Profiles four American Indians of Oklahoma who strove to preserve their languages and traditions and pass them on to future generations: Kiowa grandmother and educator Evalu Ware Russell, Cherokee minister Sam Hider, Kialegee (Muskogee Creek) elder James Wesley, and Choctaw leader Charley Jones. (SV)

Until about 20 years ago, the Navajo language was one of the most resilient American Indian languages in modern U.S. history. Today, at the dawn of the 21st century, that has all changed. Some changes can be attributed to the normal dynamics of cultural transmission that affect language use. Some others, such as the dramatic shift toward English…

This book defines a variety of terms from Native American history and represents a compendium of vocabulary, people, places, and events. The alphabetized, illustrated text includes names for Indian objects such as pirogues, prayer sticks, kayaks, dumas, and medicine bundles; methods of doing things, such as stone boiling, diapering babies, healing…

This report was submitted in support of a joint resolution (S.J. Res. 379) to establish as the policy of the United States the preservation, protection, and promotion of the right of indigenous Americans to practice and develop their indigenous languages. Traditional languages are an integral part of Native American culture, heritage, and…

This is both a report on the numbers of native speakers of Apachean languages and a statement of the need for sociolinguistic studies of these languages. (CK)

The Makah coloring book tells the story of how the raven twice tricked the crow and her hungry children out of a meal. The captions tell the story in English with some Makah words inserted in the text. The book contains a Makah-English glossary of 11 words. (SB)

Two speech styles, origin-myth telling and ritual wailing, found among the Shokleng Indians of south Brazil are analyzed from the perspective of two specific functions of speech style: (1) for indexing or highlighting the subject matter in certain contexts, and (2) for relating the contexts and subject matters to other contexts and subject matters…

Written in Cree and English, the short story is about an Assiniboine boy who wanted to hold a Sun Dance. The story tells how the people helped the 9-year-old boy hold his Sun Dance, and what happened during the Sun Dance. Also included is a key to the Cree syllabic characters. (NQ)

The author examines the "most promising" approach to educating American Indian students--bilingual education, which uses some combination of the student's mother tongue and English to transmit academic content and to foster the child's development in both languages. Interest in bilingual education, or at least in the inclusion of mother…

Throughout its history, the press in the United States has been dominated by whites and directed toward the interests and well-being of white readers, often ignoring or distorting news and events within and about nonwhite communities. As a result, minority groups have established their own press systems. One of these systems, with a 148-year…

Early vocabularies of a language can help indigenous communities retrieve lost or forgotten vocabulary. Currently, there are very few fluent speakers of Tuscarora. As in other native communities, efforts are underway to reverse the decline in native language usage. One advantage the Tuscaroras have is that, since 1700, numerous researchers have…

Describes phonology and grammar differences between Amerindian languages and English to show difficulties in teaching English as a second language to Amerindian children in Guyana. Suggests prerequisites and characteristics of English language teaching programs necessary for a well-grounded program. (BK)

Reviews the literature to determine the importance of immersion in language restoration or preservation. Defines immersion and its goals, and discusses effects on students' English cognitive ability. Examines the success of Indian nations in retaining/restoring Native languages and concludes that, if nothing is done, additional Native languages…

This paper presents a view of traditional American Indian public speaking styles to students studying modern Indian diplomatic talk. A transcription of a talk given by the Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz provides an example of careful political speaking in the traditional tribal style. A culture which is typically oral, rather than…

This paper considers some aspects of sentence construction characteristic of the variety of English spoken at Isleta pueblo, an Indian community located fifteen miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. (CK)