In 1995, the Alaska Native Language Center found that of 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States, 155 were moribund because children no longer learned them.
“It’s a huge loss,” notes Zepeda, who is Tohono O’odham. “Young people are not learning their language, but that’s because the adults are not using it.”
Fellowship recipient Marvin Weatherwax, a member of the Blackfeet tribe in northwestern Montana, says the death of elders in the past two years has meant a drop in the number of fluent native speakers, from 500 to 350. Weatherwax, who teaches language at his reservation’s community college, says 18 new speakers were gained in the past five years.
Last summer, he says he determined by knocking on doors that 1,500 tribal members understand Blackfeet but rarely speak it. He calls them “sleepers,” and his goal is to reawaken their knowledge about the language so they can share it with youngsters.
“We can’t lose our language,” says Weatherwax. “Without it, you lose pretty much your identity; you lose pretty much everything.”
— Associated Press
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