Alaska News

All Alaskans should support Native language bill

Anyone who has ever traveled to a place where they don't know the language knows how frustrating communication can be. People with whom you might otherwise have had a stimulating conversation with are left shrouded in a communication limited to hand signals and pantomime. So much is lost when the language is lost -- it is, in fact, one of the primary things that defines us as humans.

But what happens when the language of your culture disappears -- the very words your grandparents spoke are no longer available to you and your children? Such is the case with many of Alaska's Native languages -- many are dying out due to numerous factors, ranging from not enough Native educators to the influx of Native populations to the state's cities.

According to a study by the Alaska Native Heritage Center last summer, Anchorage is now home to the fourth largest Native American population in the United States, with more than a quarter of Alaska Natives now living in the state's biggest city. These urban Native residents represent 11 linguistically distinct Alaska Native culture groups, the report concluded, and these languages face being lost -- all but two are now listed as endangered by UNESCO. Iñupiaq, Yupik and Tlingit are listed as the top three Alaska Native languages respondents to the study expressed interest in learning, and more than 80 percent of responding parents were interested in an immersion program for their children. Interestingly, 85 percent of parents wanted to learn with their children.

Efforts are underway to bring this issue to the forefront on a state level as well. A group of legislators, including Reps. Bryce Edgmon, of Dillingham, and Ben Nageak, of Barrow (both Democrats) pre-filed a bill to make each of the Native languages of Alaska an official language of the state. Currently, only English is listed as Alaska's official language, but the bill would expand the list to include 20 Alaska Native languages, many of which are in danger of dying out.

Sponsors said they are introducing the bill not only to honor the state's rich cultural heritage but also with the hope that the legislation would add momentum to the revitalization of Alaska Native languages.

Nageak discussed the changes he has seen in his lifetime, growing up in Alaska's Arctic. When he was a child, his first words were Iñupiaq, he said, and his generation spoke only that language when they were growing up. It was only in school that he learned to speak English.

"Our generation has struggled with and has been somewhat complicit in not speaking our languages when we became parents, therefore the majority of the generation we parented does not speak or write the different Native languages that were spoken entirely by Native people from generations past," Nageak said. "We, as prime co-sponsors, feel that this bill is a start in making sure that future generations of Native speakers multiply until someday all of our Native people will once again be totally fluent in their own Native tongue with the added capability of speaking the English language."

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It's hard to see clearly sometimes the reason that language is so important to culture beyond the romantic attachment to things of the past continuing into the future. But those who study cultural evolution say that language holds keys to cultural norms that are almost intuitive -- it is the glue that holds a culture together.

Without it, it is much more difficult for cultures to define themselves as distinctive. We can point to specifics, like the many words used in the Iñupiaq language for sea ice and snow, but those don't really capture the importance of language to a cultural identity. Without this language, there is less unity, less cohesiveness that binds you together with your people. And without cultural identity, there is the danger of a generation growing up without a sense of who they are -- something we are already seeing has dreadfully sad implications.

All Alaskans can see the value in supporting Alaska Native communities by helping them preserve their language even if it doesn't change their day-to-day life dramatically. It will take proactive efforts by more than just legislators to get traction under this initiative. The result, however, could be pivotal in the future of many of Alaska's Native tongues, cultural traditions and futures.

This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

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