers has dropped by 4 percentage points to a little over 21%. The Māori have been the poster child of indigenous language revitalization. This drop in numbers of te reo Māori speakers reflects the deaths of fluent speakers, who are still mostly older. Of course, this also means that insufficient numbers of children are growing up speaking their heritage language--another victory for assimilation educational policies.  This is despite the fact that the Māori have shown that te reo Māori can be used for all aspects of life--religious, family, community, and technology to name a few.

I recently raised the issue of the best role of schools in language revitalization at the 6th Annual American Indian and Indigenous Education Conference at Flagstaff in July. While indigenous languages should be the medium of instruction in schools for indigenous students, too many parents and educators have relied to heavily on this medium. This appears to be the case for the Māori, for example. Any Māori child can now request instruction in the Māori language. However, this is only 1.5 hours a week, an insufficient amount of time for anybody to learn another language.

While change is inevitable always, it does seem that those who carry a minority or indigenous identity must redouble their efforts if anyone is to continue to speak a minority  or indigenous language.

Maintaing the Sacred in language

The opening prayer at the 6th Annual American Indian and Indigenous Language Conference was done by Jim Peshlakai, who began with an anecdote. He related the story of a recent phone call. Someone had called him to see if he (the caller) could come out to train with him to become a shaman. Peshlakai told him a firm 'no' because the sacredness is in the Navajo language.

At this point, I want to review a couple of ideas from the Oxford American Dictionary carried by Mac.
Common--occurring, found, or done often; without special rank or position; not rare.
Sacred--connected with ...gods; regarded with great respect and reverence

In the United States, English is the common language. In a very real sense, indigenous languages, by the nature of the scarcity of speakers, have become sacred languages although I think that Mr. Peshlakai meant that the Navajo language contains all the ideas of the Navajo people and how they see life. Navajo ceremonies are a part of that sacred language and fewer and fewer people are learning that part of the language.

Of course, the journey to learning those ceremonies begins in childhood with the language of the family. This important first step, however, is now too often being skipped as too many Navajo parents cannot speak their own language and their children may be growing up away from their Navajo speaking grandparents, thereby denying the intergenerational transmission of Navajo. Intergenerational transmission is often now replaced with instruction in Navajo language or via Navajo language in school.

Many peoples have pinned their hopes on language instruction in schools, and in some cases this has worked well when parents and communities have come together to support this transmission of their heritage language via school and when schools begin with the use of the language of the family as the first steps. This seems to be the case with Breton, a Gaelic language in Brittany, and even with Sewepemctsin at Adam Lake, BC.

Because of the connection between this intergenerational transmission and the sacredness of indigenous languages, the first language steps need to begin with the family. If the parents don't speak their heritage language, then they need to be supported in these efforts while their children are taking their first steps. This was the original idea behind kohunga reo, While not all parents may be able to come to learn the language with the elders as their babies do, the idea of parents learning the language needs to be encouraged. If a language is to be seated once again in homes, then all generations need to be speaking and/or learning the language.

The best efforts to maintain the sacredness of a language is to support having the languages in the home and the community.

How Easily Language Is Lost

In the 1970's, Philbert and Lucille Watahomogie created an award winning Hualapai/English bilingual program in the Peach Springs elementary school. That elementary school is a public school. When a new superintendent was hired, he decided that the language program would go despite all the data that shows that bilingual children learn faster than monolingual children. So the program was ended. The curriculum was thrown away and eventually burned.

The new superintendent now wants to revive immersion classes in Hualapai. In the interim, a whole generation has been lost. What is at stake here is not just a way a life that has evolved over centuries, but the very lives of young Hualapai. Suicides rates have gone up during this time. This despite the fact that there are growing job opportunities for Hualapai.

I am reminded of the study done in Alaskan Native villages that showed a positive correlation between language loss and suicides. In fact, suicides were completely eliminated in one village by simply reinstating the native language and instructing all the youth and children in the language.

