Challenging "extinction" through modern Miami language practices

American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Volumn 35, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 135-160

  Leonard, Wesley Y ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79959544616     PISSN: 01616463     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17953/aicr.35.2.f3r173r46m261844     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. The Ethnologue (Raymond J. Gordon Jr., ed., Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. [Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2005]) attempts to catalog all of the world's languages and to provide basic information about their speaker populations, language-family relationships, alternate names, and additional facts of potential interest to linguists and missionaries. I am referencing the 2005 edition of the Ethnologue because most discussions within the Miami community about the term extinct, and our associated challenges to this label, have taken place in response to our language having been categorized as such in this and earlier editions of the Ethnologue. However, the most recent edition of the Ethnologue (M. Paul Lewis, ed., 2008) simply classifies Miami as "a language of the USA" and mentions that a revitalization program is in progress. The editors decided not to use the term extinct to describe languages with second-language speakers because they agreed with the Miami claim that this was inappropriate (M. Paul Lewis, personal communication, 2009).
2. Myaamia and Miami (pronounced my-AM-ee or my-AM-uh) are functionally equivalent, the former being the name of the language and people in the language (an endonym), and the latter being the exonym used in English and many other languages. As using an endonym has a certain sociopolitical impact in that it asserts a tribal identity, some tribal members make a point of using it. Moreover, as use of the language has become more common, the endonym has likely also become more common because we are more accustomed to saying and hearing it. However, particularly when speaking English, it is common for Miami people to alternate between both terms-perhaps with a general trend toward saying myaamia when referring to an identity or cultural frame, and I am following that convention here. This pattern exemplifies a theme of this article, which is that the Miami are a multicultural and multilingual people, and it thus makes sense that we would refer to ourselves and to our language in more than one language. The spelling of myaamia words in this article, including the noncapitalization of the word myaamia, follows conventions that have developed in the Miami community. The phonetic values of the Miami orthography are described in Daryl Baldwin and David J. Costa, myaamia neehi peewaalia kaloosioni mahsinaakani: A Miami-Peoria Dictionary (Miami, OK: Miami Nation, 2005) and are close to those of the American Phonetic Alphabet.
3. Wesley Y. Leonard, "When Is an 'Extinct Language' Not Extinct? Miami, a Formerly Sleeping Language," in Sustaining Linguistic Diversity: Endangered and Minority Languages and Language Varieties, ed. Kendall A. King, Natalie Schilling-Estes, Lyn Fogle, Jia Jackie Lou, and Barbara Soukup (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2008), 23-33.
4. Philip J. Deloria, Indians in Unexpected Places (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004).
5. Because of space limitations, I am omitting a literature summary of the general principles of colonization and the associated expectations for indigenous language purity, and instead, I am detailing specific issues as they arise in the article. For an historical overview of this phenomenon, I suggest Richard Bauman and Charles L. Briggs, Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), which details how ideologies of linguistic purity developed in Western scholarship.
6. The essays in Paul V. Kroskrity and Margaret Field, eds., Native American Language Ideologies: Beliefs, Practices, and Struggles in Indian Country (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009) illustrate how these ideologies affect Native American communities, as outside forces and by virtue of community members holding the ideologies.
7. Anne Goodfellow, "The Development of 'New' Languages in Native American Communities," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 27, no. 2 (2003): 53.
8. For discussion of Goodfellow's statement in terms of the Miami case, see Leonard, "When Is an 'Extinct Language' Not Extinct?" 28-30.
9. Because of the initial Miami Removal in 1846, which involved only part of the Miami community, there are two political entities called "Miami"-known officially as the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma (see http://www.miamination.com) and the Miami Nation of Indians of the State of Indiana (see http://www.miamiindians.org/) (both accessed March 4, 2011). For a detailed discussion of this Removal and its effects, see Kate A. Berry and Melissa A. Rinehart, "A Legacy of Forced Migration: The Removal of the Miami Tribe in 1846," International Journal of Population Geography 9 (2003): 93-112. As a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma whose experiences are primarily within the Oklahoma Miami political and cultural structure, I narrate this story with an Oklahoma Miami bent, and my examples come primarily from the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma members. However, I believe that the general discussions in this article hold for Miamis of any political affiliation-whether Oklahoma, Indiana, or, in some cases, no official tribal membership-as we all share our language and are thus challenged by the same dominant discourse. (Pubitemid 36435208)
10. The Language Guy, "Reviving Dead Languages," blog entry from February 24, 2007, http://thelanguageguy.blogspot.com/2007-02-01-archive.html (accessed May 1, 2010). Many similar comments have been made about Miami language efforts, but I chose to include this one because it sparked some extended discussion by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma Language Committee and other Miami language program leaders. We were struck because we saw that someone with a PhD in linguistics-hence an expert-wrote it, someone who had never asked us what we're trying to do in regard to "reviving" our language and yet made a dire prediction about our ability to do it.
