Trip Of The Tongue (language)

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/04/147728920/a-road-trip-in-search-of-americas-lost-languages
LINK TO LISTEN TO THE STORY.
 

The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States are on the verge of extinction.

Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still spoken — from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages.

"I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered.

The first part of the book deals with Native American languages such as Navajo. Little writes the language is disappearing fast. Among kindergartners in one reservation school district, fluency dropped from 89 percent at the beginning of the 1980s to just a few percent by the end of the decade. Little says one reason for its decline is that the Navajo community is less geographically and technologically isolated.

"Once there is more television, you know, cable television and the Internet, and once younger members of the tribe have more ability to be exposed to the English language, the heritage language really drops off pretty quickly," she says.

Another example is Gullah. Once spoken by slaves and emancipated African-Americans in the low country of South Carolina, for years it was reviled as simply a butchered version of English. Through the generations, speakers became increasingly ashamed of that characterization.

But there is a distinct influence of West African languages in Gullah's structure, Little says, showing a depth and complexity that many Gullah-speakers themselves didn't appreciate.

In her estimation, that loss of language serves as a break from identity.

"The formation of our whole consciousness is framed by ... language," she said. "So when you take that language away, or even if it's forced out of a child or out of a adolescent ... that must be an incredible psychological trauma."

American Diggers (cultural appropriation)

Dear Colleagues,

Late last week the SAA Board was informed that there are two TV series planned that promote and glorify the looting and destruction of archaeological sites. They are American Diggers and Diggers. The first is scheduled for Spike TV and the other for National Geographic TV. As past SAA President Bob Kelly wrote in a recent e-mail in response to American Diggers, "This shameless and shameful program will glorify and promote the mindless destruction of archaeological sites in the U.S." 

SAA and other groups, such as SHA, have already prepared and sent strong letters condemning both of these programs to the production companies, networks, and others. Copies of the SAA letters can be found on the SAA website 
(http://bit.ly/w2MHJM, and http://bit.ly/wzT7IA). The letters provide details on why we are so concerned. Up to this point Spike TV has not responded to the public outcry. Leadership of National Geographic, however, has indicated that, while they are unable to stop the showing tomorrow on such short notice, they will place a disclaimer into the show that speaks to laws protecting archaeological and historic sites. They are also willing to enter into discussions with the archaeological community to determine how to raise awareness of the impacts of the use of metal detectors for treasure hunting. We will advise you of developments in this area.

We are also in conversations with SHA, RPA, AIA, NASA and others to develop a coordinated response and next steps.
BUT for the Spike TV program we need your help. We ask you to individually send letters and/or e-mails to the companies involved—or take advantage of social media outlets (see below)—urging them as strongly as possible to stop this show. The contact points that we have identified so far for the Spike TV project are provided below.

Spike TV
Scott Gurney and Deirdre Gurney
Gurney Productions, Inc.
8929 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 510
Los Angeles, California 90045

Kevin Kay
President, Spike TV
1633 Broadway
New York, New York 10019
Stephen K. Friedman
President, MTV
c/o MTV Studios
1515 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
Shana Tepper
Philippe Dauman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Viacom Inc.
1515 Broadway
New York, New York 10036

There are also Facebook pages where you can comment
One is a "People against American Diggers" facebook page:

 

If you would like to add comments to the Spike website, please visit the comments section at the bottom of the following page:

The Spike TV announcement is available at

From the Spike website:
In the US, there are millions of historical relics buried in backyards just waiting to be discovered and turned into profit.  "American Digger" hopes to claim a piece of that pie as the series travels to a different city each week, including Detroit, MI, Brooklyn, NY, Chicago, IL and Jamestown, VA searching for high-value artifacts and relics, some of which have been untouched for centuries.  After pinpointing historical locations such as Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields, Savage’s first task is to convince reluctant homeowners to let his team dig up their property using state-of-the-art metal detectors and heavy-duty excavation equipment.

