Salish Speakers, Teachers Gather In Spokane To Celebrate Their Native Language
Listen
Native speakers from across the Northwest and Canada are in Spokane this week to speak Salish and learn from those who teach it.
The annual Celebrating Salish Conference is the largest tribal gathering of Salish speakers in the world. Nearly 500 people will take part in workshops and language labs and they’ll hear from youth leaders and elders at the three-day conference.
Vance Home Gun teaches elementary school-level writing and reading in Salish in Montana. In 2013, he won a national award for his leadership in preserving and promoting the language. He gave an opening keynote almost entirely in the Bitterroot dialect.
Then, in English, he asked roughly 50 people under the age of 21 in the crowd to stand.
“You young people that are standing right now, it’s up to you guys to carry on this language,” Home Gun said. “If you don’t do it, nobody else will and your language will die.”
But, the conference isn’t only about keeping the Salish language alive. It’s also about celebrating the people who not only speak the various dialects fluently, but those who teach it both formally and informally.
Copyright 2018 Northwest News Network
Related Stories:
Native American Heritage Month – In their own words: Don Sampson
Gary James, left, and Don Sampson, the two original employees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s Fisheries Program, at the tribe’s Department of Natural Resources 40-year anniversary
Yakima Groups Help More Women Of Color Become Lawyers
Yakima women of color received 19 scholarships to support them in continuing their legal education. Photo: Pataathla Sutterlict Listen (Runtime 1:39) Read More women of color want to become lawyers
Carving Out Lessons From A Canoe
Building a canoe is about learning and community-building for everyone involved. That’s what one Nez Perce man said before launching a canoe that was handmade with the help of fourth graders into the water on Tuesday.
