Language To Save The World
I recall attending one of the first major Native language conferences in the late 1970s at the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico. I realized to what extent my own language, the Karuk language, was in danger of vanishing. While I fancied myself a young speaker and expert of my language other attendees at the conference were elder culture bearers from many tribes from around the country. Like me they were made aware of the real potential that their indigenous languages might vanish.
The movement among California Native tribes and groups to reclaim their original languages began during the mid 1980s. It wasn’t a well know fact then but California was a great vortex of languages and language families, one of the 3 greatest collections of disparate languages. In fact 80% of all of the indigenous languages of North America are found here in California. Imagine the diversity of language programs this fact might entail. I am happy to announce that I proposed a language program model at one of the first think-tank meetings held in the San Francisco Bay Area–and that program is still current and relatively speaking, thriving. It is the Master-Apprentice program.
I am of the camp that says our languages must not die, yet for some (perhaps for many) it is not that big a deal that Yuki, Nongatl, Sinkyone and many others, might die. There are so many other more important issues facing all of society these days. What we, Native People, must keep in mind is that our heritage is defined and directly linked to the languages spoken by our ancestors. More so than by the blood quantum definition that is employed by the federal government in determining our degree of “Indianness”. William Bright, who was the Karuk language linguist for many years felt that WE, the Native people living today, are Indian precisely because our ancestors spoke a particular Native language.
When we consider the mish mash and cultural goulash that federal laws and policies have made of our legal and political “identities” by relying solely on blood quantum, then we can appreciate defining our Indianness by determining the Native languages of direct ancestors. I vote for it as a more organic and holistic way of self-identity. It is afterall our ancestry that defines us in all other ways.
Our world and how we view it is defined by our language. To lose one’s language one must relate to the world using the psychology and spirituality of a new primary language: English, Spanish or French. But now we are constrained to relate to the natural world within the cultural context of these 3 primary languages. Truth is we will not be encouraged to gain, or to reassert our indigenous languages. We will live and die without our ancestral relationship with the natural world. A tragedy for some and meaningles dribble to others.
This morning’s radio story, Shakespeare Had Roses All Wrong, underlines the power of language to define this self-world relationship. The idea that the earth can possess innate spiritual value equal to the monotheistic God might be hard to take for the garden variety Judaeo-Christian-Islamic man or woman. Yet the majority of indigenous languages will view the natural world using this very equation. Rocks, trees, mountain see and hear. They have feelings and the power to cause change.
With this idea in mind the new Language category contained within this blog site will seek to discuss the power of our indigenous languages. There will be instruction to learn the Karuk language with side trips to visit other Native languages as well. We can think of the Native knowledge contained within our languages as pieces of a huge mosaic. We are starting with a blank wall. We do not know what image we will be creating. We can only work.
Ithivthaaneen ipíkyam,
Fix the world,
Julian Lang