Preserving a Culture

"During the days of termination, the language was literally run out of us."

Klamath tribal member Perry Chocktoot Jr., Cultural Site Protection Specialist

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

530-468-5355

Pioneerp@sisqtel.net

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Page E13

Before the English language dominated North America , hundreds of Native American languages were spoken on the continent, languages such as those spoken by the Klamath, Modoc and Paiute Indians. 

Indeed, an estimated 500 native tongues have disappeared in North America since English became predominant.  Even the languages that survived into the modern age have since lost their numerous dialects.

"Not too long ago, you could go 50 miles in any direction and you would run into a different language," said Ralph Watah, Paiute Indian and storyteller.

But today, those ancient tongues are returning, thanks to folks like Watah and others, who use a simple and time-tested methods of passing on knowledge such as storytelling, or the practice of ancient arts and crafts. Dictionaries are being created, and grammatical texts and curriculum in native tongues are once again in some area classrooms. The old languages are being resurrected.

Watah began storytelling when his oldest daughter was in 5th grade some 12 years ago. He started in her classroom as a way to keep his culture and ancestry alive.

Now, Native Americans are fighting to maintain the language as part of their unique cultures and people like Watah and others are setting up summer camps that focus on culture, and where traditional skills from village life are taught, such as the making of drums, baskets and beadwork.

The Klamath tribe, for example, established the Klamath tribal language project that sends teachers into elementary schools in Chiloquin. They also have an after-school program at Klamath Union and a few classes at Mazama.

Klamath tribal member and cultural site protection specialist Perry Chocktoot Jr. works in the heritage department for the Klamath Tribe that creates the curriculum and said that they have been working on the curriculum that is taught in schools since the late nineties.

Today, only the oldest members of each culture speak the languages fluently, but they are rapidly dying off, and with them, so is the language.

"The language dies every time an elder dies," Chocktoot Jr. said. 

The death of the languages started many years ago, when life and culture as Native Americans knew it changed when their children were sent to boarding schools where they were forced to speak only in English.

"During the days of termination, the language was literally run out of us," Watah said.

But Watah remembered being curious about the language. He asked his grandmother, he recalled, but was told to forget about it; the language was going to die and wasn't something he needed to know, she said.

The last fluent member of the Klamath tribe died in 1995, but luckily traces of the language are still available. Two dictionaries of the language have been compiled by linguists, one in the late 1800's and one in the 1950's. The Klamath tribe has also developed their classroom curriculum. Chocktoot said that given the resources, a diligent student should, in theory, be able to become fluent in the language.

"It's a part of the culture," Chocktoot said about the language. "It's what makes us Klamath."
Strong Family Health in Alturas , California , is helping by holding an event with elders in Modoc County where, on a quarterly basis, the elders gather to share words and stories that are then recorded in the hopes of preserving the language.

The task of preserving a language involves interviewing elders, preparing curriculum, and teaching that curriculum to students. While grants exist to help tribes in the task, they are hard to find and very competitive so most tribes have very limited resources in executing the preservation. Meanwhile, they are running out of time to do it as the elders get older.

"No matter what tribe you are from, be it Indian or Swedish or Dutch even, you used to have customs that were lost over time," Watah said. "Every person should strive to find this ancestry because it is part of who you are." 

To learn more about the Klamath Tribes Language Project, see: http://www.klamathtribes.org/language.htm

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