As summer comes to an end, students around the Cape are getting ready to head back to school. A group called the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project hopes that two years from now there will be a new school in Mashpee for children to attend: a language immersion school in which the majority of classes are taught in Wampanoag.

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Listen to the WQRC podcast (click here) and learn more about the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project's plans to launch a Wampanoag Language Public Charter School in August 2015. Curriculum Specialist Nitana Hicks, Project Administrator Judi Urquhart, and Charter Coordinator Jennifer Weston join WQRC's Kathryn Eident on the Sunday Journal podcast. Enjoy!

Marc Martin and Lee Romney of the Los Angeles Times

EUREKA, Calif. — Carole Lewis throws herself into her work as if something big was at stake.

“Pa’-ah,” she tells her Eureka High School class, gesturing at a bottle of water. She whips around and doodles a crooked little fish on the blackboard, hinting at the dip she’s prepared with “ney-puy” — salmon, key to the diet of California’s largest Native American tribe.

For thousands of years before Western settlers arrived, the Yurok thrived in dozens of villages along the Klamath River. By the 1990s, however, academics had predicted their language soon would be extinct. As elders passed away, the number of native speakers dropped to six.

But tribal leaders would not let the language die.

Last fall, Eureka High became the fifth and largest school in Northern California to launch a Yurok-language program, marking the latest victory in a Native language revitalization program widely lauded as the most successful in the state.

At last count, there were more than 300 basic Yurok speakers, 60 with intermediate skills, 37 who are advanced and 17 who are considered conversationally fluent.

If all goes as planned, Lewis' 20 students will move on to a second year of study, satisfying the world language requirement for admission to University of California and Cal State schools.

But the teacher and tribe have some longer-term goals: boosting Native American high school graduation rates and college admissions numbers; deepening the Yurok youths' bonds to their culture; and ensuring that their language will regain prominence after half a century of virtual silence.

The decimation of the language dates to the first half of the 20th century, when tens of thousands of Native American youngsters across the country, Lewis' mom among them, were sent to government-run boarding schools. The effort to assimilate the youth into Euro-American culture pressed them to abandon their own. Often they were beaten for speaking in their native tongues.

»»» Read the complete article and enjoy a video & slideshow on
The Frameworks Page of the Los Angeles Times

MASHPEE WAMPANOAG TRIBAL LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

By Jennifer Weston, Our Mother Tongues Co-Producer

 Department Overview:  The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Language Department was established by Council Ordinance 2009-ORD-005 on June 10, 2009 to recognize the role of language as “central to the protection of the customs, culture, and spiritual well-being of the people,” and to acknowledge the “critical state of the newly reclaimed Wampanoag language, and the need to secure its survival for the benefit of future generations.” The department is a unit of the Cultural and Historic Department. The Tribal Council reaffirmed its commitment to language revitalization in resolution 2011-RES-025 to recognize the inherent “birth right of each Wampanoag child adult to speak his or her language given by Creator.”

The Language Department collaborates with the community-run intertribal non-profit organization, the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP). All tribal household members who enroll in the free language classes offered by project-certified teachers are members of the WLRP Language Committee, which meets monthly to review project activities, progress, and policies. A seven member board of directors provides oversight for all external grants funding and applications.

Founded twenty years ago with the key objective of reclaiming Wôpanâôt8âôk (Wampanoag language) as the principal means of expression within the Wampanoag Tribal Nation, WLRP’s efforts have gained international recognition for becoming the first American Indian community to reclaim and revitalize a sleeping tribal language, even with no recent living speakers.

This unprecedented effort was possible through linguistics training in Algonquian languages, and by working with the largest Native-written corpus of 17th and 18th century documents in North America translated and written by Wampanoag people—including the King James Bibles of 1663 and 1680, and hundreds of personal letters, wills, deeds, and land transactions written in Wôpanâôt8âôk. Wampanoag people were also the first American Indians to develop and use an alphabetic writing system.

