SMNTY Classics: Native Indigenous Women's Fight to Save Their Languages

All around the world, Indigenous women are fighting to save their language from systemic extinction. We look into a few examples in this classic episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and smitha welcome to stuff. I
never told you a production of iHeartRadio and welcome to
another classic episode. This one's kind of recent, but I
thought it was relevant and a good time to bring

(00:26):
it back. It was an episode we did around indigenous
women's fight to save their languages, and this has been
on my mind for a lot of reasons. We kind
of discussed this with the movie Prey and the recent
fictional women around the World episode with Nado. But having

(00:47):
those things that media available and that kind in the
indigenous language. And I also was reading the other day
about public media and how they were the first to
kind of lead the way in doing that for their broadcast.
But I also when I was researching this, I stumbled

(01:12):
across because I haven't watched this, and none of these
responsors for me, but I stumbled across the Disney Plus
show What If, which is a Marvel oh yeah, yeah
show that is like what if this happened kind of thing.
They recently had an episode that is about what if

(01:37):
the Tester Act had landed, which, if you don't know,
the test actor is like that space cube that has
a lot of powers. What if it had landed in
hot Ashone Land and uh so the episode is it's
mostly in the Mohawk language and uish, but they worked

(02:03):
closely with members of the Mohawk Nation for this, and
I just thought it was really interesting. And they also
cast in the main role of Kahori Devy Jacobs, who
is a Mohawk Canadian actress, And so this stuff is
so important. Like I'm glad and sad that is like,

(02:24):
this is the first the you know, in a lot
of instances and they're so recent that this is happening.
But I am glad to see that it is happening
and that the fight that these Indigenous women are pursuing
is paying off. Yeah, so please enjoy this classic episode. Hey,

(02:54):
this is Annie Fan Samantha and welcome to Stuff One
Never Told You, Productuly of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
And for our holiday treat I guess episode because we're
gonna be gone as this is released technically technically, yeah,
I guess it's listened the day before, but.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
You know whatever.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Anyway, we wanted to give thanks to the women and
folks from the indigenous communities who have been working hard,
not only to preserve the land as it was before
the ugliness of colonization and trying to teach the people
around them the dangers of continuing down s that ugly path,
but also preserving their own culture that these same I

(03:43):
guess colonizers have tried to eradicate and make extinct. And
though there are so many things that we can talk
about under this topic, and probably we'll come back to you,
honestly today, we thought we would just focus on those
who've been working hard to preserve their name, native language
and indigenous language. Also, let's go ahead and put this

(04:04):
caveat since this is not our indigenous language slash our
native tongue, which, by the way, I'm struggling on my
own both Korean and English, so you know, sorry, Yeah,
we may butcher some of these words, and I hate
that so much because I would love to be fluent
in everything and just perfect at it. But I am

(04:25):
not so with that. We tried our due diligence in
looking up all of the pronunciations, and sometimes I swear
to God, I was being gas lit that we should
already know these words, and probably is true we should
to a certain extent, But anyway, so please be patient
with our very bad pronunciation. Again, as per usual, if

(04:48):
you know these languages and want to share with us
how to say it correctly. We would gladly, gladly hear
those because as you know, when it comes to like
Google translation, not the greatest, not the greatest. So but yes,
be forewarned, it's not great. And if you are a
person of the Native community or indigenous community, this might

(05:11):
be too much for you, I understand. So content warning
because we do talk a little bit about the ugly
history of it all for the rest of you listen
and us of course, of course, because we need to
learn these things. So yeah, we're gonna jump into the
history of how colonizers try to stop the use of
the indigenous languages. So when it comes to this history

(05:33):
the first peoples of all the lands, probably we know
it's bloody and horrifying, though children's stories and colonial takes
downplay the amount of atrocities that occurred then and even now,
the indigenous community fight to preserve their culture. Yes, I

(05:54):
think if we talk about the old tale of Thanksgiving
and all the pilgrims coming to share their food, we
know the true story. It wasn't all that great. We know,
so just as a reminder, but it isn't that hard
to understand that those in power are still trying to
suppress the original cultures.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
That existed in most places.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
In fact, in some cases and places like the United States,
has spent money trying to erase Indigenous languages. Here's some
information from High Country News written by Rebecca Nagel and
twenty nineteen quote. At the height of the Indian boarding
school era, between eighteen seventy seven and nineteen eighteen, the
United States allocated two point eight one billion dollars adjusted

