received: 31.01.2016 published online: 31.05.2019

ORNAMENT AND IDENTITY LANGUAGE RECLAMATION OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN GROUPS IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES1

BARTOSZ HLEBOWICZ

With very few exceptions, Native American languages along the Eastern Coast stopped being used between 1750 and 1850. Almost all of them are presently classified on the last levels of the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale: from “Shifting” to “Extinct”. The article presents the state of language disruption among the various Native American groups that originate from the Eastern Coast. It also reviews the efforts of its reclamation, as well as discusses the functions language reclamation may fulfil in situation when speech communities that would provide natural contexts for the language transmission no longer exist.

keywords: Native American languages, Eastern tribes, endangered languages, language reclamation, speech community

focus on1 the languages of the Native nations by the U.S. federal government, some American peoples who inhabit or once of their non-Indian neighbors and sometimes inhabited the Atlantic Seaboard of the even by other Indian tribes. Thus, what may be AUnited States and Canada reveals their today’s called ethnic revival and community rebuild­ challenges. These begin with a lengthy period ing among the Native Americans in the East is of contact with immigrating Europeans and par­alleled by political struggle and cultural re­ then their descendants that produced destruc­ vival. Language reclamation is part of this larger tion of many native communities, pushing in­ process. habitants out of their homelands, and often amalgamating survivors with other peoples, including members of other tribes, as well as present situation on the white and black people, to the extent that to­ eastern coast day their connection with their historical native groups sometimes is untraceable. This in turn The Eastern Coast at the time of contact with confuses their sense of identity and makes ex­ the Europeans was inhabited by the people tremely difficult their search for their heritage speaking languages belonging to several lin­ language. This is also a political issue as some guistic families: Algonquian (covering the lar­ of those tribes are not recognized as Indian gest part of the coast: from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada along the Atlantic Seaboard southward to North Carolina), 1 This is an extended version of the essay that was published in 2015 in the American Indian Culture: From Counting Iroquoian (present New York State and North Coup to Wampum, (2 volumes), edited by Bruce E. Carolina), and Siouan-Catawba (North and Johansen, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA – Denver, CO. South Carolinas). Also, further south, there

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were numerous, usually small groups speaking spoken by the Micmacs who live in several languages belonging to at least ten other fam­ communities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, ilies (e.g. extinct Timucuan in Georgia and Prince Edward Island, Quebec in Canada Florida) and possibly many other which due and in Maine as well as in the city of Boston. to their scarce documentation cannot be as­ According to the 2011 Census of Canada (great cribed to any family with any certainty, which majority of Micmac speakers live in Canada) is especially a case of the vast areas of Southeast over 8,000 people, which is less than half of the (Goddard 2005). population, know Micmac, and 80% of them With very few exceptions, languages along speak it at home. Ethnologue, the website doc­ the Eastern Coast stopped being used be­ umenting the state of language loss all over the tween 1750 and 1850 (Rees-Miller 1998, 540; world, in 2019 gives even smaller number of Rudes 2011: 190). Again, with very few ex­ fluent speakers: 6,900 (Eberhard et al. 2019, s.v. ceptions, the languages of the Eastern Coast Mi’kmaq). However, children learn some of it are presently classified on the last levels of the only in very few communities, and there are EGIDS scale: from “Shifting” to “Extinct”. communities in which it is no longer spoken EGIDS (Expanded Graded Intergenerational at all (Aboriginal languages in Canada: Table 1, Disruption Scale) is a 0-10 scale that measures Figure 2; Golla 2008: 62). the level of “disruption to the intergenera­t­ional Much more vibrant are Central Algonquian transmission of the language” (Eberhard et al. languages of Subarctic Attikameks (three 2019: s.v. Language Status). Level 0, la­belled communities in south-central Quebec), “International,” means the “The language is Montagnais and Naskapi (eastern Quebec widely used between nations in trade, knowl­ and Labrador). For example in the same 2011 edge exchange, and international policy,” and Census 5,100 Attikameks declared speaking level 10, labelled “Extinct,” means “The lan­ their language (over 97% said they were using it guage is no longer used and no one retains at home), but these 5,100 composed almost the a sense of ethnic identity associated with the total population of Attikameks. Since it is used language” (Eberhard et al. 2019: s.v. Language by all generations and by almost all the mem­ Status). The level 7, labelled “Shifting,” means bers of Attikamek communities, its transmis­ “The child-bearing generation can use the lan­ sion seems secure (Ethnologue; Aboriginal lan- guage among themselves, but it is not being guages in Canada: Figure 2; First Nation Profiles: transmitted to children.” “Extinct” is the Atikamekw Sipi). Montagnais is spoken in sev­ last, tenth level, and means “The language is eral (but not all) communities by the majority no longer used and no one retains a sense of of the population. Naskapi and Attikamek yet ethnic identity associated with the language” few years ago were classified as “developing” (Eberhard et al. 2019: s.v. Language Status). (level 5 on the EGIDS scale: “The language is in Those few exceptions among the languages of vigorous use, with literature in a standardized the Eastern Coast are the languages, which, form being used by some though this is not although having high percentage of fluent yet widespread or sustainable”, Eberhard et al. speakers in each generation, are losing speak­ 2019, s.v. Atikamekw), but recently Naskapi was ers. They are labeled “Threatened” (level 6b): reclassified and put on a higher, fourth level “The language is used for face-to-face commu­ – “Educational” (“The language is in vigorous nication within all generations, but it is lo­ use, with standardization and literature being sing users” (Eberhard et al. 2019: s.v. Language sustained through a widespread system of in­ Status). Micmac, the northernmost langu­ stitutionally supported education”) (Eberhard age among Eastern Algonquian languages, is et al. 2019, s.v. Naskapi, Language Status).

