 Native
American Village News
By The Associated Press
Universities partner to save dying languages
By DIANE SMITH
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Hutke Fields
pictures a time when younger generations of Natchez people use his
tribe's native tongue at ceremonies, while sharing oral histories and
during everyday talk at home.
But Field's vision is complicated by
the fact that only six people, out of about 10,000 members of the
Natchez tribe in Oklahoma, still speak the language.
"We'll lose it if we don't use it,''
said Fields, who received assistance last year during a workshop
dedicated to helping American Indian communities in Oklahoma to bring
back disappearing languages.
Fields is a participant in the Breath
of Life project -- a joint effort by experts from the University of
Texas at Arlington and the University of Oklahoma -- in which linguists
mentor American Indians so they can better recover endangered languages.
It is modeled after a project at the
University of California, Berkeley.
"We are growing field linguists,''
said Colleen Fitzgerald, associate professor and chairwoman of UT
Arlington's Linguistics Department. "We are transferring knowledge to
community members so they can teach their own languages.''
The first workshop was held in summer
2010 at OU in Norman, Okla., which is also the site of the Sam Noble
Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Members of three American Indian
communities took part: the Osage, Otoe and Natchez.
Linguists and American Indians will
be able to work together again next May. The project recently got a
funding boost that will allow for a second workshop, Fitzgerald said.
The project team received a total of
$90,000 in grant money from the National Science Foundation, an
independent federal agency that helps support research at colleges and
universities.
The grant is spread over two years.
Besides training American Indian
community members to be linguists on the ground, UT Arlington will be
working to create linguistic databases that will ultimately enable the
creation of online dictionaries and collections of texts in various
languages, Fitzgerald said.
Each community will have a database
which will also be stored in a repository at the Noble museum.
Oklahoma was described as a "hot
spot'' of linguistic diversity by experts in National Geographic's
Enduring Voices Project, said Mary Linn, associate curator of American
Indian languages at the Noble museum and an associate professor of
anthropology at OU.
As North America was settled by
whites, many tribes were forced to move to Oklahoma. As a result, there
is not only a great deal of linguistic diversity, but also high levels
of language endangerment, Linn said.
The languages grew even more
endangered as American Indians assimilated to English-speaking culture
that dominates society.
"It's hard to resist shifting to
English,'' Linn said, adding that many small tribes picked up the
languages of larger tribes.
Today, language sleuths rely on
tribal records, grammar and alphabets that were often chronicled by
missionaries, military generals and tribes. President Thomas Jefferson
also collected word lists, Linn said.
Fields said the project allowed his
community to computerize a dictionary and research. Now, Natchez people
in South Carolina can practice with their Natchez friends in Oklahoma.
This also allows Natchez histories to flow more readily from elders who
still tell of their contributions to America as farmers expert in corn
and beans.
Their histories tell of a people
displaced from the Gulf Coast and of deaths from influenza that followed
early encounters with European explorers.
"I grieve daily over the loss of
cultural values,'' said Fields, principal chief for the tribe. "It takes
a community and economy and people who want to preserve.''
___
Information from: Fort Worth
Star-Telegram, http://www.star-telegram.com
New Mexico tribes line up against new casino
By JERI CLAUSING
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico's
Indian tribes are lining up against one of their own as the federal
government once again is considering a controversial proposal to let a
northern New Mexico pueblo partner with a Santa Fe art dealer to build a
hotel and casino along the Texas-New Mexico border.
The New Mexico Indian Gaming
Association Inc., which represents tribal casino operators, recently
filed comments with the Bureau of Indian Affairs opposing the plan,
according to Mark Chino, president of the Mescalero Apache tribe, which
operates Inn of the Mountain Gods resort and casino in the Ruidoso area.
The group's attorney declined to
release a copy of the comments, but Chino said they are basically the
same objections the tribes had when the project was first proposed --
and rejected -- under the Bush Administration. Those objections are
based on questions about the tribes claim to the trust land and its
distance -- more than 300 miles -- from the pueblo.
"First of all, we don't believe that
the project is going to benefit the people of the Jemez Pueblo, because
as we argued back then that the developer is the one that appears to be
the major beneficiary of the project as opposed to the Pueblo of Jemez
and the people of Jemez,'' said Chino, whose tribe stands to lose the
most among New Mexico Indian gaming operators if the Anthony project is
approved.
Gaming has been on the decline during
the recession, he said, and competition from a new casino just over 100
miles away and close to the populous El Paso-Las Cruces market "would
devastate our hospitality enterprises here in Ruidoso. We have invested
millions and millions of dollars in our hospitality enterprises. And
that would certainly take away the lion's share of our business.''
Chino said his tribe also disagrees
with Jemez Pueblo's attempt to claim a historical connection to the land
in question.
"We believe that the Mescalero Apache
have a much greater historical connection to that area of the
Southwest,'' he said.
The Jemez Pueblo is located in
northern New Mexico between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, along a corridor
that already has a number of Indian casinos.
Under the proposal, the Jemez Pueblo
and a Santa Fe developer and art dealer, Gerald Peters, would build a
$55 million casino and hotel in Anthony. The plan was shot down in 2008
by the BIA, which said it was too far from the pueblo to generate jobs
for the tribe.