Community-Based Language Revitalization:

“Reclaiming our language is one means of repairing the broken circle of cultural loss and pain. To be able to understand and speak our language means to see the world as our families did for centuries. This is but one path which keeps us connected to our people, the earth, and the philosophies and truths given to us by the Creator.”

WLRP and the Language Department are committed to training new generations of fluent speakers of Wôpanâôt8âôk through master apprentice and other language immersion techniques. Twelve language teachers have also been trained and certified to provide instruction for beginners in the complex grammar and structure of Wôpanâôt8âôk. While students of all ages are welcome in community language classes, WLRP’s Language Committee and Board of Directors have prioritized founding a K-3 Wôpanâôt8ây Pâhshaneekamuq (Wampanoag Language Immersion Charter School), based on widespread community demand for children’s language classes.

Weekly classes and language immersion camps will continue as well; however, in order to train a new generation of proficient speakers fully bilingual in both Wôpanâôt8ây and English, a publicly-funded regional charter school will teach all K-3 subjects in Wôpanâôt8ây beginning in August 2015, and aim to add additional grade levels annually.

It is our deep belief that it is through our children and their language acquisition that the long term sustainability of our language can be ensured.

Department Advisory Boards:
*Memoranda of Understanding with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Council, and the Herring Pond and Assonet Wampanoag Councils.
*Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project Language Committee and Board of Directors
*Wôpanâôt8ây Pâhshaneekamuq Charter School Founding Board of Trustees

Resources:
For language class schedules and registration forms for upcoming camps, including Summer Turtle (August 5-23, 2013) and Family Immersion Camp (September 13-15, 2013) visit wlrp.org

To see clips from the documentary, Âs Nutayuneân: We Still Live Here, about the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project visit the following sites:

mwtribe.exstream.tv/human_services#
www.ourmothertongues.org
www.pbs.org/independentlens/we-still-live-here/
www.makepeaceproductions.com

Last fall, Tolheishel Khaling, an MA student in Jharkhand, India, wrote wanting to present We Still Live Here at his university. The screening brought together a linguistics expert, the head of Indigenous Studies, a professor of anthropology and about 20 students who gathered to discuss tribal heritage and the fate of language. 

Tolheishel recently wrote from South Korea: "It would be a blatant lie if I said I did not shed tears watching the film. I am thousands of miles away from the Wampanoag people and their land but it emotionally struck a chord within me and connected me with them not because I am a tribal, but because I feel we are in the same boat. I used the film as a tool for invoking the importance of language and its preservation among the tribal students and awaken them to introspect on their own." 

The number of native speakers fell to six at one point. But tribal leaders would not let Yurok die, and some Northern California schools are now teaching it.
By Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times — Read Full Story · Watch Video

EUREKA, Calif. — Carole Lewis throws herself into her work as if something big is at stake.

"Pa'-ah," she tells her Eureka High School class, gesturing at a bottle of water. She whips around and doodles a crooked little fish on the blackboard, hinting at the dip she's prepared with "ney-puy" — salmon, key to the diet of California's largest Native American tribe.

For thousands of years before Western settlers arrived, the Yurok thrived in dozens of villages along the Klamath River. By the 1990s, however, academics had predicted their language soon would be extinct. As elders passed away, the number of native speakers dropped to six.

But tribal leaders would not let the language die.

Last fall, Eureka High became the fifth and largest school in Northern California to launch a Yurok-language program, marking the latest victory in a Native American language revitalization program widely lauded as the most successful in the state.

At last count, there were more than 300 basic Yurok speakers, 60 with intermediate skills, 37 who are advanced and 17 who are considered conversationally fluent.

If all goes as planned, Lewis' 20 students will move on to a second year of study, satisfying the world language requirement for admission to University of California and Cal State schools.

