Nurturing Native Languages and Cultures

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Nurturing NativeLanguages and Cultures

• Jon Reyhner
• http//jan.ucc.nau.edu/jar/

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John J. Miller of The National Review, writing in
The Wall Street Journal in 2002, declared that
the increasing pace of language death is a trend
that is arguably worth celebrating because
age-old obstacles to communication are
collapsing and primitive societies are being
brought into the modern world. However, far too
often this modern world is one of the
materialistic and hedonistic MTV culture.
Miller's call for celebration is nothing new, and
I hope in this speech today to show how
wrongheaded it is.
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Choice/Ownership Stephen R. Riggs and his wife
Mary started missionary work with the Sioux in
1837. In 1852 he published a Grammar and
Dictionary of the Dakota Language. They found
teaching English to be very difficult and not
producing much apparent fruit. It was not the
students lack of ability that prevented them
from learning English, but rather their
unwillingness. Teaching Dakota was a different
thing. It was their own language.
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In 1869 After the Civil War, President Grants
Peace Commissioners concluded that language
differences led to misunderstandings and that by
educating the children of these tribes in the
English language these differences would have
disappeared, and civilization would have followed
at once . . . Through sameness of language is
produced sameness of sentiment, and thought
customs and habits are molded and assimilated in
the same way, and thus in process of time the
differences producing trouble would have been
gradually obliterated.
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The Peace Commission went on to declare In the
difference of language to-day lies two-thirds of
our trouble. . . . Schools should be established,
which children should be required to attend
their barbarous dialect should be blotted out and
the English language substituted. However,
while Christian missionaries were in favor of
ending tribal traditions, they were more willing
than the government to use tribal languages in
their teaching.
6
In 1869 Reverend S.D. Hinman reported, it is a
wonder to me how readily they learn to read our
language little fellows will read correctly page
after page of their school books, and be able to
spell every word, and yet not comprehend the
meaning of a single sentence. He complained
about the monotony and necessary sameness of the
school-room duty. In contrast to the problems
associated with getting Indians to learn English,
Hinman reported that three adult Yankton (Sioux)
warriors rode back and forth from their agency
forty miles every week to learn to read and write
their own language.
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In the 1871 report of the Board of Indian
Commissioners Mr. Welsh wrote Theirs is a
phonetic language, and a smart boy will learn it
in three or four weeks and we have found it far
better to instruct them in their own language,
and also to teach them English as fast as we
can. The missionaries success of teaching
Native languages is indicated in the same report
by Mr. Janney, a Quaker, who wrote that A very
small portion of the tribe, so far as I could
discover, speak or write the English language,
but a large number speak and write their own, and
are able to hold correspondence with those who
are in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
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In contrast to the success of native language
instruction, reports on English language
instruction were often discouraging. For example,
in 1872 the Tahlequah Indian Agent reported that
The children . . . go to school, and with great
labor learn to read and write English, but
without understanding the meaning of the words
they read and write while almost the whole of
those Cherokees who do not speak English can read
and write the Cherokee by using the characters
invented by Sequoyah.
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In 1871 the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions and the Presbyterian Board of
Foreign Missions started publishing with the
Dakota mission a monthly newspaper called IAPI
OAYE (The Word Carrier) mostly in the Dakota
language. An editorial in an early edition of
that paper declared,
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It is sheer laziness in the teacher to berate
his Indian scholars for not understanding
English, when he does not understand enough
Indian to tell them the meaning of a single one
of the sentences he is trying to make them
understand properly, though they have no idea of
the sense. The teacher with his superior mind,
should be able to learn half a dozen languages
while these children of darkness are learning
one. Even though the teachers object were only
to have them master English, he had better teach
it to them in Indian, so they may understand what
they are learning.
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The correspondent with Secretary of the Interior
Schurz reported in 1880 that, Mr. Alfred Riggs
is of the opinion that first teaching the
children to read and write in their own language
enables them to master English with more ease
when they take up that study and he thinks,
also, that a child beginning a four years course
with the study of Dakota would be further
advanced in English at the end of the term than
one who had not been instructed in Dakota.
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In spite of this, Secretary of the Interior
Schurz demanded in 1880 that all instruction
must be in English in mission and govern-ment
schools. In 1884 an order went out to a school
teaching in Dakota and English that English
language only must be taught the Indian youth
placed there for educational and industrial
training at the expense of the Government. If
Dakota or any other language is taught such
children, they will be taken away and their
support by the Government will be withdrawn from
the school.
