Domestic Issue

The Dying and Preservation of Native American Languages


Prior to the first arrival of Europeans upon the New World during the 15th century, there existed nearly 1,000 different Native American languages. A sadly common misconception that many hold even today is a result of ignorance towards the diversity of language systems among the Native American tribes. These did not have a writing system, but were grammatically very complex to the degree of Latin or Russian. (2005). As we are well familiar, once European settlers began to claim land, resources, and authority, the cultural and societal strength of the indigenous inhabitants began to suffer. The warfare, enslavement, extermination, and disease transmission that occurred between the 16th and 19th centuries not only decimated their populations but robbed the Native Americans of their right to comfortably practice customs and speak their mother tongues as well. This paper review seeks to discuss the state of American indigenous languages, in particular that of North America.
Language comprises a major and essential aspect of culture. Therefore, damage to culture brought on by efforts like Americanization, the assimilation of Native Americans from enforcing European values and customs headed by George Washington in 1790, numerous oppressive laws regarding Native Americans throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and contemporary diffusion have deeply affect the upholding of language. According to an article by University of Indiana titled “Native American Languages”, Native American populations have decreased to the present 2 million from 20 million, and “only 8 indigenous languages of the area of the continental United States currently have a population of speakers in the U.S. and Canada large enough to populate a medium-sized town” (2005).
Today, the eight major indigenous languages are Navajo, Cree, Ojibwa, Cherokee, Dakota, Apache, Blackfoot, and Choctaw. The language of the Navajo, as the largest remaining population of Native peoples, is of the Athabaskan linguistic family. The Navajo language is spoken by 148,530 persons. Today, members of the Navajo tribe live predominately in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The language of the Cree is spoken by 60,000 persons. Both Cree and Ojibwa belong to the Algic linguistic family, and live in Montana and Canada. Cree is next largest to Ojibwa, who maintains 51,000 speakers. The language of the Cherokee is spoken by 22,000 members who live mainly in Oklahoma and North Carolina, and is of the Iroquoian linguistic family. 20,000 persons speak Dakota, Apache; 15,000, Blackfoot; 10,000, and Chocotaw; 9,211.
The above languages have endured and are thriving, but many more are reaching dangerously close to extinction. According to an article posted on the blog “Short Sharp Science”, the last speaker of the Alaskan Eyak tribe, Chief Marie, passed away on January 20th of 2009, marking the death of her language. Official Native American assimilation laws have long since been abandoned—the days of young English-only rule violator having their mouths washed out with soap at the boarding schools of the 19th and early 20th century—but diffusion of youth as a result of suppression, disinterest in personal heritage and attraction to American mainstream culture affects the future of tribal cultural strength. A language dies when the children of said group do not speak it.
It would be a great tragedy if our “melting-pot” nation lost significantly more of its original inhabitant’s rich cultural and linguistic diversity.
Fortunately, a substantial amount of organizations have stepped forward to help preserve the Native American linguistic traditions. The American Indian Languages Development Institute is an annual training institute that holds sessions during the summer for indigenous language activists and teachers. The Institute for the Preservation of the Endangered Languages of the Americas collaborates personally with indigenous communities to revitalize and continue their languages. The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas conducts scientific linguistic research.