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.