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fire2008 - My Blog
fire2008 - My Blog


Another beautiful form of anthropology
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Lost but Found

In the past few decades researchers of indigenous language revitalization have emphasized the importance of developing fluency and literacy in Native American languages. Melissa Nelson author of Indigenous Language Revitalization has written a handful of articles concerning the loss of indigenous language and revitalization, most of which she has presented in ReVision, a literary magazine. In her article, Nelson analyzes many aspects of language, but they all relate to Native American’s attempts to reinterpret colonial history. Nelson theorizes that the questions relating to the validity of a naming a language an extinct language. The validity of her argument is accepted by means of Native American belief through the dialogue of ‘soundscapes.’ Joe Reyhner revealed the basics of indigenous language revitalization by presenting Fishman’s eight stages of language loss. However, another author Dan Morrison goes on to suggest that the contact between the European and Indigenous cultures, had a positive effect on those involved, if the indigenous people wanted to be wiser and better. The first two comments imply, of course, that in these researchers view indigenous language revitalization as an attainable goal that can be reached. Indigenous language revitalization is appealing, in Reyhner’s words, because it “offers escape and hope that these languages are conduits for indigenous cultures that have real value in our modern world.” In his recently published “Some Basics of Indigenous Language Revitalization,” Jon Reyhner has gone a long way toward reddressing the balance, demonstrating through discussions of many little known narratives in the existence of retaining cultural linguistic heritage. Reyhner examines the theme of how language and culture are intimately intertwined, “Indigenous language revitalization is part of a larger attempt by indigenous peoples to retain their cultural strengths.”

But, the “English- Only” political movement has three weaknesses: it obscures the roles Native Americans played in developing sophisticated societies, it oversimplifies indigenous roles, and most important, it ignores the possibility of language revitalization. Morrison was a student of the Carlisle School from 1891-1897 and argued, “Its greatest advantage was that it was located in the East – far away from the Western reservations … the Indians who attended school had the advantage of learning what civilization really meant … I will say that too much cannot be said of its founder, the best friend an Indian ever had” (Morrison, 1935).

My purpose in this essay is to critique the writings of these authors by contrasting attitudes toward language attrition and language revitalization within the Native American population of the United States, namely two members of the Ojibwa tribe. Nelson has pointed the way, although, as she notes, her emphasis on indigenous language revitalization offers hope instead of looking too far into the past. As we shall see, however, nowhere, are differences between male and female attitudes (Dan Morrison and Melissa Nelson) more sharply defined than their view of European based control. Most importantly, the successful survival of indigenous languages throughout history suggest terms for a thriving Native American future.

Even after the English language has dominated our culture, there are pockets of people who have retained ancient knowledge of the cries of the earth. How did Native Americans lose the majority of their languages?

Language Attrition

Try to imagine life without written communication. Living in Woodland times 400 B.C. to 1200 A.D., we would not have written communication. We would live, like tribes, as described in Nelson’s article, intertwining our language with the calls and cries of the earth. Examining the rise of Native American indigenous languages, furthermore, supports the view that these groups have endured until present day.

After a century of research, and going all the way back to origins, scholars have concluded that there were about three waves of migration into the Americas, each with its own parent language. Later, these split into over twenty major stocks, each giving rise to as many varieties of speech as Indo-European or Chinese. Some stocks were dispersed over huge areas, others were regional, and a few, known as isolates, not traceable to any other language, were spoken only in one location. The base stocks split into some two thousand separate languages in North America at the time of European contact. (Turner, 1993).
Indigenous languages are described by Nelson as coming from “Aboriginal landscapes – bird songs, wind through trees, cascading water, ocean waves, wildlife cries, and other sounds from nature.” Nelson details the rhythms and inflections of oral language similar to the contours and elements of the landscape, and the various calls and cries that animate the local terrain. “These soundscapes, the sum total of all the sounds coming at you from your surrounding environment, feed the languages,” Nelson said.
As Nelson explained, language is very powerful, whether it is oral or written communication. The loss of ancestral ‘soundscapes’ are tied into Native American displacement and loss of place and self, even “to force them out of their mind.” Nelson said, “Whether it is a forced or voluntary shift to the colonizer’s language, this shift is usually accompanied by a loss of place and a loss of self. Revitalizing indigenous languages means restorying our histories, lands, cultures, and sense of native identity … intergenerationally and within ones aboriginal territory.”

Because a Native American language exists in the ‘soundscape’ it can never truly become extinct. Nelson said, “Language called extinct can be awakened, even in one person’s lifetime.” This strength of the article addresses the ultimate question as whether or not language could be totally wiped out.

Eurocentric cultural authority has had a strong influence on many cultures throughout the world. From the era of colonization one of the concerns of the newly formed, predominately white nation had been the education, civilization, and absorption of Native Americans. (Gibson, 1980). The U.S. government wanted to Americanize and Christianize Indian children from the 17th century onward. The sense of reality for many Native Americans was that they where powerless in anything to do with their loss of language, through their loss of culture. Confronted with the inescapable authority of the conquerors, and realistically aware of their own helplessness, the culture sought some form of accommodation. For a small majority, Native languages have survived. But for most, adaptation to the English language or as Nelson says --the colonizer’s language-- was more likely.