13
The ethnocentric attitude prevalent in the late
19th Century is again evident in Commissioner of
Indian Affairs J.D.C. Atkins' 1887 report Every
nation is jealous of its own language, and no
nation ought to be more so than ours, which
approaches nearer than any other nationality to
the perfect protection of its people. True
Americans all feel that the Constitution, laws,
and institutions of the United States, in their
adaptation to the wants and requirements of man,
are superior to those of any other country and
they should understand that by the spread of the
English language will these laws and institutions
be more firmly established and widely
disseminated.
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Nothing so surely and perfectly stamps upon an
individual a national characteristic as language.
. . . As the Indians are in an
English-speaking country, they must be taught the
language which they must use in transacting
business with the people of this country. No
unity or community of feeling can be established
among different peoples unless they are brought
to speak the same language, and thus become
imbued with like ideas of duty. . . .
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The instruction of the Indians in the vernacular
is not only of no use to them, but is detrimental
to the cause of their education and civilization,
and no school will be permitted on the
reservation in which the English language is not
exclusively taught.
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A number of missionaries strongly objected to
Atkins' orders, claiming that he lacked knowledge
of their successes in the field. Missionary
societies that were engaged in foreign missions
were very conscious of importance of using local
languages in their work. The president of
Dartmouth college declared that, The idea of
reaching and permanently elevating the great mass
of any people whatever, by first teaching them
all a foreign tongue, is too absurd ever to have
been entertained by sane men.
17
Luther Standing Bear (1928) complained that the
Civil Service Examination was not necessary for
primary teachers and that his students did better
than the students of white teachers who got all
their knowledge from books but outside of that,
they knew nothing. He felt, The Indian children
should have been taught how to translate the
Sioux tongue into English properly but the
English teachers only taught them the English
language, like a bunch of parrots. While they
could read all the words placed before them, they
did not know the proper use of them their
meaning was a puzzle.
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Polingaysi Qöyawayma Starting as a 1st grade
teacher in the early 1930s, Polingaysi was
nervous, but she felt that she at least knew her
students language. However, her supervisors
reminded her she was forbidden to use the Hopi
language. She questioned their directives What
do these white-man stories mean to a Hopi child?
What is a choo-choo to these little ones who
have never seen a train? No! I will not begin
with the outside world of which they have no
knowledge. I shall begin with the familiar. The
everyday things. The things of home and family.
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In defiance of her supervisors she continued to
substitute familiar Hopi legends, songs, and
stories for Little Red Riding Hood. Parents
questioned what she was teaching, saying, We
send our children to school to learn the white
mans way, not Hopi. They can learn the Hopi way
at home. Despite these complaints she
persevered in trying to help her children blend
the best of the Hopi tradition with the best of
the white culture, retaining the essence of good,
whatever its source. When John Collier became
Indian Commissioner in 1934 under Roosevelt, she
found overnight her teaching methods supported,
to the consternation of the older teachers.
20
Indian New Deal During the Indian New Deal of
Franklin D. Roosevelts Administration, the
Indian Office sup-ported progressive education
and experimented with bilingual education.
21
Rock Point Community School Rock Point Community
School started a maintenance/developmental
bilingual pro-gram in 1967 when it was found that
English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching
methods did not bring up Navajo students tests
scores to national averages. In Rock Points
bilingual program students were taught using
immersion teaching methods to read and write
Navajo starting in Kinder-garten while they also
start learning English.
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UNM Professor Bernard Spolsky summed up the
results of the RPCS bilingual program In a
community that respects its own language but
wishes its children to learn another, a good
bilingual program that starts with the bulk of
instruction in the childs native language and
moves systematically toward the standard language
will achieve better results in standard language
competence than a program that refuses to
recognize the existence of the native language.
Navajo Tribal Chairman Peterson Zah noted the
importance of teaching Navajo in schools in 1983.
He declared that, No-one can fully participate
in the affairs of the Navajo people without
speaking Navajo.