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Montagnais is considered a “threatened” lan­ Seneca reservations in western New York State; guage (level 6b on the EGIDS scale) (Eberhard Oneida: perhaps only about 60 Oneida speakers et al. 2019, s.v. Montagnais; Golla 2008: 64-65). in the reserve in southern Ontario, and probably The other language of the region with a large no fluent speaker left in Wisconsin and upstate percentage of Native American mother-tongue New York Oneida communities (Eberhard speakers (but still labeled “threatened”), and et al. 2019, s.v. Nottoway, Oneida, Onondaga, the only one of the Iroquoian family, is that Tuscarora, Wyandot; Dubinski 2012; Hlebowicz of the Mohawks (Northern Iroquoian branch) et al. 2004). Further south the Cherokee, who live on several reservations and reserves a Southern Iroquoian language, has survived in the United States and Canada, in upstate and is spoken by some of the Cherokee de­ New York, Ontario and Quebec. There are scendants in their homelands in western North probably more than 3,000 Mohawk speakers, Carolina and the descendants of the Cherokees most of whom come from Akwesasne (St. moved to Indian Territory / Oklahoma in the Regis) community that spreads over the Saint nineteenth century. Lawrence River on both sides of Canadian- Other Eastern Coast languages still in use -American border. Mohawk is being taught are Mikasuki and Muskogee (Creek) in Florida, at immersion primary schools (including pre- spoken by Miccosukee and Seminole people -kindergarten programs) in the communities (in four of five Florida Seminole communities of Kahnawake (Kahnawake Survival School) Mikasuki is spoken, in the fifth one Muskogee). and Akwesasne (Freedom School), both started Muskogee is also spoken by between 4,000 and in 1979-1980, as well as at immersion schools 6,000 Creeks and Seminoles in Oklahoma. on other Mohawk reservations. There are also Muskogee is considered a “shifting” language other schools on the reservations (e.g. Mohawk whereas Mikasuki – “threatened” (Eberhard et Board of Education of Akwesasne runs Mohawk al. 2019, s.v. Mikasuki, Muskogee; Golla 2008: immersion classrooms in the Skahwatsi:ra 43, 63). Program) on and off the reservation. In Akwe­ Passamaquoddy-Maliseet, an Eastern Algon­ sasne, traditional teaching classes have been or­ quian language of the people living in New ganized for the students who complete pri­ Brunswick and Maine, is the only other Native mary schools. Various programs are organized American language on the Eastern Coast that to teach the language to the adults (e.g. on the can be still heard in spoken form. Out of be­ Six Nations reserve, Ontario) or to the tribal tween 3,000 and 4,000 Passamaquoddy and staff (Akwesasne) (Golla 2008: 63-64; Eberhard Maliseet liv­ing in both countries, several hun­ et al. 2019, s.v. Mohawk; e-mail communica­ dred speak the language (a majority of whom live tion with Elvera Sargent, former manager of in Canada). The most fluent are 60 years of age the Akwesasne Freedom School, April 13, 2013). or older. A cou­ple of years ago the language was All the other Iroquoian languages fare classified as “shifting” (level 7 on EGIDS scale), much worse: other Northern Iroquoian lan­ but according­ to the most recent edition of guages either are “dormant” (Nottoway, once Ethnologue it is already declassified as “moribound spoken in southeast Virginia; Wyandot his­ (level 8a on EGIDS scale) (Eberhard et al. 2019, torically of Quebec; today Wyandot descen­ s.v. Malecite-Passamaquoddy; Golla 2008: 60). dants live in Canada and in Oklahoma), “nearly As this overview indicates, the present con­ extinct” (Tuscarora and Onondaga), “moribund” dition of American Indian languages in the East (Cayuga: not more than 40 speakers in Canada, is grim. Altogether, several thousand speakers­ and only among older generation; Seneca: no spread across this vast territory could comprise more than 100 fluent speakers on the three a small town. Today the great majority of Indian

