re: thoughts on Nlaka pamux language.....

Hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

next week there is a conference in Merritt on the Nlaka pamux language and I wish i could go. I would do a presentation on video and documenting our language, our stories and language speakers. i worked on what i would also say if i could speak it there.

here it is:

Thoughts on Language: by Chris Bose. 08/11/17

What are my thoughts on language, language revitalization and culture? Well, the past couple years, even longer I have been trying to reclaim my Nlaka pamux language. The only resources I had were on the First Voices website. No one seemed to have any or want to share any language resources if they had them. So I copied and pasted made my own document on language, trying to build up my vocabulary. Then numbers, animals, insects, birds, reptiles, and so on, all while scouring the internet for anything, any shred of language or cultural stuff I could find. Since I am in Secwepemcullucw, whose language is also struggling, at least I was able to find resources and others willing to share them with me. For free, no charge, willing to share with someone wanting to learn more.

For a few years I knew more words in Secwepemc than our own language, Nlaka pamux. I learned more of their stories, met more of their elders, interviewed them, talked to them and befriended them because I am in their territory, and they were more than happy to share stories and songs with me because I am young and want to learn. Now I have worked at Cooks Ferry Band office, and while my office was in the archive room, I dove into everything I could. From Our Tellings, Nlaka pamux Oral Traditions galley copy, to archeological research to the out of print They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever, to Teits books, as well as research and documents about our people done in the 1980s with our elders about place and story. I started making videos in the language, basic ones, about animals, counting, body parts such as nose, ear, mouth, I tell my kids you cant go smooching without your sploochen!

I scanned every document I could and uploaded it to the CFIB website and printed out as much as I could to bring home and read, transcripts of interviews with elders, including my grandmother, my yeah-yah, Mary Anderson. I imagined the stories in my mind, trying to remember my yeah-yahs voice, her gleeful laugh and the joy of hearing our language again. When I returned home last year to my place in Tkemlups, I continued my research, finding whatever documents or books I could about our people here, finding and reading Charles Hill Touts book on our people in Lytton, and another book on the people of the Fraser Valley, Spuzzum: Fraser Canyon Histories, and watching the movie Canyon Wars with my kids, all the while continuing to work on my own on Nlaka pamux vocabulary with my kids and myself.

Reading all of these historical documents as well as traditional stories, and recalling stories and tracking down old family videos made me realize our people were and are incredibly strong. We have been here forever, thousands upon thousands of years. I sometimes sit and look at the landscape and imagine what it would have been like; at one time I thought it would be have been harsh and even hostile. But then I think of how much food and game there would have been before colonialism. How we lived and moved with the seasons, traded with one another, helped each other and knew the land, knew where the food was and how to harvest it to make sure there was more next year. I think about the salmon and the rivers, our sheestkins, our clothes, our basketry and our language. It all changed rapidly from 1810 with the first fort in Tkemlups and the fur trade starting.

Since then, we have been impacted extremely harshly from colonialism, greed and the residential schools. We were hit 3 times with smallpox in the 1800s, wiping out village after village, then the gold rush of 1858, during our salmon gathering time, and train building and road building and finally residential schools doing their best to take the indian out of the child. All these things have literally pushed our people to the brink of linguistic and cultural genocide. But we have survived somehow, we are resilient, but that isn’t enough anymore, our language, stories and culture should be at the forefront because once it is lost, we are stuck reading books and listening to tapes.

Language is a living thing and has to be shared in person, in workshops, in gatherings, in schools and in band halls and organizations. People and organizations have to set aside differences and share resources of language, stories, books, tapes and whatever else they can, it has to be pooled and it should be a defining priority of our people. This past summer I worked with our youth at the CNA film camp and only a couple youth could say Nlaka pamux, they instead called it Thompson language and referred to it as dead already.  

But, I did my best to teach them at the very least a few words, calling them Shin-je, and Che-cha, Kuktch-kuh and any words I could think of to get them hearing our language. Even less was known about our history or culture. It was saddening.

I too struggle with my kids to learn their language, my daughters are receptive and practice, but my son is less so, consumed with videos games and other typical shamut lifestyle things. He recently became a young man, moving out of boyhood and there was no ceremony. I didn't know it. I didn't know anyone who knew it. My daughters are approaching the same age and I have a cousin who has offered to help, but I am not certain if my daughters even want to do the coming of age ceremonies. Not only is there a divide between our organizations, but it is even in our families, someone may know something but think others are below them and wont share or simply just don't care anymore. We have been taught well by the indian agents.

But at least I have their ears on language and we work on it all we can, but I need more resources, our people need more resources, more workshops, more language and cultural gatherings, more time on the land reconnecting our people to one another, the stories, the places and living history. That is one thing I realized reading all these historical documents, is that I wish I could hear my Yeah Yahs and Spa-puh-luhs voice again, Mabel Joe, or hear Annie York talk about the Fraser canyon, or Louie Phillips and so on. Reading these stories is one thing, but living them is another, hearing the inflection of the voice, the laughter, the joy at someone remembering an anecdote to go with it and the boom of laughter once again. I grew up hearing our language and stories, and it helped shape me into the person I am today. I have realized if our language to rebound from the precarious place it is at, it will take a lot of ambition, a lot of sharing, a lot of healing and it has to be a priority. I mean not just talk, but real action, real plans and real things getting done once this conference is over. Yes, I am obsessed with our language and culture and I think that is what it takes, because once it is gone, who will share it or live it?!