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Navajo Literacy Tony Smiley, who worked as a
literacy tutor at Rock Point Community School,
recently wrote, there were Navajo literacy
classes offered locally. Diné college also
offered classes and we were even encouraged to
get our certification in Navajo language through
the college. Eventually I ended up in the
classroom and taught Navajo language. I think
that this is the best thing that has happened to
me. I believe that it made me more aware of
myself. I consider myself lucky to be able to
read and write in Navajo.
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Another Navajo teacher Carol Johnson stated,
From writing Ive learned how to read. It has
helped me to feel confident in the classroom.
I've also greatly improved in my speaking of the
language. I can read Navajo stories to my
students.... They know that our language has its
own writing. I always tell them that it is hard
to learn but once you've come across that
barrier, you can accomplish anything.
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Navajo Tribal Education Policies In 1984 the
Navajo Tribal Council adopted a language policy.
In its preface Tribal Chairman Peterson Zah
wrote, We believe that an excellent education
can produce achievement in the basic academic
skills and skills required by modern technology
and still educate young Navajo citizens in their
language, history, government and culture. The
policies require schools serving Navajo students
to have courses in Navajo history and culture and
support local control, parental involvement,
Indian preference in hiring, and instruction in
the Navajo language. They declare
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Navajo Tribal Education Policies The Navajo
language is an essential element of the life,
culture and identity of the Navajo people. The
Navajo Nation recognizes the importance of
preserving and perpetuating that language to the
survival of the Nation. Instruction in the Navajo
language shall be made available for all grade
levels in all schools serving the Navajo Nation.
Navajo language instruction shall include to the
greatest extent practicable thinking, speaking,
comprehension, reading and writing skills and
study of the formal grammar of the language.
29
Native American Languages Act In 1990 Congress
passed and President George H. W. Bush signed The
Native American Languages Act. It states that
its the policy of the U.S. Government to
support, preserve, and protect American Indian
languages. It is a tribute to American Indians
determined persistence against the forces of
cultural assimilation and a reaction to renewed
calls for assimilation from the conservative
English-only movement that wants a constitutional
amendment to make English the official language
of the U.S.
30
Indian Nations at Risk Task Force In 1991, the
U.S. Secretary of Educations Indian Nations at
Task Force identified four reasons that Indian
Nations are at risk. Its second reason was that
Schools have discouraged the used of Native
languages with the result that the language
and culture base of the American Native are
rapidly eroding" The Task Force set 10 national
goals, with goal 2 being By the year 2000 all
schools will offer Native students the
opportunity to maintain and develop their tribal
languages and will create a multicultural
environment that enhances the many cultures
represented in the school.
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In the Final Report's transmittal letter, the
Task Force's co-chairs, former Secretary of
Education Terrel H. Bell and former Alaska
Commissioner of Education William G. Demmert,
Jr., wrote The Task Force believes that a
well-educated American Indian and Alaska Native
citizenry and a renewal of the language and
culture base of the American Native community
will strengthen self-determination and economic
well-being and will allow the Native community to
contribute to building a stronger nationan
America that can compete with other nations and
contribute to the world's economies and cultures.
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Te Kohanga Reo To counter the rapid loss of
their language Maori leaders decided to
capitalize on the fact that many elders still
spoke their language and started in 1982 a Maori
immersion preschool movement, called te kohanga
reo, which translates as language nest, using
fluent Maori speaking elders.
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The main features of these Maori pre-schools were
that Maori was the only language to be spoken and
heard, no smoking was allowed, they were to be
kept very clean in the interest of health, and
decisions were made by the parents and preschool
teachers. The preschools spread rapidly and by
1991, there were 700 of these preschools with
10,000 children enrolled.
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As more Maori speaking children graduated from
the language nests, parents wanting their
childrens Maori education continued put pressure
on the New Zealand government to established
Maori immersion elementary schools. Using wording
in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between the
British government and the Maori, the Maori were
able to convince the government to build on the
success of the preschools by first providing
Maori immersion elementary schools, then
secondary schools, and finally Maori language
university programs.
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Native Hawaiians started family-based immersion
preschools in 1984 soon after the Maori of New
Zealand pioneered them. A parent described to me
the Punano Leo as a way of lifeyou have to take
it home that is bringing back the moral values
of the culture and explained how that helped mend
families. Parent involvement includes parents
learning the language and volunteering to help
clean the preschool.