Missionary Life

The ways a nation historically projects its power is usually done by three elements. It sets up a ruling class or elite, and uses economic and military control and domination. Once they have the land desired, the creation of a national market and global supply can be important. However, much more research could be done on the use of missionary schools to achieve the same goals.

If a student undertook to have his own way, he found it a bad school. On the other hand, if he lived up to the rules of the school, and tried to help himself, he found it a good school. I might add here that the motto of the school was, “God helps those who help themselves. (Morrison, 1935).
If there was an opinion going against getting an education from the government, the situation was precarious. The children’s parents could go to jail and have to deal with aggressive BIA agents from an extended period of time, or the pupil was banished from his/her culture, language, home, and family for many years.

My friend Richard Ackley, Sr. an elder from Mole Lake was kidnapped and taken while he was six years old playing on his reservation. He never saw his parents again, and they did not know where he was taken. After years of being away from his parents, he developed his art, which at 86 is his means of creativity and enjoyment for many. When he was allowed to return to Mole Lake, he discovered that both of his parents died, so his uncle, Chief Willard, took him in and raised him as his own son. He shares his story to anyone who will listen.


Lanugage Revitalization

The elaboration of rituals surrounding life and death and the desire to create visual and symbolic links among human beings, the land, and the supernatural world are a few reasons indigenous peoples have survived through the Americanization process. Spirituality and pride of culture as Nelson elaborates on, has kept traditions alive. Traditional stories and songs of all North American tribes are central to indigenous living.

The message of hope Nelson has for native language revitalization is the strength of the article. However, on the same point, I disagree with Nelson’s contradiction that a language can have births and deaths, but could never go extinct. If a language were to be silent and dormant, residing in the ancestral landscape, is it not also extinct? If language is dead, then it must also be extinct. In affect it can never be spoken or understood in the same way again, even if some record of it remains.

Reyhner describes one of the means of introducing a second language, back into indigenous communities by a step system. I was impressed by the collection of rich details and cited accounts Reyhner wove into a part of indigenous language revitalization. In grade school and beyond, we did not learn about the original people that have lived here and most of the historic museums or plaques you will see in the American Midwest detail the arrival of the first white settler, and how this person and their family prospered by exploiting the land. You need to go deeper into articles such as Nelson’s and Reyher’s to get to the heart of the matter. More research can be done in this field, on material that has been buried and unexplored for way too long. Children as well as adults should be informed on the true history of our country and these articles pave a beautiful path for this. Morrison’s article was propaganda for different purposes and I did not agree with his conclusions.

Finally and beautifully, Nelson has obviously researched and analyzed indigenous language history thoroughly, and I think her work shows in her article. I was very impressed by the arguments proposed by Nelson, and also with the evidence that supports her arguments. Reading such a thorough interpretation was helpful in furthering my understanding of ‘aboriginal soundscapes.’ We may imagine and contemplate that to many Native American tribes languages reside as Nelson says, in the “ancestral landscape – the soil, plants, animals, forests, winds, skies, waters, and landforms." Listen carefully when you hear the songs, and voices of the original people and you may hear the wind speak.


May 26, 2009 | 7:24 PM Comments  0 comments

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the strongest bravest woman in the world
Related to country: Cambodia

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Glamour Magazine Honors Somaly Mam, Vital Voices Global Network Member,

for “Women of the Year 2006” Award


Somaly Mam is the type of heroine that deserves everyone’s admiration. A former child sex slave sold by her family in Cambodia, she escaped the brothel and now devotes her life to saving young girls who suffer from sexual exploitation.

Vital Voices first started working with Somaly in December 2004 when her shelter was attacked by a triad. The ninety one survivors of human trafficking and adult sex workers were removed from the shelter which is run by her organization, AFESIP, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Read more about this incident and Vital Voices’ roundtable at AFESIP in January 2005

For years, Somaly has risked her life to save sexually exploited girls, many of whom have HIV/AIDS. Although she faces obstacles such as government corruption, weak law enforcement and justice system, and limited resources, her persistence and passion support her to carrying on this strenuous path.

For her “mother courage”, Glamour Magazine honored Somaly Mam for “Women of the Year 2006” Award at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Joined by celebrities such as Sandra Bullock, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, Lisa Ling, Iman, Barbara Walters, Carly Simon, and other honorees, the award was presented by Marianne Pearl, the widow of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalists who was murdered in Pakistan. Read Marianne Pearl’s article about Somaly Mam’s work in Glamour Magazine.

Glamour article on Cambodia and Somaly Mam SEP06.pdf

In her acceptance statement, Somaly said “I don’t know my name, my age, or my parents because I was sold into sex slavery when I was so young. What I am doing is to hope that some day, children and women can live a normal life, like you do, and can smile in my country.”

That evening, deeply moved by Somaly’s work, Queen Latifah and Barbara Walters each pledged to give Somaly’s organization $150,000 US dollars. So far, Somaly’s organization has saved 3,000 girls throughout Southeast Asia.

