Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 1978)
JULY 28, 1978 PAGE 11 Community Center this week. Teacher Linda Muralt from Portland’s David Douglas High School showed girls the “jazz walk,” part of a dance routine performed for parents and friends Thursday night. Supergirl Susan Guerin was momentarily airborn while practicing a flying somersault over the horse. Gary Vanderhoef of Bend High School assisted girls in vaulting, uneven bars and balance beams. CDS Photos INDIAN LANGUAGE SPEAKERS ENHANCE SKILLS b y C ynthia S tow ell Linguists and lifetim e speakers of the Sahaptin and Wasco languages shared their talents at a recent workshop and new classroom techniques were the result. Virginia and Dell Hymes, who have worked closely with local individuals off and on since 1951, spent two weeks at the community center this month helping speakers of the language refine their skills. In turn, “ students” made corrections in the Sahaptin word list compiled by Mrs. Hymes, offered new idioms, and slightly revised the alphabet to make it consistent for both Sahaptin and Wasco. Sponsored by Central Ore-i gon Community College,, and or ganized by the Tribes’ cultural heritage director Nathan Jim, Sr., the class focused on lan guage teaching techniques. Sa haptin is offered in the public school system and both Sahaptin and Wasco have been taught in the COCC adult education pro gram. Traditionally oral languag es, Sahaptin and Wasco are being taught by local women as written languages. Reading and writing have had to be learned by even the fluent speakers. Teachers therefore welcom ed the opportunity to work with the Hymes on developing their reading and writing skills. Dur ing the first week they reviewed the reading of sounds and let ters. Then it was on to grammar and language patterns. Dialogues were an effective method for learning and practic ing the concepts, and the ques tion and answer technique will probably show up in the class rooms this fall. Ways of grouping words by sound or by stems and teaching them together were also dis covered and used. This class m ark ed the first time Wasco and Sahaptin were studied together. They share the same alphabet and many of the same sounds, and where differ ent, they provide useful con trast. The Paiute language was even introduced,into at least one session when Wilson Wewa, Jr. shared the number system and other words with the class. The Hymes were particular ly pleased when Wilson was able to identify as Paiute the words scribbled in the m argin of a well-known 1883 Sahaptin word list. The identity of the few words had been a m ystery for years, said the Hymes. No stranger fo Wasco, or “kiksht” as it is known to vari ous speaking groups, Dell Hy mes, began studying the lang uage in 1951 while a graduate student at Indiana University. For his doctorate, Dr. Hymes wrote a Wasco gram m er. His main contacts through the years have been Philip Kahclamat and Hiram Smith. In 1972 Virginia Hymes be gan learning Sahaptin, the lan guage of the upper Columbia River basin. Her first word list, accompanied by language mas ter cards, was assembled in 1973 with the cooperation of such locals as Susan Moses, Ellen Squiemphen, Hazel Suppah, Amelia Colwash, Linton Wini- shut and Verbena Greene. Some of the sam e people who assisted Mrs. Hymes five years ago shared in the work shop this month. Such contact, along with the ongoing working relationship between Mrs. Hy mes and Hazel .Suppah, is bring ing the linguist closer to an expanded dictionary, which she hopes to complete this year. The new dictionary will go beyond the present word list to include more words, listed in alphabetical order by whole LINGUIST Virginia Hymes (right) reviewed the grammar in recorded legends with Sahaptin language teacher Eliza Van Pelt, Amelia Colwash and Hazel Suppah. Rangila Photo words or word parts, an English index, and an introductory grammatical sketch. Whether or not it is pub lished, the dictionary will be made available locally, as has all the Hymes’ work. The Hymes are by no means the first outsiders to take an interest in Indian languages of the area, although they have certainly been among the most attentive and involved. The first Sahaptin word list was made by a man named Biggs in 1853, shortly before the treaty. The most comprehensive list was done by Walker, a visitor to Warm Springs from 1880-1883. Wasco, a Chinookan lang uage of the lower Columbia River, has received much atten tion through the years, begin ning in 1846 when a member of an official U.S. exploring expe dition wrote two short word lists for lower and upper Chinook. One of the g reatest contri butions was made by Franz Boas, eoQsidered to be the father of modern American anthropol ogy. In the 1890’s^Ie recorded a good p art of the traditional stories of the lower Chinook, as well as writing a Wasco text and vocabulary. Boas’s Handbook of American Indian Languages, a revolution in the com parative study of native languages, gives a significant amount of apace to lower Chinook, using that tongue to illustrate linguistic concepts. A comprehensive grammar and dictionary compiled by Wal ter Dyk in this century were passed on to Dell Hymes, whose extensive files are invaluable. In recent years Indians themselves have encouraged the preservation and teaching of their languages by asking that it be offered in schools and by forming such groups as the Sahaptin River Tribes Consor tium, which is compo^gd/of five upper Columbia River tribes who speak variations of Sahap tin. People who completed the class should be even better equipped to teach Sahaptin or Wasco formally in the classroom or share it inform ally with friends and relatives r— another step closer to the revitalization of hot only a languae but a way of life. . .. .......... .v .fv