The Obama Administration reopened the
request for the Jemez proposal and a handful of other off-reservation
casinos last year, but no one seems to know why, Chino said.
"Everyone we have talked to hasn't
been able to explain it,'' said Chino. "I am at a loss as to why the
federal government chose to reopen those. If you go back ... they
determined it wasn't a viable project for a number of reasons. And now
the Obama Administration, for whatever reasons, has chosen to take a
second look at it. .. There has to be some kind of push from officials
somewhere in the administration to tell the Interior Department down to
BIA, `let's do this again, let's come to a different conclusion. It
doesn't pass the smell test.''
The BIA did not respond to questions
from the Associated Press about the reason for the new review .
The governor of the Jemez Pueblo
could not be reached Friday. But a spokeswoman for Peters, Denise
Ramonas, disputed Chino's assertions that Peters, rather than the
Pueblo, had the most to gain. She cited a June 2008 ruling from the
National Indian Gaming Commission that she said found that all the
agreements between the pueblo and Peters complied with the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act.
Many, including Gov. Susana Martinez,
are concerned about the precedent that would be set if the project is
approved. There currently are only five off-reservation casinos in the
United States, all of which are within easy commuting distance of the
tribes who run them.
"So the precedent that a 300-miles
distance would create not only in the state of New Mexico but across the
country is staggering,'' said Scott Scanland, a lobbyist for Sunland
Park racetrack that also opposes the casino. "That's why as much as the
Peters casino folks make you try to believe this is a little local thing
that's going to be addressed locally, there are tribes from across the
country that are sending in their comments opposing this.''
Asked if Martinez would sign off the
plan, her office said, "the Governor is not convinced that the benefits
would outweigh the negative effects of precedent that would be set
regarding off-site gaming. She is most concerned about promoting diverse
and lasting economic development in the region. As always, the Governor
is willing to listen to opposing views and fairly consider information
provided by those who support a different position.''
The Las Cruces and Dona Ana Chambers
of Commerce have endorsed the proposals, saying it will bring hundreds
of jobs and millions of dollars to the area.
UN indigenous rights declaration to be discussed
By The Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) - U.S. Sen. Daniel
Akaka is holding a hearing on the implications of a United Nations
declaration respecting the rights of indigenous peoples.
Akaka, a Democrat representing Hawaii
and chairman for the Indian Affairs Committee, will hear from
government, Native American and nonprofit representatives during the
Thursday meeting in Washington, D.C.
The United States joined the U.N
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last December, which
encourages nations to support self-determination, eliminate
discrimination and work to secure the rights of indigenous peoples.
The declaration sets the rights of
the world's 370 million indigenous people to perpetuate their culture,
identity and culture. It also covers rights relating to employment,
health and education.
Feds ditch rule that foiled Indian casino plans
By MARY
ESCH
Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The Obama
administration announced Tuesday it has rescinded a rule that blocked
Indian tribes from building casinos far from their reservations,
reviving hopes among local officials for casino gambling in the
Catskills.
Assistant Secretary for Indian
Affairs Larry Echo Hawk announced the policy change to tribal leaders at
the National Congress of American Indians in Milwaukee.
The change overturns the so-called
commutability rule, created in 2008 by then-Interior Secretary Dirk
Kempthorne. According to the rule, a casino beyond reasonable commuting
distance from a tribe's reservation was damaging to life on the
reservation because its residents would move to follow the new jobs.
"The 2008 guidance memorandum was
unnecessary and was issued without the benefit of tribal consultation,''
Echo Hawk said. "We will proceed to process off-reservation gaming
applications in a transparent manner, consistent with existing law.''
Under existing federal regulations,
tribes must satisfy several requirements to operate an off-reservation
gambling facility, including having land acquired in trust by the
Department of the Interior for the benefit of the tribe; having
agreement from the state's governor; allowing public comment; and
entering a tribal-state gaming compact.
"This is great news,'' Thompson Town
Supervisor Tony Cellini told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown.
"This is just a step in the right direction for jobs that are
desperately needed.''
Kempthorne used his new commutability
rule in January 2008 when he rejected plans for two Indian casinos in
the Catskills, citing the long distances from tribal lands to the
proposed gambling sites. In rejecting applications from the St. Regis
Mohawks of northern New York and The Stockbridge Munsee of Wisconsin, he
said the "remote'' locations of the casinos could harm the reservation
communities by encouraging residents to leave for jobs elsewhere.
Arguing against Kempthorne's ruling,
the Mohawks noted that generations of Mohawk ironworkers have commuted
long distances to build the skyscrapers of New York and other cities
while living on their reservation spanning the New York-Canada border.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a
Democrat, and other New York officials argued that the Catskill casinos
have local support and would create jobs.
"Today's announcement cracks open a
previously locked door and presents a renewed opportunity to pursue a
Catskills casino,'' Schumer said in a prepared statement.
The St. Regis Mohawk and Stockbridge
Munsee tribes said through spokespersons they had no comment Tuesday.
Also of Interest
[Back to Top]
[Back
to Native American Village Home]
[Add
Native American Village to Your IE Favorites]
|
