News
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — If asked, “who are the Wampanoag people?,” a tribal elder will explain they are the Indian nation that met the Pilgrims.
Living today on a small fraction of their original land in southeastern Massachusetts, the Wampanoag are “bringing home” their dead language.
Passed down from one generation to another, Wampanoag oral tradition tells of their lost language, and “the day will come when a child is born and bring you back the language.” Thus begins the incredible story of an effort to restore a language when the last speaker died over a century ago. No American language has ever been revived without native speakers.
“There is nothing I know of that's anything like the Wampanoag case.” — Noam Chomsky, linguist, MIT.
For three days, Jessie Little Doe Baird had the same dream, a circle of faces, faces of her ancestors telling her, “We are here.” Sometimes they spoke in an unknown language, and Jessie wondered if they might be speaking Wampanoag words. That nagging question motivated Jessie to reclaim her heritage and approach the governing council asking if they wanted, with her help, to restore their language. Bear in mind that Jessie was a teacher with no training in linguistics. The council unanimously endorsed the project.
Jessie began studying the written Wampanoag language which was preserved in historic documents, i.e., treaty agreements, pleas to the government, and the first Bible translated into their language. The Wampanoag people are part of the large Algonquin language family (primarily the eastern United States). Many other tribes still spoke and wrote their native languages. In order to approximate sounds, painstakingly, Jessie compared Wampanoag written words with similar words in the Algonquin language family.
Classes began to study and acquaint tribal members with this forgotten tongue, but the group soon realized they needed outside help and invited linguist, Ken Hale, to talk with them. He offered help which was vehemently opposed by Jessie who felt the tribe could do the work themselves.
Several months later, Jessie Little Doe Baird was invited to apply for a year's research grant to study anything she wanted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Discovering that MIT had an outstanding linguistic department, Jessie applied and was accepted. To her dismay, the linguistics professor was Ken Hale. Intending to apologize for her previous behavior, she walked into his office, and he asked, “Where have you been? I've been waiting.” That was the beginning of a long friendship and collaboration on “bringing the language home.”
In “We Still Live Here,” producer Anne Makepeace uses innovative and stunning graphics for transitions. She does a masterly job of entwining the story of the resurrection of a dead language and the history of a people whose culture was chipped away by settlers and whose land was taken through “English law.” She also captures the resurgence of the connection between the past and present. When the language lives, the culture lives.
ADDENDUM
This movie was awarded the “Moving Mountains” prize at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival. Jessie Little Doe Baird received a MacArthur Genius Grant and a week after she received the MacArthur news, her Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project was awarded a separate $350,000 grant from the government for a master-apprentice teaching program.
Living today on a small fraction of their original land in southeastern Massachusetts, the Wampanoag are “bringing home” their dead language.
Passed down from one generation to another, Wampanoag oral tradition tells of their lost language, and “the day will come when a child is born and bring you back the language.” Thus begins the incredible story of an effort to restore a language when the last speaker died over a century ago. No American language has ever been revived without native speakers.
“There is nothing I know of that's anything like the Wampanoag case.” — Noam Chomsky, linguist, MIT.
For three days, Jessie Little Doe Baird had the same dream, a circle of faces, faces of her ancestors telling her, “We are here.” Sometimes they spoke in an unknown language, and Jessie wondered if they might be speaking Wampanoag words. That nagging question motivated Jessie to reclaim her heritage and approach the governing council asking if they wanted, with her help, to restore their language. Bear in mind that Jessie was a teacher with no training in linguistics. The council unanimously endorsed the project.
Jessie began studying the written Wampanoag language which was preserved in historic documents, i.e., treaty agreements, pleas to the government, and the first Bible translated into their language. The Wampanoag people are part of the large Algonquin language family (primarily the eastern United States). Many other tribes still spoke and wrote their native languages. In order to approximate sounds, painstakingly, Jessie compared Wampanoag written words with similar words in the Algonquin language family.
Classes began to study and acquaint tribal members with this forgotten tongue, but the group soon realized they needed outside help and invited linguist, Ken Hale, to talk with them. He offered help which was vehemently opposed by Jessie who felt the tribe could do the work themselves.
Several months later, Jessie Little Doe Baird was invited to apply for a year's research grant to study anything she wanted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Discovering that MIT had an outstanding linguistic department, Jessie applied and was accepted. To her dismay, the linguistics professor was Ken Hale. Intending to apologize for her previous behavior, she walked into his office, and he asked, “Where have you been? I've been waiting.” That was the beginning of a long friendship and collaboration on “bringing the language home.”
In “We Still Live Here,” producer Anne Makepeace uses innovative and stunning graphics for transitions. She does a masterly job of entwining the story of the resurrection of a dead language and the history of a people whose culture was chipped away by settlers and whose land was taken through “English law.” She also captures the resurgence of the connection between the past and present. When the language lives, the culture lives.
ADDENDUM
This movie was awarded the “Moving Mountains” prize at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival. Jessie Little Doe Baird received a MacArthur Genius Grant and a week after she received the MacArthur news, her Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project was awarded a separate $350,000 grant from the government for a master-apprentice teaching program.
NOVEMBER COMMUNITY CINEMA IN THE GRAND VALLEY
Grand Junction:Tuesday, Nov. 8 - 7 p.m. screening; 6:30 reception
Recital Hall, Moss Performing Arts Center
Colorado Mesa University
Free campus parking for this event
Palisade:
Thursday, Nov. 17 - 6 p.m. screening
Palisade Branch Library, 119 W. Third St.
Fruita:
Wednesday, Nov. 30, 6:30 p.m. screening
Dinosaur Journey Museum, 550 Jurassic Court
< A community discussion will follow the film in all locations. >
