The Language is Life Conference for California Indian Languages
By Alison Owings
“If I can learn it, anyone can learn it,” said Richard Bugbee, getting a roomful of laughs at the Marin Headlands Institute.  Although he is Luiseno, he was talking about learning to speak Kumeyaay.  “Immersion is the way to go.”
The sentiment was repeated often in [...]

Posted on October 24th, 2008 by hunwut
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RIVERTON, Wyo., Oct. 17 (UPI) — The 200 remaining speakers of the American Indian Arapaho language said a school in Wyoming to teach the tongue to youngsters currently has about 22 students.
Tribal leaders at the Wind River Reservation said there are 8,791 members of their Northern Arapaho tribe, but only 200 fluently speak the native [...]

Posted on October 17th, 2008 by hunwut
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Arapaho Tribe Teaches the Young
By DAN FROSCH
October 16, 2008
RIVERTON, Wyo. - At 69, her eyes soft and creased with age, Alvena Oldman remembers how the teachers at St. Stephens boarding school on the Wind River Reservation would strike students with rulers if they dared to talk in their native Arapaho language.
“We were afraid to speak [...]

Posted on October 16th, 2008 by hunwut
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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 [...]

Posted on October 16th, 2008 by hunwut
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By Rob Capriccioso
Sept 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - Indian kids will soon have a Super Mario-like character of their own to guide through an array of digital puzzles and game landscapes. But instead of a character who looks like the mustached Italian plumber, made popular from appearances in dozens of Nintendo offerings, a new video game created [...]

Posted on September 24th, 2008 by hunwut
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By Lauren Dake / The Bulletin
WARM SPRINGS - At daybreak, Neda Wesley stood at the edge of the grave.
She watched as her friend’s remains vanished under a blanket of dirt. Like countless other funerals, Wesley attended as a neighbor and community member. But the 70-year-old, fluent Sahaptin speaker served another purpose as well.
They call her [...]

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 by hunwut
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Last fluent speaker of Pakaanil passes
by: Richard Walker / Indian Country Today
LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. - Years from now, people from another generation in another decade will study the Pakaanil language. And James “Jimmy” Andreas Sr., this generation’s last fluent speaker of Pakaanil, will be there, guiding them.
When Andreas left this life, he left behind a [...]

Posted on August 25th, 2008 by hunwut
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by: Rob Capriccioso
August 19, 2008
SSANTA FE, N.M. - Long-talked-about efforts to infuse Native culture and language learning in the public education system have resulted in action in New Mexico.
A textbook co-authored by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a Navajo professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, has been selected by the state’s education department as a high-quality [...]

Posted on August 19th, 2008 by hunwut
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BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX — Several dozen children stand atop a bluff in Hualapai Mountain Park to face the morning sun as it peeks over a distant ridge.
“Nyims thava hmado we’e,” they chant, meaning “Boys greet the morning sun.” And then for girls: “Nyima thava masi:yo we’e.”

Posted on August 17th, 2008 by hunwut
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by: The Associated Press
By Dennis Wagner, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
August 12, 2008
PHOENIX (AP) - Several dozen children stand atop a bluff in Hualapai Mountain Park to face the morning sun as it peeks over a distant ridge.
”Nyims thava hmado we’e,” they chant, which means, ”Boys greet the morning sun.” And then for girls: ”Nyima thava masi:yo [...]

Posted on August 12th, 2008 by hunwut
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