Sincerely,
Fred Limp, RPA
SAA President

Intellectual Property of Native Women (information)

Lisa Lone Fight: Intellectual Property of Native Women Panel Topic at UN


Photo by:Doreen Yellow Bird

BY LISA LONE FIGHT

On Thursday March 8, 2012 a discussion of indigenous women’s intellectual property and bio-piracy will take place as part of a parallel event to the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. This forum will specifically address protecting the intellectual, cultural and scientific property of indigenous women. We will discuss issues such as the difference between the indigenous and western concepts of ownership, bio-piracy and the disproportionate impact each has on indigenous women. I am especially honored to have been asked to sit on this panel because my commitment to this issue is personal, professional, cultural and historical.

Mandan, Hidatsa and Sahnish women have a long history of being socially and intellectually empowered. My grandmother Maxi’diwiac, or Buffalo Bird Woman, a Mandan and Hidatsa, was empowered as the owner and builder of the home, producer of the bulk of the food her family consumed and as a revered elder and knowledge keeper. Currently she is increasingly being empowered as an “author” and even as an indigenous plant scientist who managed the agricultural cycle for her entire community. This is not an easy road however because the intellectual contributions of Native women are often misunderstood, undervalued or even “pirated” by the mainstream society.

I am a scientist working in the areas of indigenous science and remote sensing, also known as satellite imagery. I am also an empowered Mandan, Hidatsa, Sahnish woman making contributions to my field yet I and other Native women in science face many challenges that my grandmother did not: a very small number of colleagues, a reduced resource base and a western system where cultural and personal knowledge becomes “intellectual property” to list just a few.

Maxi’diwiac however faced challenges we do not. These were not always the challenges that come to mind when one thinks of the life of a 19th century Indian woman, for example, smallpox, boarding school and land loss, to name a few — although she faced those as well. She faced challenges as an author. Maxi’diwiac authored several books which she dictated to Gilbert Wilson, an anthropologist.

Her book “Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden” has been in publication in various forms for more than 100 years. This is an enviable achievement for any author in a world where today’s bestseller is tomorrow’s doorstop. The problem of intellectual property is that Gilbert Wilson — who made no claim that the knowledge was his in spite of using it as his doctoral dissertation — has historically been listed as the author. Maxi’diwiac generally gets an “as told to” acknowledgement at best and even that is fairly recent.

Regrettably, this is not an unusual problem nor is it only a historical one. The knowledge of indigenous women has fueled large segments of the world economy. Like much in the 21st century, the pace of this problem has accelerated with indigenous knowledge coming to the increased attention of multinational corporations and billion dollar industries.

For example, the government of India recently sued Monsanto for pirating indigenous knowledge when Monsanto sought to patent their traditional food of eggplant and China is investing extraordinary resources in isolating the active ingredients in Chinese traditional medicines. Many companies are also in a race for the next billion dollar drug derived from indigenous plants. The problem has reached the point where India is now patenting its traditional biological resources as a means of protecting them from “patent” law which confers exclusive ownership and control to non indigenous corporations and entities.

This is however problematic for indigenous communities where ideas of individual ownership may differ from the mainstream. How can you patent a plant or its genetically modified derivative when it is the cultural property of your entire people and you see that plant itself as having rights and an identity independent of human use? Or as Deborah Harry, the executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism states “Western intellectual property rights bear little resemblance to indigenous systems that usually focus on the protection and management of resources for the benefit of the collective group.”

There are solutions to these questions and the sources are often the same as the source of the knowledge itself: indigenous culture and tradition. Personally, I reach back to the tradition that empowered Maxi’diwiac; a tradition of respect and veneration for the intellect and science of women. Another of my grandmothers, Pink Shell, Mandan and Hidatsa, summed it up well by saying simply, “Our culture has inside it everything that you find in the modern world. We have our own answers.”

