“Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction”
“School was also once the enemy of tribal languages. Government boarding schools, where generations of Indian children were sent, aimed to stamp out native ways and tongues. Now, the language is taught through the sixth grade at the public charter school in Siletz, and the tribe aims to have a teaching program in place in the next few years to meet Oregon’s high school language requirements, allowing Siletz, in a place it originated, to be taught as a foreign language.”
I am very happy that they’ve managed to save their language. There are very few things in this world that invoke my fury like that of imperialism and paternalism. The ways in which those in power impose unsubstantiated assumptions and standards to judge human nature harbor tragic consequences on the victimized civilization. Who has the right to deem certain customs “savage”’ or “civilized”? Something really damaging happens to a people, to a language, when they are made to believe that their way of life, their beliefs, their pleasures, and their languages are inferior or barbaric. If they conform to these absurd standards, they must destroy the parts of their identity that are central and unique in hopes of becoming more “normal.” Unfortunately, such a dream, while undesirable (though made to be desirable by those in power,) is near unattainable. One from a different culture can never be good enough to be “normal” until everything that you are and hold dear is transformed into something “normal,” something docile and predictable.
In some ways, this story demonstrates these effects blatantly. Had it not been for the heroics of Siletz tribe members, an essential part of a people would have been destroyed. What’s more insidious about this process of normalization is that these methods actually aim at the unique qualities that are actually the source of that other culture’s power. Uniqueness, difference, allows a people to break free from categories and identifiers. They challenge “authoritative” claims to knowledge and categories. They challenge traditional those in powers’ justifications to stay in power and impose this power in the ways that keep others subordinate.
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