lynne pepper
09-11-2005, 12:04 PM
Tutelo may not be a dead language for very much longer. This should interest us all.
begin paste:
Tutelo language revitalized Email this page Print this page
Posted: June 07, 2005
by: Bobbie Whitehead / Indian Country Today
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - With an old book that documents Tutelo grammar and includes word lists, Karenne Wood plans to create language lessons
and a useful vocabulary for Monacan people.
Wood, Monacan, has received a Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship, administered by the National Research Council of the National Academies, to continue Tutelo language revitalization. The fellowship provides Wood with three years of support, including one year of tuition, as she pursues her doctorate at the University of Virginia.
''With the understanding that your value system is embedded in your language, I decided to revitalize our language,'' Wood said.
Tutelo, a Siouan language, was recorded by researchers who worked with the Tutelo people in the early 1900s. The Siouan tribes of Virginia and North Carolina - including the Monacan, the Mannahoac, the Saponi and the Ocaneechi, along with the Tutelo - spoke languages that were related to each other, she said.
Scientists think that originally all of the Siouan speakers were located in the same geographic region, possibly the Ohio River Valley.
''That's what our stories tell us,'' Wood said.
A group of Tutelos went to Canada and joined with the Cayuga people in the 1700s. In the 1900s, several researchers visited that country and documented the Tutelo language.
There are Tutelo descendants in Canada, but no one speaks the language, she said; however, Lawrence Dunmore, an Ocaneechi Indian, has worked with the language for most of his life. Dunmore translated the song ''Mahk Jchi,'' sung by the female a capella trio Ulali, into the Tutelo language.
''The research I'm doing ... is for our tribe and other related speakers,'' Wood said. ''It's really not as much about publishing it for scholarship as it is about creating something that's useful for our people.''
Wood's language revitalization work offers Monacans who work at the Monacan Indian Village complex at Natural Bridge, Va. the opportunity to speak to visitors in Tutelo, said Monacan Chief Kenneth Branham. For now, Monacans working at the village greet visitors in Tutelo.
''I know Karenne well, and she will find all she can in her studies,'' said Branham, who is also the assistant director at Monacan Indian Village. ''Anything that Karenne can find pertaining to our language will be something we would be interested in saving for future generations.''
Other Virginia tribes are pleased with her research, too. Chief Ken Adams of the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe said he asked Wood to do an invocation in the Tutelo language at the Virginia Indians' reception at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian last year.
''I was very impressed that she is able to do what she has done, and I thought what she did at our reception was very special,'' said Adams, who added he'd like to see language revitalization in Virginia Algonquin communities.
Wood is also interested in the larger issue of how the official history of Southeastern Indians has been constructed by non-Native people and how Indians don't see themselves in that history.
''Language has been used to marginalize and dispossess Indian people by calling us 'savages' and simplifying our cultures,'' she said.
By doing this, it characterizes Indians as primitive people of the past, Wood said.
''Some examples are [how] our agriculture is called 'gardening' and our towns, no matter how large they were, are called 'villages,''' she said.
Words are important, she said, noting that that's how people construct and symbolize the world; without these, people become disassociated.
''It's group trauma; that's what all Indian people have faced - collective trauma,'' Wood said. ''I think the only way out of that is to take ownership of our history.''
Wood chose to pursue a doctorate because she was tired of people approaching the ''so-called'' experts about her people's history and culture. But she said there are some researchers who are now coming to Native people, and they have developed sensitivity toward including Native voices.
Her work in developing and learning Tutelo will serve as a model for others interested in language development, said Chief Stephen Adkins of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe.
''It's certainly inspired me to do more research in my native tongue,'' Adkins said.
Wood's work will heighten the awareness in mainstream America of the Tutelo language and Monacan culture, Adkins said.
''She's very dedicated to working with her people,'' Adkins said. ''She's a living testimony to her beliefs and she's a tireless advocate for Native people; the fact that she is a doctoral candidate is a living testimony to the value she places on higher education, and I know she has a strong desire for Indian youth to aspire to achieve higher education.''
Wood said old stereotypes still exist and need changing.
