Opportunity versus identity Indigenous peoples learning new Jon Reyhner looks at languages the negative effects of assimilationist educational efforts that sought to ‘civilise’ Indigenous peoples through English-only schooling.

30 Babel The Language Magazine | February 2017 Feature Opportunity vs. identity

“Schools, while teaching English and other national languages, also frequently teach a curriculum in history books and elsewhere that rationalizes the seizure of Indigenous lands and labels Indigenous resistance as massacres of settlers. They carry on the idea found in the United States’ Declaration of Independence that … ignores or downplays the many massacres of Indian men, women, and children by settler militias …”

hen Nations communities in British Independence that explains how Indigenous Columbia, Canada. They found King George III “excited domestic peoples in that the suicide rate among those insurrections amongst us, and Australia, that had suffered greater native has endeavoured to bring on the Canada, language loss was six times that inhabitants of our frontiers, the New of those who had suffered a merciless Indian Savages, whose Zealand,W and the United States lesser degree of language loss. known rule of warfare, is an learn a new language, all too Indigenous families want undistinguished destruction of often it means learning their their children to become all ages, sexes and conditions.” ancestors’ language. The long educated. Gay J. McDougall, the Thus the Declaration, along history of assimilationist United Nations Independent with many school textbooks English-only education in these Expert on Minority Issues, today, ignores or downplays the countries often led to the loss traveled across the globe, finding many massacres of Indian men, of Indigenous languages and that disadvantaged, often women, and children by settler cultures. Colonising powers Indigenous, minorities “most militias and how the government viewed education as a road deeply felt concern... [was] that in London sought to provide upon which Indigenous peoples their children are not getting a protection for Indians. Recent could travel from savagery to quality education... [They saw] books like Gary Anderson’s civilization, analogous to the educating their children as the Ethnic Cleansing and the Indian evolutionary development of only way out of their poverty; and Brendan Lindsay’s Murder modern man. their underdog status, their State document some of the While assimilationist isolation”. However, too often many atrocities committed education was seen as a way for Indigenous minorities are told by against Indigenous peoples in the Indigenous people to progress, educators that they need to give United States. there has been a dark side to up their Indigenous language When the College Board’s US these efforts. University of in order to be educationally History Advanced Placement Arizona professor and Hopi successful. This ‘English-only’ (AP) Course guidelines tried scholar Dr Sheilah Nicholas approach devalues Indigenous to provide more balance to recently examined how younger languages and cultures and has a the teaching of American Hopi Indians are speaking more long history of failure for many history, they faced conservative English and less Hopi. She Indigenous people. opposition. For example, the found that Hopi elders linked 2014 AP US History Framework this to “un-Hopi” behavior, Language and culture loss Standard declared that “By such as “substance abuse, gang Schools, while teaching supplying American Indian membership, and domestic English and other national allies with deadlier weapons and violence” and a decline in languages, also frequently teach alcohol, and by rewarding Indian the tribe’s traditional Hopi a curriculum in history books military actions, Europeans values, including hard work and elsewhere that rationalizes helped increase the intensity and humility. The disastrous the seizure of Indigenous lands and destructiveness of American results of Indigenous language and labels Indigenous resistance Indian warfare”. However, this and culture loss can be seen in as massacres of settlers. They was revised in 2015 to, “The a 2007 study by Darcy Hallett carry on the idea found in the introduction of guns, other and his colleagues of 150 First United States’ Declaration of weapons, and alcohol stimulated

Custer's Last Stand by Edgar Samuel Paxson. A rare example of a native American victory over the white settlers. Babel The Language Magazine | February 2017 31 Feature Opportunity vs. identity