(06:36):
for inflation, to support the nation's boarding school infrastructures, an
educational system designed to assimilate Indigenous people into white culture
and destroy native languages. Since two thousand and five, however,
the federal government has only appropriated approximately one hundred and
eighty million for Indigenous language revitalization. So in the article

(06:57):
they do write about the fact that the government has
a lotted some funds in order to restore and preserve
the languages, it isn't anything compared to the amount spent
to try to eradicate it. And of course this is
on top of the fact that they first tried to
kill off and like.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Pretty much do a genocide.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yes, but that didn't work, so they're like, you know what,
We'll just make you assimilate and hopefully you'll at least
forget the culture. But also we should mention the amount
of money spent within the school systems to try to
assimilate Native people to the culture of their oppressors. So
this is what they were doing. In fact, many of
the schools that were originally intended and operated by the
Native communities were taken over by wide oppressors a colonizers.

(07:39):
Here are some more information from Nagle's article. During the
same time period the early nineteen hundreds, Cherokee children were
also sent to Chilaco and an Indian boarding school on
the Oklahoma Kansas state line. The models, pioneered by General
Richard Henry Pratt, a veteran of the Indian Wars and
founder of the notorious Carlisle Indian School, was designed to
assimilate Native Americans into white society and strip future generations

(08:03):
of their culture. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century,
an estimated one third of all Native children were forced
to attend Indian boarding schools, according to a report prepared
for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. When
the US created Indian boarding schools. The goal was to
save money. Then Secretary of Interior Henry Teller estimated that

(08:23):
assimilating Indians would cost only a fraction of the ongoing
military conflict with tribes. The children at Indian boarding schools,
which were chronically underfunded, often lacked basic food and medical care.
To help fund the schools, children were rented to local
townspeople for unpaid labor. Still, the US government allocated exponentially

(08:44):
more money to Indian boarding schools than it has spent
since then on reversing their effects.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
And this practice was happening all over the North American territories.
Areas in Canada have experienced the same things with similar results.
Here's a quote from the Harvard Intern National Review. For centuries,
Canadian government policies have jeopardized Indigenous languages. While there are
more than seventy Indigenous languages currently spoken in Canada, they

(09:10):
are largely endangered as the majority of them maintained fewer
than one thousand fluent speakers. From eighteen thirty one until
nineteen ninety six, the implementation of residential schools prevented Indigenous
peoples from parenting, educating, and passing on their native language
to their children. Government officials removed Indigenous children from their

(09:30):
parents on the pretense that the children would benefit from
assimilating into white Canadian culture through placement in these residential schools.
When it became evident to parents that residential schools were
not providing their children with better lives and were instead
causing trauma, illness, and even death, they were told that
this was simply the price that Aboriginal people had to

(09:51):
pay as part of the process of becoming civilized.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
So that writer of that article, Catalina Toff, also wrote
an alarming statistic within the article. She wrote, every two weeks,
an Indigenous language dies. Some of the languages that have
already disappeared were Inuit languages spoken in the far reaches
of the Arctic. Others had evolved in the leafy greenery
of coastal Australia. While they differ in setting, culture and phonetics,

(10:16):
one aspect that most dead Indigenous languages share is that
they perished as a result of colonization and the subsequent
rise of international languages. Yeah, and we spoke about this earlier.
Oppression and colonization has tried to erase the different languages
that existed before the quote unquote discovery of these new lands. Today,
many of these languages are disappearing and less likely to

(10:39):
be heard. So from the podcast All Things Considered, they
say quote. Language researchers just released the latest version of
the Ethnologue, which aims to catalog the state of all
of the world's languages, all seven one hundred and sixty
four of them. Many of these languages are endangered. Some
have so few native speakers that you can count them
on one hand. In the US, for instance, one hundred

(11:01):
and ninety three of the one hundred and ninety seven
living languages are endangered. So and from the National Indian
Council on Aging or NICOA dot org Xevier domingees Rites.
There are between six thousand to seven thousand oral languages
spoken worldwide. According to the United Nations, approximately six hundred
of them have disappeared in the last century. They're disappearing

(11:25):
at a rate of one language every two weeks. No
less than forty percent of languages spoken in twenty sixteen
were in danger of disappearing, in many of them indigenous. Presently,
we're in danger of losing two thousand, six hundred and
eighty languages. The UN predicts that fifty to ninety percent
of indigenous languages will disappear by the end of this century,

(11:45):
being replaced with English, Mandarin, or Spanish. Any language spoken
by less than ten thousand people is in danger. And
they go on saying about ninety seven percent of the
world's population speak only four percent of its languages. Only
three percent of the world speaks ninety six percent of
all languages. Most of these languages are spoken by indigenous people.

