How Indigenous Languages Were Lost
Native boarding schools tried to erase all traces of Indigenous culture.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
-
© Civil War Trust (A Britannica Publishing Partner)The rallying cry is, "no taxation without representation."
-
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, MainzLearn about the monumental Tower of Babel in the ancient city of Babylon.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.He did not say “The British are coming.”
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Cliff dwellings were used during the Pueblo III period (c. 1150–1300 ce) in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest.
-
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, MainzOverview of Bryce Canyon, southern Utah.
-
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A discussion of the efforts to preserve Native American culture, from the documentary Native Voice: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Art can be a way to remember, to resist, and to reclaim what was once taken.Media Editors: Michele Metych , Lauren Sims
Transcript
MSKWAA GEKEK KWE: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
My Anishinaabe name is Mskwaa Gekek Kwe. But I also go by Grey. I am Bear Clan. I am from Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, and I was born and raised here. And I am part of the Sault Sainte Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians.
There are over 500 native nations within just the United States, let alone North America itself. Native peoples in North America lost their languages through many different ways, one big one being the boarding school era. The United States government has had all sorts of eras with Native peoples.
The assimilation era is where we have the boarding schools. So instead of getting rid of the Native Americans in the country, they took the families' children and put them into boarding schools. And you might think boarding schools is a school just like I go to.
But these places were more about changing the lives of the children who were in America before it became America. So at boarding schools, they would cut Native children's hair, change their names, and also not allow them to learn their languages. Not just learn their languages, but speak their languages.
They knew their languages, but they had to learn how to speak English and were harshly punished if they were found out to be speaking their Indigenous language. Because of that, that generation lost that. And even those who held on to the language that they knew did not pass it on to their children because they were afraid of what happened to them originally.
My Anishinaabe name is Mskwaa Gekek Kwe. But I also go by Grey. I am Bear Clan. I am from Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, and I was born and raised here. And I am part of the Sault Sainte Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians.
There are over 500 native nations within just the United States, let alone North America itself. Native peoples in North America lost their languages through many different ways, one big one being the boarding school era. The United States government has had all sorts of eras with Native peoples.
The assimilation era is where we have the boarding schools. So instead of getting rid of the Native Americans in the country, they took the families' children and put them into boarding schools. And you might think boarding schools is a school just like I go to.
But these places were more about changing the lives of the children who were in America before it became America. So at boarding schools, they would cut Native children's hair, change their names, and also not allow them to learn their languages. Not just learn their languages, but speak their languages.
They knew their languages, but they had to learn how to speak English and were harshly punished if they were found out to be speaking their Indigenous language. Because of that, that generation lost that. And even those who held on to the language that they knew did not pass it on to their children because they were afraid of what happened to them originally.