Posts Tagged ‘indigenous language revitalization’
Canada apologizes for century of abuses
The Canadian government officially apoligized to First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples this week for a century of abuse endured at boarding schools. From the 1870s through the 1990s, an estimated 150,000 Native children were forcibly removed from their homes and communities, and taken to government funded residential schools whos purpose was to eradicate Native culture and language.
The apology is being accompanied with a Truth and Reconciliation council and compensation for the approximately 80,000 survivors still living.
- Natives welcome PM’s apology: Government sorry for abuses at country’s residential schools, Barrie Examiner
- Saying sorry: PM’s apology heals old wounds, Windsor Star
The sad tale of abuse and neglect suffered in Canada parallels what happened to Native children in the United States during the same time frame. In fact, the Canadian boarding schools were modeled on the U.S. system of residential schools for American Indians. The abusive treatment of children in residential schools has been responsible for the loss of indigenous languages, particularly in the U.S. where they were compounded by federal allotment and relocation policies. Sadly, an apology from the United States government seems unlikely.
Many were taught to feel shame for speaking their language, and refused to teach their children the language as a way to protect them from the same pain.
As the indigenous language revitalization movement gains momentum, one of the challenges for many in learning their language is healing the internal pain left from internalizing the oppression of generations. There are many varied strategies for language acquisition, and perhaps this healing can be thought of as an emotional strategy. Healing the past and learning language anew together can become a way to reclaim idenitity as Indian people and to take back the power and strength of Indian people that was once denied.
The LaCrosse Tribune in Wis. just published a series about indigenous language revitalization.
- Tribes work to reverse corrosive effects of boarding schools
- Tribes on their own when it comes to saving languages
- Nearly lost, Indian languages struggling to make comeback
- ‘Through love, we lost the language’
- Languages offer window into human mind
One of the challenges is funding for immersion schools. Most schools are funded through a combination of federal and private grants, tribal funding and sometimes state funding. In the second article, “Tribes on their own…”, Justin Stein writes:
“Several federal agencies together provided roughly $850,000 in
grant money this year to native groups in the state to help fund a
tribal immersion school, train tribal language teachers and digitally
record their languages. That sum, though significant, is much less than
the money the government once spent on Indian boarding schools that
sought to kill off those languages.The state received
$168.5 million in payments from tribal gambling casinos over the two
most recent years, but spends none of that on tribal language programs.
In contrast, not counting federal money, the state is expected to spend
$2.6 million this year to protect threatened wildlife such as the
trumpeter swan and the Karner blue butterfly.”
The third article in the series, “Nearly lost, Indian languages struggling to make a comeback,” our fellow cohort member Lisa Clemens was quoted as a teacher at Waadookodaading Ojibwe immersion school. Kudos to you Lisa for all the hard work you do.