(12:07):
There are three hundred and seventy to five hundred million
Indigenous people in the world, five thousand different indigenous cultures,
and ninety countries with indigenous communities. Such disproportionate amount of
people who speak these languages to what is disappearing, and
it's really heartbreaking, and these numbers are alarming, But when

(12:29):
it comes to preserving or fighting for their community, we
know is typically those from the indigenous communities that are
working the hardest and getting it done, especially the women.
There have been a few people we have featured on
the show that have done this amazing work, including Got
youa Junie Fox.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
You can go and check.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Out her interview, which was amazing. Who's not only working
to preserve her people's culture in a way of life,
but making sure to pass it down to her family
as well. So she featured her daughter and some of
these amazing ceremonies. I gotta go and listen.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
All over the world, the women of the indigenous community
have been the very vain of continuing to keep their
legacy alive. They have understood the depth and importance of
language and the need to preserve it. As Ruth H.
Robertson of the Dakota Nation wrote in her article titled
Language of Spirit for atmos Dot Earth quote, language holds
the identity of a people. Within a language, you discover

(13:32):
how it speakers view the world. Within the Dakota language,
you will see how we understand landscapes, embrace the relatedness
of all things in use, sex and gender origin stories
are hidden within place names. Our a very historical record
is revealed. Our language evolved from the lives we lived
in our lands for millennia. But what may be most

(13:53):
overlooked is the importance of language to the spirituality of
a people. Among the Santis, medicine people have their own language,
this sacred ceremonial tongue passed down through the ages by
ancestors and dreams granted medicine, people the ability to speak
to the deities of old, perform magic, see visions, and
create miracles. When the colonizer attempted to take our language

(14:16):
from us, they were robbing us of more than our culture,
history and unique identity. They were taking away our ability
to commune with our ancestors and pray to our gods.
They were not just stealing our voices and our abilities
to connect with our grandmothers and grandfathers. They were cutting
our soul ties, right.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
And y'all, I should go back and find this article
that we just mentioned, because she writes so beautifully about
what she sees as the depth of language. And I
think when we all talk about it in a certain manner,
like I as I'm trying to learn Korean again and
really feeling like part of my identity has been stripped
of me because I forgot. It's no one's fault, But
you know, assimilation in general, like the depth of understanding

(14:57):
yourself a little bit through your own language, and how
powerful that is. So, you know, and she is one
of many who have struggled, not only to preserve a
language that call nizers have tried to erase, but and
has seen firsthand the painful trauma that comes with this
type of oppression. She mentions in her article the travesty
of boarding schools, which we kind of mentioned before, that

(15:19):
abused Indigenous children in order to force them to assimilate
to those who violently stole their land. So such a
bigger conversation about what this is. I know our listeners
already understand and know this, but the depth of deprivation
it is to strip someone of their native language, and
why they're doing it.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
It is power.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
And here's some other women that we want to talk
about that I feel like we should celebrate and maybe
follow and watch what they're doing. Obviously, this is a
very small list, smallest because this originated from me wanting
to talk about specific women to oh damn, this needs
to be a whole episode slash. This is still not
could be a whole series, but I'm not going to

(15:59):
do that.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I already know.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
I didn't do that anyway.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
So we do want to talk about a few of
the women that have been spotlighted and talked about, and
we want to talk more about as they do this
amazing work and One of the most famous women who
made sure to put a spotlight on this issue was
Marie Wilcox, and you can go look her up and
she's done some amazing work. Wilcox was featured in several
films and articles in her pursuit of preserving her people's language.

(16:33):
Wilcox was the last to speak fluent Wochumney, but she
made sure she wouldn't be the last when she goes,
and she did die a couple of years ago. For
over ten years before her death, she created a dictionary
for the language, and she made it to teach her
people and her family the language of Wokchumney. Not only
did she create a written document for it to be preserved,

(16:55):
but during her lifetime she taught a lot of classes
throughout her community, making sure that it is that it
would keep going. In twenty fourteen, she was documented by
The New York Times while she was doing her important work.
In it, she says, quote, it's sad. It just seems
weird that I am the last one. And I don't know,
It's just it'll just be gone one of these days.
Maybe I don't know, it might go on and on.

