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A Treatise on the Assault on Language Sovereignty in the United States: History, Education, and Implications for Policy

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A Treatise on the Assault on Language Sovereignty in the United States: History, Education, and Implications for Policy University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2014 A Treatise on the Assault on Language Sovereignty in the United States: History, Education, and Implications for Policy Annie Thornburg Oakes The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Oakes, Annie Thornburg, "A Treatise on the Assault on Language Sovereignty in the United States: History, Education, and Implications for Policy" (2014). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 4407. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/4407 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A TREATISE ON THE ASSAULT ON LANGUAGE SOVEREIGNTY IN THE UNITED STATES: HISTORY, EDUCATION, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY By ANNIE THORNBURG OAKES Bachelor‟s Degrees, University of Utah, 1973, and Eastern Washington University, 2006 Master‟s Degree, Eastern Washington University, 1996 DISSERTATION presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology, Cultural Heritage Studies The University of Montana Missoula, MT May 2014 Approved by: Sandy Ross, Dean of the Graduate School Graduate School S. Neyooxet Greymorning, Chair Anthropology Gregory Campbell Anthropology Richmond Clow Native American Studies Leora Bar-El Anthropology Irene Appelbaum Anthropology University of Montana Dissertation 2 COPYRIGHT by Annie T. Oakes 2014 All Rights Reserved University of Montana Dissertation 3 Oakes, Annie T., PhD., Spring 2014 Anthropology A Treatise on the Assault on Language Sovereignty in the United States: History, Education, and Implications for Policy Committee Chair: S. Neyooxet Greymorning This dissertation examines the revitalization of endangered Indigenous languages in the United States in relation to the concept of sovereignty. I investigate historical reasons for language destruction in the United States as a means of understanding the mechanism used in conquest and the long-range effects on the educational system. I use the term “language sovereignty” to reflect the right of tribal organizations in the US to assert the use of traditional languages as a means of self- identifying as distinct sovereign nations. I draw from initiatives in Hawaii and Europe to demonstrate how regional and linguistic minority languages have been revitalized and reintroduced in culture and commerce. Lastly, I suggest how language sovereignty may influence general language diversity and future language policy in the United States. University of Montana Dissertation 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my family, friends, and the members of my dissertation committee for their generous guidance, encouragement, and patience throughout this process. Primary mention must be given to S. Neyooxet Greymorning, Committee Chair, whose substantive comments and recommendations were instrumental in the progress and completion of this dissertation, as well as the inclusion of one section in Volume 5 of International Advances in Education: Global Initiatives for Equity and Social Justice (Information Age Press, 2012). The thoughtful feedback of Richmond Clow, Leora Bar-El, Greg Campbell, and Irene Appelbaum were critical to the focus and scope of this dissertation‟s direction and content. At the University of Montana, Doug MacDonald, Wade Davies, Anna Prentiss, Kathy Humphries, Dave Beck, John C. Lundt, Mark Medvetz, and Cathy Corr were instructive and positive influences through their professionalism and insights. The Susan Koch Scholarship, overseen by the University of Montana‟s Mansfield Library, was deeply appreciated for the multiple types of support it brought to me. Elements of my Koch Scholarship paper, “Native Influences on the Mullan Road,” appear within this dissertation. I would be remiss not to mention the assistance of staff at the Smithsonian Institution, who provided access to the Sohon dictionaries; staff and resources at the University of Montana‟s Mansfield Library and Eastern Washington University‟s John F. Kennedy Library; the keepers of the Mullan Collection at the Mineral County Museum in Superior, Montana; and sanctuary and copies provided at public library branches along the I-90 Corridor from Missoula to Seattle. My friends and colleagues in two departments at North Idaho College, including Lloyd Duman, Loralee Haarr, Kimberley Johnson, Kathy Lewis, Laurie Olson-Horswill, and Lori Ann Wallin, and at Eastern Washington University, including