“Sharing One’s Skin” Jeannette Armstrong

A boy from Okanagan is describing what it means to be a part of his tribe and the responsibilities it takes, not only for himself but as a whole community. Also, talking about the responsibilities that his parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and great great grandparents have taken in the community. The things that they have teached him as a little boy growing up and what specific things mean within the community and its people. The people have always taught its people about the ways of the body of Earth and it’s cycles. As she talks, brings more meaning of what the people have the meaning of Mother Nature, and the creations she makes and consumes to the people that live within the community.

Armstrong, Jeanette. “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community,” in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against the Global Economy. San Francisco, CA, Sierra Club Books, 1996. Pp 460-470.

“Native American Identity” by Perry G. Horse

A grandmother from the tribe of Kiowa was always afraid to see that it would come to an end of their native language because she saw that the younger generation chose not to speak the language. It would make it harder for them to keep the language and tradition alive if kids don’t want to speak it and practice their ways when it has been around for a very long time. Older elders that grew up in the older generation were taught to always practice their ways.

I feel that our elders are scared that one day our people will forget to speak the language because our younger kids are not learning the language. You only hear English within the younger generations, they don’t even try to speak it or understand it, some kids may understand it but speaking it sometimes is the problem within our children.

Horse, G. Perry. “Native American Identity”, New Directions For Student Services, Sp 2005. p 61-68.

Keres Language Loss In the Santo Domingo Pueblo

Connecting back to our people from the community and our ancestors who were here before us. Discussing the changes in the language as the younger generations come into place. It takes all of us as one to help another with this change and not just the work of an individual but one as a whole. How we already had the first loss of the language when the Spaniards had already come and invaded the land causing us to lose the first language of Keres. Then having to come up with a new Keres language which included dialects of Spanish words. These ways of our people on what they have created for who we are is something that we need to keep going and not let it die out ever. Being told to always speak and practice our ways are what is important to our people and within the community itself.

With the Spanish arriving and changing the ways of our people that included that Spanish language of theirs into our keresan language such as some of our kitchen utensils, days of the week, months, and a few others but not all. It also talks about different discoveries or researches that were made during this time while finding history on the pueblo. There was a time when researchers and teachers came to the pueblo but our people were told not to tell them anything about our history, culture, and traditions of who we are. Today our people are still told the same thing but I know there are others out there that know parts of who they are even though they aren’t from the pueblo.

Chavez, Christopher. “Keres Language Loss In The Santo Domingo Pueblo Community”.American ETD’s.University of New Mexico Digital Repository. Spring of May 11. 2017.

Endangered Native American Languages: What is to be done, and Why?

These are some of the languages that are close to going extinct because not many of their people are speaking the language. Over the years of the late 1900’s they found that earlier more people were speaking the language, then in the later years there were starting to be more people who spoke English then they did of their own language. English is spoken more by the younger generations than it is by elders who have adapted to the language and are pretty much used to it. In the 1800s there was a policy made under the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the English only policy that prohibited others to talk in their native language. Students were punished and humiliated for speaking their native languages as a part of a general campaign to wipe out every vestige of their Indian-ness.

I feel that this is an important thing to know and sometimes I still see it because some students are afraid to speak their native language and knowing that someone will laugh at them or make fun of them for their mistakes. To me during this period of time when we were under the system of the BIA it was a harder time to adapt back to their native language after adapting to the English language from being in school.

Crawford, James. “Endangered Native American Languages: What Is To Be Done, And Why?”.(April 5, 1994). The Bilingual Research Journal. Winter 1995, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp,17-38.

Voices of Our Children-Taos Pueblo

The voices of the pueblo people are important. She is from Tewa on her fathers side and Acoma on her mom's side. Her English name is Henrietta Gomez, she learned to speak English before her native language, her parents were very fluent in their own language. Her father took her to school and she had a hard time. They were prohibited to speak the language and were punished if they spoke. Friends were mean to her just because she spoke English and she wanted them to survive in the school so she taught them the english. She noticed that the tewa language is dying at a rapid pace while the younger children are going to school speaking English as their first. The elders asked the school in the pueblo to develop an emerging tewa language program. While this has taken place the people who speak are emerging and children are speaking, crying, and laughing in the language.

All of this connects back to the system of BIA and how they were under the only English policy. Children were punished for speaking the language in school and were just scared to talk. As the generation evolved like how I see what’s happening now within pueblo with our children who go to school only speaking the english language.

Gomez, Henrietta. June 9, 2009. Voices of Our Children-Taos Pueblo. Indigenous Language Institute.