CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES AND FUTURE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Endangered languages face common challenges. Our increasingly globalized world and rapidly changing socioeconomic landscapes push for assimilation and reduction of expressive diversity, which is especially detrimental to minority languages (Turin, et al, 2013).  Two major challenges are identified by Hinton et al (2002). The first is the fact that language tied to traditional acts of communication, like songs and stories, may no longer be active in the community and possibly lost. Secondly, our modern world has daily interactions and conversations with situations for which heritage languages may not have terms.

Some challenges may be specific to Native American languages. One such challenge is that a large majority of members live outside of their rural and reservation communities (McCarty, 2013). Therefore, tribal members are often surrounded by majority language speakers and lack opportunities to learn and/or transmit their native language.  Another challenge particular to Native American populations is trauma from US government policies enacted to assimilate tribal people into majority culture hindered the transmission of language from generation to generation:

“Parents did not teach the [Native} language because they loved us and they didn’t want us to suffer, to be abused, or to have a tough life…. they tried to protect us from the humiliation and suffering that they went through” (Kipp, 2000 as cited in McCarty, 2013, p. 156)

Another phenomenon among tribes is concern over intellectual property of language and distribution of developed resources (Turin, et al, 2013).  Tribal elders, especially, may voice concerns of this nature.  These elders have observed and been told by preceding generations how tribal cultures and customs have been exploited by the majority culture and perhaps even other tribal members for monetary and political gain.  This can lead to hesitancy to consent to being recorded or helping create resources such as books and music.

However, as Beatrice Medicine (2001, as cited in McCarty, 2013), a Lakota anthropologist states “The very persistence of viable language speaks immensely to the vitality of Native life in the United States” (p. 1).   Despite immense pressure from the US federal government and surrounding culture, the Choctaw people have maintained tribal culture and language and seem to have no intentions of losing it now.  As such, all three of the federally recognized Choctaw tribes are actively seeking to engage tribal members in preserving and/or learning the Choctaw language.

One aspect of language revitalization among the Choctaw tribes is school and community-based education programs. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) Language Department, Chahta Immi has engaged with tribal members through community classes.   The tribally run schools on the MBCI reservation have Choctaw language teachers available to their students. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) has deployed several education programs. Choctaw language has been taught in several high schools and higher education institutions for over 20 years.  These educational endeavors have expanded into the tribally run early childhood care centers.  In 2022 a language apprentice program was initiated. Also recently added is a family program that connects elders to family units in hopes of promoting more Choctaw being spoken within the home. The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians has a language teacher on staff and provides recorded lectures online free to the public.

The Choctaw tribes are actively collecting and preserving recordings of first and fluent language speakers.  The MBCI has been actively recording and posting videos of fluent language speakers on mediums such as You Tube.  CNO actively pursues grants and funds initiatives to create audio and video recordings of first language speakers. Language speakers also provide voice accompaniment to daily lessons sent through various mediums, such as Vimeo, and the online dictionary available on the CNO website. These written and recorded artifacts will help give future generations the tools to perpetuate our language. The safeguarding of these vital materials will stave off the fate experienced by other indigenous languages, such as reduction to a small group of speakers frantically tasked with preservation and revitalization or complete extinction.

Lastly, our predecessors have left us with a plentiful supply of written artifacts. This includes works by our missionaries and early church leaders like the first dictionary, portions of Holy Scripture, hymnals and catechisms in Choctaw language.  Educational curriculum, government laws and actions, and archived newspapers can also be found.

Overall, through community and school programs, generations of written materials and recordings, and an enduring desire to maintain cultural identity and sovereignty, the Choctaw tribes are positioning themselves and the world to hear the sounds of Chahta anumpa in perpetuity.