Words As Big As The Screen: Native American Languages and the Internet

The first two pages about the important date being written in Navajo language reminded me of the topic we once talked about in the Policy class this past summer of why some indigenous linguists do not want their language to be written. The reason came to me, probably because they don't want their language to be "influenced" or "changed" or "diluted" by other languages. "...as the oral tradition is what safeguards the truth." (McHenry, p. 2) This is one part of the issue with "safeguarding the truth." The other end would be? What about our children? If the language isn't written, how and who would pass on this knowledge? For this reason, I am glad that our language is written for everyone to learn about and so that our children would also learn the language and the oral history of it.

Page 3: I agree with Dick Littlebear: "We must quit endlessly lamenting and continuously cataloguing the causes of language death; instead, we must now deal with these issues by learning from successful language preservation efforts" (1996, p. xv.).
The reason is because our language is disappearing at such a fast rate, there is no time to ponder why we are losing our language. Instead, we should deal with it the best way we can and move on to teach our next generation the language before all our elders are gone.

There is discussion about different language maintenance and preservation efforts in LKSD. I like what we are doing in this area. Although it is not enough, we can continue to do what we are doing and we can pass the word on to community members that our language is disappearing and that we, educators, need their help too. If the efforts to keep our language strong and going, we need to spread the word to "start speaking more Yugtun to all the community members.

If we used the computer technology to teach and use the Yugtun language, it would be good for our children because they are so much into using the computers and the internet. By creating websites and recording stories and recreating them through technology, then they would be forced to hear, read, write, and speak the language. This is a good tool to get the students to learn the language. Once a website or stories are created, then these could be used by the younger children as "aids" in teaching the language as well as computer-skills.