cultural and demographic “The National Language revitalisation changes in some Native Geographic Society’s The National Geographic American societies”. Too often website on disappearing Society’s website on disappearing the history of colonization is languages noted a languages noted a few years ago presented as ‘Manifest Destiny’, that, on average, one language the belief that God meant for few years ago that, on dies every two weeks. At this white European colonizers to average, one language rate, more than half of the push aside and take over the dies every two weeks. world’s 7,000 languages may lands of Indigenous peoples all At this rate, more than have disappeared by 2100, over the world. with a negative effect on our Indigenous children often half of the world’s 7,000 “wealth of knowledge about face assimilationist, English- languages may have history, culture, the natural only schooling that portrays disappeared by 2100, environment, and the human their ancestors as brutal savages. with a negative effect on brain”. The Māori of New In the past, they were also Zealand, Aborigines in Australia, frequently punished if they our ‘wealth of knowledge Native Hawaiians, Inuits in spoke their native language about history, culture, the Alaska, and various First Nations or practiced their native natural environment, and and American Indian tribes in religion, the goal being to erase the human brain’”. the Americas are making efforts Indigenous cultures. Indigenous peoples are still presented with a choice between giving up their native languages and cultures or remaining ignorant savages. This false dichotomy between remaining Indigenous and becoming educated is found in the title of anthropologist Karen Stocker’s “I Won’t Stay Indian, I’ll Keep Studying”: Race, Place, and Native Americans have yet to regain control of their children’s Discrimination in a Costa Rican education, so young Native people continue to attend schools High School. This either/or where they learn only English. mentality can lead either to the rejection of one’s heritage and dollars in an attempt to close the to prevent that disappearance, sense of identity and belonging, gap in test scores that separates using preschool language nests or the rejection of schooling White students from American and native language immersion/ and the access it provides to Indian, African American, and Indigenous medium schools expanding one’s knowledge of Hispanic American students. where their children can learn the world and its opportunities. However, test scores collected their Indigenous languages. The hope of liberal reformers over the last decade and a half Immersion schools try to was that Indigenous peoples show that these efforts have insulate young people from could lose their unique identity had limited success. The act the power of English and other and melt into the dominant largely ignored the role of culture ‘world languages’ that saturate culture. However, the trauma and language in education. All the environment beyond the of cultural change was all too education is culture-based; the school boundaries, especially often accompanied by social question is whose culture is on television and in movies. disintegration. it based on? There is a history Dr Elizabeth McCauley, Many Indigenous peoples of English-only and Manifest interviewing Navajo (aka Diné) today, even if they have lost their Destiny education in lands that elders, was told, “television has Indigenous language, are still not were colonised by England, and ruined us. A long time ago, they as successful academically and schools are ‘places for becoming used to say, don’t do anything economically as non-Indigenous white,’ a biological impossibility negative or say anything negative peoples. In the United States, the for people of color. in front of children. It doesn’t No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act take that long for a child to catch of 2001 provided over a billion onto things like this. Therefore

32 Babel The Language Magazine | February 2017 Feature Opportunity vs. identity a mother and a father shouldn’t This attachment includes ways educational tool for promoting use harsh words in front of the of seeing the world we live in. Indian students’ learning. children... These days… they see The Navajo have a concept of Timoti Karetu, who later movies with people having sex K’é, which translates to mean served as New Zealand’s Māori in them and they’re watching. kinship and family and connotes language commissioner from In these movies they shoot how people should relate to one 1987 to 1999, visited NCC in each other… Movies are being another with love, support, and 1976 and was impressed by watched every day, but there is responsibility. K’é represents a Navajo efforts to take control nothing good in it”. healthy community working of the education of their Families become together for sustainability and youth. Back in New Zealand, disconnected when English- cultural continuity. Karetu helped establish Māori speaking Navajo grandchildren language nests that aimed to cannot speak to their Navajo- Cultural revitalisation help reverse Māori language speaking grandparents. Navajo Cultural revitalisation is part and loss. These language nests were elders interviewed by Dr parcel of language revitalisation. Māori–only preschools where Evangeline Parsons Yazzie told Many Indigenous people don’t Māori-speaking elders immersed her that they “want to pass on believe you can really understand infants in their mother tongue. their knowledge and wisdom a culture or be a tribal member Native Hawaiians, who were in to the younger generation” but if you don’t speak the language. a similar situation – with almost “today the younger generation Cultural rights became a part no children left speaking their does not know the language and of the civil rights movement in language due to assimilationist is unable to accept the words of the United States after World English-only education – started wisdom”. Yazzie concluded that War II, and in 1969 a Special their own language nests and “The use of the native tongue US Senate Subcommittee on worked to repeal a law that is like therapy, specific native Indian education issued a report mandated English as the sole words express love and caring. titled Indian Education: A language of instruction in Knowing the language presents National Tragedy – a National Hawaiian schools. In both one with a strong self-identity, Challenge. The Navajo, with the New Zealand and Hawaii, the a culture with which to identify, largest Indian Reservation in immersion preschools were and a sense of wellness”. the United States, had already extended into higher grades to Jeannette King at the established the Rough Rock the point that a student can now University of Canterbury in Demonstration School in 1966 write their PhD dissertation in Christchurch, New Zealand as an Indian-controlled school the Māori or Hawaiian language. found that Māoris, the under an Indian school board. English and sometimes a third Indigenous people of New Subsequently, the Navajo Nation language are introduced in Zealand, saw learning their government established the these schools around fifth grade. Māori language as a “personal Navajo Community College The Māori of New Zealand and transformation” and felt a “sense (NCC, now Diné College) as Native Hawaiians have had of responsibility towards the a response to the high Navajo some success in revitalising their language”. They viewed it as life, college dropout rate at ‘white’ languages, although Karetu a treasure, as a journey, a dive colleges. At NCC and Rough declared in a recent interview into water, and as sustenance. Rock, curriculums in both that “There is an apathy and Dick Littlebear, president of English and Navajo emphasized a torpor pervading the whole the Northern Cheyenne Tribal the Navajo cultural and historical of the Māori world, and the College, sees “native languages point of view. Dr Willard language is its victim”. nurturing our spirits and hearts Sakiestewa Gilbert, a Hopi Language and cultural and the English language as Professor at Northern Arizona revitalisation is a constant sustenance for our bodies”. University and former president struggle against the forces of The late sociolinguist Joshua of the National Indian Education globalization, which increasingly Fishman collected quotes Association, notes that if a homogenize the world through from around the world in his school’s curriculum does not mass media. However, at the book In Praise of the Beloved reflect American Indian students’ same time this increasing Language to show the deep traditional teachings nurtured in global interconnectedness has attachment that people often the home and local community, allowed Indigenous peoples have to their mother tongues. then the school loses a valuable from around the world to