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communities on the Eastern Coast no longer was constructed by English-speaking people, use their mother tongues. In many cases, disap­ when the domains of native language use pearance of languages has been only a part of were rapidly disappearing? A telling exam­ a general decline of traditional culture and one ple of changing attitude towards the language­ of the manifestations of tribal identity’s erosion. comes from a contemporary project of teach­ Four hundred years of contact with more pow­ ing / learning of the language that was ini­ erful European colonizers gradually changed tiated among the Passamaquoddies in at the Indian communities into tiny pockets of peo­ Passamaquoddy and Maliseet communities of ple living on obscure reservations (e.g. Pequots Pleasant Point and Indian Township (Maine) in Connecticut or Pamunkeys, Mattaponis and the Tobique First Nation Reserve (New in Virginia) or dispersed among much greater Brunswick, Canada). Small groups of tribal non-Indian populations, intermarrying with members were put together and asked to speak other ethnic groups and even seen as “coloured”, the Passamaquoddy language, and various top­ “Mullatoes” or “Black”, not Indians anymore. ics were suggested. Two men spontaneously Until the 1960s, when ethnic revival in the engaged in conversation about techniques for United States started, many people who had fishing and other food gathering and preser­ Native American blood did not claim it. The is­ vation. These two individuals had never previ­ sue of first importance was survival, and Indian ously used their language to speak to each other, identity could imperil that. and only the creation of the new context (film­ Forced assimilation was not a direct rea­ ing of the language use) stimulated them to do son for language decline and loss. Boarding so. These two men live two hundred feet from schools that largely contributed to eradication each other (Apt and Schulz 2012: 7). of Indian languages elsewhere started function­ ing after the Civil War (as a national system in 1879), after many Native American languages reclamation efforts in the East were no longer used or already were on the verge of extinction. The language­ Today Native American groups along the loss here began much earlier, in the seven­ eastern coast are developing or engaged in var­ teenth century, when the native people be­ ious language-reclamation projects. Even some came engaged in the English economy. More groups whose languages are extinct or even in direct than forced assimilation reasons are ex­ some cases impossible to retrace are consid­ posure to popular culture and people’s moti­ ering some sort of “revival,” or borrowing of vations and attitudes towards the language, as better-preserved languages from other groups. well as a sense of “worthlessness” (Linn et al. One of the most publicized programs of lan­ 2002: 105).2 What good was a language that guage revitalization is taking place among the kept people from functioning in a world that Wampanoags in southeastern Massachusetts, whose language (Wôpanâak, one of the di­ alects of Massachusetts language) became 2 Of course, non-Indian society ways of “forgetting” about extinct in the middle of the nineteenth century. Indians (removing them from national consciousness The project started in the middle of the 1990s by denying their role in regional histories and denying as a common effort of a tribal member Jessie their mere existence), practiced from the colonial Little Doe Baird and a late linguist Ken Hale times, must have contributed indirectly to this sense of worthlessness. See for example how the eighteenth- from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -century local historians of the southern New England (MIT). They went over numerous texts written produced the image of “gone Indians” (O’Brien 2010). by seventeenth century missionaries (including

