A new bill aimed at helping to keep Alaska’s Native languages alive hasn’t even gone to the governor yet, but the issue is already getting the attention the legislation was intended to bring.
Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell will chair a meeting of the Alaska Historical Commission on Monday, starting a new focus on the saving some of the state’s endangered languages while there is still time.
“If we lose our Native languages, I think we lose a big part of who we are as a people whether we are Native or not,” Rep. Cathy Muñoz, R-Juneau said.
There’s a growing awareness of the problem that made passage of the bill possible, she said.
“Alaska’s indigenous languages are in need of support just as much as historic buildings and archeological sites,” Treadwell said. “The Alaska Historical Commission seeks to help.”
The commission will meet Monday in Anchorage, and by teleconference from around the state, to host a dialogue about ways to revitalize Alaska Native languages.
Muñoz successfully pushed legislation in the last legislative session to help with that.
“Our languages are in dire straits,” she said. “Here in Southeast with the Tlingit language, I believe we may have only 200 or 250 fluent speakers left,” she said.
Muñoz’ bill would create the Alaska Native Language Council, which would set up a volunteer panel of language experts to recommend ways to the state and Legislature to strengthen the state’s endangered languages.
Muñoz and Rep. Alan Dick, R-Stony River, sponsored the legislation in the House, with Sen. Donny Olson, D-Nome, sponsoring similar legislation in the Senate. Rep. Beth Kerttula, and Sen. Dennis Egan, both D-Juneau, were co-sponsors.
Olson’s Senate Bill 130 was the bill that passed first and is awaiting the governor’s signature.
Muñoz said he is expected to sign the bill, which passed nearly unanimously. It’s also helpful to have the endorsement of the lieutenant governor and the Historical Commission, which began work on the bill’s goals even before it was signing.
Among areas the meeting participants may look at to replicate elsewhere are the standout Native language program at the University of Alaska Southeast, and school-based programs as well.
“Here in Juneau we have the Harborview program, the Native language program at the elementary school, which has been quite successful,” Muñoz said.
Among the those participating in the Historical Commission meeting are U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich and Congressman Don Young, who will appear via videotaped remarks.
Olson will discuss Senate Bill 130, and Dr. Lawrence Kaplan, director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Native Language Center, will speak about programs for Native language revitalization underway in Alaska.
Muñoz cautioned that the new Alaska Native Language Council was a “baby step” towards language revitalization.
“It’s the first step, it’s not the answer but it will lead to other good things in the future,” she said.
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.
Comments (18)
Add commentno amount of money will stop change
and a natural progression.
The feds have handed out millions a year for many years to fund people who want to teach and learn the languages. There have been almost no takers.
A few go to a language class or tutorial with an elder making $50/hour or so to translate text. We don't even have enough fluent speakers left to know if the translations being produced are even accurate.
Using token "thank you" and 'hello" phrases simply can't bring back anything.
What next? Offer prize incentives for people to learn and speak the languages? You could force it on Natives and non-Natives alike in schools and it still wouldn't bring the languages back.
Unless a language is used daily for complete conversations by thousands of people, it will die and be replaced by languages people now choose to speak.
This is a voter gesture that will get far more expensive and as usual, produce nothing.
She appears to be pandering
Munoz is trying to get her name out there with "feel good" legislation she knows will pass, because if anyone voted against something like this, they would be immediately labeled (gasp) a racist (scream!).
Preserving Native languages is what Sealaska Heritage Foundation and similar Native organizations are for. This is what ANCSA was for; give Natives money so that they may perpetuate their cultures for the good of their people. This is a good thing.
So, why should we give MORE money? And why now?
I also didn't see a price tag attached for this legislation. This makes me wonder how many millions might be funneled to Native corps to make something like this happen.
I agree that preserving Native culture (as well as Russian culture, gay culture, and many other cultures as well) is important. But when organizations like Sealaska Heritage Foundation are already doing this, I see no need for taxpayers to fund it, again.
There is no need to fund something that some other organization is already doing.
Well said Jo.
Well said Jo.
What a bunch of bigots
Once again, you bigots show yourselves.
As a white person, I believe that we are all guests here, and we should show respect to our Native hosts. That respect includes assisting in the preservation of their languages and cultures.
I am happy to have state dollars supporting those efforts, and I'm sick and tired of the kind of patronizing attitude shown by many white people.
I'm not Kathy Munoz fan, but for once she did something right, and it's not pandering, it's showing respect, something you rednecks need to learn how to do.
While I agree that the loss
While I agree that the loss of Alaska native languages is tragic, it's the way things go. The state can throw billions at it and it's not going to change things. I told members of the Haida community years ago that the only way they were going to save the language was the have the elders use it exclusively with the young kids and strongly encourage the young kids to use it with each other.