On March 8 at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, we will be looking for those answers and ways to translate them to the contemporary world of western science and big business. I bring the strength of my grandmothers and my training as a western and indigenous scientist to the table and I am honored and humbled to be chosen to be a part of a process that has deeply involved my people and family for more than a century.

Lisa Lone Fight (Mandan, Hidatsa and Sahnish) is an indigenous and remote sensing scientist, national speaker on the integration of indigenous and western science, Native Science Fellow and the former director of the Wind River Native Science Field Center. She is the daughter of Edward Lone Fight, Mandan, Hidatsa and Dorreen Yellow Bird, Sahnish. She may be reached via mhascience@gmail.com, facebook or LinkedIn. Here is a link toEarth Lodge, her website. Indigenous Women and Intellectual Property by Lisa Lone Fight is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

http://buffalosfire.com/lisa-lone-fight-intellectual-property-of-native-women-panel-topic-at-un/

Funding for Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (opportunity)

Subject: Webinar: Two Current Funding Opportunities for Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (FY 2012 CTAS RFP and Drug Courts RFP)

 

 

Webinar: Two Current Funding Opportunities for Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (FY 2012 CTAS RFP and Drug Courts RFP)

Join us for a Webinar on March 2, 2012

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/159670886

The Tribal Law and Policy invites interested applicants to register for a webinar that will provide guidance and resources concerning two current Justice Department funding opportunities (CTAS and BJA Adult Drug Courts RFP) that could assist with funding Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts. Representatives from the applicable Justice Department grant-making agencies will also be available to answer questions that you may have concerning the application process.  

(1) CTAS (Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation)
The Department of Justice launched CTAS in Fiscal Year 2010 in direct response to concerns raised by Tribal leaders about the Department’s grant process that did not provide the flexibility tribes needed to address their criminal justice and public safety needs. Through CTAS, federally-recognized Tribes and Tribal consortia are able  to submit a single application for most of the Justice Department’s Tribal grant programs. The Department of Justice designed this comprehensive approach to save time and resources and allow tribes and the Department to gain a better understanding of the Tribes’ overall public safety needs.

For more information on CTAS – see www.justice.gov/tribal and www.justice.gov/tribal/open-sol.html                             

Due Date: April 18, 2012

(2) BJA Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program Tribal Assistance Solicitation
The Bureau of  Justice Assistance (BJA) is accepting applications for FY 2012 grants to establish new drug courts or enhance existing drug court services, coordination, and offender management and recovery support services. The purpose of the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program (42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.) is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to develop and implement drug courts that effectively integrate evidenced-based substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives, and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over substance-abusing offenders.

Due Date: March 08, 2012

 

Please note that Tribal jurisdictions should refer to the Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: The Key Components publication available at:  https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/188154.pdf

 

For more info on Tribal Wellness Courts – refer to http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/drug_court.htm

 

Title:

 

Webinar: Two Current Funding Opportunities for Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (FY 2012 CTAS RFP and Drug Courts RFP)

Date:

Friday, March 2, 2012

Times:

 

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM MST

12:00 AM – 1:30 PM CST

  1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EST

  9:00 AM – 10:30 AM AKST

 

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

 

Note: We will be recording this Webinar and will provide a link on our website at a later date.

 

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

 


Reviving Food Traditions (health)

Young Native Americans Innovate to Revive Food Traditions

By Editor
13 Feb 2012 | Comments (0)

In mid-winter, the Hopi landscape appears as a beautiful yet barren expanse of gold-brown bluffs and snow-topped mesas. It’s difficult to imagine fields of the resilient desert crops that have sustained the people here for centuries. Yet, in this isolated corner of present day Arizona, the fourth world – as the Hopi refer to their tribal lands – nothing is meant to grow in the winter. It’s the time of year, traditionally, for reflection.