(17:18):
And I believe thanks to her, it will go on
and on. Now her story is pretty incredible, and you
can find her documentary online is there for you, And
then of course a lot of YouTube clips that you
can watch, and during her interviews, and she's really like
passionate and heartbroken that she could be the last one
to speak this beautiful language. But as of now, the

(17:39):
dictionary has been copyrighted, but it hasn't been published yet,
and I'm not really sure. I didn't go it looked
deeper into us to why it hasn't been But I'm
glad at the very least it was written because she
did pass away, I believe a few years ago, and
the fact that she was able to do this during
her lifetime really mean so much. And her legacy obviously

(18:02):
continues to live on. So if you get a chance,
you should go watch her documentary, which I'm glad it exists.
These are the moments where I'm like, yeah, damn, technology
is good, media is good. We need these things preserved.
That hope that we can keep these things preserved. So
also in twenty twenty, the CBC celebrated several Indigenous women
for their work in preserving their native language. We're only

(18:23):
going to highlight a couple and you can actually look
at them up. They did some amazing stuff. There's a
lot of people on there. So first we're going to
talk about Belinda Daniels. Daniels is the founder of Nahiook
Language Experience, which offers pre language camps and monthly language workshops.
In the article, she says, quote, I really believe that
the spirit of the Creed language chose me to do

(18:44):
this work, and I do this work to create awareness
that there are Indigenous peoples living here still speaking their language.
Daniels is also an educator and she actually did her
PhD on language reclamation, so she told CBC, quote, when
we reclaim our language, we reclaim who we are and
we reinstate that we belong here. So language is practicing sovereignty.

(19:08):
Language rights are inherent. The creator gave us this language.
We do not have to wait for Canada's approval to
speak out languages. But Canada does have a duty to
take necessary action to protect indigenous languages. And I think
one of the things that I didn't mention earlier is
the fact that a lot of these languages and a
lot of these nations and communities are not actually being

(19:30):
recognized by the government, which is partially why they're not
being preserved. So a big conversation about it being legitimate.
It has to do with those numbers about like it
has to be I think more than one hundred thousand
people speaking or something along those lines to be officially
a language, which is really hard when you have you know,
decimated entire populations of people or you know, completely drowned

(19:52):
out their language so they can't speak it. So so
many things to that. So that's also a bigger part
of the conversation that we're not having on this episodes,
specifically something to happen in the back of your mind
when it comes to indigenous issues point blank, like how
are they recognized? Are they even recognized, and why aren't
they being recognized. Also featured was doctor Mary and Iguaji

(20:13):
Corpierre of the wikuama Kwang First Nation. She's been teaching
the nishnaben Win for over thirty years. She has been
one of the editors in the nishapin Win, Ottawa and
Easter Ajobwoit Dictionary.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
This dictionary is something she's.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Been working on since the late nineties and it makes
me sad to say that's about thirty years adding new
words as she's done the research throughout her time, and
she's been traveling to like five different communities to continue
to add these words, and her work has been featured
in different Indigenous panels and presentations, so she's doing a lot.
She's been teaching these languages as well as making sure

(20:50):
that they are preserved. And I think that's been a theme.
You'll see that as a theme throughout what they are
trying to have it written. And we've talked about this
in like first how important.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
That really is. So these women have been doing that work.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
The anetan Nobimoim community, which is around the northern areas
and they do stretch into the Canadian areas as well,
have to come together to preserve their endangered language as well.
Older residents of the community have come together to take classes,
record their words and meanings, and have found a better
understanding of themselves and their culture. One Michigan publisher, Bridge Michigan,

(21:24):
interviewed several people in the community, including Brindan his Song,
who talked about her experiences and remembering her great grandparents,
who are the last fluently speaking people of their language.
She told the Bridge quote this is something that is
important to me to be able to share with my grandkids.
Is our language, and I feel like we've been robbed
of it, And she continues, it's a slow process, but

