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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1998)
4 Culture and Heritage Smoke Signals Language Specialist develops Chinook Dictionary By Kathleen Mitchell, Culture Board Assistant Since coming on board in September of 1997, Tony Johnson has managed to build a Language Program for the Tribe. Working through the Kwelth Tahlkie Culture and Heritage Society office, Tony has built an archive focusing on all the original languages of the Grand Ronde Reservation, with a special emphasis on Chinook Jargon. This archive of written and au dio materials has been growing steadily. This is made up of historic documents as well as recently, conducted field-work. Tony, who was born in South Bend, Washing ton, went to college to focus on the culture and language of his father's people, the Chinook. Tony's grandfather was an allottee on the Quinault Reservation in Washington. "My life's focus has been the culture of my dad's people and family," Tony said. Tony has a background in American Indian Stud ies from the University of Washington, but later trans ferred to Central Washington University. He was looking to pursue a master's degree in linguistics at the University of Oregon when he was recruited as Language Specialist by the Culture Board. Currently tribal Elder Annabelle "Peachie" Hamm, acts as Culture Board Chair. At its annual planning workshop in August the Culture Board made a language program its top priority. Tony decided that establishment of the Language Program's archive was the essential first step to fulfilling the Culture Board's wishes. "We will be looking for dedicated helpers," said Dale Archibald, Culture and Heritage Board Ex ecutive Director. With the help of the archival materials, tribal El ders, and his own experience, Tony, the Tribe's Language Specialist, compiled a dictionary of Chi nook that currently has 825 entries for English equivalents. Tony refers to the Chinook Jargon as "Chinook" because the older Chinookan languages had their own names. Tony sees Jargon as the key to language revital ization here. "Learning Chinook is considerably easier, because of its limited vocabulary and its structure, than the older languages of Grand Ronde." At first, Tony worked on the dictionary using an existing font (lettering) developed for use with Salish languages, such as Tillamook. The Salish font rep resented most sounds in Chinook, but was. not a perfect fit for a Chinookan language. Tony, with help from intern Greg Davis, then i t . V J A Tony Johnson, Curator & Language Specialist developed an alphabet (orthography) to represent all the sounds in Chinook. After Tony drafted the dictionary and alphabet he found a "phonetic" font developed by a profes sor in Toronto, Canada, that could be easily modi fied to represent all the sounds in Chinook. Tony received permission from the professor and then adapted the font to the needs of the Grand Ronde Chinook alphabet. This new True-Type, called "Chinook Wawa," can now be entered into any word processing program. In the future a typing tutor will be developed to help members master the new keyboard. Also, Tony has made it a policy to recruit graduate students of linguistics, from lo cal universities, to be interns with the Language Program. Greg Davis, a Master's candidate at Portland State University, has become the program's first. Tony believes Greg's thesis will be a valuable document to the future of the Grand Ronde Tribe's language effort. More recently, Tony has been collaborating with a software developer to perfect a Talking Word Tutor, "TWT." He hopes that this will become a part of the long range Chinook Teaching Program at Grand Ronde. A new version of the "TWT" is currently being developed for use by the younger students and will have pictures rather than English definitions. Now that basic development of the Chinook Dic tionary, Orthography and Font is complete, Tony has drafted Language Program plans for the com ing year. The plans are established in a grant ap plication that he and tribal Grant Specialist Bob McElderry recently submitted to the Administra tion for Native Americans (ANA). The goal of this ANA Planning Grant is to create a foundation so that "an undeniable ANA imple mentation grant can be written," Tony said. The Planning Grant, if received, will allow for the fol lowing important elements to be completed during the next year. The first step is to do a comprehensive survey of the language speakers already in the community. Another step toward language learning will be that the Culture and Heritage Society will work to wards making agreements with tribal and public education regarding a Chinook learning program. Research and recording of all language materi als will continue to have top priority with the Cul ture and Heritage Society. Still another step toward the eventual teaching of Chinook is the soon to be established, "Core" lan guage group. This group will be asked to commit over the next year to learning Chinook. For more information, please refer to the article below. Tony is confident in the sense of urgency and commit ment he has heard from tribal members in and around Grand Ronde. "A year from now, regard less of our grants, we will find a way to get lan guage learning going at some level," Tony said. Tony's other focus is traditional Chinook Indian arts. He is trained in carving, print making and jewelry making. Tony received a bachelor's degree in small metals, mostly Silver Smithing, from Cen tral Washington University. Learn Chinook Jargon The Culture Board is seeking tribal members who are willing to commit to a "pilot" Chinook (Jargon) project. Project participants will be re quired to meet weekly, on evenings, throughout the upcoming year. This group will provide sup port for the teaching of Chinook. A tentative start data for this group has been set for WEDNES DAY, MAY 20. Meeting dates and locations will be discussed there. An interest in "Chinook" is all that is required to apply. Individuals associated with Tribal or Public Education are especially encouraged. A letter stating your interest to apply, and your commitment to attend classes, is required for consideration for the project. Letters of appli cation must be received by Friday, May 15. Please send applications to: Kwelth Tahlkie co Tony A. Johnson 961 5 Grand Ronde Road Grand Ronde, OR 97347 Culture Board meeting to be held May 9; seeking applicants Kwelth Tahlkie Culture and Heritage Board will hold its monthly meeting at 10 a.m. on May 9 in the Banquet Room of Spirit Mountain Casino. Tribal members are always welcome to attend. The agenda includes a presentation by the Tribe's Language Specialist, Tony Johnson, of the Chinook Jargon talking tutor computerized learning pro gram. Other agenda items include: discussion of Mission Statement, hiring of an Education Coordi nator, a logo, and reorganization following mora torium. The Board is also recruiting persons interested in serving on its Board of Trustees. Two positions currently are vacant. The term of office is for three years. These two positions are open to both tribal and non-tribal members. The Culture Board meets no more than eight times yearly to give direction to the Society by making policy decisions. A Board Trustee helps oversee the activities of a Culture Center staff and develop support from others, both within and outside the Tribe. The mission of Kwelth Tahlkie Culture and Heri tage Society is to recognize, affirm, and celebrate the historical and contemporary cultural achieve ments of the Grand Ronde people; to preserve and perpetuate that culture and collaborate with other groups and individuals with similar aims; to col lect, preserve and interpret articles of cultural pat rimony as well as documents, language and oral history; to use such resources as educational op portunities for students and scholars alike. , Interested applicants are encouraged to write a letter of application the Culture Board office. Any letter should contain the answers to the following questions: a) Are you a member of any Indian tribe or mar ried into the Grand Ronde Tribe? If you are a tribal member, please include your roll number. b) What do you think you have to offer to the Cul ture and Heritage Society? c) Why do you want to serve on the Culture Board? Please send the letter of application to Culture Board, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347 or call 879-2085 or toll free 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2085. All applications need to be received by June 1 to be considered. A committee of the Culture Board will interview selected applicants in June and make its recommendation to the Culture Board, which will advise Tribal Council on these appointments.