This also reminds me that minority languages need friends to support the efforts of the speakers to reverse the language loss. Saving language diversity is everybody's business

different education models for minority languages

Lately, I have been examining different school approaches to teaching minority languages.

The Māori probably have the widest selection of services. They are well-known, of course, for their kohunga reo or language nests. To these, they added kura kaupapa Māori schools to include elementary through the equivalence of high school here in the U.S. These schools offer most coursework in te reo Māori, but some classes may be done in English, such as maths. More recently, Māori have gained the right to have instruction in the Māori language in every school. Sometimes, however, this means that the student gets only 1.5 hours per week, far less than is needed to gain any fluency in the language. And indeed the number of speakers have declined in the last 10 years.

Another model is the Canadian model that allows children to begin literacy in their heritage language and transition to English beginning around 4th grade. This model is being used by the Secwepemc, a Salish speaking people in British Columbia at the Chief Atham School. This school begins with the Secwepemc language in immersion preschool and continues through to 9th grade. At fourth grade, instruction begins with English so that by 9th grade the program has become bilingual. The Adams Lake Band is hopeful that this approach will produce speakers of their language.

Another well-known model is the Irish model. After Ireland's independence in 1919, Irish was declared an official language and every Irish child was required to take 12 years of Irish as a subject.  Irish speaking children can be educated in the medium of that language. However, the number of native speakers of Irish have continued to decline as have the Irish speaking areas, the Gaeltacht. In fact, the Irish language educators I visited with in Dublin predict that Irish will disappear as a family/community language within one generation. Recent legislation has further weakened the position of Irish in Ireland: Students are no longer required to pass an exam in Irish to graduate and civil servants are no longer required to pass exams in Irish to hold government positions.

Another Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic, is beginning to appear again in immersion schools. The creation of the Scottish Parliament has supported the interests and use of this language in schools. Attitudes in Scotland by both speakers and non-speakers is quite positive with most people seeing the retention of the language as an important identity marker for Scotland. Instruction via English is introduced around 2nd grade while instruction in Scottish Gaelic still dominates each student's day. Due to these schools, there has been a slight increase of number of speakers or as one headline heralded--the loss has slowed.

The final system I have reviewed are the DIWAN schools in Brittany. The French government really does not want any other language than French in France. Breton, a Gaelic language, is one of those minority languages whose speakers have come together to organize schools, and the French government has reluctantly agreed to allow the schools to operate as private schools with limited supported from the French government. The schools begin in preschool and continue to the equivalent of high school graduation. While Breton remains the primary language of instruction, particularly in mathematics, French instruction begins around age six. Later, these students will add a third language, generally English or German. There has been a positive response by parents to the schools (there are also Catholic bilingual schools) with an increasing number of children enrolled in some kind of education via Breton.

The question is whether putting minority languages into school reverses language loss. It some cases this does seem to be true, particularly when schools are supported by families and communities. Families and communities are the heart of intergenerational transmisstion, so schools have to be closely connected to these two kinds of uses for the use of the language in school to affect any reversal of language loss. As seen with the declining statistics for Māori and Irish, simply having the language in a school does not achieve this. As a consequence, school programs must include family/community uses of language and be strongly connected to both.

Arguments for literacy in indigenous languages

I am posting a copy of a presentation done at last year's Indian Education conference in Flagstaff. If you have any questions, let me know.

Decolonization, Complete Bilingualism, Academic Achievement, and National Identity

Arguments for Literacy in Indigenous Languages

Presenters

 

Manhattan island—
Dutch, Flemish, Walloons, French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English, Scottish, Irish, German, Polish, Romani, Portuguese, Italian & Native American language Philadelphia—

Noah Webster argued for a common language and helped to create American English.

“ucation for American Indians

Martin Van Buren, president from 1837-1841, learned English as a second language. Dutch was his first language.