(21:46):
it's worth it. It's helping me find out who I
am and where I'm supposed to be in this world.
And it's such a beautiful story about how they've all
connected together as a community and realizing that it's getting
lost and making sure that they are not only teaching
each other, that they're teaching their kids.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
So I thought it was very beautiful.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
And then there's so many like her trying to preserve
their culture. In Hawaii, they have experienced this way too often.
On the island of Oahu, the Oleailo Or language was
nearly extinct and is still not considered safe, but it
has become more accessible through the teachings of native schools.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Here's a bit of history from a National Geographic article
written by aliong in twenty twenty three. Quote. By the
end of the nineteenth century, literacy in Hawaii in Olailo
spelled Hawaii reached an astonishing high of over ninety percent.
This was largely thinks the public education system founded in
eighteen forty by King Comea Hemeia the Third, the third

(22:48):
king of Hawaii, fifty eight years before the American invasion
and annexation. It was one of the highest literacy rates
in the world at the time and still an impressive figure.
In twenty twenty, data from the United States Department of
Education showed that fifty four percent of adults age sixteen
to seventy four lack literacy proficiency. And it continues quote.

(23:10):
When the monarchy was overthrown in eighteen ninety three, a
law was enacted to make English the language of instruction
in all schools. Though Olilo was not outlawed, kids were
disciplined for speaking it in schools. Those kids were conditioned
to believe it was shameful long after they needed to.
Many adults spoke Oleilo only in private and refused to

(23:31):
teach their kids.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Right And much like the history throughout all of colonization,
indigenous people were being abused and forced to assimilate to
the oppressors. But you know, the native people were able
to actually push back. Here's a bit more from that
same article. After almost one hundred years of suppression, Hawaiian
used a letter renaissance of dance, music and language in
the nineteen seventies. In nineteen seventy eight, Olailo was declared

(23:56):
the state's official language along with English, and a law
undoing the Olelo band in schools were passed. Recordings were
made of the very few native speakers left, and the
new Papa or newspapers served an important role in restoring
lost knowledge as in fact, there's a whole musical dedicated
to the new PayPal and like how significant it was too,

(24:17):
changing and preserving the languages. And they have created immersion
schools which offer native language classes and promote the use
of Alilo. But of course the effects of racism and
suppression still lingers. I mean, just look at the current
status of politics today. It is encouraging to see the
many who have continued to bring awareness and teach others

(24:40):
about the origins. And we're going to actually talk a
little more about who they were influenced by, which is
the Maori in New Zealand, and they were the ones
that really really pushed this specific type of learning and
in a way that they could preserve and they did preserve.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
The Maori language, which is amazing.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
But yeah, so like it's incredible because this is emerg
school was a language reset like it's kind of like, yes,
so it's not I don't think. I think it's preserved
it really well, but it's still not out of the
danger zone essentially, but it's working. And then we have
the women of Guyana trying to save their native language
as well.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
So Althea.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Harding was featured in Mongo Bay dot Com for her
work and trying to preserve the Kreb language. In fact,
in the twenty twenty one article, they noted that only
ten people could actually speak the language fluently. The primary
school teacher, Harding returned to her village and realized the
dire need to preserve her language for that culture. She

(25:38):
like many of the others, has planned to create the
Koreb Language Dictionary, and she was able to receive a
grant to be a part of the Conservation International Indigenous
Women's Fellowship Program, and she told Mongo Bay dot Com,
I was elated because as a part of my project proposal,
I included plans for a careb revitalization project. The language

(25:59):
is not here and I want to ensure our children
can speak fluently in the language before it's too late.
And then the article continues. Her Women's Empowerment Project commenced
in mid twenty twenty one, with more than two dozen women,
mainly mothers, participating. The women are the bedrock of the
family and I know with their influence the language can
be saved, she said. Harding described the women of Kobina

(26:22):
as ambitious and progressive individuals, go getters who don't just
sit around. Our women are strong, independent and determined. So
I know they will ensure that the language is handed
down to the use of this village, she added, So
I really love that, and I don't I didn't see
an update about what was happening because it's been several years.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
I know. One of the big conversations she.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Had was about the fact that a lot of it
had to be done remotely, since.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
It was, you know, all the best that was happening
at that point.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
And as we were talking about the Mayori before, many
look towards the works of the Maori people who have
worked tirelessly to preserve their culture and their Lafe language.
In another National Geographic article titled the Mayor saved their
language from extinction and Here's how they talk about the
revolution it took for them to rebel against the oppressive

(27:11):
government that tried to decimate the native culture. And if
you look up at any of the videos of this time,
they are like rock star video at least like a
music video towering there, you get really pumped. I'm like, yeah,
go at them. Come on, so you have time go
look this up. So their movement, which began in the
nineteen seventies, is an inspiration to many around the world.

