Written by Megan Cassidy
The Digital Archive of Indigenous Language Persistence (DAILP) understands language persistence and preservation as mutually sustaining endeavors for Indigenous peoples today. The DAILP team works tirelessly to build and maintain “a collaborative online space to facilitate communications between indigenous language learners, speakers, and scholars.” DAILP understands that language is more than the words we speak, more than the rules of form and grammar we learn. Languages fundamentally connect people to shared histories, lands, and ceremonies.
For hundreds of years, European colonists and settlers coming to America have occupied the lands of indigenous peoples. Along with the intrusion of their physical homelands, Indigenous peoples have suffered the everyday erosion of their own languages and with that loss, their lifeways. In 1491, the land of the Americas included over 2,000 indigenous languages to a mere 245, “65 [of which] are already extinct and 75 are moving in that direction.” And yet, languages remain as their impact is understood to be fundamental to human connection.
Bri Alexander, a research associate at DAILP who works with and is enrolled in the Cherokee Nation and Shawnee Tribe describes the importance of language best: “Cherokee in particular is very descriptive, and there’s a lot more verbs than nouns. So, it’s a doing language and a descriptive language. You just relate differently to the world when you’re speaking Cherokee.” The Cherokee language emphasizes one’s physical movement through the world, appreciating it in a way that is lost in other languages. Through language, we learn how to experience the world and further, how we ourselves fit into it.
John Chewey, a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, works with the DAILP team as a translation specialist. As a result of his participation, he has translated words he has never used before; words that have been largely forgotten over time. John Chewey declared that DAILP’s digital collection of written Cherokee has helped him expand his knowledge of the language in ways he didn’t predict possible. Not only does this practice of preserving indigenous language help non-speakers to familiarize themselves with the language but it also helps lifelong community members reconnect with their roots!
DAILP teams have been guided in their work by the UKB translation team led by Ernestine Berry, Director of the John Hair Cultural Museum and Archive. Their team identified many precious Cherokee language documents; documents ranging from funeral notices to love letters to cultural stories. John Chewey has even recorded audio for some of these stories, really bringing them to life and honoring the cultural significance behind them. Thus, this project also works to bridge the gap between spoken and written language!
The next step of DAILP is working to finalize its reading and writing environments and piloting a prototype of the software with Cherokee teachers, learners, and speakers. The ultimate goal is to support the continued persistence of indigenous languages, while also preserving more of the Cherokee language to further unite communities. The DAILP project serves as more than a digital effort to immortalize an indigenous language in danger. It cultivates a community of indigenous community members, scholars, and interested newcomers who want to explore the language together and develop our understanding of what it means to communicate and further, what it means to connect.
Citations:
Mello-Klein, Cody. “To Save Cherokee Language, a Digital Tool Shares Tales of Standing Rock and Big Snake with the Next Generation.” Northeastern Global News, 6 July 2023.