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On March 8-10, 2004, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs Office of Indian Education Programs
(OIEP) held its third Language and Culture
Preservation Conference in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. OIEP director Ed Parisian welcomed the
large gathering of Bureau educators to this
meeting, emphasizing the BIAs goal that
students will demonstrate knowledge of language
and culture to improve academic achievement. He
went on to say that we know from research and
experience that individuals who are strongly
rooted in their pastwho know where they come
fromare often best equipped to face the future.
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Aha Punana Leo In one OIEP session, Namaka
Rawlins, director of the Hawaiian Aha Punana Leo
program, noted that in Hawaii they are working
now to get a Hawaiian Ph.D. degree program
approved. While starting with preschool language
nests, they have moved on to elementary,
secondary, and now university Hawaiian language
medium (immersion) classes. The Hawaiian language
medium school movement has been parent driven.
Rather than ghettoization, she noted that our
traditions are relevant for all students
education, and some non-Hawaiians participate.
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Rawlins noted that students in the Hawaiian
immersion classes are doing equal to or better
than English students, but it takes about two
years to fully transition to an all-English
program if they drop out of the Hawaiian program.
The success of the program is tied to the
commitment of parents and teachers. For teachers,
this is a way of life its not just a job. The
goal of the Hawaiian immersion programs is to
re-establish the traditional Hawaiian philosophy
of life and apply it to modern times.
39
It was not till 1986 that the 1896 law against
using the Hawaiian language in schools was
repealed. There are now 22 immersion or Hawaiian
medium schools with about 2,000 children
enrolled. Only four schools can teach algebra and
biology in Hawaiian because of the lack of
qualified teachers. As Hawaiian medium
instruction matures, teachers are moving from
translating curriculum from English to
Hawianizing it.
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Punana Leo (Language Nest) Mission
Statement The Punana Leo Movement grew out of a
dream that there be reestablished throughout
Hawaii the mana of a living Hawaiian language
from the depth of our origins. The Punana Leo
initiates, provides for and nurtures various
Hawaiian Language environments, and we find our
strength in our spirituality, love of our
language, love of our people, love of our land,
and love of knowledge.
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Cry those tears of shame out. You have no time to
be ashamed, wait or avoid it. You need to go
forward and speak. Empowered to become our own
experts to learn our language. We must become
responsible, no linguist, no universities, no
language policies to give your language back.
Its up to us. --Nancy Richardson, Aruk
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Its sad to be the last speaker of your language.
Please, turn back to your own and learn your
language so you wont be alone like me. Go to the
young people. Let go of the hate in your hearts.
Love and respect yourselves first. Elders please
give them courage and they will never be alone.
Help our people to understand their identity. We
need to publish materials for our people. To
educate the white people to us and for indigenous
people. --Mary Smith, last speaker of Eyak
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Indigenous Language Symposia Goals 1. To provide
a forum for the exchange of scholarly research on
teaching American Indian languages. 2. To bring
together American Indian language educators and
activists to share ideas and experiences on how
to effectively teach American Indian languages in
and out of the classroom. 3. To disseminate
though a monograph recent research and thinking
on best practices to promote, preserve, and
protect American Indian languages.
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http//jan.ucc.nau.edu/jar/TIL.html
Teaching Indigenous Languages web site pages were
visited over 45,000 times in October 2003 with
visitors coming from over 90 different countries.
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Visits to TIC Website from 81 Countries, May 03
U. Arab Emirates Argentina Austria Australia Aruba Azerbaijan Belgium Bulgaria Brunei Brazil Botswana Canada Switzerland Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Germany Denmark Dominican Rep. Algeria Estonia Egypt Spain Finland Fiji France Greece Guatemala Hong Kong Croatia Hungary Indonesia Ireland Israel Indian Italy Jordan Japan Kenya Cambodia Cayman Islands Lithuania Luxembourg Latvia Morocco Moldova Mauritius Mexico Malaysia Namibia New Caledonia Netherlands Norway Nepal New Zealand Peru New Guinea Philippines Pakistan Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russian Fed. Saudi Arabia Sweden Singapore Slovak Republic Thailand Turkey Trinidad Tobago Tuvalu Taiwan United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela South Africa Zambia
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Believing in the language brings the generations
together.... If therere any seeds left, theres
an opportunity to grow.
Leanne Hinton, Co-chair Eleventh Annual
Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Conference,
University of California, Berkeley, June 11-13,
2004