The sound track for many American Indian tribal people dedicating their lives to restoring their traditional language is often in the Minor keys. In the melancholic tones. Nowadays when native people convene to discuss and chart out their plans to restore their indigenous languages, inevitably tears will flow. Not because there is an uncertain future, but because we have summoned and are addressing our collective past. We will remind ourselves of the tenacity of our elders to persevere through the darkest of times. We will shed a tear knowing they were speaking, praying and singing in their distinct languages. We shed our tears in honor of those elders who lived before us, and those who lived before them back to the beginning.
The tears of love are accompanied with a distinct longing to experience one’s life with their ancestral language being their first language. Our Language Hunters and Warriors recognize the hurt inflicted on our peoples once they began stripping us of our languages. Many of us can only imagine waking to a world that is defined by our original languages. We long to perceive the earth as ithivthaaneen. We look forward to the day when our wise elders will once again guide us into the future by recalling the stories of our collective past and addressing us in our original language. We know it an earth language refined by 10,000 years of use by many, many generations.
You see we know that the English language is forcing us to perceive the world today in a fragmented, compartmentalized way. We see this bit of earth, that bit of earth, an earth defined by arbitrary and natural boundaries. We see earth defined by its monetary value. We see land that is in dispute. We see a fractured world. For those of us who are acquiring their ancestral languages and knowledge, we are beginning to once again see an earth through indigenous eyes. An earth that possesses a coherency, and which is sacred and alive.
Cheemyaach ik Ishyaat imshínaavish. Náyaavheesh ik.
Cheemyaach ik Ataychúkinach i’uunúpraveesh. Náyaavheesh ik.
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