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Language Revitalization Practices in Indigenous Communities of the U.S

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Language Revitalization Practices in Indigenous Communities of the U.S Language Revitalization Practices in Indigenous Communities of the u.s. Elise A. Riley Haverford College Tri-College Department in Linguistics December 8, 2015 Riley 2 Indigenous languages rely on revitalization programs to prevent extinction. In the US the diversity of indigenous languages prevents advocates from creating a comprehensive program for the whole country like in New Zealand or Ireland. This leaves room for choice about which revitalization practice will work best in each community. Different areas of the country have experienced heavier language atrophy than others based on their historical pasts. To reverse language loss, language revitalization programs endeavor to rebuild what has been lost. Language revitalization relies on intergenerational transmission to be successful. This thesis focuses on three communities: Navajo, Hawaii, and Wukchumne, the methods they used, and four factors that help lead to language transmission. Starting a language revitalization program requires the consideration of many complex factors that surround individual attitudes, identities, and beliefs (Grenoble & Whaley 2006). The scope of this thesis is to examine four situational factors and how they correlate a positive outcome. The factors addressed are the size of the indigenous speech community, language mobility, program funding, and the target audience of the program. A discussion of the case studies on the three communities suggests that high language mobility, or the ability to be in contact with the language in a colloquial setting for large periods of time results in language learners retaining the language. 1. Introduction l.l. Purpose Minority and endangered languages are pushed further out on edge of society as other languages take the functional spot minority languages once occupied. The threat of language death has some speakers up in arms to combat not just the loss oflanguage, but the loss of culture and history. Also involved are language activists and linguists who work against language loss. The main movement to prevent language loss is to revitalize the language. In other words to reverse the damage that has been done. Through the years there have been numerous programs and strategies to work towards this goal. Some efforts operate at the legislative level to procure rights and funding for local programs. Other revitalization practices are community oriented and work to rehabilitate the language within a community. The aim of this paper is to evaluate which social factors may have contributed to useful programs in restoring language. This analysis is to highlight the circumstances in which language revitalization has its best chance of thriving. l.2. Culture and Identity Riley 3 Language loss is natural; it has happened in the past and will continue to happen. Languages can be displaced by dominant languages that are communicatively beneficial, lose too many speakers to continue, or suffer from a combination of causes (Hinton & Hale 200 I). While language loss is always a possibility for the fate for a language that doesn't mean there is no hope to change that reality. There are a multitude of reasons to prevent language loss. In the literature about language revitalization there are three prominent motivations for continuing the work of language revitalization. Of the three arguments the first revolves around academic necessity. Preserving or revitalizing linguistic diversity provides the data needed for linguists to do their research (Hinton & Hale 2001, 5). Continuous loss of the language data pool will lead to stagnation in the ability for new linguistic theories to develop. The only way to combat that reality is to sustain as many languages as possible. Another argument focuses on the knowledge and information encoded within language. Each language has a different philosophy of reality imprinted within them. This leads to the development of knowledge systems such as medical practices and musical traditions (Hinton & Hale 2001, Hinton 1994, Harrison 2007)'. The languages must be preserved to understand those systems, and to make the knowledge in those systems useful to a larger audience. The last argument and the most salient for this paper is the argument for the speakers of minority languages. Language, especially indigenous language, is tightly bound to culture. The loss of one is conducive to the loss of the other. Both language and culture are essential to the landscape of an individual's identity. This sentiment is elegantly expressed by the Chicano poet Gloria Anzaldua: "Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity-- I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself." (AnzalduaI987, 59) Preserving language is not just about saving the spoken words, but protecting the very personal and meaningful identity that the words perform. 1.3. Historical Context 1 In the documentary The Linguists, the Bolivian language Kallawaya is discussed. The language is used by healers and is passed from father to son. The language is endangered and knowledge of the herbal remedies and natural healing practices will be lost too if the language dies. Riley 4 In the United States, indigenous languages are in an endangered state because of repeated foreign intervention. The French, Spanish, and English have made their linguistic stamp at the expense of the languages that were there first. English especially has had a crippling effect on linguistic diversity. If a language survived the initial encounter of disease and war, the speakers were then subjected to government enforced language reform. These reforms had the dual purpose of oppressing the minority communities and standardizing the country's language; the latter at the expense of the former (Hinton & Hale 2001). The United States started this process early in the inception of the country. Originally in the l780s the US government adopted the practice of the previous ruling entities, that of treaty based relations which relied on go-betweens (Haake 2007, Fixico 2012). The go-betweens were colonists who had studied one of the indigenous languages and established a relationship with tribe members. The go-betweens were then used to facilitate talks between the two parties. Half a century later the questionably peaceful policy changed. The indigenous groups were becoming rebellious under the coercive methods of the US government. Skirmishes and attacks became common in retaliation to the encroaching power of the US government. The uprising had become so prevalent that in March of 1824 the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was created as an offshoot of the Indian Office that resided in the Department of War. The basic task of the office was to regulate the violent pushback to government control in Native American areas. When Senator John C. Calhoun was appointed head of the BIA, he was "charged with the examination of claims arising out the laws regulating the intercourse with Indian Tribes" (Fixico 2012, 14). Calhoun's primary campaign, which was continued by many of his successors, was to transition Native Americans from a hunting-gathering lifestyle to Anglican style agricultural practices. This had the added benefit of freeing up parts of the large tracts ofland that Native Americans used for hunting (Haake 2007). They would "all become agrarians and help to build the United States," for settlers moving deeper into the country (Fixico 2012, 14). This policy of 'civilization' and 'assimilation' continued and was extended to the schools that the bureau set up to facilitate this change. By 1900 roughly 50 percent of Native American children were enrolled in schools intent on enforcing the newly termed policy "Americanization" (Haake 2007). The policy "intended for Riley 5 Indians to be educated in the ways of the white man and to give up their tribal identification" (Haake 2007, 19).Most recent damage to indigenous language happened through schooling where "their charge [was] not just the teaching of English to their students, but also the forced eradication of their native languages" (Hinton 1994, 173). In these schools, the prohibition of the use of native languages were "backed up by severe corporal punishment" (Hinton 1994, 173). This treatment of young children placed in foreign and abusive environments lead to language attitudes that were anything but proud of their linguistic heritage. Elsie Allen a former student of one of these schools said: "I'll never teach my children the language or all the Indian things that I know. I'll never teach them that, I don't want my children to be treated like they treated me" (Hinton 1994, 176). Elsie Allen's quote shows how native speaker growth is stopped, by refusing to pass the language on to children, but also the ideological devastation that resulted. Experiences with the BIA's 'Americanization' policy left an incredible amount of native language speaking children with an aversion to their language because of internalized inferiority, and this contributed to the dropping number of native speakers. Ms. Allen's feelings perfectly show the success of the polarizing policy, and why the policy held, because the BIA got the result they wanted. And while not everyone left with feelings of discontent for their native language, there was still a large drop in intergenerational transmission (Spolsky 2002). Another contributing factor to indigenous language loss is the rise in English-only legislation. This was a movement beginning in the 1980s that conservative policy makers took up in protest to bilingual education. Bilingual education had received government support in the previous decade after the Supreme Court ruling of the Lau vs. Nichols case in 1974, which stated that children had the right to equal education. Iflanguage was a barrier then it was the school's duty to provide a program to allow a level playing field (Hinton and Hale 200 I). The case ruling resulted in the introduction of 'Lau Remedies' which manifested as funds for bilingual programs for the entire country, that were utilized by over 70 American Indian bilingual education projects in the 10 years after the ruling (Hinton and Hale 200 I).
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