http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1944799.html

Tribes reclaim languages once spoken in California

By Peter Hecht
phecht@...
Published: Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 4A

Standing before a giant mossy rock and two Tsi-Akim Maidu bark houses,
Farrell Cunningham gazes skyward to find the words and spirit imparted to
him as a child.

He directs his outdoor class of about 20 Indian and non-Indian students to
the amber light piercing down into the forest of Nevada County.

"Ekim pokom epinin koyodi kakan" – "the sun is in the sky" – he says in the
Mountain Maidu tongue taught to him on nature walks by a tribal elder named
Lilly Baker.

She died at 96 a few years back. But now Cunningham, 33, is among a small
legion of speakers trying to preserve California's endangered American
Indian languages.

Their efforts are about to get an official boost. Lawmakers are moving on a
bill to create a special American Indian languages teaching credential to
promote efforts to teach – and recapture – some of the nearly 100 languages
once spoken by California Indians.

The measure – Assembly Bill 544 by Democrat Joe Coto of San Jose – declares
that "teaching American Indian languages is essential to the proper
education of American Indian children."

The bill would also allow fluent speakers to teach special classes in
public schools as part of understanding California history and culture.

The limited "eminence credential" could enable some tribal elders with
little formal education to give lectures on ancient languages widely spoken
before the Gold Rush.

Passed by a 76-0 vote in the Assembly and now in the Senate, the bill is
strongly backed by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in Santa Barbara
County. It is seen as an endorsement of several tribes' efforts to
rediscover long-forgotten languages.

"For generations, native American children were taken from their homes,
raised in boardinghouses and punished for actually speaking their
language," said tribal languages researcher Richard Applegate. "It would be
remarkable to revitalize what is left."

Applegate, who holds a doctorate in linguistics from UC Berkeley, is
working to help the Chumash tribe rediscover its mother tongue.

The Chumash, a wealthy casino-owning tribe, is funding a major research
effort using work of late ethnologist John P. Harrington. In the early
1900s, he compiled extensive manuscripts and wax recordings of the tribe's
Samala language.

Harrington worked closely with a Chumash matriarch named María Solares, who
died in 1923. Their work helped form a translated record of tribal stories,
such as this selection from a 1919 tale of a hunting expedition:

"They say that at Tashlipun there were many deer" or – in Samala – "sa'mip
i tašlipun i w` hi wahač."

"He said to his wife, 'We're going hunting' " – "s'ipus a šta'lik,
"nokišyaw`l."

Even though the last known speaker of the Samala language died in the
1960s, Applegate worked with the Harrington materials to help the tribe
compile a 5,000-word dictionary, grammar and pronunciation guide.

Five tribal members, who stand to become eligible for the state special
language credential, have undergone three years of study to become "senior
apprentices" in the Samala language.

"What we find as we learn the language is that it opens up doors to our
ceremonies, to our history and to our knowledge of who we are," said tribal
member Nakia Zavalla, 35.

Zavalla so immersed herself in language learning that she covered her
kitchen cabinets in practice words from abalone – t'aya – to Zaca Lake –
ko'o'. She is now teaching fellow tribal members a language many never
heard spoken.

Zavalla hopes someday that local high school students can study Samala to
meet foreign language course requirements. The Coto bill includes no such
curriculum provision.

Meanwhile, Zavalla said she would be excited to offer special lectures on
tribal language and culture.

"Being able to have your indigenous language being offered in the local
school district is an acknowledgment of the people who lived there for many
years," she said.