Cornish died out in Cornwall years ago, and Tlingit will eventually die out in Southeast Alaska if the native elders don't pass the language on to the young. Cathy Munoz and Meat Treadwell aren't going to change anything with their little grandstanding plays.
curmudgeon, Do you understand
curmudgeon,
Do you understand anything about language acquisition? I don't think you do. Having a few language courses at the university is not going to help perpetuate native languages long term. Having the languages used on a daily basis in normal everyday situations is the only answer.
None of the above posters made any bigoted remarks. They only stated realistic points about the reality of the situation.
Way back almost a hundred years ago the Alaska Native Brotherhood voted to use English as the official language of its meetings. I have a lot of native friends and none of them seem overly concerned about their lack of ability to speak Tlingit. Most of them are more focused on making house payments, getting a promotion at work, their kids' basketball, and finishing the current accounting course at UAS.
Guests can be asked to leave.
Hosts usually serve the finger sandwiches.
MacNamara
The way the legislative process works is that constituents with a problem or concern go to the legislator that best represents them. That legislator is supposed to work with those constituents to find a remedy or answer. Representative Munoz does that very well, and therefore it's no surprise she originated this legislation and that she was asked to do so.
The process has nothing to do with pandering, personal beliefs of any legislator, or personal prejudices you may have. I suspect that if a legislator does what you want them to do you see that as good government but when a legislator is responsive to someone else you see that as pandering. I am glad we have the form of government we have rather than the government you would want us to have.
Languges
I am in favor of projects to preserve the Native languages of Alaska because learning other languages expands a person's view of the world. Although it has not, nor can be verified completely, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that people "see the world through their language," does have merit. Having studied several languages and taught linguistics, I have found that students have often said, "That's a different way of looking at things."
However, as several commentators have pointed out, in the past languages have become extinct and are no longer used. Some, like Latin, are used in special ways, for example legal terminology, because they are a "dead" language and do not change.There are no "primitive languages," as one will come to find if they study, for example, Tlingit. It is very complex and has a variety of subtle differences in expressing ideas.
But in the modern globalized world some languages have come to be spoken and used by a huge percentage of people. For example, English is used in many flight communications by airlines. And so, if one looks to the future as far as jobs, usefulness for international communication and business, then they need to consider learning Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish or English.
Some languages, such as Chinese and Japanese can be a real challenges for someone who speaks English or a European language as their first language. These languages, even as Tlingit does, distinguish sounds based on tone or pitch on which a sound is made, often tone difference means some completely different.
The way languages are transcribed into a writing system vary. Chinese and Japanese languages use a "ideographic system," that is a character stands for a concept or idea. It is not like "spelling". You can't have a "spelling contest" in written Chinese!
That is why in China, where billions of people pronounce concept differently, they can all ready the same ideographic writing because they understand the concepts.
So I am all in favor or preserving and teaching various languages, but learning a new language takes time and effort. A person has to consider the goal or reason for learning another language - to preserve cultures, expand thinking, usefulness in travel and business.
Addendum: Learning another language can be fun
Some people seem to think that studying or learning another language has to be difficult, time consuming, boring and a lot of hard work - that is partially true. But learning or studying another language can also be exciting and fun.
I remember how a speaker of Japanese explained to me the difference between the word "sake" pronounced on a low tone and a high tone. He said "sake" (using the low tone) means "salmon" then using "sake" on the high tone,he raised his hand as if taking a drink, showed that on the high tone it means rice wine and you get "high" on that.
Japanese and the Eskimoan languages are distantly related. In both systems to ask a question, one simply makes a declarative sentence like "I have food" and at the end adds " -qa" in Yupiq or Inupiaq or "-ka" in Japanese and it means "I'm asking a question." Just as we do in English by raising the tone at the end when we say "Are you OK?"
Tlingit has a syllable or sound before a verb called the "irrealis". The sound means "its not actually existing or real now." It much like suppositional expressions in Spanish, like a command, meaning "It doesn't exist now, but I want you to make it happen and be real."
I have found that languages can be "fun" in that a person learns to express ideas in many different ways - and sometimes in a way that is hard to explain in another language.
Please, never say to yourself "I'm too old to learn another language." We're never too old to learn to see things in a different way.
@ Curmudgeon
As an educated white person, non-redneck fellow human being inhabitant of planet Earth, I do not share your view that I am simply a "visitor" here in southeast Alaska. I sense many others don't as well.
This is my home.
I chose my home.
Even though my ancestors likely did not live here doesn't mean this is no less my home than someone whose ancestors lived here (arguably) for centuries.
Because the way I view things, there is only one race; the human race.
And various parts of the planet should not belong to various groups based on ancestry or race.
We should all have the right, as human beings, to live in whatever geographic area we want to.
And unlike you, I don't feel compelled to offer my assistance to help any other culture preserve themselves, just as I don't feel that other cultures should preserve mine. The responsibility for preserving cultures rests with the culture that seeks its preservation. This is what Sealaska Heritage Foundation is for. Chances are, they aren't responsible for preserving Petersburg's nordic culture just as Petersburg's Norwegian culture is responsible for preserving Tlingit culture.