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the Bible translated into Natick, a dialect of The last fluent speaker among the Unkechaugs Massachusetts language) and numerous docu­ died at the beginning of the nineteenth cen­ ments (such as wills and deeds) written in the tury. The major source of knowledge about Massachusetts language, including more than the language is a list of 202 words gathered by 150 documents written by Indians. Thomas Jefferson in 1791 – when the language It is probable that nearly 30% of the Wam­ was already moribund – while he visited the panoag people were literate by the late seven­ Unkechaug reservation. In 2009, the tribe es­ teenth century. Many read and wrote in their tablished the Unkechaug Nation Revitalization language thanks to the efforts of a missionary,­ Committee with a $40,000 grant from the Long John Eliot, who believed that only studying­ Island Community Trust. Lessons were taking the Bible in their own language would pro­ place in the kitchen of the Unkechaugs’ chief, vide for true conversion of the Indians to Harry Wallace, the instruction material was Christianity (Bragdon 2000: 180-181). Analysis Jefferson’s list, several other nineteenth-century of the texts and linguistic comparison with documents containing fewer Quiripi words, as other Algonquian languages helped to recon­ well as tape recordings of the Western Abenaki struct the grammar, pronunciation and vo­ speakers from St. Francis in southern Quebec, cabulary of the language. Four remaining made in the middle of the twentieth century, Wampanoag communities united to reclaim preserved (and forgotten for several decades) the language, as classes were organized within at the Dartmouth College Library, and sent to the communities (in one course, students were the Unkechaugs’ chief in 1996 at his request. allowed to speak only Wôpanâak). Classes The Unkechaugs cooperated with another Long were taught by Baird who, in the meantime, Island group, the Shinnecocks (whose language had obtained an M.A. in linguistics at MIT. is not well enough documented to­ allow any Classes also in­volved new language adepts sure statement about it, but might have been within the tribe, as a dictionary also was com­ related to Mohegan‑Pequot of Connecticut) piled which by 2013 con­tained about 11,000 as well as with Mohegans who have their own words. Teaching materials also were developed. reclamation program, including participation in Baird’s daughter was raised in both English Mohegan language classes via an Internet con­ and the Wôpanâak language. In 2010, Baird nection with the Uncas Conference Room at received a five-year grant of $500,000 from the the Mohegan Tribal Office (Strong 2011: -28 32, MacArthur Foundation to continue and de­ 278, 281-284). velop the reclamation project. In the same year “Revitalization” is also underway of the a documentary was released, titled We Still Live “Powhatan” language, e.g. the language spoken Here (Âs Nutayuneân), about the Wampanoag by Virginia Algonquians, which became ex­ language’s rebirth (Shatwell 2012). tinct during the eighteenth century. Unlike Another Eastern Algonquian language the language of the Massachusetts, it has no which became extinct, even earlier than rich documentation, but there are two word Massachusetts, is Quiripi, spoken by the na­ lists gathered by the first Virginia colonists tive people of coastal western Connecticut and at the beginning of the seventeenth century the Unkechaugs3 of the eastern Long Island. (altogether 600 words). The language was “re­ vived” not by the descendants of the Powhatan people, but by the makers of a film, Terence 3 The Unkechaugs were formerly sometimes known as Poospatucks, from the name of one of their earliest Malick’s The New World (2005) who wanted settlements, and then their reservation, situated on the to “achieve authenticity with respect to the Poospatuck Creek (Strong 2011: xi, 6-7).