Greenwood LeFlore, principal

The Māori have been grappling with increasing literacy in te reo Māori for about 30 years. Complexities of the language are not being learned through conversational uses only. To further revitalization efforts, literature from the 19

Carmen Silva-Corvalan’s (2014) new work verifies the need for schooling/literacy in a heritage language for a person to have complete bilingualism.

Cummins highlighted the importance of literacy skills for academic achievement in his concepts of BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP/Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency.

Cushman (2011) discusses the role of the Sequoyan syllabary after the Removal through the Civil War to the end of the Cherokee Republic in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s: “...the Cherokee syllabary has played a crucial role in facilitating Cherokees’ efforts to

Gatekeeper Courses and
Literacy Achievement

   

The Māori have a body of literature and offer Ph.D.’s in te reo Māori.

From 1984 to 1991, Gregory collected essays written in English by bilingual

Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

References

Yesterday, I lunched with a friend of mine who has been working on maintaining her indigenous language at least since the 1980's. She started community classes without funding and continued working until there were classes in the local schools, sometimes having to teach those herself. Although she has retired, she does with another community. Despite all her accomplishments, perhaps what she values most is that her grandchildren are now speaking their heritage language with her and other adults in the community. She is thrilled, of course, because there was some delay in the acquisition of that language, but it has finally broken through.

The P’s of Language Revitalization (Reprinted from e-newsletter of 2005--2009)

The First P/Make It Personal

In 1994, I was presenting a paper on what works in language revitalization when an audience
member piped up with a challenge to my professorial approach to the topic. What he said still
makes a lot of sense. To create language revitalization, a person must create a time and space for
an endangered language.
In my interviews with Maori about their language, te reo, many stated that learning Maori was a
spiritual journey for each of them. There was a part of each that yearned for it. Speaking the
language was what made them Maori. they had made this time and space for the language and
found it rewarding.
In our day-to-day lives, what does speaking the language of our ancestors mean? We all have
other obligations and necessities. Sometimes, taking time out of our already busy schedules
seems frivolous. At the same time, many of us do want to speak our own language. We have
those same yearnings to take that personal journey to spiritual reconnection.
Also, some groups have few speakers or maybe no speakers. The language may seem part of a
dim past, hard to grasp in a fast-paced, modern, English (or French, Spanish) speaking
environment, where economic forces of shape everyone’s futures. Life has changed from those
days when the language was strong.
The Kai Tahu is a populous iwi (tribe) of the South Island of New Zealand. They are surrounded
and out-numbered by their Pakeha (European) neighbors. They are scattered all over the South
Island. They have very few speakers of their dialect left, a dialect with noticeable pronunciation
and vocabulary differences from other varieties of Maori. Also, racially they may look little
different from their European neighbors.
Ancestry is very important to the Maori. A traditional Maori can recite his/her ancestors back to
the ancestor and waka (canoe) that ancestor came to these islands on. That ancestry is what
determines Maori identity. At the same time, they are proud of their European ancestry too.
Because the Kai Tahu lack a cohesive community from which to rebuild their language and
culture, they have created their own approach to revitalization. They have made it personal. Kai
Tahu make a personal commitment to use as much Moari language as possible in their respective
homes, to make Maori a home language.
The first P: Make it personal.
There is a small group of language learners in Dunedin, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh,
and settled by Scottish immigrants. I sat in a circle of about 20, a hui (gathering) on my behalf to
welcome me. There were all ages from teens to an elder (in his seventies). Each one introduced
him/herself to me in Maori. Most of them were not fluent speakers and some had to continue in
English. Yet here each was using whatever language they had. It was OK for them to be
beginners.
Paulette, who is in charge of the Kai Tahu language program here, creates both classes and
situations in which people can use their language. One of these language situations is to have
coffee at different restaurants and cafes. Paulette brings language games that participants can
play so that everyone has a chance to use language. A mother of three young children, she is
working with other mothers to create a preschool language environment for the children of
working mothers (this is different from kohunga reo, or language nests, to be discussed in a
future article).
To learn more about the Kai Tahu program contact them at< info@ngaitahu.iwi.nz>.
In a kitchen, a young Moriori woman sits with her Maori partner, speaking Maori with their three
young children. The aren’t part of any organized program. This is the commitment they have
made for the future of their children. The Moriori language of the Chatham Islands is a dead
language, but Chris, the young mother, plans to return to help revitalize it.
Native people in the U.S. have been doing this as well. A little over ten years ago, two women
from different parts of the country and different languages made personal commitments to
revitalizing their languages. Margaret Mauldin, a Muskoke language speaker, ran classes from
her home. Donna Pino Martinez at Santa Ana Pueblo didn’t wait for permission or funding from
the tribal council. She just started classes. In Wisconsin, Gerald Hill, Oneida, and an adult began
his personal journey to learning the Oneida language over ten years ago. He began by getting to
know the elders in his community. At one conference, he said that he had started going to church
because that was where the elders were. Regardless of your age, you can begin learning your
language. I saw many 70 + year olds learning Maori. Both Margaret and Gerald are involved
with the Indigenous Language Institute. You can contact them here. ili@indigenouslanguage.org

