{"id":13901,"date":"2018-10-07T01:19:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T01:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=13901"},"modified":"2018-10-12T01:24:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T01:24:13","slug":"how-the-loss-of-native-american-languages-affects-our-understanding-of-the-natural-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-the-loss-of-native-american-languages-affects-our-understanding-of-the-natural-world\/","title":{"rendered":"How the loss of Native American languages affects our understanding of the natural world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rosalyn R. LaPier<\/a>, The University of Montana<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Alaska has a \u201clinguistic emergency,\u201d according to the Alaskan Gov. Bill Walker.<\/a> A report warned earlier this year that all of the state\u2019s 20 Native American languages might cease to exist<\/a> by the end of this century, if the state did not act. <\/p>\n

American policies, particularly in the six decades between the 1870s and 1930s, suppressed Native American languages<\/a> and culture. It was only after years of activism by indigenous leaders that the Native American Languages Act<\/a> was passed in 1990, which allowed for the preservation and protection of indigenous languages. Nonetheless, many Native American languages have been on the verge of extinction<\/a> for the past many years. <\/p>\n

Languages carry deep cultural knowledge and insights. So, what does the loss of these languages mean in terms of our understanding of the world.<\/p>\n

Environmental knowledge<\/h2>\n

Embedded in indigenous languages, in particular, is knowledge about ecosystems, conservation methods, plant life, animal behavior and many other aspects of the natural world. <\/p>\n

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\n The shell necklace of Queen Lili\u02bbuokalani.<\/span>
\n David Eickhoff\/Flickr.com<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Hawaiian traditions and belief systems,<\/a> for example, the tree snails were connected to \u201cthe realm of the gods.\u201d Hawaiian royalty revered them, which protected them from overharvesting. <\/p>\n

The Bishop Museum in Honolulu holds a shell necklace, or lei, of Queen Lili\u2018uokalani, the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. It is made from tree snail shells, which signifies the high rank of female royalty. Wearing a shell was believed to provide \u201cmana,\u201d or spiritual power and a way to understand ancestral knowledge. <\/p>\n

Many of these snails are now extinct and those remaining are threatened with extinction. Scientists are working with Hawaiian language experts<\/a> to learn about the belief systems that once helped protect them and their habitats. <\/p>\n

A tool for doctors<\/h2>\n

Words in indigenous languages can have cultural meanings, that can be lost during translation. Understanding the subtle differences can often shift one\u2019s perspective about how indigenous people thought about the natural world. <\/p>\n

For example, as an indigenous scholar<\/a> of the environment, I led a team some years ago of language experts, elders and scholars from Montana and Alberta, Canada, to create a list of Blackfeet words, called a lexicon<\/a>, of museum objects. The elders I worked with noted that the English word \u201cherb,\u201d which was used to describe most plant specimens within museums, did not have the same meaning in Blackfeet. <\/p>\n

In English, the word \u201cherb\u201d can have numerous meanings, including a seasoning for food. The closest English word to herb in Blackfeet is \u201caap\u00ed\u00ednima\u2019tsis.\u201d The elders explained this word means \u201ca tool that doctors use.\u201d <\/p>\n

The hope is that the lexicon and audio files recorded in the Blackfeet language that our research helped create, might assist future scholars access the embedded meanings in languages.<\/p>\n

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