11. Jane H. Hill, "'Expert Rhetorics' in Advocacy for Endangered Languages: Who Is Listening, and What Do They Hear?" Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 12, no. 2 (2002): 119-33.
12. See also Lise Dobrin, Peter K. Austin, and David Nathan, "Dying to Be Counted: The Commodification of Endangered Languages in Documentary Linguistics," in Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory, ed. Peter K. Austin, Oliver Bond, and David Nathan (London: SOAS, 2007), 59-68.
13. To be certain, the distinction is not so binary that the value placed upon these languages resides either in their grammar/vocabulary or in their community/personal functions; rather, most of the literature explicitly recognizes the multiple values of language. Nevertheless, rhetoric of loss for general (scientific) knowledge has become especially common. Frequently cited examples include K. David Harrison's When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) and the documentary The Linguists, directed by Jeremy Newberger (Garrison, NY: Ironbound Films, 2008).
14. Joseph Errington, Linguistics in a Colonial World: A Story of Language, Meaning, and Power (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008), 3;
15. see also Michael Silverstein, "Contemporary Transformations of Local Linguistic Communities," Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 408.
16. I have observed this not only from nonindigenous groups but also from indigenous ones. See, e.g., Richard E. Littlebear's frequently cited analysis of why indigenous languages "keep dying" (Littlebear, preface to Stabilizing Indigenous Languages, ed. Gina Cantoni [Flagstaff, AZ: Center for Excellence in Education, 1996], xiii-xv). Littlebear argues that language transmission in the home is the most fundamental practice for revitalization. Many Miami people believe in the importance of the home, but also note that for a language with no speakers, the only way to bring it back into use is for a group of people first to learn it "unnaturally" as a second language.
17. Barbra A. Meek, "Failing American Indian Languages," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 35, no. 2 (2011): 51-54.
18. Wesley Y. Leonard, Miami Language Reclamation in the Home: A Case Study (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2007), 36.
19. Following the convention in linguistics, I use the word competence to refer to the knowledge that allows a speaker of a given language to speak it in grammatically well-formed ways.
20. For an overview of Miami experiences in boarding schools, see Melissa A. Rinehart, Miami Indian Language Shift and Recovery (PhD diss., Michigan State University, 2006), 179-208.
21. On US educational policy toward indigenous languages more generally, see Ofelia Zepeda and Jane H. Hill, "The Condition of Native American Languages in the United States," in Endangered Languages, ed. Robert H. Robins and Eugenius M. Uhlenbeck (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991), 135-55;
22. see also Paul V. Kroskrity and Margaret Field, "Introduction: Revealing Native American Language Ideologies," in Kroskrity and Field, Native American Language Ideologies, 3-30.
23. For discussion on the scope and usability of several main sources of Miami documentation, see David J. Costa, The Miami-Illinois Language (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), 10-33.
24. Due to length constraints, I am not listing the full set of endangerment frameworks in which this practice gets employed, but I have discussed and critiqued this practice in some detail in Leonard, "When Is an 'Extinct Language' Not Extinct?"
25. Leanne Hinton, "Sleeping Languages: Can They Be Awakened?" in The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice, ed. Leanne Hinton and Ken Hale (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2001), 416;
26. Leonard, Miami Language Reclamation in the Home.
27. Some scholars have adopted the term reclamation to refer specifically to bringing a language with no speakers back into use-also called revival (e.g., Nancy C. Dorian, "Purism vs. Compromise in Language Revitalization and Language Revival," Language in Society 23, no. 1 [1994]: 479-94) and differentiate this process from language revitalization, which they in turn use to refer to a similar process for languages that have never ceased to be spoken.