Donna Pino Martinez can be contacted through the Pueblo of Santa Ana at their webpage
www.santaana.org.

On Easter Island in the Pacific, the most remote island in the world, the indigenous population
fell to 100 people less than a hundred years ago. Now, with their children no longer growing up
speaking Rapa Nui, Marta Hotus Tiki is challenging the socio-political structure by organizing
the women of the community into having a voice in the future of the island, to having a voice in
revitalizing the language. Due to her determination, the community now has some input into
creating language materials for the children.
To learn more about the program on Easter Island, contact Marta Hotus Tuki at
kararakurapanui@entelchile.net.
Make it personal. Make it your personal journey. Add your native language to your life.
Language change begins with you.

The Second P/Purpose

After making a personal commitment, a person needs a strong purpose. Otherwise, life will just
wash away that personal commitment like waves wash away sand on a beach or the wind carves
up sandstone in the desert.
In Otaki, NZ, I visited Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa, a tribal university. The head of that school is
Dr. Whatarangi Winiata . Dr. Winiata trained in the U.S. in business. While there, he observed
American businessmen undergoing week-long immersion sessions in foreign languages so that
they could conduct business in other countries. A similar approach is also used by the Defense
Department. Because he has a purpose to revitalize Maori language, he brought this idea back to
New Zealand, and, thus, "language camps" were born. This was about 1975 after Maori had
received the news that the language was in serious trouble with speakers growing older and few
children growing up speaking the language.
These language camps have become a stock part of Maori language revitalization with several
being held each year in different parts of the country and on both the North and South Island.
These camps allow adult learners a chance to use what they have learned in the classroom in an
immersion setting. Originally, the camps were held at marae (traditional building representing a
particular Maori community) with elders in attendance to help guide the conversations. These
camps have served to boost the language proficiency of many adults.

To learn more about language camps, go to http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/RIL_2.html.
Dr. Winiata is the CEO of Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa</A> and president of the Māori Party
http://www.maoriparty.com.

