Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
September 7, 2022
Page 7
~ Culture & Heritage Language Lesson ~
The Spilyay Tymoo welcomes the return of the Culture
and Heritage Department Language Lessons.
Listen to KWSO for the audio versions of the lessons.
The language lessons are made possible by the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs Education Branh and the Culture
and Heritage Department.
Kiksht ~ Wasq'u
Ichishkiin ~ Warm Springs
Numu ~ Paiute
Ichishkiin Dictionary: Newly re-published
(Continued from page 1)
This dictionary is an ex-
pansion of the War m
Springs dictionary prepared
in 1990 by Henry Millstein
in deep collaboration with a
large set of treasured com-
munity elders, who are
named in the dictionary in-
troduction.
A little over 10 years later,
from 2002-03, I had the
privilege of working for the
Culture and Heritage De-
partment at Warm Springs
and served the language
teachers of the three Warm
Springs’ languages. I was for-
tunate to get to know the
dedicated elders across each
language group, who worked
for the department, includ-
ing the Ichishkiin team at
that time—Átwai Adeline
Miller, Átwai Arlita Rhoan
and Átwai Suzie Slockish,
Átwai Anna Clements, Átwai
Faye Waheneka, and Átwai
Harrison Davis Jr.
Átwai Adeline Miller, in
particular, encouraged me to
invite dear community and
academic folks back to the
community. Her mother,
she shared, spoke fondly of
an academic Ichishkiin en-
thusiast she had worked
with, Virginia Hymes, nearly
50 years before. There are
various materials out there
from that era as well as be-
fore, and Átwai Adeline was
very eager to see those re-
united with her and the
Warm Springs community.
Her heartfelt request struck
a strong chord with me and
has remained an important
mission for me even to this
day.
About 9 years ago, Átwai
Adeline’s apprentice, Merle
Kirk together with Valerie
Switzler (the director of the
Culture and Heritage De-
partment back then) and
myself started to dream
about a second edition of
the Ichishkiin dictionary.
This expansion and revi-
sion is made possible by a
Documentation of Endan-
gered Language (DEL), Na-
tional Science Foundation
Funds 2016-22 collaborative
grants by Valerie Switzler,
Education general manager
of the Confederated Tribes
of War m Springs; Joana
Jansen at the University of
Oregon, and Nariyo Kono at
Portland State University.
An additional group of
precious elders—Átwai
Orthelia Patt, Viola Govenor,
Margaret Suppah and Willard
Tewee—and the project team
worked hard to enhance
Henry Millstein’s initial dic-
tionary. Merle Kirk served
as a community language
documentation specialist in
Warm Springs (2016-20), re-
cording and working directly
with elder speakers; Warm
Springs Ichishkiin teachers
Dallas Winishut, Lorraine
Suppah and Jer mayne
Tuckta helped with archival
and recording work.
After a roughly two years
pause during the pandemic,
additional funds from DEL
made it possible to bring a
group of elder speakers
(Anita Davis joined), and
technology specialist Rain
Circle for recording and
archiving assistance (2022).
Lastly, the final editing and
printing work was assisted by
Nariyo Kono and Kyrstin
‘Wren’ Haines (design).
In this volume, we start
with a History of the Warm
Springs community and lan-
guage from Valerie Switzler
of Education, manager of
the Culture and Heritage pro-
gram.
Henry Millstein intro-
duces his dictionary and ex-
plains the Warm Springs al-
phabets and the layouts of
the dictionary entries. He also
shares the names of the hon-
ored elder speakers who con-
tributed to the dictionary and
this project.
Finally, the book presents
two sections of Ichishkiin
Dictionary compiled by
Henry Milltsein: Ichishkiin-
to-English; and English-to-
Ichishkiin.
Additionally, Joana Jansen
and Brittany Parham invite
the audience to become fa-
miliar with a brief grammar
and a phonetics/sound
sketch, especially for those
who are curious about how
linguistics helps with
Ichishkiin language learning
and speaking. Students whose
efforts contributed to this
grammar sketch are TaysÍki
Allyson Alvarado, Mitchell
Lira and Jermayne Tuckta.
We appreciate the hard
work, inspiration and support
that have been gifted to us
by the Twenty-Seventh Tribal
Council, elder speakers, the
Culture and Heritage Com-
mittee, the Culture and Heri-
tage Department language
program teachers and staff,
young learners and speakers.
We are also grateful to the
many colleagues, family and
friends who provided per-
sonal and emotional support.
The heart of the dictio-
nary efforts are rooted in the
Warm Springs community
people’s desire to revitalize
their language and their hopes
to pass their heritage on to
future generations.
We humbly hope this book
will contribute towards
achieving these desires. I an-
ticipate continued dictionary
and language work will pro-
vide additional sections and
revisions to this volume in
the future.
On behalf of the DEL
Dictionary Project Team,
Nariyo Kono, August 2022.