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languages spoken by the English colonists and of documenting it is carried by a white per­ Virginia Algonquian people” (Rudes 2011: 189). son, Jim Rementer (with the help of a linguist The task of making a live language for the Bruce Pearson, among others, who continue sake of the film dialogues out of a list of words the tradition of linguists’ involvement with the was undertaken by a linguist, Blair Rudes. To Delawares4), who has come to live with them 40 form words and sentences he used grammars years ago, and learned the language from then of other well-documented Algonquian lan­ living elders. Among the Oneidas in Wisconsin guages: Munsee Delaware and Natick. He also the mission of carrying the language into the sup­plied vocabulary that borrowed words from future was being fulfilled by the oldest speaker, other Algonquian languages (Western Abenaki Maria Hinton, who was 103 years old when she and Conoy). About half of the words in the passed away in July 2013. Maria Hinton dedi­ film dialogues were not among those on histor­ cated her life in preserving the language, taking ical Powhatan wordlists. He also had to teach part in producing Oneida teaching materials, in­ Indian actors the pronunciation; he assumed it cluding an Oneida dictionary (1996) that later was not too much different from Algonquian she read word-by-word so that all entries were languages for which sound recordings exist, recorded and downloaded online, making pro­ namely Munsee Delaware and Penobscot. This nunciation of all of them available. For decades, was a fascinating experiment in resurrecting Oneidas cooperated with European-American a moribund language for the film continuities, anthropologists and linguists, and today the but according to Rudes the filmmakers did not University of Wisconsin in Green Bay main­ stop there: in one of his publications he wrote tains Oneida Language Tools, a website that in­ that all linguistic materials gathered and cre­ cludes Oneida grammar, a talking dictionary ated during the time of the filmmaking were and some of the 800 Oneida texts which were copied and sent to Virginia tribes, and Rudes gathered in 1939, read and recorded on tapes by volunteered to assist them in possible language the next generation of Oneida speakers between reclamation efforts (Rudes 2011). 1974 and 1985, and now digitalized. There is also Rudes died in 2008. The film gave inspira­ a primary school in which classes are conducted tion to many people who previously did not in Oneida and English, and the Oneida instruc­ believe language resurrection was possible. tors’ center on the reservation. However, neither Ian Custalow, a linguist from the Mattaponi determination of a several individuals in doc­ tribe, who has been studying Virginia umenting Delaware language, nor huge effort Algonquin since 2001, said that his weekly of the whole Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin in pre­ classes of Powhatan language for Mattaponis serving and teaching the language, have not yet and Patawomecks gather about 30 students produced at least one fluent speaker (Hlebowicz in each community. He also teaches some 2012; Johnsen et al. 2012). Rappahanocks and Mattaponis on an indi­ Also, the Passamaquoddy-Maliseets have im­ vidual basis (Custalow, email communication, pressive language documentation, and there is April 23, 2013). a strong effort to keep it alive through classes Other tribes have much better language at the University of New Brunswick and various documentation, including published sources teaching­ programs that engage people of all gen­ as well as talking online dictionaries. Such is erations. There exists aPassamaquoddy-Maliseet the case of Delawares in eastern Oklahoma, who migrated there from New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century. Today, 4 Mark Harrington, C.F. Voegelin or David Oestricher, no Delaware speaks this language, and the task to name few of them.