At about the same time, Philbert and Lucille Watohomigie on the Hualapai reservation--located
in the northern deserts of Arizona--began work on revitalizing the Hualapai language. Seeing the
rapid erosion of the Hualapai language due to the separation of extended families by HUD
housing and the intrusion of English-based television, they began work on a Hualapai bilingual
program with the end goal of producing balanced bilinguals. At that time, Hualapai had no
written language, so they started from scratch. Lucille often shares stories of those early days
with the many discussions they had with elders and the community about creating the
orthography. By 1981, however, they had produced enough materials that the school board
adopted the Hualapai Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program, which went on to win awards.
To read more about this program, go to http://depts.washington.edu/~centerme/hualapai.htm
Mapitzmitl (aka PAZ) was raised with traditions from Mexico even though he was born in the
US, some of these traditions having an almost 400 year history in New Mexico: Coronado's
exploration of the US Southwest was attended by Nahuatl speakers as was the colonization of
northern New Mexico. In fact, they had their own section in Santa Fe prior to the Pueblo Revolt
(1680-92) and many of them sided with the Pueblo and Apache peoples in that fight to regain
autonomy and independence. Even before their coming the Pueblo people maintained trade with
the peoples of Mesoamerica.
As a consequence, it was natural that during the reawakening of identity of the 60's and
70's and at the urging of AIM leaders he should move closer to the traditions of his
ancestors. Since that time Mapitzmitl has dedicated himself to recreating the Red Tradition, the
dance tradition, of the old Aztec Empire, an empire built on thousand year old traditions of that
region, Mesoamerica. Using the dance as the primary activity, he sees his purpose and the
purpose of the dance group, Kalpulli Ehecatl, to recreate as much of that tradition, including the
language, as possible. This is no mean task as the area is removed from its origins in both space
and time. Despite that, he has devoted most of his adult life to that recreation, first making
himself fluent in Nahuatl.

You can reach Mapitzmitl at this address pazehecatl@hotmail.com
and see photos of the group at http://kalpulliehecatl2.blogspot.com

Leroy Sealy grew up speaking the Choctaw language, a growing rarity in Oklahoma where the
Choctaw language has been steadily losing ground since the 1970’s. Choctaw has been a
written language since about 1830. Until about 1880 it was used in all aspects of life in the
Choctaw Nation. After the advent of the state of Oklahoma, Choctaw churches were one of the
places where Choctaw was spoken and sung, but even that is giving way to English. Leroy is a
young man, but he has a strong purpose to revitalize the Choctaw language. Working at the
University of Oklahoma as a Choctaw language instructor, he shares his love of his own
language with others and has worked to create new courses.

Leroy Sealy can be contacted at this address chahtanakni@ou.edu.

Make recreating your mother tongue(s) a strong purpose in your life. This purpose will help you
create a time and space for this language(s) in your own life.

The Third P: Planning

One thing that impressed me the most during my visit to New Zealand was the amount of
planning. I consider good planning a major part of successful language revitalization.
Both the Ngāi Tahu and Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa began with 25 year plans. As I mentioned
previously, the group at Otaki (TWOR) began in 1975. Their original purpose was to prepare the
40,000 members of the iwi (tribes) and hapu (subtribes) located approximately between the
Rangitikei River and Cook Strait for the 21st Century. One of the results is Te Wānanga-o-
Raukawa (incorporated 1984), an educational institution where a person can receive an education
primarily via Māori from pre-school (kohunga reo) to a Ph.D. Even the computer classes
incorporate as much Māori language as possible by teaching the key terms in Māori (they write
the materials themselves). Their web address is http://www.twor-otaki.ac.nz.
One thing I really liked about this institution was the expressed curricular emphasis on
promoting the survival of Maori, particularly the 40,000 Maori it represents. That’s what drives
the curriculum--not current government funding,
The Ngāi Tahu have a different 25 year plan, one that has started fairly recently. You may
remember that their language is virtually gone. Their Kotah Mano Kaika is a program intended to
have at least 1000 Ngāi Tahu homes involved in speaking Maori and passing the language from
one generation to the next. For more information about this program, contact
info@ngaitahu.iwi.org.

I really like this approach because it is creative. This plan better fits their situation: While
numerous, they are generally out-numbered in most communities by non-Māori. Also, they are
having to revive their dialect from scratch since there are only a handful of speakers left.
The Hualapai (mentioned in previous articles) too had to do planning to move their language
from an oral medium of older individuals to an award winning bilingual program in a short
period of time. Planning is just as critical for individuals--how are you going to work in learning
and using that language in your busy life.

