The Contemporary Issues in Native American Culture provides a lot of varied topics and interests. In this paper, the main issue will be the topic of tribal language preservation. How tribes are able to raise money to enhance language efforts, how tribes are working to preserve the language, and how tribes are using language to maintain cultural awareness and identity will be discussed.
Tribes are working hard to preserve their language through many different methods. For example, Rindels (n.d.) explains that tribes are using technology to be able to save their languages. She reports that Thornton Media is the company that is responsible for using an app for the Apple devices to promote language learning. Rindels (n.d.) explains that the first language to be used in their app was Cherokee which was released in 2009. She also reports that Thornton media has worked with around 170-180 tribes which represent about 70-80 languages. Rindels (n.d.) also reports that other mediums of using technology to teach language are YouTube videos from native speakers or video chats using video conferencing software for learners to be able to practice their particular tribal languages from a distance.
Transparent Language (2013) reports that Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas who speak their tribal Koasati language are taking tremendous steps in preserving their language which currently has around 500 Koasati speakers. Transparent Language (2013) was able to work with the tribal elders by recording linguists and using recording systems to hear the words of the native Koasati language. Transparent Language (2013) was able to develop the system on teaching the Koasati language to the Coushatta peoples and any...
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Littlebear, R. (2000). TO SAVE OUR LANGUAGES, WE MUST CHANGE OUR TEACHING METHODS. Tribal College Journal, 11(3), 18.
Lutz, E. L. (2007). Saving America's Endangered Languages. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 31(2), 3.
Onishi, N. (2012). With Casino Revenues, Tribes Push to Preserve Languages, and Cultures. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/us/chukchansi-tribe-in-california-pushes-to-preserve-language.html
Rindels, M. (n.d). American Indian tribes turn to technology in race to save endangered languages. Canadian Press, The,
Transparent Language (2013). “Yes, It's Time To Do This”: How a Native American Tribe is Preserving its Language with Technology. Retrieved from http://blogs.transparent.com/language-news/2013/11/04/yes-its-time-to-do-this-how-a-native-american-tribe-is-preserving-its-language-with-technology/
“Standard English was imposed on children of immigrant parents, then the children were separated from native English speakers, then the children were labeled “inferior” and “ignorant” (Hughes 70) because they could not speak Standard English. In addition to feeling inferior about their second language skills, these students also felt inadequate in regard to speaking their own mother tongues” (qtd in Kanae)
...se. The tribe is currently building many welfare programs, educational programs, establishing health benefits, plus laying aside money to distribute to the entire tribe. The money is currently collecting interest in a trust until the Bureau of Indian Affairs gives approval to a distribution plan. The lawsuits to reclaim the land have been put on hold. The Tigua are getting what they want through the casino. They are by choice quietly buying land that is legally theirs anyway. Though they are the rightful owners, the Tigua do not wish to make a big scene. They prefer to achieve economic independence on their own, hopefully reducing the chances of being taken advantage of again. Only six full-blooded Tigua remain, and they still plow and keep their traditional lands. They continue to teach children and grandchildren how to be Tigua.
Talking Back to Civilization , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough testimony of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will attempt to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history.
This paper addresses the results of interviews, observations, and research of life in the Ottawa tribe, how they see themselves and others in society and in the tribe. I mainly focused on The Little River Band of Ottawa Indian tribe. I researched their languages, pecking order, and interviewed to discover the rituals, and traditions that they believe in. In this essay I revealed how they see themselves in society. How they see other people, how they see each other, what their values were, what a typical day was etc. I initially suspected that I would have got different responses from these questions but in reality the results in the questions were almost completely the same. I studied this topic because mostly all the people that are close to me are associated in the Ottawa tribe. I additionally love the Native American culture, I feel it is beautiful and has a free concept.
Jacquelyin Kilpatrick , Celluloid Indians. Native Americans and Film. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999
Hooks, Gregory, and Chad Smith. “The Treadmill of Destruction: National Sacrifice Areas and Native Americans.” American Sociological Review 69.4 (2004): 558-575. EBSCO Host. Web. 01 December, 2009.
Hispanic American language is one that is adorable to many people due to its pattern of communication. In the article, there are many of the languages used in that exist in the United States some of which includes; African Americans, European Americans, Hispanic Americans among others. Some of the communication patterns of these languages have been clearly stated by identifying various factors like; emotions, eye contact, gestures, identity orientation, pacing and pause time, vocal patterns and the volume of their voice whenever they speak to someone. The article depicts Hispanic American languages as one of the best which can be used in public or businesses since it shows the one talking as a very humble individual.
Some aspects of them went extinct, some changed and some stayed just as they were thousands of years ago. The cultures of native California tribes have experienced dramatic change under the direction of Spanish, Mexican and American rule. In each instance of rule there was an effort to assimilate the native Californians until the “old ways” were forgotten. As a result, languages – Sapir-Warf theory’s “distinct worlds” – were lost forever. What we newly see is native culture as a work in progress. How well native people of California could adapt to the conditions set by those in charge determined what from their cultures remained, changed and ultimately perished. I argue that nothing could have helped the native Californians preserve their cultures
...placed in the Blackfoot that led to a social breakdown within the communities, such as alcoholism, depression, and violence, which further distanced many Blackfoot from their culture and language (Bastien, 2004). As much of what has been written here has been focused on the Blackfoot culture and the ways it has been impacted by settlers, language will now be discussed more in-depth to further illustrate how it has also been impacted.
Calloway, C. G. (2012). First peoples A documentary survey of American Indian history (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
Even though the dominance of a language can allow for the loss of a culture, it can also bring awareness. In schools, local community centers and other various places, foreign languages are taught, not only do non-native speakers take on these languages but native speakers do as well to keep their culture. By doing so it “revitalizes cultures and cultural artifacts through foreign influences, technologies, and markets.” (Gerdes
of Native American Culture as a Means of Reform,” American Indian Quarterly 26, no. 1
Ordinarily, Native American tribes were separated by ethno-linguistic groups. The immense linguistic diversity was due to the isolation and disperses of the tribes all throughout the United States. The surviving languages were not numerous and they had the widest geographic distribution that was all over the country. A few became combined with roots of other tribe languages, which evolved new languages and dialects causing a great deal of miscellany and variety. Unfortunately, a large quantity of these languages became extinct with the European contact the...
The Cherokee language is spoken today by about fourteen thousand people in western North Carolina and northeastern Oklahoma. During the period in which American natives faced European invasion, three major dialects were recognized (Power Source). These di...