I'm still curious as to the pricetag: $100,000? $1 million? $10 million? And I'm curious which Native corp bank account that funding will hit...
Petersburg's Norwegian immigrant kids were told to learn English
As did the Haida and Tlingit, Petersburg's immigrant children were told to learn English only, the difference is the Haida and Tlingits were not immigrants. Certainly they had to learn English, it was the predominate language - they could not have a voice without it.
Still, the children of the Haida, Norwegian and Tlingit cultures would have had a great advantage, had they learned two languages. Times were different then, we didn't understand that it was an advantage to learn more than one language.
We can't change the past, but we will be much better off having our kids grow up learning two or more languages. Tlingit sounds are much like German, and so many Tlingit speakers have an ability for German. What a great edge children of any culture will enjoy if they learn a second language in their early years, particularly if they stick with it.
It may be too little, too late, but it would be a shame if we didn't try. I'm glad that this legislation passed and hope that it succeeds at preserving the rich language mosaic that is Alaska's.
preparing children for life in the 21st century
If my kid came home and said, "Hey, I want to go to college and study international banking. I want to work in a Swiss bank. I really should learn another language. I was thinking of learning Tlingit."
My response would be, "Um, learning German might be a little more conducive to landing the job you want. The Swiss speak German."
Learning Tlingit is not a bad idea. But, if this is part of the school curriculum, then this really isn't preparing kids for life in the 21st century.
Be serious. What possible job opportunities could come about by listing Tlingit as a second language as opposed to say French, German, Russian or Italian?
Final comment
The Empire did a great job with this article. It tracks well, tells the who, what, when in a logical way. The topic is of interest to most Juneau readers. This is good journalism.
Agree with Jo
Political puff piece.
Not our job really
We should provide modest support from time to time, as we would with any other ethnic group, in the effort to preserve the past. But the Thlingit society long ago declared its wish to use the English language in day-to-day living. Efforts to restore the past, including an ancient language, belong properly with the now financially healthy native organizations.
My old pal Wmo knows whereof he speaks regarding language and its importance. In my wanderings along the Mexican border I found no noticeable public funding support for preservation of the various Navaho and Apache and other ancient languages. And although I often met and talked with and spent time around SW native people I never heard one word of those languages spoken.
But oh my......it DOES make good pollitics and in Alaska it always has.
Good News :)
What your thoughts and this piece of legislation means a twenty something, UAS, Haida Student. Díi tadáay tláalaay sdáng ‘wáak hlG_únalgang.
Tools:
UAS has offered Alaska Native language courses since I started there. As some commenters have pointed out this wont save the language but my opinion is that it opens up the language to the community. Our Juneau community should embrase the history of their people, native and non-native. This includes language and culture. Hopefully it will more often be spoken in the homes of many Alaskans.
The commenters also touch on the “it’s not as important” factor. To me this is insulting. My ancestor’s language is not important? My language is not important? It’s said to be at lest 20,000 years old. It survived and evolved all of those years and still living today after genocide. My language is strong and important. It will survive. This bill gives us an inside voice in the Alaska Government and to help provide us younger Alaskans with more tools.
Tools do not save languages but the people who use the tools do. I plan on using the tools and encouraging my peers, elders, community leaders, and so on to do the same. The people will save the language.
Government:
This piece of legislation is “feel good” but what’s wrong with that? It may not be profitable like an oil bill would be but I’m sure it has some worth socially. The native community has some of the worst statistics in the state. This “feel good” bill will show our elders and youth that our state values the cultures that they helped assimilate into Euro-American culture. What’s wrong with that?
Corporations:
Please don’t tell us what our corporations need to be doing. That’s like telling companies in France how to regulate their working population and their money.
This is your culture too:
The Alaska Native languages, history and cultures belongs to everyone that lives in Alaska. It’s apart of your culture and history. You can’t pick and chose what history works best for your world view.
The art that is in/on most buildings, there are many street names with the AK Languages, and place names in the original language. Take pride in your history.
Learn now:
UAS offers courses in Tlingit and Haida (Maybe one day Tsimshian). There also are many books on Alaska Native Leaders, history, place names, theiories, culture, and so on. Learning is the meaning of life.
(written quite quickly, sorry if there is any mistakes)
Húus tlíisdluwann dáng hl k_íngsaang,
:)
Birchwood
I am not of Jewish descent nor heritage, but I have been amazed how after the "disaspora" they have have continued for many generations to preserve their language and cultural traditions in places around the world. I don't always agree with them, but I do admire them for perpetuating what they believe and practice by themselves, with little or no government support by the nations in which they reside and generations of persecution. I won't get into the issue of the modern state of Israel - I think that is a whole other issue.
I am still a member of the "Sons of Norway" because my father and his ancestors were Norwegian.
The Sealaska Heritage Institute and other Native organizations work to preserve their cultural heritage.
To me, that is fine.
People have to know "who they are," "where they came from" to understand the past. They also have to know that the children today, and young people, will be living in a world that you nor I could have ever imagined and need to be prepared to do so.