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Language Portal with an 18,000-word dictionary Lakota, to the Siouan-Catawba language fam­ (only Passamaquoddy-Maliseet – English, not ily. The reason for this choice is that Lakota is vice versa) and large archives of videotaped­ con­ a live language with an active “language con­ versations with fluent speakers. Also, each word sortium” developing teaching materials and an in the native tongue may be linked to audios so online dictionary, whereas Catawban languages that a word or a phrase in which it is used may of the east are extinct (Clarke 2007). However, be heard. There is also a list of video-recordings­ the Catawban languages’ relationship to the with subtitles in both native language and western Siouan to which Lakota belongs is ten­ English (Golla 2008: 60). Whether the lan­­­ uous. Recently, some Monacans have consid­ ­guage is to be transmitted to the younger ered trying to learn Lakota as well, but Karenne generation,­ which now has no fluent speakers, Wood, a Monacan tribal council member and remains to be seen. anthropologist, says that first their people need Some North Carolina groups, such as the to reflect on whether and why they would want Monacan and Saponi-Haliwa have attempted to bring the language back and what it means to reintroduce the Tutelo language on the basis for their sense of themselves that the language of common linguistic ancestry (Kobert 2007). is no longer spoken (e-mail communication Tutelos from southern Virginia moved to with K. Wood, April 30, 2013). Canada in the eighteenth century and in 1883 Somewhat similar is the case of the much an anthropologist, Horatio Hale, published smaller group (about 3,000 people) from south­ a study of their language, discovering that it be­ ern New Jersey whose members call themselves­ longed to Siouan family. The last fluent Tutelo Nanticoke Lenni-Lenapes but whose mem­ speaker died in the 1990s. Although the Saponi bers until few decades ago considered them­ historically were closely related to the Tutelos selves simply Indian or Black, or “colored.” Like (which encourages them to “borrow” their lan­ some of the Lumbees, Native American peo­ guage) there is not enough documentation to ple in southern New Jersey started looking for decide what language the Monacans spoke their tribal roots, and concluded that the name (Goddard 2005: 16-18). “Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape” would be the most The Lumbees of Robeson County in North adequate since they live on the lands once in­ Carolina, one of the largest Indian tribes in habited by peoples later called Delawares or the United States (in 2010 U.S. census more Lenapes (who moved out in various directions, than 73,000 declared belonging to the tribe), and whose main groups now live in Ontario and a people without a surviving Native language­­ Oklahoma). Many Native people (Nanticokes, (although a particular version of Lumbee Eng­ speaking another Eastern Algonquian lan­guage) lish is recognized by scholars). Not even a her­ from the other side of Delaware Bay mi­grated itage language can be traced because it is dif­ to Salem and Cumberland counties of southern ficult, maybe impossible, to discern the tribal New Jersey and mixed with them. In order to roots of the modern Lumbees. They are de­ strengthen their newly-discovered tribal identity, scendants of Indian families who lived on the the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenapes con­tinue their Lumbee River in the middle of the eighteenth­ attempts to associate with Delaware groups century, and descend from various Native in Oklahoma which include spo­radic lan­ American groups (Blu 2004: 319-320). Recently, guage classes offered by members of the tribes however, there has been a proposition to in­ who moved to the west (Hlebowicz 2009). troduce the Lakota language to the Lumbees, Another New Jersey group, from the north of suggesting that part of the tribe comes from the state, of more controversial Indian ances­ Cheraw and other people belonging, like the try, who called themselves “Ramapo Mountain

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Indians,” and more recently started using the through generations, and there are no natural name Ramapough Lunaape Nation, have an­ contexts for the languages’ use. Contemporary nounced online their efforts to revitalize Munsee language reclamation projects are trying to (northern Lenape) language whose few speak­ provide new contexts for their once-mother ers remained among the communities who mi­ tongues, but this requires a lot of determination grated to Ontario. Previously, the people of on the part of the people, and significant num­ Ramapough were attending classes of the Unami bers of people within each community must be (southern Lenape) language operated by a scho­ determined to make the projects work. lar, David Oestreicher, who in turned learned it Another problem is the use for language re­ from the Delawares in Oklahoma (Oestreicher construction of the vocabularies and texts pro­ 2001: 564; Ramapo Munsee Language). duced in colonial times. Those texts were usu­ ally written by European-American missionaries and colonizers for purposes other than language discussion preservation (“creating authority, making money, or saving souls” – Murray, 2001: 613). Probably The obvious obstacle for language reclamation many religious texts of the seventeenth century is the lack of speech community. By this I do that were translated into Indian languages were not simply mean a group of people that speaks unidiomatic and might have sounded odd to the same language, but the group of people that Indians then (Strong 2011: 286). Now they are shares the same culture, values, and identity, used as a point of departure to learn their lan­ and forms a community, and where language’s guages; however, they, as well as lists of Indian role is to stimulate as well as express the group’s words, are “possible utterances”, not the actual uniqueness.5 Thus the language is not merely languages, and we do not know how close they an instrument of communication, but a pow­ are to original languages, and even less how close erful stimulus of group (and therefore individ­ the “revived” languages are going to be to those ual) identity, transmitted through generations of their ancestors. What worked for the purpose and bonding the people since “time immemo­ of a film script may not necessarily work in real rial.” Such an ideal definition obviously calls life. Just as problematic is the reconstruction of to mind Benedict Anderson’s concept of face- vocabularies, grammars, and assumed pronun­ -to-face community vs. imagined community ciations through borrowings from related and (Anderson 2006), and this is precisely the chal­ better-documented languages. For some they lenge that Native American groups, along with are merely “authenticating and decorative de­ many other groups in the world, face: how to vices” (Murray 2001: 594) as much as they were preserve (or, in the great majority of cases, re­ for white travelers in the past. For others, they vive) its sense of uniqueness – the sense of com­ are more serious matters of identity, and with the munity in a contemporary world in which face­ help of linguists quite much is being achieved. -to-face communities are no longer possible: Language reclamation among the eastern due to “globalization,” multiple contexts of tribes is generally understood as an attempt to human’s lives, migrations, prevalence of other actually restore the spoken language so that than face-to-face interactions, etc. community members can converse in it. What A great majority of Native American peo­ is being achieved unavoidably must be far from ples in the East do not transmit the language it, at least in a short period of time: the peo­ ple will not suddenly stop speaking English and begin using the language of their ances­ 5 More on speech communities in Morgan 2014. tors. Still, reclamation projects have stimulated

