By Doug Abrahms Desert Sun Washington Bureau May 26th, 2003
WASHINGTON -- The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians had to hire an
outside linguist last year to help preschoolers learn the Luiseno
language because the only native speakers left in the tribe were in
their 70s and 80s.
"We can't use them as resources because they're too frail," said Gary
DuBois, director of the Temecula tribe's cultural resources program.
"We're running against time."
The Pechangas are spending $200,000 from their casino profits to fund a
preschool language-immersion program that they plan to expand into
kindergarten, and perhaps to later grades. Fewer than 10 of the tribe's
1,500 members speak Luiseno.
The Pechangas' situation is typical for California tribes, said Leanne
Hinton, chairwoman of the University of California at Berkeley
linguistics department. More than 85 native languages were once spoken
in the Golden State. Today, 35 languages have no native speakers and
each of the other 50 are only spoken by a handful, she said.
"Here in California we have 50 languages ... almost all of them are
spoken by people over 60," Hinton said. "As soon as the kids stop
speaking it, essentially it's a dead language."
Many American Indians and educators worry that tribes throughout the
nation are in a race against time to save their languages -- a vital
part of American Indian culture -- before they die off with tribal
elders. Consider:
A 1997 study by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians found 3 percent
of children under 6 could speak the language.
Only an estimated 2,000 Ojibwes, or Chippewas, out of more than 100,000
in the United States speak the language.
About 80 percent of the nation's 175 existing Indian languages will
disappear in the next generation if nothing is done because the vast
majority of speakers are older than 60, according to one study.
But tribes are taking steps to revive their languages, with the help of
funds from gambling or the government. Some tribes are spending their
casino profits on preschools where children are immersed in their native
tongue. And Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has sponsored a bill to
provide more funds to language-immersion schools.
Language revitalization started in the 1970s in Hawaii, where the Aha
Punanan Leo language organization brought together preschoolers with
island elders. The children then were moved into language-immersion
schools. Members of the first senior class, who speak both Hawaiian and
English, graduated in 1999.
Federal funds could help
Inouye's bill would provide roughly $10 million a year to help fund
private school efforts to teach Indian languages and provide money for
teacher training. Inouye has introduced similar legislation in previous
congressional sessions that failed to pass.
Congress passed legislation in the early 1990s that funded language
revitalization programs but these short-term grants leave programs in a
constant hunt for funds, said Mary Hermes, an education professor at the
University of Minnesota in Duluth. She also is a board member and parent
at the Waadookodaading Ojibwe language-immersion school in Hayward, Wis.
American Indians blame the government for eradicating their languages by
pushing them off their lands, removing children to English-speaking
boarding schools, and barring them from talking in school in their
native tongue. Governments in New Zealand and Canada have acknowledged
their roles in eradicating native languages and have provided funding to
tribes, Hermes said.
"It is really the responsibility of the government that we're in this
situation," Hermes said. "We're not asking for money because of the harm
suffered. We're asking for efforts to revitalize our language."
Reasons to save languages
Cindy LaMarr heads Capitol Area Indian Resources, a nonprofit group in
Sacramento that offers cultural and academic programs for area Indian
youth. She believes bringing back the languages that American Indians
have used for centuries to pass on their culture and history will give
Indian children more confidence and a better education. LaMarr,
president-elect of the National Indian Education Association, said few
studies have been done on the relatively new language-immersion schools
to back up her belief.
"To me, it's pretty much a no-brainer: If you feel good about your
culture and identity, then you will feel better about yourself," said
LaMarr. Her parents were taken from the Pit River reservation in
northern California to boarding schools in Riverside and Carson City,
Nev.
"Language is essential to the continuance of our cultural and spiritual
traditions and is an acknowledgement of our gift from the great
creator," she said.
Torres Martinez in Thermal
California Indian groups might seek legislation to help fund
language-immersion schools, she said, because the state's tribes have so
few native speakers left.
Some California tribes have started master-apprentice programs where a
native speaker teaches an instructor who then can teach classes. But
those programs can be difficult, even when you're learning the language
from your mother.
Faith Morreo, language program coordinator at the Torres Martinez tribe
in Thermal, was part of a group that met with her mom, Tina, several
times a week to learn Cahuilla. But it was difficult fitting the classes
into daily life, Morreo said.
"We started out with a big group," she said, "but we got burned out."
The Torres Martinez tribe, which has 14 native speakers among its 600
members, hopes to start a day-care center next fall that will include
some teaching of Cahuilla, she said.