The article uses an interdisciplinary approach to reexamine the literary form and merit of a Zuni ritual narrative poem from the midwinter Shalako ceremonies. After describing the poem's cultural context, the article addresses its shape, structure, language, and style. The article includes the English language text of the poem. (SB)

This report concerns public bilingual elementary schools for rural Indian (non-Spanish-speaking) children in Mexico. Materials production efforts as well as completed and projected research projects are described. (SJL)

Describes the research, compilation, and organization of three bibliographies on bilingual language arts materials developed for Native Americans between 1890 and 1976. A chart provides population figures for a diversity of Native American language groups, number of speakers, and available materials (dictionaries, grammars, etc.) for each group.…

Presents a cross-linguistic survey showing that personal pronouns with first person "n" and second person "m" have an extensive yet restricted geographical range limited to the western Americas. Findings indicate that the "n:m" pronouns reflect a single, datable, noninitial, and nonterminal phase in the settlement of…

Languages reflect and reinforce cultural values, giving insights into their speakers' world view and relationships to the natural environment. Indigenous languages help us to respect local knowledge and extend our sense of community to the larger world. However, despite bilingual education in schools, all Native American languages are endangered;…

Discusses possibility of losing 90% of the existing 6,000 modern languages and importance of preserving languages and cultures. Government policies, including those of the United States, have contributed to this loss by imposing state languages to peoples and forbidding and punishing the use of native languages. Of the 207 native languages of…

Languages reflect and reinforce cultural values, giving insights into their speakers' world view and relationships to the natural environment. Indigenous languages help us to respect local knowledge and extend our sense of community to the larger world. However, despite bilingual education in schools, all Native American languages are endangered;…

Offers a sustained linguistic analysis of James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans." Finds that, because Cooper's technical blunders and moral limitations are always in view, they are revelatory. Suggests that no American author has gotten more things wrong about languages; but no one has dramatized more about how languages…

Summarizes Scott Ferrin's argument in the January 1999 issue of this journal (EJ 583 598) that "English only" policies violate the language rights of Native American Students. Introduces the rebuttal by Jim Littlejohn in the following article (EA 537 750). (Contains 17 footnotes.) (MLF)

Seventy educators and community members in six northern Saskatchewan Aboriginal communities were interviewed to examine policies and practices related to Native language planning and education. The language circumstances in the six Cree, Dakota, and Dene communities are discussed in terms of Fishman's eight-stage scale of language disruption and…

An indigenous rights organization works to preserve and revitalize indigenous communities and their lands by recording tribal creation songs. The songs spiritually reconnect Native people with their land, establish indigenous territorial rights, and preserve endangered languages. An ethnographic audio recording training program will enable tribes…

Arizona, 71 Hopi pupils left their families and homes to attend Sherman Institute, an off-reservation Indian boarding school in Riverside, California. Accompanied by their Kikmongwi (Village Chief), Tawaquaptewa and other Hopi leaders, the Hopis embarked on an adventure that forever changed their lives. For the majority of Hopi students, the…

A historical-comparative study of the sonorant system of Athabaskan, Eyak, and Tlingit, American Indian languages of Alaska, is presented. In this study, sonorants are considered as a class rather than as a constituent of the general consonant group. An opening section looks at the development of the generally recognized Proto-Athabaskan (PA)…

Objective evidence indicates that despite public fears and the claims of those who would make English the official language of the United States, it is not English, but minority tongues that are threatened in this country today. In the last 5 years, educators have noticed a sharp decline in native language skills among Native American children.…