Kerensa Allison, Dana Elder, Jerry Galm, Sarah Keller, Elwyn LaPoint, Julia Smith, and Michael Zukosky made inspiring mentors. Austin Charron, University of Kansas, generously shared research, and Nani Niheu generously shared her experience as the mother of an immersion-school student. Stephanie Oakes, Chip Thornburg, John T. Oakes, Kate Scholla Oakes, Kris Tew, Susan Sellick Larsen, and Gretchen Luosey shared in hours of discussion, problem-solving, moral support, and/or washing the dishes, for which I am deeply grateful. For my two mothers, Peggy Thornburg, who taught me to read cereal boxes at the kitchen table, and Concha Bronimann Thornburg, who even after her death continued to teach me about the links between language and culture, I have the greatest love and appreciation. They and my father, C. L. Thornburg, are in various ways my reasons for sustained belief in the value of this research. University of Montana Dissertation 5 Table of Contents Chapter Page Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Chapter One – Introduction to the Study 7 Chapter Two – Historical Origins of Language Loss 30 I. English and Native Languages in Colonial America 31 II. Interpreters and Miscommunications in the Westward Journey of Lewis and Clark 51 III. Mullan, Sohon, and Regard for Native Languages 66 IV. “Not an Educational Institution”: Native American Boarding Schools in the 19th and 20th Centuries 76 Chapter Three – Minority Language Recovery: Four Cases 107 I. „O Ka „Ōlelo Ke Ka‟ā „o ka Mauli: Language is the Fiber 110 II. Welsh, Survivor on the Celtic Fringe 116 III. The “Second Mother Tongue” and the Tatar Revival 121 IV. Evenki: A Language Linked to Local Economy 128 Chapter Four – The Path to Language Sovereignty 132 I. Sovereignty: An Overview 133 II. The Sovereignty Paradox 144 III. Language Sovereignty 150 IV. The Potential Range of Language Sovereignty 152 Chapter Five – Summary, Findings, and Recommendations for Further Study 159 Bibliography 191 University of Montana Dissertation 6 Every time a white person stands up to talk about Indians, I get knots in my stomach. -- Verna Kirkness, Fisher River Cree Director of First Nations House of Learning University of British Columbia * * * * The Kiowa language is hard to understand, but, you know, the storm spirit understands it . Lightning comes from its mouth, and the tail, whipping and thrashing on the air, makes the high, hot wind of the tornado. But they speak to it, saying “Pass over me.” They are not afraid of Man-ka-ih, for it understands their language. -- N. Scott Momaday The Way to Rainy Mountain * * * * Where did tribes get their sovereignty? How did tribes keep their sovereignty? How long have tribes had their sovereignty? The answers: From the Creator who put them here. They inherited it. Since the beginning of time. -- Coeur d‟Alene Tribe University of Montana Dissertation 7 Chapter One Introduction to the Study Scholars and language workers in various capacities spend thousands of hours each year engaged in capturing the remains of endangered languages, documenting their vocabularies and structures, and planning for the futures of those languages. Those who teach traditional languages spend thousands of hours each year facilitating the process where language is conveyed to a receptive learner and lodged in the learner‟s memory. Beyond universities and tribal cultural centers where teaching and learning take place, mainstream publications and academic journals sympathize with the plight of tribes and communities whose languages have been lost due to forces as blatant as conquest and as subtle as scorn. Even legislation, albeit temporary, stop-gap, and underfunded, has attempted to acknowledge and protect declining languages. Meanwhile, time passes: elders take their last breaths, communities struggle under the weight of pressing social problems, and the wider population tends to believe that language loss is inevitable, a sad casualty of what is often called progress. Looked at through a different lens, however, the fact that Salish, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Coeur d‟Alene, and numerous other languages indigenous to North America continue to exist is a testament to their resilience. These languages did not decline because they lacked efficacy or relevance in a modernizing world, but because of a sustained, unrelenting assault on them that has spanned centuries. Even today, political groups insist that “English Only” is the proper medium for education and business, a stance often interwoven with patriotism. A push to make English the official language of the United University of Montana Dissertation 8 States in order to unify and
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