PLUMMER, Idaho — The Coeur d’Alene Tribe is in danger of losing its most valuable asset: its voice.

There are only three people left in the world who can fluently speak the Coeur d’Alene language. But the tribe recently passed a policy to change that.

The idea is to encourage tribal members to learn and speak the Coeur d’Alene language before its gone forever. It’s a language the tribe began to go away over a century ago.

His voice is everything. At 85, Felix Aripa is one of the last speakers of his language.

“Last in the whole world that can speak the Coeur d’Alene language,” says Quanah Matheson, cultural director for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

The language is tough to pronounce, and even more difficult to understand. But it is a rich piece of history for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. It is who they are.

“The language is, to me, the most important part of our language is we learn our culture through the language,” Aripa says.

“It enables a person to see the world that is unique to us only,” Matheson says.

Matheson is on a mission to preserve the tribe’s language. It’s a language that began to fade more than a century ago.

“Well, there was a lot of historical trauma through the coming on the Europeans,” he says.

Over the years, tribal members stopped speaking the language. More and more tribal members then never learned.

“To me, it’s in a crisis situation,” Matheson says, “and I think the council recognizes that as well, too.”

Matheson says if you lose the language, a part of the culture will disappear as well. Behind every word, there is deep meaning.

“We call our wife our medicine,” he says, “and in English, like to me, a wife is just a person that I’m married to.”

“Growing up I learned in the Coeur d’Alene language name of animals, name of lakes, names of the mountains, name of the roots,” says Aripa.

To keep the language alive, Aripa spends three hours a week recording words and phrases. The tribe also created a dictionary, several guides and an interactive website where you can hear his recordings.

And this month the council passed a new policy encouraging tribal employees to speak the language as best as they can during work hours. The tribe is also considering financial incentives for tribal members to learn.

“I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a fluent speaker again,” Matheson says. “I mean, like to the same level of Felix Aripa, but my hope is at least the children that grow, and my age and a little bit older, we’re comfortable interacting with each other in Coeur d’Alene.”

“I hope that we can bring it back,” says Aripa.

Back to a time when translations are no longer needed, as Aripa speaks a phrase in the Coeur d’Alene language.

“So what I said was, we’re enjoying the sunshine, nice, bright, good day and I wish that that sun give us light so we can be all together as one,” Aripa says.

The tribe is starting out easy trying to teach one word a month. This month, it is “Ah”, which means hello and goodbye.

They are also offering free language classes. The idea is by the end of a full calendar year tribe members will be able to have a short conversation in Coeur d’Alene.

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Posted on October 16th, 2008 by hunwut
Filed under: Language