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share their concerns. One the more time they spend on it, of self. However, as repeatedly result was Indigenous groups’ it takes an estimated six hundred proven in Indigenous language successful lobbying of the United or so hours of language-learning immersion schools in New Nations for the adoption of just to be able to carry on a Zealand and the United States, the Declaration on the Rights simple conversation. It takes one does not preclude the other: of Indigenous Peoples. This even longer to understand and a national or world language 2007 Declaration states that discuss sophisticated ideas, and can be learned without it having Indigenous peoples have the students often give up if they to replace a local language of right to run their own schools lack the persistence that a strong place, community, and family. and to teach and promote their sense of identity can provide. One can learn about the wider languages and cultures. This means that if they are not world and at the same time exposed to their Indigenous rediscover one’s roots and find Language remains an issue culture in English (or in Spanish a sense of meaning for one’s life. today in Latin America), then they will Indigenous language immersion In 2015, controversy never pick it up. One thing to schools can bring back surrounded the requirement consider here is the fact that the traditional values that provide a that responsibility for the traditional Christian teachings strong positive sense of identity Navajo presidency must be that many English speakers learn that strengthens character. ¶ fluent in Navajo. The well- are found in a translated bible, educated leading candidate but most Christians never even Jon Reyhner is a Professor of Education was disqualified by the Navajo attempt to get into the original at Northern Arizona University, where Supreme Court, and after the Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin he has taught since 1995. He taught election there was a referendum sources. at and was a school administrator in that shifted the decision about Indigenous peoples today schools serving American Indians for over a decade. His 20 books include fluency from the court to the face a struggle between either Indigenous Language Revitalization, voter. In a speech available on ending isolation by learning a Honoring Our Heritage, American YouTube, former Navajo tribal world language and broadening Indian Education: A History, and, most chairman and future president their horizons, or developing recently, Teaching Indigenous Students: Peterson Zah came out strongly their Indigenous language and Honoring Place, Community, and against the relaxation of the deepening their understanding Culture. Navajo language requirement, stating that the Navajo language Find out more “has been good to the Navajo people. It’s the basis of our Books culture. It’s the basis of our Joshua A. Fishman (editor) (2001) Can Threatened Languages Be history. It’s the essence of who Saved?, Multilingual Matters. we are. It’s our identity. The Teresa L. McCarty, Sheilah E. Nicholas and Leisy T. Wyman (editors) Navajo people are internationally (2009) Indigenous Language Revitalization: Encouragement, Guidance known for speaking the Navajo and Lessons Learned, Northern Arizona University). language, and continue to Louellyn White (2015) Free To Be Mohawk: Indigenous Education at the maintain that language”. Akwesasne Freedom School, University of Oklahoma Press. The revitalisation of language Leisy T. Wyman, Teresa L. McCarty and Sheilah E. Nicholas (2014) culture is seen as a way to give Indigenous Youth and Multilingualism: Language Identity, Ideology, and young people direction in their Practice in Dynamic Cultural Worlds, Taylor and Francis. lives as they learn traditional Online cultural values and beliefs. Disappearing Languages – a National Geographic site that explores However, young people who are various facets of language loss and efforts at language revitalization: just learning their Indigenous travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/enduring-voices language can’t understand Teaching Indigenous Languages – a Northern Arizona University complex cultural teachings in a site that provides a variety of information related to teaching and the language they are just learning, revitalization of Indigenous languages: nau.edu/til so teachers and elders often shift We Shall Remain: Native Language Now – a US Public Broadcasting to English for their explanations. site with films of three tribes at different stages of revitalization The conundrum is that while talking about their innovative efforts to revive their languages: students learn a language faster pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/native_now/language

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