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Native Americans Work to Save Language
FORT YATES, NORTH DAKOTA—
One evening a week, young and old gather in Michael Moore’s classroom in Fort Yates, North Dakota, to learn Lakota — the language of their Sioux tribal1 ancestors.
For many of the students here at Sitting Bull College, it's a tongue their great grandparents spoke2 fluently at home.
But that changed in the early 1900’s, when thousands of Native American children were sent to boarding schools where they were told to assimilate, learn English and forget all aspects of their native culture.
Gabe Black Moon, who co-teaches Lakota with Moore, remembered his time at one such school.
“The government punished [us for speaking] our language, and I've seen that happen. It happened to me," he said. "Day one, I went to school, I couldn’t speak English. I got punished pretty bad.”
Presidential recognition
Renewed efforts to preserve Lakota for future generations received national recognition earlier this year when President Barack Obama visited Standing3 Rock Native American Reservation, where he praised Sioux tribal leaders’ for revitalizing the endangered tongue.
One of the few Sioux Indians left who speaks fluent Lakota, Black Moon said he now devotes his days to making sure the language doesn't die out with his generation.
He said heartened to see younger generations learning to communicate in precisely4 the manner from which their own parents were discouraged from speaking.
Speaking Lakota
One such student, Tiffany Baker5, said she decided6 to learn Lakota to talk with her two-year-old daughter, who is in an immersion7 program at the college.
She said her own father rarely spoke Lakota.
“As the elders start passing away, they are taking all their knowledge that they have," she said, describing that class as vital to reclaiming8 a part of their culture that was nearly lost. "It’s up to us to learn it so that we can carry it on.”
As the White House prepares to host more than 500 tribal representatives for an annual conference in Washington on December 3, it's hoped cultural preservation9 programs of exactly this kind will receive further acknowledgement and support.
1 tribal | |
adj.部族的,种族的 | |
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2 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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3 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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4 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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5 baker | |
n.面包师 | |
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6 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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7 immersion | |
n.沉浸;专心 | |
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8 reclaiming | |
v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 );要求收回;从废料中回收(有用的材料);挽救 | |
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9 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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