Nez Perce Chief Joseph as a Documentary Nexus for Indigenous Lands, Language, & Culture
Dr. Phillip Cash Cash shares research and ongoing ideas about language, land, and culture. He initiates this exploration through Hinmatóowyalahtq’it (“Thunder traveling up out of the water to higher areas”/Chief Joseph), a prominent and important figure in Pacific Northwest history. He then navigates towards larger discussions of naming, land, relationships, and their connections in an ancestral and modern sense and indigenous practices. Listen to this talk to reflect on oral narrative, naming practices, and the connection between these practices with land/language/culture through ancestral connections to your contemporary community.
Resources
Chat Transript
11:54:39 From Keegan Livermore (he/they) to Everyone:
Who is someone in your community’s history that you admire? 11:54:41 From Joana Jansen to Everyone: How is your language reflected in your land? 11:59:08 From Keegan Livermore (he/they) to Everyone: Who is someone important in your community’s history that you could describe for us briefly? Phil didn’t have specific questions in mind, I will pull some of the general questions but would also love other thoughts if you have them during the talk. 12:00:25 From janne underriner to Everyone: Welcome, Phil 12:00:45 From Phil Cash Cash to Everyone: Glad to be here! 12:02:56 From Joana Jansen to Everyone: I have been thinking lately of all the elders who contributed to recordings and writing for Sahaptin Even just looking at the list of names who are attributed in published works, there are upwards of 100 – and we know there many more not named of course. 12:03:04 From Lorraine Suppah to Everyone: Delbert Frank,, Tribal Council Member back in the days, on Our Fishing Rights. 12:09:36 From Jesse Blackburn to Everyone: Honored to learn from Dr. Cash Cash today. For Umatilla revitalization, so many people have been important to that work — two I’m grateful for today are Átway Inez Spino Reves and Dr. Noel Rude. 12:36:46 From Keegan Livermore (he/they) to Everyone: Possible Questions to Discuss: 1. What from the presentation stood out with you? 2. Do you know of naming practices from your community/community you work with? 3. Do you know of oral narratives tied to a particular place from your community/community you work with? 4. What role do you think naming practices / oral narratives (can) play in language revitalization/language learning? 13:21:04 From Joana Jansen to Everyone: The Cycle of Healing is the talk title tomorrow- see you then! 13:21:13 From Lorraine Suppah to Everyone: Thank you 13:21:24 From Wendy Sampson to Everyone: Hey, are college credits available for these courses??Video Link
Additional Resources
Email newsletter & forum:
Indigenous Languages and Technology (ILAT)
Indigenous Languages and Technology (ILAT) discussion list is an open forum for community language specialists, linguists, scholars, and students to discuss issues relating to the uses of technology in language revitalization efforts.
Websites:
Vision Maker Media
Mission: empowering and engaging Native people to share stories. We envision a world changed and healed by understanding Native stories and the public conversations they generate. We work with VMM-funded producers to develop, produce and distribute programs for all public media. VMM supports training to increase the number of Native Americans and Alaska Natives producing public broadcasting programs.
CoLang: Institute on Collaborative Language Research:
The Institute on Collaborative Language Research, known as CoLang, is a biennial gathering for people to learn about language documentation, descriptive linguistics, and language revitalization.
Articles/Readings:
For a Complete list of Phillip Cash Cash research and work: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/
– Cash Cash, P. (2008). The Land as Witness: Nez Perce and Sahaptin Placenames. In Amery, Rob & Joshua Nash (eds.) Warra Wiltaniappendi Strengthening Languages – Proceedings of the Inaugural Indigenous Languages Conference (ILC) 2007. University of Adelaide, Australia.
– Hunn, E. S., Thomas, M. O. E., Cash, P. C., Haug, D. B., Conner, R. L., & Rigsby, B. J. (2015). Čáw pawá láakni = they are not forgotten: Sahaptian Place Names Atlas of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla. Tamástslikt cultural Institute.
– McCarty, T. L., Nicholas, S. E., Chew, K. A. B., Diaz, N. G., Leonard, W. Y., & White, L. (2018). Hear Our Languages, Hear Our Voices: Storywork as Theory and Praxis in Indigenous-Language Reclamation. Daedalus, 147(2), 160–172. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48563028
– Stabler, D. (2009, October 20). Preserving tribal culture focus of national conference, from language to memories to science. The Oregonian/Oregon Live. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2009/10/preserving_tribal_culture.html.
Umatilla Online Dictionary
https://dictionary.ctuir.org/
Reflection questions from Phil Cash Cash
– Who is someone in your community whose history is important?
– What from the presentation stood out with you?
– Do you know of naming practices from your community/community you work with?
– Do you know of oral narratives tied to a particular place from your community/community you work with?
– What role do you think naming practices/oral narratives (can) play in language revitalization/language learning?