Raglan is known as the “surfing capital of the New Zealand” and, therefore, seems an unlikely
spot to find a Māori language program. Nevertheless, there is a Māori community there, and one
with an important history. This is where Eva Rickard took a stand against the confiscation of
Māori land and helped to back down the New Zealand government.
At the same time, many non-Māori live in the area. To address the educational needs of both
communities and to offer more choices to the community, the Raglan Area School has created an
immersion school within the regular school. In the “regular” school, students also have the
option of taking classes to learn te reo Māori, and all classes include lessons in Māori culture.
This approach takes considerable planning and working with the community, and community
participates regularly as individuals drop in to visit classes or participate in specific activities.
One of the local elders attended my powhiri (formal welcome) done at the school the day I came
to visit.
This planning fits the educational needs of this small community that includes both Māori and
non-Māori.
Planning*
Planning is an important part of success in language maintenance and/or revitalization. In
fact, planning is important for the success of many things. As we end this year, let’s
begin the process.
Step One—Set your goals. These goals or objectives must be known by all involved so
that everyone can take actions that will create them. Get together with your friends and
family over a good meal and come up with some goals for your own language.
Start now!
Purposes
Now that you have set up your goal(s), you are ready to define your purpose(s). Purposes
may be lesser goals or the why behind the goal.
These two together might look something like this for a group.
Goal—1/2 of all household actively engaged in learning the language and using it in the
home
Purpose(s)-(1) to increase language usage, thereby ensuring the survival of the language;
(2) to use language as the basis for revitalizing families and community; and (3) to ask all
members of the community to take responsibility for revitalizing the language.
For an individual, it might look like this.
Goal—to converse at a basic level (you can always create new goals as you have reached
an old one)
Purpose(s)—to ensure the future of the language; (2) to be able to pass some of the
language to my grandchildren (or children); and (3) to connect myself to my cultural past.
As you go along, be sure to align all of the steps. That may mean doing some revising in
wording as you move through the process.
More Planning
So far you have created your goal(s) and purpose(s).
Here are the next steps. Create your operational rules or guides for the organization or
activity that are not to be changed. These are your Policies.
Recently in a meeting with other community Native Americans, we decided not to
become angry or upset with each but to listen with respect to each other. This is our first
Policy. An example of a language policy in a family might be always to greet each other
in the target language or to never laugh at someone’s attempts to use the language,
depending on the level of language proficiency of the family, of course.
After you have established the policies, begin on the short-range broad agenda. These are
the Plans.
The next newsletter will go through expanding these plans.

Planning and More
Here are the steps we have covered thus far.
Goals
Purposes
Policy
Plans
Programs—the series of steps in sequence to accomplish a plan
Projects—sequence of steps to carry out ONE step of a program
To this we need to add these steps.
Orders—the directions that need to be given to carry out a program or apply a general
policy
Ideal Scenes—this is how everything ought to be; for example, having all Choctaws
fluent in the Choctaw language
Statistics—these are the numbers and amounts that you can compare to an earlier number
or amount to see how you are doing.
Valuable Final Products—speakers of indigenous languages
Happy Planning!

Persistence, Proliferation, and Participation

Part of the Māori success is because they persist.
They are determined (strong purpose) to revitalize te reo Māori and make it the language of
every day life once again. Keep in mind that reversing language loss is likely to take as much
time as it took for the loss to occur. Also, remember that change is the hallmark of the universe
we live in, so persistence is key to maintaining ourselves as individuals and groups in all our
endeavors.
Another part of the success is proliferation. While Māori kōhanga reo (language nests) has
received much press, it is not the only activity being use to revitalize the language. There are also
classes at universities, polytechs (like US community college), marae (a building serving a subhapu,
a smaller division of a tribe), corporate headquarters, and high schools. Education can be
obtained from pre-school through Ph.D. now through the Māori language. Children’s books,
alphabet charts, and adult books are available in the language. One program (Ngāi Tahu)
promotes the usage in the home. It’s an all out onslaught against the loss.
This leads me to conclude that, regardless of the number of speakers, a single approach can only
be a beginning and not the final solution.

