A4 The BulleTin • Sunday, March 28, 2021
Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photos
Jermayne Tuckta is an associate archivist at the Museum at Warm Springs.
Language
Continued from A1
Charles Tailfeathers, a Viet-
nam war veteran and vice
president of the Warm Springs
Veterans Memorial Park Com-
mittee, was one of the elders
lost to COVID-19. He was
a member of the Black Feet
Reservation but spent much
of his life at Warm Springs af-
ter marrying a Warm Springs
tribal member. He worked for
20 years for the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, where
he assisted in creating a family
wellness court system.
Shirley Stayhi Heath, the
wife of Warm Springs Chief
Delvis Heath, was another im-
portant member of the com-
munity taken by the virus.
Heath was not only a leader
for tribal affairs, she was also
well-known on the reservation
for her dedication to the Warm
Springs elementary school,
where she worked for nearly
20 years.
Arlita Rhoan also died from
the virus. She was the lead lan-
guage instructor at the Warm
Springs Culture & Heritage
Language Department. She
is remembered fondly by Jer-
mayne Tuckta, an archivist at
the Museum at Warm Springs.
“She was fluent and she car-
ried so much knowledge about
spirituality, our ceremonies,
our sacred foods, and every-
thing,” said Tuckta. “She has
taught many children, many
teenagers, many students from
our community, so when she
passed that was a teacher who
was taken away from us.”
Cultural knowledge
Elders carry with them
knowledge of not only lan-
guage but also songs, craft
making, traditional foods,
clothing, and other elements of
this culture that stretches back
to time immemorial but was
severely damaged during the
19th and 20th century through
forced assimilation by white
settlers.
Much of the Warm Springs
culture has been documented
in books, videos, and audio files
since the late 1990s, but there
is little substitute for first-hand
teaching. A program within
the Warm Springs Education
Department brings elders into
schools to teach the culture to
both students and educators.
“They are the pillars of our
families so having them to-
gether like this is heartwarm-
ing,” said Valerie Switzler, gen-
eral manager for the education
administration. “It’s good for
all of us.”
Switzler thinks it will be
challenging to advance knowl-
edge of the culture amid the
losses but holds out hope it can
be done. “I want to build a base
of teachers who can teach chil-
dren. We have promised those
elders that we would never let
the language die.”
A mile down the highway
from the education building,
at the museum, Tuckta, 32, is
busy archiving photos and doc-
uments and gearing up for a
project to have items digitized.
He also spends much of his
time teaching the Sahaptin lan-
guage teachers. It’s something
of a race against time as the
number of speakers declines.
“All my mentors are going
home,” said Tuckta, using a
phrase to describe the passing
of an individual. “We are defi-
nitely feeling the impact of their
loss. One of the biggest things is
the loss of fluent speakers.”
Tuckta says is working hard
to teach the language to others.
“I don’t want to be the last
speaker,” he said.
While different dialects of
the language are spoken on
several reservations in the Pa-
cific Northwest, on the Warm
Springs Reservation, there are
just four fluent speakers left.
Rhoan was one of those speak-
ers.
In addition to language
speakers, those who died from
COVID-19 are also remem-
bered for being an important
bridge to earlier generations.
According to tradition, only
elders are permitted to correct
others if they make a cultural
error.
“Today because a lot of el-
ders are returning home now,
we don’t have those to correct
us,” said Tuckta. “Even those
who are left here today, because
of the pandemic, they are not
attending the ceremonies, they
are not attending the funerals,
so we are not getting that cor-
rection anymore.”
COVID-19 restrictions
made customary funerals chal-
lenging. After a death, a person
is typically mourned for sev-
eral days with their body first
in their home and then moved
to the longhouse, a tradi-
tional gathering place at Warm
Springs.
The body is dressed in tra-
ditional regalia and the family
will eat three meals with the de-
ceased individual. The home is
cleansed and the person’s items
are burned. Drumming, danc-
ing, and singing are also per-
formed. During the pandemic,
the ceremonies and traditions
have been condensed into just
two or three hours.
“We have a certain way that
we put our dead away; it used
to be two to three days,” Marcia
Minthorn, a 78-year-old com-
munity member, said on a visit
to the education building.
“We haven’t been able to
have our washat, our drum-
ming, when we sing over the
body,” said Minthorn. “We ha-
ven’t been able to dance around
the deceased; it’s hurtful and
very depressing.”
Lonnie James, 63, another
community elder, said in sev-
eral instances he only discov-
ered the death of an old friend
weeks or months after the
friend passed away.
“When a person dies, it’s very
important how we say goodbye.
Now they are just sort of gone.
We don’t have a way to mourn
or grieve or acknowledge their
passing,” said James.
Switzler from the education
administration described the
losses as “devastating.”
“Time does not respect any-
one and we have lost many el-
ders throughout these two de-
cades of language work,” said
Switzler. “However, nothing
prepared us for COVID-19.”
Irreplaceable losses
Switzler spoke highly of
Rhoan, who had been with the
program since its inception in
1995 and served as an honor-
ary professor at the University
of Oregon.
Rhoan co-authored the
Northwest Indian Language In-
stitute’s language benchmarks,
providing guidance and testi-
monies on senate bills includ-
ing SB 690, which endorsed
elders as teachers in the state of
Oregon.
“Her loss was felt through-
out the state and neighboring
nations in Washington and
Idaho,” said Switzler. “There is
little we can do to replace her
knowledge, experience, guid-
ance, and background.”
Switzler said her administra-
tion is looking for new recruits
that can become teachers and
has connected with individuals
who were enrolled in the lan-
guage program in the 1990s.
She is also encouraging el-
ders in the community to get
vaccinated to prevent further
loss of life.
“COVID-19 vaccinations
will help protect our elders that
protect our nation’s history,
culture, traditions, and sover-
eignty,” she said.
While vaccinations will help
to slow the spread of the virus,
Tuckta still thinks resuming
normal activities will take some
time due to all that the commu-
nity has been through over the
past year.
“Even if everyone is vacci-
“It has knocked us down but we’ll
dust ourselves off and get back
up and go again,” said Suaikt
Willard Tewee, reflecting on the
pandemic.
nated people are still going to
be fearful for our elders because
many of them have returned
home due to COVID,” he said.
“They are very precious to us
and we don’t want to risk that
chance.”
Back at the language cen-
ter, 72-year-old Suaikt Willard
Tewee, standing in front of a
whiteboard covered with Sa-
haptin words and phrases, in-
troduces himself in his native
tongue.
“My name is There He Goes,
the Wanderer, and I speak the
language,” he states before re-
flecting on the pandemic year.
“It has knocked us down, but
we’ll dust ourselves off and get
back up and go again.”
While the quarantines were
a struggle, Tewee is grateful
for the vaccinations. And even
though is one of the last re-
maining speakers of his lan-
guage on the reservation, he is
confident it will continue after
his death, with help from the
education program.
“There will still be speak-
ers after us. It’s not going to
end with just us,” said Tewee.
“There will still be people out
there teaching the young ones.
It will grow and grow and
grow, we have a good archive
here, so I believe it won’t be
lost.”
e e
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