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Divest Lands Important to California Tribes
Board Member
Profile:
Patricia Dixon
Celebrating
Client Achievement: Round Valley Indian Tribes
In Memoriam,
David Risling
Meet Sam Hough,
Directing Attorney of Eureka
Nor-Rel-Muk
Tribe Fights to Restore Spiritual Site
AICLS: Helping
Protect and Preserve Indian Language
CILS Helps
Reunite Indian Family
Safe Haven:
Foster Families for Indian Children
ICWA Updates
CILS Helps
Indian Families Get Back over $100,000
An Intern's
ICAN Experience: Tanya Beatus
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AICLS:
Helping Protect and Preserve Indian Language
Language
is a cornerstone of cultural preservation. It records history, tells
stories, conveys ceremonies, and imparts knowledge. Language names and
differentiates the surrounding world, providing meaning and structure
for all communication. Through its choice of words and rules of vocabulary,
language perpetuates cultural values and sustains a world view. It preserves
a community's identity. When a language dies or is lost, the people
who once spoke its words lose something irreplaceable, a sense of themselves
as a people united by their own language.
Linguistic
Diversity in Native California
Before the era of European contact, California was one of the most linguistically
diverse areas in the world, with more than 80 indigenous languages.
Some calculations estimate that more than 100 different languages were
spoken in pre-contact California. Today, approximately 50 indigenous
languages survive. Given the tragic history of California tribes, and
the often unfettered efforts to stamp out native tongues, the survival
of these languages illustrates the strong commitment California Indians
have to their culture.
However,
research shows us that at least 30 surviving native California languages
are no longer spoken. It is not uncommon among California tribes to
have no living members who speak their ancestral language. Where there
are living members who still speak the language, they are too often
elderly and unfamiliar with the methods necessary to teach and preserve
the language.
What
is AICLS?
Fortunately there exists a nonprofit corporation devoted to language
retention and revitalization, Advocates for Indigenous California Language
Survival (AICLS). Led by a Native American Board of Directors, whose
tribes are spread across the state, including Hupa, Luiseno, Yurok,
Chumash, Coyote Valley Pomo, Karuk, Kumeyaay, and Tongva/Ajacheman,
AICLS focuses on both maintaining currently spoken languages and recreating
those languages that have disappeared. Since its inception at a 1992
Native California Network conference, AICLS has been busy with both
tasks.
How
does AICLS work?
Where there are still living speakers of a language, AICLS teams up
these speakers with younger apprentices through the Master/Apprentice
Language Learning Program (MAP). Both the speaker and the apprentice
commit to spending more than 300 hours together, speaking the native
language while engaging in a wide variety of traditional and modern
activities. By doing things together, instead of just teaching language
skills in a classroom, the fluent speaker teaches the apprentice in
much the same way families pass along their language to their young
children: repetition through immersion in daily activity. This immersion
creates familiarity with vocabulary and grammar and a cultural context
for the new language. Mistakes are expected as the apprentice learns
to think, speak, act and respond in his/her new tongue.
The
master and apprentice keep journals of their activity and attend two
intensive training sessions to instruct them in immersion-style teaching
methods. During the apprenticeship, AICLS staff check in with the duo
by telephone each month and join them for at least one on-site visit.
Both the master and the apprentice receive a small stipend for their
work. Since the inception of the MAP program, more than 70 teams have
developed new speakers for at least 25 languages. Speakers who make
an even longer time commitment and graduate from the three-year program
are eligible to receive additional training in teaching and community
development. By producing large numbers of young speakers, the MAP program
strives to grant tribal communities the opportunity to utilize these
speakers in the tribes' own language renewal programs.
Resources
for "Lost" Languages
Where no fluent speakers remain, AICLS seeks to recreate lost languages,
an effort that is greatly aided by AICLS' close affiliation with the
University of California at Berkeley. Leanne Hinton is AICLS' advisor
and Chair of the Linguistics Department at Berkeley and an expert in
both American Indian languages and language loss and revival. She is
also the author of How to Keep Your Language Alive: A Commonsense Approach
to One-on-One Language Learning, a book that was guided by Nancy Steele
of the Karuk Tribe, and Agnes Vera and her late son, Matt Vera, both
of whom are Yowlumni Yokut. Through Professor Hinton, AICLS has access
to the linguistics library at Berkeley, the world center for California
language research and study, and graduate students who are skilled in
linguistics science. Within Berkeley's renowned library, there are field
notes, rare wax cylinder recordings of native speakers from the 1800s,
and other cultural resources that can seed language re-creation.
AICLS
Workshops & Conferences
AICLS' "Breath of Life/Silent No More" bi-annual workshops
introduce program participants to Berkeley's resources. For one week,
participants receive intensive training in phonetics, grammar, and research
skills. They learn basic linguistics analysis, take hands-on tours of
the library, work closely with linguistics graduate students, and undertake
in-depth research projects so that they learn how to utilize Berkeley's
wealth of resources. The goal is to develop an understanding of languages
that are no longer spoken, in hopes of restoring them. AICLS continues
this effort through its "Language is Life" biannual conferences,
where California Indians working on language revitalization can interact
with, and be inspired by, leaders of other successful language restoration
programs.
CILS
Assists Non-Profit Corporations
It is difficult to overstate the importance of the work that AICLS does
in preserving and revitalizing indigenous California languages. CILS
has had the honor of working with AICLS over the past couple of years,
helping AICLS incorporate as a nonprofit charitable corporation, obtain
federal tax-exempt status and seek similar exemption from state taxation.
Former CILS attorney Lonnie Browning utilized her six years of experience
in tax and business law publishing to guide AICLS through the intricate
legalities of nonprofit taxation and record-keeping. Providing a valuable
service which would have cost thousands of dollars elsewhere was a very
rewarding task. "AICLS is a great client focused on an incredibly
worthy cause," noted Ms. Browning, "and I've truly enjoyed
the opportunity to work with them."
To
learn more about AICLS and how you can engage in preserving your tribe's
language, visit: http://aicls.org
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