28. E.g., Rob Amery adopts reclamation to describe recent efforts with the formerly sleeping Australian language Kaurna ("It's Ours to Keep and Call Our Own: Reclamation of the Nunga Languages in the Adelaide Region, South Australia," International Journal of the Sociology of Language 113 [1995]: 63-82);
29. Lenore A. Grenoble and Lindsay J. Whaley follow Amery's convention in Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Though the Miami example actually falls under reclamation per this other definition, I am adopting the term to refer to a widespread sociological process that I see occurring with endangered languages in general, regardless of whether they have had a period of dormancy.
30. Paul V. Kroskrity, "Embodying the Reversal of Language Shift: Agency, Incorporation, and Language Ideological Change in the Western Mono Community of Central California," in Kroskrity and Field, Native American Language Ideologies, 192.
31. Leonard, "When Is an 'Extinct Language' Not Extinct?"
32. This "problem" of phenotypic variation and the associated racialization of American Indians is not unique to Miamis, as it stems from a wider experience that affects most indigenous nations in the United States. See Circe Strum, Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002) for an in-depth study of this issue.
33. Pauline Turner Strong and Barrik Van Winkle, "'Indian Blood': Reflections on the Reckoning and Refiguring of Native North American Identity," Cultural Anthropology 11, no. 4 (1996): 547-76.
34. Unlike many indigenous nations of the United States, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma has never had a blood-quantum requirement for official membership, though our eligibility for membership is biologically constrained under our current constitution. The basic rule is that one must be a biological descendant (however distant) of a person on a series of official rolls taken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There have been discussions in the tribe that our constitution should be changed to grant membership to children adopted into Miami families, but this has not yet happened as of the writing of this article.
35. Martha Una McClurg, Miami Indian Stories Told by Chief Clarence Godfroy Ka-pah-pwah (Great-great-grandson of Frances Slocum) (Winona Lake, IN: Light and Life Press, 1961), 159.
36. I am assuming general familiarity with issues of language and social inequality and am leaving out significant discussion here for length considerations. Dell Hymes, Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an Understanding of Voice (Bristol, PA: Taylor and Francis, 1996) offers valuable insights on linguistic (in)equality, and I use it as a foundational source.
37. Important discussions on this topic as it pertains to indigenous languages include Nancy C. Dorian, "Western Language Ideologies and Small Language Prospects," in Endangered Languages: Current Issues and Future Prospects, ed. Lenore A. Grenoble and Lindsay J. Whaley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 3-21;
38. Kroskrity and Field, "Introduction." I also offer the following principle that I created and have used as an epigraph for many course syllabi: "All languages are equal. But some languages are more equal than others."
39. Anthony K. Webster, "On Intimate Grammars: With Examples from Navajo English, Navlish, and Navajo," Journal of Anthropological Research 66 (2010): 191;
40. see also Webster, "'Please Read Loose': Intimate Grammars and Unexpected Languages in Contemporary Navajo Literature," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 35, no. 2 (2011): 65.
41. See related discussions by Barbra A. Meek, "And the Injun Goes 'How!': Representations of American Indian English in White Public Space," Language in Society 35, no. 1 (2006): 93-128; (Pubitemid 43388779)
42. Meek, "Failing American Indian Languages."
43. Several linguistic anthropologists over the years have questioned whether the English of Miami people gets scrutinized or delegitimized in ways that are common for other Native American groups. Particularly given the recurring theme of "unexpected" American Indian Englishes developed in the other articles in this issue, I will address the matter here. To the best of my knowledge, this practice is relatively uncommon; it is only the myaamia of Miami people that gets questioned. Most Miamis speak forms of English that are associated with the regional and socioeconomic histories of their individual lives. E.g., many in northeastern Oklahoma speak local (non-Indian) varieties of English. Only a few Miamis speak a form of English that would be widely indexed as "American Indian English." For discussion on what this name entails, see William L. Leap, American Indian English (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993). It makes an interesting commentary to note that recent trends in fields such as (linguistic) anthropology and Native American studies have fostered a prediction-perhaps even an expectation-that there would be a Miami form of English, and that it would be nonstandard and stigmatized. However, there isn't a target English to denigrate (or valorize) because a distinct form doesn't widely exist for Miami people. This noted, given that more and more Miami people are learning the myaamia language and integrating elements of it into their English, a uniquely Miami form of English might be under development, and such a form could very well be met with the stigma that has been described for other American Indian Englishes.
