Cutting Out Tongue to Spite Face

            I went ahead and used one of the links that Dr. Morris provided to us on the D2L site and looked at an article that dealt with Cherokee translators, a spotlight on their work to keep the language alive. This is not the first time I’ve come across article that extol the efforts of translators that are helping to keep a dying tradition alive. In my Ethnic American Literature class a couple years ago, I read a book called Here First that was an anthology of different Native works. It discussed their feelings about losing land, about losing language, about losing sense of self as a tribe and as a people. This article echoes the same sentiments. The translators have the ability to breathe fresh life into their whole tribe by spreading the knowledge of the language. There are so many important things that get passed down from one generation to the next. But if there is no communication because there is no similar tongue, that information will simply be lost.

            We discussed briefly in class about the presence of Native American Schools, such as the one set up in Carlisle. The point was to “Americanize” the Natives to extinction: prevent practice of their religion, practice of their culture, and use of their own language. Drilling English into their heads with such strict enforcement completely pushed out the usefulness of their native tongue. We’d like to think that was years ago, but one of the Cherokee translators recalls her own struggle to maintain her native language. Her grandfather used to teach the Cherokee language to all of the kids after their playtime. But after his death, everyone drifted apart and the importance to learn this language fell away. Phyllis Edwards says, “You were not allowed to talk Cherokee, and there was not anyone available at that time like a bilingual speaker to translate what was being said to us.” She had her own struggle between what was meaningful to her (keeping her Cherokee language) and what was easy (assimilating into the mainstream and speaking English so she could communicate with everyone else). This prompted her decision not to teach her own children their native language, just because it was easiest. She didn’t want them to struggle like she did to communicate. But at the same time, by doing so, she was making it harder for her children to communicate with their elders.

            I also recalled from my Cultural Geography class as well as my Anthropology class the very real fact of dying languages. There are 548 languages, today, that have less than 99 people who can speak that language. So tongues are dying out at an alarming rate. For the Cherokee people, or any Native tribe for that matter, are going to have to fight tooth and nail to keep their own language alive. The domineering languages (English, Mandarin, Spanish, etc) are threatening to topple over anything “lesser” in number.

            Which in general is a terrible thought. American is known to be the “melting pot” where all cultures can come together. We’re all losing a sense of identity because of it. And anyone from a Native background is thoroughly screwed.         

Languages:

http://www.powells.com/review/2008_07_13

Cherokee Article:

http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/Article/Index/5926