(27:33):
Here's some information from that article quote. In the early
nineteen seventies, a contingent of young, urban and university educated
Maori began to form a movement in the air tourara
I so sorry the Tearo word for New Zealand. These
activists call themselves not Tomato or Young Warriors. Along with

(27:54):
other regional groups, they organize against the New Zealand government's
marginalization and force assimilation of married communities, starting with policies
designed to stem the use of terio Maori. And the
article continues. Dame Iritani taal Irani was a founder and
instrumental leader of the movement's first major success, cohangar Reo,
opened in nineteen eighty two. The Cohanga Reo model was

(28:17):
one of commitment, parents and Toddlers were expected to speak
only tereo, both in the classroom and at home, and
the curriculum focused solely on Maori history and culture. Elders
and other proficient language speakers led the class, translated in
English to language nests. The Cohanngo Reo was the first
program of its kind to use total language and cultural

(28:39):
immersion for married communities. The schools were a revelation, according
to the Tairi Rainy. The program started with five schools
and within three years expanded to more than three hundred locations.
The rapid spread of Kahango Reo marked an unprecedented success
of cultural regularmation for Tareri Raini. It showed the widespread

(29:00):
pent up desire Miori families felt to educate their children
according to their own, non colonial standards. The families on
the ground are fundamentally the basis for learning the language,
she says. The difference maker, she said, was that the
Congo Reo, particularly in the early years, were entirely community led.
Families raised the money to rent or buy classroom spaces

(29:21):
and volunteers planned and taught classes. Yeah and the language
news as a system were really very very successful. The
classes and written documents were also very important pieces of
this preservation puzzle, and I think it's really inspiring to
note that it worked. We actually have an example of

(29:43):
how they were able to preserve this. I think some
of the biggest problems is the decimation and the spreading
of the indigenous people. The way that we talked about
the trail of tears and how they were all kind
of just spread all over that really unfortunately divided its

(30:05):
abilities to be able to do these immersive classes, although
we're still seeing examples of it in pockets and different
Native communities, which is amazing to watch and see. And
with that, I think part of what we're looking at
with the age of media and technology is helping to
grow and help spread messages globally, which is great, and

(30:29):
many have started using them to their advantage. Yes.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
In fact, a trio of Apache women have already started
working with tech to record the language from fizz dot org.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Quote.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
In one such endeavor, three Native American women rack their
brains as they gather around a computer trying to remember
and record dozens of Apache language words related to everyday
activity such as cooking and eating. They are creating an
online English Apache dictionary just one of several projects working
to preserve endangered indigenous languages in the United States. The

(31:03):
article continues teacher Joscelyn Johnson and two of her colleagues
validate the definition of the word Apache word kappas, which
means potato in English. Quote. The applications in the written
language are good for a non speaker, at least they'll
have a museum of it where they can go for reference.
At Johnson a sixty eight year old who teaches Apachy
vocabulary and grammar.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
So this type of technology could be revolutionary, but of course,
as we've talked about many times, when it comes to tech,
we have to proceed with caution. The software they mentioned
in the article is the Rapid Word Collection or the RWC,
which uses an algorithm to quote search Apache text and

(31:45):
audio databases for so called forgotten words. The words are
then defined, translated into English, and their pronunciations recorded so
the dictionaries users will know how to say them properly.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
It's all great ideas.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
The program was developed by an Inji called TLC or
The Language Conservancy, to protect indigenous languages and created to
help make dictionaries at a rapid speed, so being able
to do it quickly where they don't have to do individually.
Do this, however, again we say you have to be cautious.
One Native language specialist state that they were concerned that

(32:20):
quotes such projects impose a Western way of writing onto
an Indigenous.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
Way of speaking. I guess that's what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
The vast majority of human languages are solely oral with
no writing systems. And then there's a Lakota indigenous leader
who even denounced the organization, saying that you were trying
to copyright the teaching materials and using the elder's work.
So definitely something to pay attention to. Again, the NGO
was like, hey, no, we're not doing that.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
We're just trying to help preserve a language. But as
we know, when it comes to.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Good concepts or good intentions, capitalism does its own thing
and ruins a lot of stuff and loves to steal things. Yeah, anyway,
especially from indigenous cultures. So as much as we want
to celebrate things like this, let's just like being hopeful

