Letter to the editor:

Will Our Language Survive into the 7th Generation?

It was mid-school year in 1977 when the grade six Chenail Day School class moved to the new Tsi Snaihne School when it was done being constructed.  At this time there were approximately fifteen of us students and about half of the class were still fluent in Kanien’kéha.  While ten years earlier the majority of the grade six students were fluent.  At that time it was odd for students not to be fluent in their language.

Ten years later in 1987, after my class had graduated from the Tsi Snaihne School, only a few students were still fluent, but at least there were a few compared to other Kanien’kehá:ka and Hotinonhsón:ni communities who had next to none with the exception of Kahnawà:ke.  Of the three schools located within the Ahkwesáhsne Mohawk Board of Education, and the other schools in the community of Ahkwesáhsne, only Tsi Snaihne School was known to have fluent speaking students.  If there were fluent speakers in the other Ahkwesáhsne schools, there were only a few.

Ten years later in 1997 there were no known students who were fluent in their language upon graduating from the sixth grade at the Tsi Snaihne School.  I realized this when looking at the plaques hanging on the walls of the grade six graduates.  

This goes to show that the language can be lost within the matter of one decade if it is not nurtured.  We cannot blame language loss entirely on the school system but it was a major deterrent.  We also cannot blame our parents and grandparents as they were residual victims of the residential school era.  The assimilation process was so intentionally induced that it led our parents and grandparents to believe that our own language would hinder any academic success, which extensive research now proves the opposite, and that in fact, learning one or more languages enhances our cognitive abilities. And here we are made to believe that our own language would hurt our learning process and that of our children. The residential school mentality is so strong that many, many indigenous communities suffered language loss, but because of our intrinsic need for cultural survival we managed not to succumb to the assimilation process, but to accommodate to our environment, which had rapidly become the English language and our survival instincts kicked in.  

That’s where language advocates began to voice their concern: that if desperate measures were not taken to maintain our languages they would be lost.  

Dr. Richard Little Bear of the Cheyenne Nation developed a language loss formula that would show how many years it could take for us to lose our languages if we didn’t take proactive measures.  The experience of the Tsi Snaihne School language loss is only one example of how quickly we can lose our languages if we don’t take action.  His formula simply shows the current state of our language, the fluency level of the surviving speakers both young and old, and that the average age of most speakers from all native communities is usually around 50.  

The proactive measures are mainly occurring in the form of immersion schools and programs and there is now an abundance of adult programming in which community members are learning their inherent language as a second language.  Many Ahkwesáhsne, Kahnawà:ke, Ohswé:ken and Tyendinaga community members have reached a level of fluency and are passing the language down to their own children as a first language.  Language nests have now been established across our confederacy and are also producing first language speakers.  Many parents who have the language are now ensuring that they are passing the language down to their children.

As many language advocates have realized the language can only survive if, and only if we can produce a whole new generation of first language speakers.  If we look at our own community of Ahkwesáhsne as an example we need only to look at the average age of fluent speakers, and the last group of first language speakers are within the age range of 60.  What is the fluency status of our youth and mainly of the new generation currently being born?  The reality of our situation is they are the generation who may make or break our language.  Remember that movie the Last of the Mohicans or Whale Rider?  They thought they were the last of the last, but...by taking proactive measures rooted in their culture they ensured that they would survive by strengthening their cultural identity through their language and ceremonial process.

Our current speakers are the last of the Mohawk speakers and WE are the seventh generation. It’s all up to us.  Ahkwesáhsne is one example of such a community taking proactive measures.  I foresee a day when all of our environmental text via billboards, posters, road signs, school signs, restaurant, government buildings, gas stations, gaming establishments, ambulance and police vehicles, ...etc are bilingual with our own language being big and bold.  

Our lacrosse teams could begin to learn some language to pysche out their opponents and to use a code language when playing.  We could have team names in the language like Ratiwì:ras (thunder), Roti’sken’rakéhte (warriors).  

There will be day when we meet in the Walmart and we hear parents and tótas speaking to their kids in Kanien’kéha saying, “Was sáti!” (get away from there), “Iah!” (No!), “Ha’ kats.” (come here)...etc.

We’re half way there.  Let’s go all the way.  Let’s not be the last of the last.

kaweienón:ni peters