Once
spoken by thousands of Coast Salish people in this area, Lushootseed
was almost lost. Now the battle to save and revive the language
is making progress.
The
notion that we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, but
rather, we borrow it from our children, has become a cliché
of the environmental movement. But could the same thing be true
of a language?
Lushootseed
tribal language teachers, students, and advocates from around Puget
Sound gathered at a conference on Saturday (May 1) to celebrate
the rich cultural inheritance of their Puget Salish language, but
also to assess the language's chances of survival in the 21st century.
The conference, hosted by Seattle University, was guided by the
idea that today's Lushootseed speakers are taking care of the language
for the next generation.
Once
spoken by thousands of Coast Salish people in Washington state,
Lushootseed's territory extends from north of present-day Mount
Vernon to south of Olympia. The northern dialect is spoken by members
of the Upper Skagit, Sauk Suiattle, Swinomish, Stillaguamish, Tulalip,
and Snoqualmie tribes. The southern dialect, also called Whulshootseed
or Twulshootseed, is spoken by members of the Muckleshoot, Puyallup,
Suquamish, Duwamish, Nisqually, and Squaxin Island tribes. Linguists
classify the language as part of the Salishan family, which includes
Native languages spoken in parts of Washington, British Columbia,
Montana, Idaho and Oregon.
Today,
few elders remain who learned Lushootseed as a first language. Tribes
are working hard to make sure that the language survives, and the
next few years will be critical if the language is to be revitalized
to the point that children become and remain fluent speakers.
Saturday's
Lushootseed conference offered a forum for teachers and students
to talk about how they can share resources, from curriculum to computer
programs, and what strategies can best shore up the vulnerable language.
But
how did Lushootseed get to the point where it might be considered
endangered?
For
decades, federal Indian policy, which aimed at forced assimilation,
required children to be removed from their homes and reservation
communities, and enrolled in boarding schools, where many were punished
or beaten for speaking their Native languages. As a result, generations
of Native people either never learned their language, or lost their
fluency in it, and many links to traditional culture were broken.
We
almost lost the language, explains Jill K. La Pointe, director of
the nonprofit organization Lushootseed Research, which organized
the Lushootseed Conference at Seattle University. Fortunately, efforts
began many years ago to record and preserve Lushootseed, and that
documentation is invaluable for today's language learners.
Recent
decades have seen a cultural resurgence in Puget Sound tribal communities,
including carving, weaving, canoe making, and efforts to revitalize
Lushootseed. New tribal museums and long houses have been constructed,
and events such as the annual Canoe Journey involve hundreds of
participants and thousands of spectators.
Lushootseed
Research was founded in 1983 by La Pointes grandmother, the
revered Upper Skagit elder Vi Hilbert (1918 2008). Hilbert
made it her life's work to preserve Lushootseed, telling stories,
teaching the language at the University of Washington, and lecturing
broadly about traditional culture. Hilbert was recognized as a Washington
State Living Treasure in 1989, and received numerous awards for
her efforts to preserve Lushootseed, including an honorary doctorate
from Seattle University and a National Heritage Fellowship from
the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994.
Hilbert's
passing in 2008 was a tremendous loss for the Native community.
Barbara Brotherton, curator of Native American Art at the Seattle
Art Museum, notes that almost every speaker of the Lushootseed language
today learned it from Hilbert, or from someone who was taught by
Hilbert.
Lushootseed
language classes are being taught today in many tribal communities,
and hard-won legislative victories have created more opportunities
for language instruction in public school settings. More than a
decade ago, high school graduation requirements were amended to
allow instruction in Native languages to count toward those requirements.
Lushootseed
is becoming a little bit more visible and familiar to the general
public, in spite of its complex orthography reflecting sounds, which
are unfamiliar to English-language speakers. The Seattle Art Museum
mounted a major Coast Salish exhibit in 2008 called Sabadeb,
which means gifts in Lushootseed.
In
2007, Washington state amended its teacher certification process
to permit tribal communities to certify language teachers, citing
the federal Native American Languages Act (PL 101-477) in acknowledging
that "the traditional languages of Native Americans are an
integral part of their cultures and identities and form the basic
medium for the transmission, and thus survival, of Native American
cultures, literatures, histories, religions, political institutions,
and values."