Read Full Story · Watch Video

Tribal language programs nationwide have begun summer program preparations for a range of community language immersion and teacher training opportunities. Among Cultural Survival’s advisor programs, the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project and Euchee (Yuchi) Language Project, will offer multi-week language camps for youth focused on building conversational skills and ceremonial vocabulary to engage students as future community cultural leaders. During Summer 2012 Cultural Survival helped sponsor daily youth classes at the Euchee House in Sapulpa, OK, and the first annual Euchee Language Bowl competition. On Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Cultural Survival’s Endangered Languages program co-sponsored the Summer Turtle Camp for three dozen students who participated in traditional tribal fishing, clambake, and other food ways, along with crafts, and daily language lessons including songs, prayers, and performances for their families—and the Governor of Massachusetts on the final day of camp. This summer Cultural Survival is again seeking donors to co-sponsor these invaluable summer youth language and ceremonial training opportunities which are creating new generations Indigenous language speakers and future community leaders.

Read complete article at CulturalSurvival.org

Great Resources for Learning about Native Language Revitalization

As a new CS intern, I’ve watched several films that gave me a helpful background on issues of Indigenous rights and language revitalization efforts both in the US and abroad. Though the films differ in content—from community radio efforts in Guatemala to U.S. tribal efforts in immersion schooling for children—the basic feelings of urgency to revitalize languages in jeopardy transcend individual situations. These documentaries are great starting points for any individuals curious about the state of Native languages around the globe today. The resources also outline what exactly language revitalization is and why it is so important for Natives and non-natives alike. I’ve provided a list below of these resources, suitable for anyone looking to expand their knowledge on native languages and their importance in our world today.

1.  WHY SAVE A LANGUAGE? Directed by Sally Thompson and produced by University of Montana’s Regional Learning Project

This documentary, about a half hour in length, provides an overview of language revitalization, incorporating citizens from several tribes who each give their own perspective on why language revitalization is crucial for their respective tribes and in general. Despite the disparate situations facing each tribe, there are several common sentiments shared inter-tribally. The groups encountered in these videos all agree that languages shape and reflect cultural identity; thus, to know a language is, in a way, to have ownership of an experience, of a different reality. It is a blueprint for thinking that influences and shapes how we see and interact with the world around us.

What’s more, the documentary calls to mind and challenges views of those that feel as though English is the language of patriotism, and that it asserts one’s identity as an American. A tribal member made the point that this “speak English or leave” sentiment common in the narrative of US history is especially invalid in the case of Native Americans and their tribal languages, begging the question, to where would these tribes leave, considering the Americas is the origin point of their languages? In reality, when compared to tribal languages, English is actually the foreign language later introduced to the region. When taking this perspective, we can see that tribal languages, many of which are endangered, deserve special reverence as original languages of the Americas.

One tribal member interviewed in the documentary stressed the invaluable wisdom contained within each language. He laments the loss of linguistic diversity with an apt comparison to a burning library, remarking, “Intelligent people don’t burn down libraries.” Yet, what we are doing in allowing languages to die out is essentially watching repositories of knowledge quickly disappear from our generation’s grasp. These shared sentiments are consistent throughout the following region-specific films.

2.  WE STILL LIVE HERE: Âs Nutayuneân from Makepeace Productions, produced with the assistance of Cultural Survival’s Endangered Languages Program

Director Anne Makepeace’s documentary explores the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project in particular. The Wampanoag case is special because over a century had gone by without any speakers of the Wampanoag language before any language revitalization efforts took place. Yet, the WLRP owes much success to a singular determination among the Wampanoag Nation’s citizens in Massachusetts. Tribal members reflecting on the project’s founding recall that, while they were still in the deliberation stages, there were no people on the committee saying “no, don't bother.” All were interested, making possible all the successful efforts in Mashpee, MA, like the daily master-apprentice program, weekly community-based classes, summer youth camps, and an annual three-day language immersion camp for families.