Proliferation also implies that anyone and everyone who wants to participate in revitalizing the
language is allowed to do so. If a language is to survive, it must have speakers. Dr. Margaret
Mauldin, Muskoke language specialist and a speaker of that language, once observed, “I don’t
know who some people think they are saving the language for.”

Because of the diaspora caused by the Removal Act of 1830 (US), groups like the Cherokee,
Choctaw, Creek (Muskogee), and Seminole were torn apart and scattered around the US, leaving
various disconnected communities. There are more Cherokee than any other group, but they are
located all over the US and even in northern Mexico. This scattering resulted in great language
loss. Today each group is working on revitalizing the language. Given the large numbers of
potential speakers, they might want to reunite around language revitalization, thereby increasing
the participation.
A similar situation exists for the Choctaw (numbering about80,000 according to the 2000 census)
with the Oklahoma Choctaw being the largest group and offering the greatest possibility of
participation byoffering online courses, community courses, and materials for sale to thepublic.
Several educational institutions also offer classes—the University ofOklahoma, several high
schools, and even a community college in Dallas, servingthose Choctaw who landed in north
Texas after the removal.
In some communities with fewer speakers, individuals have used a different approach. They
have spent time with an elder learning the language. This approach allows the transmission of the
language and group knowledge in a more natural way. This was part of the original idea behind
kōhanga reo.
The original idea of the kōhanga reo was to have elders who spoke the language fluently to
interact with young children to provide the Māori language for what the children were doing
(scaffolding). The children’s mothers attended along with the children, making this an
intergenerational activity. In some instances, teachers in kōhanga reo are no longer elders but
adults trained in early childhood who have learned Māori as adults. Whenever possible, parents
are expected to attend with their children.
Such is the case at Te Kōhanga Reo o Ngā Kāaka, located on land leased from the University of
Waikato. The parents of the children attending are generally associated with the University in
some way. It is one of the places I visited on my trip. Their day begins with a karakia (prayer).
The curriculum not only prepares children for school activities but also prepares them for
functioning in an adult culture. Praying in Māori is an expectation of that culture.
This was visible at Te Matatini, the national celebration of traditional Māori performing arts,
where the celebration opened with the Lord’s Prayer in Māori. I was one of the few people who
did not know the words.
Other activities include songs with movement (prepares them for kapa haka, the traditional
performing arts) and general pre-school activities—learning the colors and the names of basic
things, and responding to teacher questions (expected school behaviors). Movement is an aid to
understanding and remembering language, so the songs with movement aid both the learning of
the language and prepares them for other activities. At this particular kōhanga reo, parents were
in attendance, using whatever amount of Māori language they had.
Of course, this effort alone would not accomplish the purpose of revitalizing the language. No
one single way is the answer. Incorporate as many as you can to maximize participation.

Inertia and the Big Push (Sep 2007)

As you may know inertia is a phenomenon in the physical universe that either matter at rest or
keeps it moving. It is the tendency of matter at rest to stay at rest and the tendency of matter in
motion to stay in motion. And since we live in a physical universe, this law applies to all of us.
Think of your language program as a huge boulder. It takes a big push to get it started. Once it is
rolling, it takes less energy. That is the law of inertia. The Big Push needs to come at the
beginning. After that, you can probably keep it rolling with a regular nudge now and then.
This is a simple idea, but one worth considering. If that ball isn’t rolling yet, keep pushing and
see if you can get some of your friends to help you.

