Teaching Oregon Native Languages

Chapter Two: Resistance to Monolingualism: Reviving our Languages

35 Chapter Two Resistance to Monolingualism: Reviving our Languages Joan Gross Introduction When the first Europeans arrived in Oregon, it appears that the most common Native response was curiosity and an interest in the new trade goods that the Europeans brought with them. As the numbers of newcomers increased, however, and they began imposing their way of life on the people and natural environment of the state, Native Americans began to resist the encroachment. They resisted by not allowing themselves to be completely assimilated into the new culture and by practicing their own ways of life and speaking their own languages. 36 Chapter Two This chapter focuses on Native Americans in Oregon who are involvedintherevitalizationoftheirlanguagesasteachersandlearners. Today there are efforts to revitalize ten of these languages (CayuseNez Perce, Chinuk Wawa, Klamath, Northern Paiute, Tolowa, Tututni, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Warm Springs, and Wasco).1 Some language programs have been established for several years and others are just beginning. Three of the language programs encompass several of the languagesspokenonthereservation.TheConfederatedTribesofWarm Springs teachWarm SpringsWasco and Northern Paiute.The language program of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla encompasses Cayuse-Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Walla Walla. The Klamath Tribes have recently begun supporting a Northern Paiute teacher in addition to their work on Klamath. This complicates their mission at the same time that it respects the multilingual pattern of traditional Native American life in this area. There are also individuals who have put a lot of work into learning a language of their ancestors without the benefit of a language program. Our focus here is on individuals within programs that have some level of institutional support. Though the level of support from tribal councils and from public schools varies greatly from one program to the next and funding fluctuates from year to year, all the programs have teachers who struggle with curriculum and at least a few students who are eager to learn. During 2004 and 2005, we interviewed fifty-two Oregon Natives who are administrators of tribal language programs, Native language teachers, and students. Similar themes emerged from these interviews that I will address in this chapter. First, I examine the generational linkages through which indigenous languages were maintained in some families, then the way people temporarily “lost” their language. Most teachers of Oregon languages today did not continuously speak their native language. Some of them spoke the language when they were young and then went through a period of several years when they didn’t speak it. Others didn’t speak it or spoke very little when they were young, but put great effort into learning it as young adults. Both groups went through a process of “discovering” their ancestral language. The first group went through a process of remembering the language while the second had to learn it anew. The final part of the chapter focuses on their experiences of breathing new life into Oregon Native languages. I hope that reading the words of Native Oregonians will give the reader an enriched understanding of what it means to be an indigenous person with a heritage language. Resistance to Monolingualism 37 Resisting Assimilation Native American resistance has taken different forms over the years. Violent resistance (pictured in numerous cinematic battles between “cowboys”andIndians)becamethecenter-pieceofAmericanWestern stories. To be a “good guy” was to be a Euro-American cowboy, so that’s what many Indian kids chose when they were role-playing these battles. In real life, when Indians massacred Euro-Americans, the incident was publicized widely and much effort went into finding the perpetrators and hanging them, as was the case in what was called “the Whitman Massacre.” When Euro-Americans massacred Native Americans (a much more common scenario) it seldom received much publicity. Alternative stories continued through oral traditions in Indian families. Malissa Minthorn of Tamástslikt Cultural Institute discussed this in her interview: Oftentimes we know what we know because our parents taught us. Everybody learns about the Oregon Trail in the fourth grade, and that we were mass murderers and savages and we did these horrible things. Of course, from our own perspectives, we would say, “[B]ut that is not what our people say,” and we were basically chopped off at the knees and were told, “That is not true. This is the truth because it’s in print, and this is what we are teaching.” So there is a lot of frustration and anger that our...