Jessie Littledoe, who spearheaded the Wampanoag language revitalization efforts, explains specifically how their tribal language is a repository of the wisdom of their elders. For instance, the structure of the language divides animate and inanimate nouns. Within this system, the moon was labeled animate and the sun inanimate; thus, it can be inferred that the Wampanoag peoples, upon development of their language, had a high grasp of astronomical principles. In addition, the unique point of view that speaking a particular language provides is beautifully illustrated in the Wampanoag expression of losing their land rights. The literal translation of a person losing land rights is “I fall down,” as in, to fall off your feet and have no ground under you. This is an idiomatic expression that correlates with the fact that, seeing as there were no horses or carriages in the pre-Columbian era, their feet never left the ground, in the literal sense. The containment of this subtle information within a single phrase is something that would be lost in translation without the language itself existing in spoken form today. Thus, the revival of the language was a revival of the culture as well as its nuances.

3.  A short film on the Sauk language revitalization project, Kîmâchipena: Let’s Come Together from the Sauk Language Department and filmmaker Jenni Monet

Another specific language project documentary is Kîmâchipena: Let’s Come Together, which outlines the language revitalization efforts of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma to revive Sauk. Their efforts to pilot a preschool immersion classroom have been successful because of the collective will of the Sauk people, who all wish to talk Sauk because the language that belongs to their people. Like the other revitalization projects of its kind, their community-based language work has brought with it an assertion of identity, to fight against the assimilation that dissolves their own cultural norms.

The video introduces Sauk members of all ages, each holding up a sign about their connection to Sauk. There were some that, in their words, asserted, “I talk Sauk.” But for the most part, the members made declarations of a desire to learn “I want to talk Sauk,” “English is not my language,” or “I want to speak my language.” The solidarity among age groups and between different fluency levels of Sauk is a manifestation of the will needed to fuel an undertaking as ambitious as this community’s project. It speaks to the truth that strong community support and participation is necessary in carrying out any project as extensive as preserving or revitalizing an entire language. The Sauk language film is powerful because the English language only appears as subtitles or on signs, but is never spoken. Watch the film at TalkSauk.com

4.  To learn about the Euchee (Yuchi) Language Project watch the short film sôKAnAnô: We Are Still Here online at yuchilanguage.org

The Euchee/ Yuchi Language Project outlined in sôKAnAnô: We Are Still Here is unique in that the language is an isolate and has no linguistic relatives, making it more difficult to recover lost words as has been done in the case of the Wampanoag language. The fact that there is just one Native male speaker and a handful of other Yuchi speakers left makes the call to revive the language all the more time-sensitive. It is particularly striking to listen to the last first-language male speaker of Yuchi express his earnest desire to pass on his language. His commentary provides a very concrete example of the imminent extinction of a language if no action is taken.

5.  Democratizando la Palabra: la Radio Comunitaria en Guatemala (Voices of Democracy: Community Radio in Guatemala)

The final video I watched during orientation was created by Cultural Survival, Democratizando la Palabra: la Radio Comunitaria en Guatemala (Voices of Democracy: Community Radio in Guatemala). The video explains the Guatemalan Community Radio Project, one of CS’s main programs. It highlights the importance of community radio in Guatemala in fostering linguistic diversity, because local radio stations are the only ones that broadcast in Indigenous languages, which are community-specific. The video then points out all efforts by the Guatemalan government to stifle this form of free speech. The video lends an international perspective on the rights of linguistic minorities, and helps demonstrate that the struggles are universal and not just limited to a single country or region. To learn more about the project visit the CS Community Radio Project online.

There is much to be learned from each and every Native language. With the danger of their extinction, we are also in danger of losing the capability to draw from these fountains of wisdom. By providing the voices of tribal members and leaders, these five videos give informed perspectives from those who have experienced the trials, tribulations, and successes of revitalization efforts firsthand. It is by no means an exhaustive list of resources on Native language revitalization, but I hope this list of films will give you some background as well as whet your curiosity on the topic, as it did mine.