On Tuesday, June 21, I attended Celebrating Native American Language Revitalization in Film, an event held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
The event was very informative and inspiring! It's fantastic to meet with others who are working in the area of language and cultural revitalization programs.
We watched a documentary called "We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân" (2010). This film will be shown on PBS in the fall. The film shows the story of Jessie Little Doe Baird and the Wampanoag language program. The Wampanoag live on Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod. In the film, Mrs. Baird shares about having dreams where others were asking her to speak Wampanoag, which was presumed to be dead. Historically, the Wampanoag language was written down (letters and a Bible). Speakers were also fluent readers and writers. There are documents in archives that are being used to discover new words and vocabulary. Mrs. Baird studied linguistics at MIT and is still working with the staff there to discover more about the language.
The Bible translation was done by a missionary named John Eliot. It was the first Bible translation done in North America.
Currently, there are Wampanoag language classes for all ages and apprentice programs.
I'm very interested in learning more about this language program and seeing how it will develop in the future.
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