• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, March 31, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Native Americans Fear Loss of Indigenous Languages in US

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
10/12/22
in Featured, National
Indigenous Peoples Day

Native Americans share a common concern: the ongoing extinction of their ancestral languages. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As Native Americans this week celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day — the holiday increasingly recognized in the United States in lieu of “Columbus Day” — members of the continent’s hundreds of tribes shared a common concern: the ongoing extinction of their ancestral languages. 

The United States is currently home to 6.8 million Native Americans, or two percent of the population. 

Members of the Shinnecock Nation on Long Island gathered for the sunrise to honor this week’s holiday, which has been adopted by more than a dozen US states and cities amid the growing view that Italian explorer Christopher Columbus brought little more than genocide and colonization to the Americas in 1492.

And further north on the Atlantic Coast, people of the Americas and Caribbean ate together as they held discussions, danced and sang.

But while their ancestors saw their communities decimated by centuries of colonization, descendants today fear their culture and languages could be swallowed up in a single generation by English and Spanish.

Decrying “the invasion of the 21st century,” Anthony Sean Stanton, the 64-year-old head of the Narragansett tribe, said his people must “hang onto what we got because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.”

Further west, the Lakota — a prominent subculture of the Sioux, located primarily in North and South Dakota — also fear the extinction of their language, currently spoken by 1,500 people, compared to 5,000 speakers two decades ago.

For many communities, including the Lakota, the generational transmission of languages halted around the mid-1980s, said linguist and activist Wilhelm Meya, who serves as president of The Language Conservancy (TLC) in Indiana.

There is “a very small window of opportunity to try to bring the language back before the last speakers of this language pass on. And this is a story that’s replicated across hundreds of communities in North America,” he said. 

“We’re in the forefront of trying to prevent this total collapse of Indigenous languages in North America.”

‘Hungry’ for language

According to TLC, some 2,900 languages of the approximately 7,000 spoken worldwide are endangered.

At this rate, the organization says, nearly 90 percent of all languages could become extinct in the next 100 years.

Native American languages are dying out at an even faster rate, according to the non-profit, with more than 200 already eradicated.

The best preservation strategy is to teach these languages in schools, says Meya, who notes that the federal government finally allowed communities to take up the practice in the early 1970s.

He also urges the development of other materials in the ancestral languages, including translating cartoon series and documentary films, as well as creating dictionaries and assisting with teacher trainings.

“Anything we can do to reach the young people who are very, very hungry for their language,” Meya said. “They want their culture, they want their identity.”

‘Part of who I am’

Miya Peters, an 18-year-old member of the Wampanoag tribe along the northeastern US coast, is one such example. She learns her language as part of a partnership between her tribal school and public school.

“I love it. It is hard. It’s very different,” she said. “But it’s part of who I am. So it always just gives me that encouragement to just keep going and bring it back.”

Meya and his colleague Travis Condon aim to continue the work of Kevin Locke, an ardent defender of his Lakota language and culture.

The 68-year-old flautist, hoop dancer and storyteller died suddenly on September 30.

“He was definitely a warrior for his tribe, you know, an ambassador for mankind,” Meya said.

The linguist emphasized the need for federal investment in language preservation.

“It took the federal government 100 years and billions of dollars to eradicate Native American languages through the boarding school system,” he said. “And it’s gonna take equal amount of resources to bring back Indigenous languages in North America.”

“It’s much, much more difficult to create than it is to destroy.”

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Marchers for affordable healthcare in the US
Opinion

Underdeveloped Communities in US Struggle to Get Medical Care

by Sienna Dugan
June 22, 2018
Next Post
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan

'Ukraine Could Extradite Russians to International Criminal Court'

Donald Trump

US Capitol Riot Probe Votes to Subpoena Trump to Testify

Recommended

Damage from a series of powerful storms and at least one tornado is seen on March 25, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi

After Tornado Kills 25, Mississippi Faces More Extreme Weather

March 26, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post