The Bearer of This Letter: Language Ideologies, Literacy Practices, and the F

4. Shifts in Practice: Literacy during the Indian New Deal

4. Shifts in Practice Literacy during the Indian New Deal Now, hear well, all of you who are listening to this talk because I am going to do my best to tell about the past life and culture of our forefathers, as taught to me and told to me by my parents. . . . You will read it all when this man [Dr. Cooper] writes it down altogether .— “Speech of The Boy,” translated and written by Thomas Main In the summer of 1940, The Boy, Thomas Main, and John Buckman gathered at St. Paul’s Mission, as they had over the course of the previous two summers, to work with Dr. John Cooper, who was compiling material for a monograph concerning prereservation Gros Ventre religious and cultural practice.1 The Boy served as Cooper’s primary consultant for the project, and Main and Buckman, who were Áuent in English as well as in Gros Ventre, acted as interpreters . Typically, The Boy used these work sessions to discuss detailed aspects of Gros Ventre ritual life; however, on this particular occasion, he talked about the importance of documenting Gros Ventre culture. He believed that the results of their collaborative work would serve as a permanent record of Gros Ventre culture, and he trusted that Dr. Cooper would deposit it “in several different places to keep for all time—some of which he will put at the place 120 shifts in practice where the laws are made (Wash. dc) . . . and some in other places—where they will keep for a long long time.” In his talk The Boy stressed the imperative nature of their work because “now the Indian race is going thro [sic] a great transition —going from one way of living to another way of living .”2 Dramatically illustrating this shift, The Boy spoke his words in Gros Ventre, and Thomas Main wrote them down in English.3 The time was indeed one of transition; not only for the communities at Fort Belknap but also for the rest of the country. During the late 1930s a substantial change in ideology had occurred in the United States from one that triumphed progress and technological achievement to one that supported social concern and responsibility. InÁuenced by the economic instability of the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration developed its New Deal policies to improve the social welfare for all Americans. ReÁecting this new liberal spirit, the government also instituted a number of programs aimed at celebrating U.S. plurality and increasing awareness about the variety of populations that constituted the United States, including Native communities . Cultural differences and diversity, at least on the surface , were viewed as strengths rather than weaknesses in U.S. cultural character. This time was also crucial in terms of reimagining federal Indian policy. Led by John Collier, the OfÀce of Indian Affairs began to investigate how tribal communities could continue to exist as autonomous groups while still participating in the economic and political system of the United States. Clearly breaking from earlier policy, Collier supported the maintenance of Indigenous cultures, including languages. No longer seen as barriers to civilization, Indigenous languages were encouraged as a way of maintaining a distinct 121 shifts in practice tribal heritage. This radical change in ideology affected the verbal practices within reservation communities in both anticipated and unanticipated ways. The government reversed its former policies and began limited support of Indigenous-language instruction; however, the communities were quickly incorporating English into daily life as a result of changes brought on by New Deal policies. Community members were also beginning to use written English more creatively. Ironically, the shifts in attitude on the national level toward Native communities resulted in both increased visibility for Indigenous languages and the acceptance of written English as an acceptable medium of expressing Native identity. The Federal Writers’ Project, which began at Fort Belknap in 1941, is a particularly salient example of changing community views regarding the applicability and use of English-language literacy. The project employed two tribal members, Mark “Rex” Flying and Fred Gone, to collect traditional Assiniboine and Gros Ventre stories in English for distribution beyond the reservation community. Similar to the ethnographic project between Cooper and The Boy, topics once reserved for discussion exclusively in Gros Ventre or Nakoda were translated into English and written down. Ultimately, this realignment of speech practices resulted in the decline of Indigenous language use even within the...