(33:16):
that yes, it does help preserve and that's the end
of it. But we have to make sure that we
are holding NGOs and tech groups accountable. Moving on, it's
not just tech that's advancing the preservation of languages, but

(33:39):
also things like songs and books, movies and social media. Fox,
who we mentioned earlier and interviewed previously, has made sure
to use her skill as a filmmaker and director to
preserve her native community in sacred traditions. As in fact,
they kind of locked down one tradition I remember her
talking about it that they had used in a long time.

(34:01):
They were able to record it and go through with
her daughter and have this like magical moment and something
that they forgot about essentially, and they're like bringing back
and we love that conversation. Same thing we talked about
her newer project, which we haven't caught up with our sons,
and we need to. I think we need to follow
up talking about foods and specific types of foods and

(34:23):
things that are no longer grown and how they're trying
to bring them back, which is really really important, right
Annie a savor.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yes, I was excited about that when she mentioned it
in an interview and I'm still than.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
So we need to go back to that.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
And then there's films like Long Line of Ladies, which
tells the coming of age story of one young woman
who takes part in a ceremony which was once not
outlawed necessarily but very looked down on. Like literally violence
was used against those who would try to do these ceremonies.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
And they bring.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
This back and in this movie they help preserve and
show a cultural tradition that could have been prominently lost.
So we need to add this movie to our list.
But yeah, films like that, and there's so many others
that I'm not mentioning that really help preserve the language
because they do actually speak the language. There was one
that actually retold Thanksgiving from more of a native perspective

(35:18):
with actual native language spoken during that time, so beautifully done.
Then we have songs that have been handed over and
sung over the years to preserve legends and tales of
cultural significances. But also recently, the younger generations have come
out boldly using their native languages as part of their
music and sound like a Mayan musician Sarah Caruci, and

(35:41):
here's a quote from Smithsonian's Folk Life Festival blog where
they celebrated this. In her music Kacchika, Maya musician Sarah
Carucci revises these statements. She makes it clear that the
Maya are not were a strong and resilient people. As
one of the first singers to expose international audiences to

(36:02):
her native language of Kechikel, Kruch is a strong cultural
ambassador for her heritage. She composes a song in both
Cochkil and Spanish, putting these languages to mixes of folk
rock and traditional Maya tunes. These sounds combined with the
topics that are at the same time personal and universal

(36:23):
for music that highlights the complexity of the modern indigenous identity,
which is beautiful, which I hope we get to see
more of this. I've actually had a several indigenous rock
musicians and soft rock and folk musicians pop up on
my TikTok, which I love. I think that's one of
my favorite parts. When you hear international music, something that's

(36:45):
different from your norm and they actually bring in traditional
sounds and languages, it's gorgeous. And I will say for myself,
who's again trying to learn Korean, using k pop, using
k jramas really do help in understanding what is being
said and preserving and revitalizing for me, like personally a

(37:06):
language that I haven't spoken in over thirty five years,
So so many things to this level, and it's gorgeous
to see. And again it's being led by mainly women,
Like you see so many women being at the forefront
in this type of preservation, in this type of cultural awareness.
Like it's a beautiful thing, but also very tiresome, I'm

(37:27):
sure for them. And obviously there's so much more to
this conversation, so many people we need to talk about.
I'm sure we'll be bringing some more out the part
we play in helping to preserve the indigenous cultures and
how not to be in the way or be oppressive.
You know, that's a really big part of the conversation. Again,

(37:48):
like I said, I feel like this could be a
series of different things, and we want to bring more
indigenous creators to the forefront in this conversation as well.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
So, oh there's a lot.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Annie, Yeah, yeah, there is, And it's such important work
and I'm glad it's being done. I'm sad that it
has to be done like this, but i am glad
that it is being done. But if there's anybody you
want us to shout out or any resources you have, listeners,
please let us know. You can email us at Stepania

(38:20):
mom stuff atiheartmedia dot com. You can find us on
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at stuff Whene Ever Told You? For us on YouTube,
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book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
as always too, our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya,
and our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
for listening. Stuff I Ever Told You is production by

(38:40):
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