“December is a really sacred time for us as Hopis, digging is not permitted at this time,” says Kyle Knox, a 25-year-old Hopi/Pima farmer and multimedia professional. “It is a time to look back on what has happened to us over the year. How did I do this year? Were my crops good? What can I do different? Not only in your field but in life.”

Knox is part of a budding movement of educated young people in the U.S. Southwest working to revitalize Native American agricultural traditions. They have watched diabetes, obesity and heart disease reach crisis proportions in their communities, while their traditional foods and farming methods – well adapted to the arid climate of the desert southwest – have declined. For young Native people like Knox and Samantha Honani, a Hopi/Tewa member of the Tobacco Clan who received her bachelor’s degree in public health education, connecting Native youth with the agricultural knowledge of their ancestors is one of the best ways to address critical health, economic and environmental issues.

As program director of the Natwani Coalition, Samantha Honani is currently driving the Hopi Natwani for Youth Project, which was founded to “strengthen the ties to traditional farming between youth and elders,” she says. Natwani, which loosely translates into a potent mixture of the Hopi words for produce, life, farming and fertility, is central to Hopi existence. It is both physical and spiritual sustenance. With the help of Kyle Knox, the Natwani Coalition is creating a 12-part, video-based farming curriculum to document and disseminate Hopi agricultural knowledge. Earlier in 2011, Natwani executed the Food and Farming Community Grant program, which gave grants from $200 to 2,500 to any Hopi interested in starting or improving an ag-related project. The response from applicants was overwhelming, says Honani, pointing to the photomontages of the winning projects in Natwani’s office in Kykotsmovi Village, Arizona. The pictures depict a flowering resurgence of Hopi dry-farming traditions.

While Natwani’s successful small grants program revealed a hunger for traditional farming on the Hopi reservation, it only scratched the surface. According to the recent Hopi Community Food Assessment, “three out of four Hopi youth said they were interested in Hopi food traditions and that they want elders to teach them.” The Assessment, spearheaded by Natwani, also found that three out of four Hopi are now overweight or obese, and that less than a third of Hopi say they still actively farm or garden.

“As a Hopi, I feel that farming is important for us,” says Kyle Knox, who grows beans, corn and squash on his family’s plot. “There are a lot of life lessons that you can learn from the act of planting, caring for the plants, the act of harvesting. You can utilize that in anything you do in life.”

On the neighboring Navajo reservation, some young people feel the same way.

Lena Clitso, a Navajo college student, is the Tuba City site coordinator for the nutrition program of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. She and her colleagues are bringing edible gardens to schools and creating community farms and farm-to-market systems to provide access to nutritious traditional foods on the reservation.

Recently, at the Eagles’ Nest Intermediate School in Tuba City, Arizona, twenty-one fourth graders broke into teams for a heated match of Gardening Jeopardy.

“Name three traditional foods,” says Clitso. Nearly twenty-one small hands shoot up in unison. Other questions in the game include: “What do worms do to the soil?” and “How do we prepare a garden for the winter?” It’s the last gardening class of the semester, and the children are as excited about growing food as they are about recess.

“I liked helping the garden,” says Troy, 10, when asked about his favorite part of the semester.

There are now gardening programs at several elementary and middle schools throughout the Navajo and Apache territories and Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico. Throughout the program, elders and farmers work with youth to bring in a Native language component and the program teams are identifying and training on-staff school garden coordinators to ensure sustainability. Once the program has been thoroughly evaluated it will be scaled up to other interested Native communities across the nation. According to the program’s staff, the expansion is a response to high demand for healthy foods in the food deserts on the reservations, areas where persistent poverty, food insecurity and elevated hunger rates are prevalent. And while the uptick in interest regarding Native agriculture may be driven in part by the twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes, for some young people farming is simply an important connection to land and culture, a timeless pursuit central to life itself.

“My uncle would always tell me,” says farming apprentice Kyle Knox, “if you can’t take care of a field then don’t even think of having babies.”