44. It is important to note that these examples differ from the commonly discussed phenomenon of "globalization," which often evokes a frame in which a given group of people have recently adopted a technology or practice to which the group did not previously have access. Although it's true that specific items and languages of European origin were newly introduced to Miami people historically, most "unexpected" practices by contemporary Miamis were not recently newly introduced but are instead things that Miami people were already using or doing. E.g., it would be strange to talk about how the Internet was introduced to the Miami, as the more accurate description would be that using the Internet became common in the United States, and Miami people were part of that process by virtue of being Americans, in addition to being Miami.
45. The word eewansaapita literally means "she/he rises" and is understood to mean "sunrise."
46. For detailed discussion on the history, changing goals, and outcomes of the eewansaapita and similar Miami language programs, see Wesley Y. Leonard and Scott M. Shoemaker, "'I Heart This Camp': Participant Perspectives on the Role of Miami Youth Camps," in Papers of the 40th Annual Algonquian Conference, ed. Karl S. Hele and J. Randolph Valentine (Albany: SUNY Press, forthcoming), 146-64.
47. Elder participation is actually crucial to the eewansaapita program and to all other programs for language and culture, as it is our elders who provide the support for these efforts and, in many cases, provide direct language and culture knowledge. In most eewansaapita programs, e.g., there have been elder nights, in which the camp participants meet with tribal elders over dinner. Some tribal elders visit camp throughout the week. Unlike some other tribal programs that are specifically designed to be multigenerational, however, the eewansaapita program, in terms of its objectives, is for tribal youth and designed to be a place for them.
48. Some modern Miami songs don't borrow English tunes. E.g., some tribal members sing what is called a community song, the music of which is distinctly American Indian. These, however, are not the focus of the current discussion, as they are "expected." The problem is that some see only those sorts of expected songs as truly Miami, thus reflecting and reinforcing a discourse in which being a real Miami Indian entails following an increasingly narrow set of parameters.
49. This practice could be seen as an example of Miamis clinging to the past, but my impression is that most Miamis view it as a way of respecting the past and incorporating our ancestors' wisdom into our own lives. Notable skill is involved with bending (without breaking) a piece of wood to be used for a lacrosse stick.
50. I have not seen chess played at the eewansaapita camps (where most games are more "active"), but it's possible that participants have played it there without my being aware of it. I first encountered Miami chess when spending time with another Miami family, in which two brothers were playing it with each other.
51. Over time, some Miami chess players have drifted away from this term and instead say neekatikašia (horse) for the "knight" piece, which is not surprising given that the horse that the knight rides often represents the knight figure.
52. Erin Debenport, "As the Rez Turns: Anomalies within and beyond the Boundaries of a Pueblo Community," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 35, no. 2 (2011): 100.
53. David Costa, personal communication, 2007.
54. E.g., Rosemary Henze and Kathryn A. Davis, "Authenticity and Identity: Lessons from Indigenous Language Education," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30, no. 1 (1999): 3-21;
55. Leanne Hinton and Jocelyn Ahlers, "The Issue of 'Authenticity' in California Language Restoration," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30, no. 1 (1999): 56-67.
56. Several people, Miami and non-Miami, have mentioned to me that there are certain elements of their languages that they don't believe should change. The most common example referenced is certain prayers, which many people believe to have been bestowed onto their people in a certain form for specific purposes. My response is that I am referring to language for most everyday use; no good reason exists that traditions cannot or should not be maintained in a given form.
57. I was negligent in that I wasn't paying much attention to who was participating in the auction but instead was looking only at their bids.
58. Jocelyn C. Ahlers, "Framing Discourse: Creating Community through Native Language Use," Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16, no. 1 (2006): 58-75. (Pubitemid 43631811)
59. Following the convention in linguistics, the word future is in all capitals in order to indicate that kati is a grammatical particle that marks future tense.