Read more about Somaly’s organization, AFESIP, www.afesip.org


Vital Voices’ Interview with Somaly Mam

The day after Somaly’s big night, Vital Voices’ Wenchi Yu Perkins interviewed Somaly Mam about her recent work, life, and how she feels about the “glamorous” evening she had the previous day.

Greeted by Somaly in her hotel room in mid-town Manhattan, Somaly exhibited fatigue in her face because of her two-week travel from Cambodia to Europe and the US. “Everyone else is out touring the city but I just want to stay in,” said Somaly, even though this is Somaly's first time in New York.

“I am afraid of seeing people because I am not used to this kind of publicity, glory, and celebrity.” Having received so many awards and so much international recognition for her important work, Somaly still is not used to these parties and celebrations. “I really miss my girls in Cambodia. I feel the happiest being around them. Now I just want to go home and see how they are doing.” “But I understand how important it is for me to travel outside of Cambodia because that’s the only way to receive critical support in order for me to continue my work."

Somaly said just a few months ago, she was so discouraged because her organization, AFESIP, was out of funding and it had been three months that she could not pay her staff a salary. “One of the shelters is closed because we are running out of money.” “I was seriously thinking about giving up. But my daughter said to me, ‘Mummy, please continue AFESIP’ and I just want to work for them.”

So what keeps Somaly going despite all the difficulties at work and in her personal life? “It’s my story” responded Somaly. “Everything I missed as a child, I want to give that to these children.” Somaly’s daughter was recently kidnapped and while she returned home safely, corruption and mafia continues to threaten Somaly and her family’s safety.

When asked about how the Glamour Award is going to impact her work, Somaly simply said “please give awards to other women.” “There are so many great women working in the field in Cambodia but they have not been recognized for their courage and achievements. Please give awards to them, not me.”

Even though Somaly and her organization, AFESIP, has been so successful in saving girls’ lives, she thinks there are still so much room for improvement and so much more to be done. “We need a lot of training to help our staff enhance their professional practice at work. For example, we need to learn how to provide better victim services, how to manage our finance and write good reports to funders, and to market and communicate about our work. We still need a lot of help.”

Somaly’s biography has been published in French in France, Italy, Germany, and Japan. The English version should be available in the UK and the US in early and September 2007 respectively.


privacy statement | copyright © 2000-09,Vital Voices Global Partnership

January 9, 2009 | 1:41 PM Comments  0 comments

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4U
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

TEQUILA AND SALT
This should probably be taped to your bathroom mirror where one could read it every day. > You may not realize it, but it's 100% true. > >

1. There are at least two people in this world that you would die for.

2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.

3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.

4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.

5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.

6. You mean the world to someone.

7. You are special and unique.

8. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.

9. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.

10. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take another look.

11. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.

And always remember.....When life hands you lemons, Ask for Tequila and call me over!!

Good friends are like stars.....You don't always see them, But you know they are always there. I would rather have one rose and a kind word from a friend while I'm here than a whole truck load when I'm gone. 'Worry looks around, sorry looks back, Faith looks up.' Have faith.







November 20, 2008 | 3:43 PM Comments  0 comments

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How the Beaver Got his Tail
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

How the Beaver Got his Tail (English version)

(Amik)


One day a beaver and a muskrat were playing happily in the water. What fun they
had --- paddling around and diving in and out of the clear, cool water.

The beaver paused and listened for a moment. He said to himself, -- “My, what
A nice sound the muskrat’s tail makes, when it hits the water. How I wish I had a tail like
that. My tail doesn’t make any noise at all.”

The beaver went over to the muskrat – “Hello, muskrat,” he said, “Do I ever like the nice
Sound, that your tail makes, when it strikes the water –my, how I wish I had a tail like yours. Could we trade tails for just a little while?”

And so the muskrat agreed and the two exchanged tails.

How excited and happy the beaver was with his new tail. He turned this way and that way, admiring his new tail.

He jumped into the water. He smiled happily as his new tail struck the water. It was a beautiful sound.

The muskrat stood at the edge of the water watching the beaver splash and play. He began to feel sorry about lending his tail. He wanted his own tail back.

When the beaver came out of the water, the muskrat asked for the return of his tail, for he just couldn’t bear to be without it any longer.

But the beaver had no intention of giving the tail back to the muskrat. The beaver quickly ran into the bush. The poor muskrat now knew that the beaver had tricked him. He knew now that the beaver had no intention of ever returning it. He was very, very unhappy.

The muskrat chased after the beaver, crying and pleading for the return of his tail.
“Beaver, bring that tail back, so that I can carry it around, too.”

He pleaded with the beaver over and over again … but it was no use. The beaver would not give him back the tail … so that is how the beaver got his flat, broad, tail … and he still has it to this day.

October 13, 2008 | 1:58 PM Comments  2 comments

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Men
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Did you know???

Men are like pork sausage; smooth on the outside and hogs on the inside.

September 29, 2008 | 2:45 PM Comments  0 comments

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