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or strengthened language documentation in Mohawks or Passamaquoddy-Maliseets), some many communities which is the first con­dition others are trying to reconstruct something that of language survival – if not this generation, already for several generations was not a part any future generation will have an opportu­ of their world, but they still feel that it belongs nity, should this be their inclination, to use the to them and want that it defines their identity sources and materials that are now being gath­ (e.g. communities in New England, New Jersey, ered and produced in their own attempts to re­ Virginia, North Carolina). Many languages just vive their languages. died too fast. Individuals’ and communities’ de­ Although Native American peoples in the termination today provides a little bit of opti­ East have various histories of their languages’ mism. But only a little bit. decline and survival, it seems that only when a substantial proportion of a given tribe or Bartosz Hlebowicz is an independent scholar (PhD in nation has managed to stay in one relatively anthropology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland). He isolated area (Mohawks, Oneidas in Ontario, has conducted fieldwork research among several Iroquois Micmacs, Maliseets, Passamaquoddies and the and Delaware communities in the U.S. and Canada. In Seminoles and Miccosukee), their language­ 2000–2010 he worked for the “Tawacin” quarterly, a Polish has survived, at least among the older gener­ journal on Native Americans. Currently he is a translator ations. It survived naturally, without special (e.g. he translated into Polish Lewis H. Morgan’s League effort, because until quite recently it was not of the Iroquois and Natalie Zemon Davis’ Women on the considered worth preserving by the people. Margins) and a free-lance journalist for “Gazeta Wyborcza” Paradoxically, in the past, these were often the and “Tygodnik Powszechny”. individuals among the whites who sought to document Indian languages, even if for other purposes than preserving it for the peo­ple so ΐΐbibliography that they could continue speaking it. Now the 2011: Aboriginal languages in Canada: Figure 2. Proportion of languages on the Eastern Coast (as well as vir­ the population whose mother tongue is one of the ten most tually all the Native American languages), to reported Aboriginal languages who speak their language use Ernest Gellner’s metaphor, need to be most often or on a regular basis at home, Canada, 2011, “gardened” or “cultivated”, and it seems that Statistics Canada, accessed February 11, 2015, https:// www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as- today a broad consensus exists to support this. sa/98-314-x/2011003/fig/fig3_3-2-eng.cfm. There are two main reasons for such an 2011: Aboriginal languages in Canada: Table 1. Population approach: 1) (especially important for linguists) with an Aboriginal mother tongue by language family, diversity in itself is valuable and keeping small main languages within these families and their main language alive is a big step against homogeniza­ provincial and territorial concentrations, Canada, 2011, Statistics Canada, accessed February 11, 2015, https:// tion. Michael Krauss reminds us that each lan­ www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as- guage has its beauty as well as that in each sa/98-314-x/2011003/tbl/tbl3_3-1-eng.cfm. language is embedded the knowledge of the Anderson Benedict, 2006: Imagined Communities: world and way of perceiving the world (Krauss Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 2007: 18-19). How senseless it would be to let Verso, London, New York. Apt Margaret, Schulz Julia, 2012: “Language Keepers”: all those things go; 2) language reclamation is The Role of the Facilitator in Documenting Passamaquoddy- crucial for the identity and sense of uniqueness -Maliseet Group Discourse, in: Papers of the Fortieth of Indian communities. Some groups are doing Algonquian Conference 2008, ed. Karl S. Hele, J. Randolph it because they want to preserve and strengthen Valentine, State University of New York Press, Albany. this important part of their cultures and iden­ Blu Karen I., 2004: Lumbee, in: Handbook of North American Indians. Volume 14. Southeast, ed. Raymond tity that has been threatened (e.g. Oneidas,

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