Persistence and Perpetuity (Oct 2007)

In the last issue of this newsletter, I discussed the push needed to overcome inertia. In this issue,
I want to return to the idea of persistence. Culture is created, and it only exists as long as we
create it. The ‘we’ is you and I and, hopefully, many, many others.
And since each of us is limited by the physicality of a body with its very limited lifespan, each
individual and group must plan for the perpetuation of the culture—who is going to carry on this
creation? Plan now to leave the language in a state to be carried forward by others. Recruit young
people who share your enthusiasm. And recruit even those who find no use for it. Persist, and
people will begin to wonder what you have that they don’t.
Also, take the language to the people who need to learn it. Invite them to learn some part of it.
Invite them to support the efforts of perpetuating the language. Get more and more people on
board. This is a big project, and there is plenty of room for everyone to share in the responsibility
and the glory when it triumphs.
Share your successes with others because this gives people hope, and we live in a world that
currently offers little hope. And count each new person learning the language as a victory.
Finally, realize that almost none of us ever reach our full potential.

Power, Prayer, and Prestige (June 2008)

Many people think of power in terms of politics or economics. These types of power are, of
course, important for language revitalization. However, there may be a more important sense of
power that each of us has—maintaining a position in space. This is simply being ourselves, and
speaking our own native languages is part of being ourselves. Having and speaking our own
languages maintains that position and gives us power.
In an earlier issue, I mentioned that power is also potential, those things that we can bring about.
This potential can be brought about through communication. Prayer is one mode of creating this
potential through communication. Moreover, prayer is a prestigious use of language: some say
the most prestigious. I was reminded of this at the Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium
as I listened to people praying in their various indigenous languages. I am echoing what I heard
in my interviews with Maori and what I have heard my own Native American students say.
What I am trying to suggest is that each of us should use the power we have inherent in us to
bring this renaissance about.

Place and People (July 2008)

Since many of us want to be bi or multilingual, each of us needs a place to speak each language.
This is especially true for those who are learning our heritage languages as second languages.
During colonization of native peoples, school became the place for the dominant language,
leaving the heritage language to be used some place else, often the home. As we all know, some
parents mistakenly thought that using the dominant language was the best language for the
children and ceased using the heritage language in the home.
One of the Maori children that I interviewed explained that he only used the Maori language in
the classroom. He did not speak it on the playground or at home with his parents even though his
parents were Maori speakers. Clearly in this particular case, the place for using Maori is the
classroom. Many Maori and Pueblo families continue to use their heritage languages as a home
and family language. The home is the place for the language. In some instances, heritage
language use is confined to ceremonial purposes only.
The important idea is that the speaker has a place to use the language.
Related to the idea of place is having people to speak to in that place. It would seem, then, that
any place with other speakers would work for this. Since one primary purpose of language is
communication, having others to communicate with through the heritage language is paramount
to learning the language. As a result, part of your language planning needs to include place and
people.

People (Aug 2008)

Ultimately, it is people who revitalize languages by using them. On my journey, I have met
many people—many, many people who are using their own languages. These people come from
small pueblos in New Mexico, from different places on the Navajo Nation, from the Seneca
Nation on the Canadian border, from the Cree people in Canada along with the Blackfeet,
Nakota, and Athabaskan speaking people, from small islands all over the Pacific, from the
mountains of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, and from the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico.
Each time a person speaks in her/his native tongue, that language gains strength—like a
hurricane.

Population and Politics (2009)

Recently while visiting Puerto Rico I encountered two very different views of the Taino, the
original inhabitants of Puerto Rio. The first view was voiced by the white, park ranger who
assured a couple of tourists that absolutely no Taino existed—yes, there were people who
claimed to be Taino, but they weren’t really Taino. The next day, I encountered a totally
different view from the Puerto Rican guide: Not only were there still Taino, but there were 117
full bloods.
These two encounters bring to mind a dilemma faced by many groups. It is difficult sometimes
to divorce language revitalization efforts from issues of politics, part of which is determining
who is the target population. Languages need people to speak them. “The most important
safeguard against language death is obviously having many speakers” (Gross 2007, p. 21).
Unfortunately when the language is lost, as it was for the Taino, identity may be determined by
other factors and by outsiders.

Gross, Joan. (2007). Forging a monolingual country. In Joan Gross, Ed. Teaching Oregon Native
Languages (pp. 7-34). Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
*Planning steps are taken from the works of L.Ron Hubbard.