La
Pointe is continuing her grandmother's work with Lushootseed Research
by publishing and distributing Lushootseed language materials, developing
new internet-based resources, and sponsoring events like Saturday's
conference to promote information sharing among tribal programs.
Workshops
and presentations highlighted archival resources at the University
of Washington, language documentation and stabilization programs
at the University of Oregon, immersion lessons in teaching about
Puget Sound area native plants, and discussions about how participants
are using new technologies in teaching.
A
tribute to Vi Hilbert and her long-time academic collaborator Dr.
Thom Hess (1936 - 2009) captured their dedication to preserving
Lushootseed. The two worked tirelessly for decades to transcribe
language resources, utilizing a standardized orthography or system
of writing using a subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet,
and eventually publishing the Lushootseed Dictionary with co-author
Dr. Dawn Bates.
A
compelling presentation by Tony Johnson, a Chinook tribal member,
described the Confederated
Tribes of the Grand Ronde's success in creating a full immersion
program for preschool students. Based on successful "languages
nests" developed in Maori communities in New Zealand, and in
Native Hawaiian communities, the Grand Ronde have established a
school environment where Chinuk is spoken all day, every day by
both teachers and students, building fluency in kids ages 3-5, and
working with elementary age students to retain their language skills
as they transition to public schools. This kind of immersion program
has also been successful with K-8 students at the Piegan Institute's
Cuts Wood School on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.
The
immersion program model represents an outstanding opportunity for
revitalizing Lushootseed to ensure future generations of fluent
speakers, according to Lushootseed speaker Zalmai "Zeke"
Zahir, who taught the language for many years, and who published
Puget Sound Geography with Vi Hilbert and Dr. Jay Miller in 2001.
Language
immersion programs are increasingly being recognized for their positive
impacts not just in terms of revitalizing endangered languages.
A recent Seattle Times editorial touted increases in general academic
achievement among Seattle Public School students participating in
immersion programs in languages such as Spanish and Mandarin.
Johnson
described Grand Ronde's Masters and Apprentices Program as another
successful model for building language fluency, in which an elder
who is a fluent speaker works on an individual basis with a youth
or adult language learner, and both are paid for their time commitment.
Rather than studying a formal curriculum, teacher and student work
together informally, speaking their language in "normal life
interactions" like doing chores.
Conference
attendees discussed other items on the "wish list" for
Lushootseed revitalization, include digitizing reference materials
like the Lushootseed Dictionary (this is in the works), creating
a mentorship network for language teachers, and re-instating Lushootseed
language classes at the University of Washington.
Lushootseed
is becoming a little bit more visible and familiar to the general
public, in spite of its complex orthography reflecting sounds, which
are unfamiliar to English-language speakers. The Seattle Art Museum
mounted a major Coast Salish exhibit in 2008 called Sabadeb,
which means gifts in Lushootseed.
New
parks in Seattle and other cities have been given Lushootseed names,
reflecting traditional Puget Salish geography such as Herring's
House Park (Tualtwx) on the Duwamish River, or honoring specific
individuals such as Cheshiahud, a Duwamish tribal leader for whom
a loop trail around Lake Union is named. The Seattle Public Schools'
Huchoosedah Indian Education Program is named for a Lushootseed
word that means broad cultural knowledge and knowledge of self.
Current advertisements for the Tulalip Resort feature the Lushootseed
word for welcome.
Written
and spoken Lushootseed can be seen in many publications, interpretive
signs, public artworks, documentary films, and other aspects of
local heritage. Such creative works share the traditional culture
and world view of the First People of Puget Sound with the region's
ever-growing non-native population.
Along
with the hundreds of students learning Lushootseed today, La Pointe
is working to carry on her grandmother's legacy by keeping the language
alive. Organizing the inaugural Lushootseed Conference was one way
to do that. "My grandmother always told us," La Pointe
says, "that our language, Lushootseed, is the most beautiful
language, and she wished that some day everyone who lived in Puget
Sound would speak it."
Holly
Taylor is principal of Past Forward, a consulting company specializing
in preservation of cultural resources in the Pacific Northwest.
She can be reached at editor@crosscut.com.
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