''Then, we can learn from each other, but researchers need to recognize they are students of our culture; we are the teachers, not the other way around,'' she said. ''I think we need to speak for ourselves. Vine Deloria Jr. was the one who really made this point decades ago, and we still have a lot of work to do.''
regards,
Lynne
begin paste:
Tutelo language revitalized Email this page Print this page
Posted: June 07, 2005
by: Bobbie Whitehead / Indian Country Today
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - With an old book that documents Tutelo grammar and includes word lists, Karenne Wood plans to create language lessons
and a useful vocabulary for Monacan people.
Wood, Monacan, has received a Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship, administered by the National Research Council of the National Academies, to continue Tutelo language revitalization. The fellowship provides Wood with three years of support, including one year of tuition, as she pursues her doctorate at the University of Virginia.
''With the understanding that your value system is embedded in your language, I decided to revitalize our language,'' Wood said.
Tutelo, a Siouan language, was recorded by researchers who worked with the Tutelo people in the early 1900s. The Siouan tribes of Virginia and North Carolina - including the Monacan, the Mannahoac, the Saponi and the Ocaneechi, along with the Tutelo - spoke languages that were related to each other, she said.
Scientists think that originally all of the Siouan speakers were located in the same geographic region, possibly the Ohio River Valley.
''That's what our stories tell us,'' Wood said.
A group of Tutelos went to Canada and joined with the Cayuga people in the 1700s. In the 1900s, several researchers visited that country and documented the Tutelo language.
There are Tutelo descendants in Canada, but no one speaks the language, she said; however, Lawrence Dunmore, an Ocaneechi Indian, has worked with the language for most of his life. Dunmore translated the song ''Mahk Jchi,'' sung by the female a capella trio Ulali, into the Tutelo language.
''The research I'm doing ... is for our tribe and other related speakers,'' Wood said. ''It's really not as much about publishing it for scholarship as it is about creating something that's useful for our people.''
Wood's language revitalization work offers Monacans who work at the Monacan Indian Village complex at Natural Bridge, Va. the opportunity to speak to visitors in Tutelo, said Monacan Chief Kenneth Branham. For now, Monacans working at the village greet visitors in Tutelo.
''I know Karenne well, and she will find all she can in her studies,'' said Branham, who is also the assistant director at Monacan Indian Village. ''Anything that Karenne can find pertaining to our language will be something we would be interested in saving for future generations.''
Other Virginia tribes are pleased with her research, too. Chief Ken Adams of the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe said he asked Wood to do an invocation in the Tutelo language at the Virginia Indians' reception at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian last year.
''I was very impressed that she is able to do what she has done, and I thought what she did at our reception was very special,'' said Adams, who added he'd like to see language revitalization in Virginia Algonquin communities.
Wood is also interested in the larger issue of how the official history of Southeastern Indians has been constructed by non-Native people and how Indians don't see themselves in that history.
''Language has been used to marginalize and dispossess Indian people by calling us 'savages' and simplifying our cultures,'' she said.
By doing this, it characterizes Indians as primitive people of the past, Wood said.
''Some examples are [how] our agriculture is called 'gardening' and our towns, no matter how large they were, are called 'villages,''' she said.
Words are important, she said, noting that that's how people construct and symbolize the world; without these, people become disassociated.
''It's group trauma; that's what all Indian people have faced - collective trauma,'' Wood said. ''I think the only way out of that is to take ownership of our history.''
Wood chose to pursue a doctorate because she was tired of people approaching the ''so-called'' experts about her people's history and culture. But she said there are some researchers who are now coming to Native people, and they have developed sensitivity toward including Native voices.
Her work in developing and learning Tutelo will serve as a model for others interested in language development, said Chief Stephen Adkins of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe.
''It's certainly inspired me to do more research in my native tongue,'' Adkins said.
Wood's work will heighten the awareness in mainstream America of the Tutelo language and Monacan culture, Adkins said.
''She's very dedicated to working with her people,'' Adkins said. ''She's a living testimony to her beliefs and she's a tireless advocate for Native people; the fact that she is a doctoral candidate is a living testimony to the value she places on higher education, and I know she has a strong desire for Indian youth to aspire to achieve higher education.''
Wood said old stereotypes still exist and need changing.
''Then, we can learn from each other, but researchers need to recognize they are students of our culture; we are the teachers, not the other way around,'' she said. ''I think we need to speak for ourselves. Vine Deloria Jr. was the one who really made this point decades ago, and we still have a lot of work to do.''
regards,
Lynne