Language Revitalization

For thousands of years the Quinault people have spoken their language fluently and confidently. But once European settlers arrived, they began imposing the English language on the Natives. Over the next few centuries, speaking English became a necessity, whereas the Quinault language gradually diminished in prominence. The Euro-Americans didn’t like having other cultures in ‘their’ country and came up with ways of eliminating the Native culture, such as forcing Native children to attend American boarding schools. Since the 1860’s, teachers in these boarding schools attempted to eradicate the language, punishing and beating any students who spoke it. Grazyna J. Rowicka, a linguist at Leiden University, writes that the efforts of eradicating the language “were reinforced by the formation of a tribally mixed reservation and the influx of non-Quinault Native Americans from the area, in particular after the Allotment Act of 1887” (Rowicka). Over the years, English replaced the Quinault language in most people’s everyday life. Only a small group of elders still spoke the language in the 1960’s, and by the year 2000, there was no one left alive who spoke fluent Quinault.

As Kathrine Long reports in her Seattle Times article, the people of the Quinault are not willing to lose their language. She says, “a handful of people in the Olympic Peninsula tribe are slowly and painstakingly piecing it back together — and teaching it to a new generation” (Long). They use old recordings from the last speakers in the 60’s, as well as some documents. Rowicka specifies that much of the documentation “consists of about 15 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings” (Rowicka). Relearning the language is very important to the Quinault people, because it isn’t just about the words. The language is very much an important part of their culture and history. Kathrine Long involved several people in her article, including Chris Teuton, Chair of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. He said, “By revitalizing languages, that’s part of the healing process… [Native American culture] is really grounded in our language — the grounding of stories, our storytelling traditions, our words for the natural world, words that describe our social relations” (Long). It is our hope that they continue to learn and decipher the language to pass along its vital cultural connections for generations to come.

Long, Katherine. “Making History by Saving It: UW Groups Keep Indigenous Languages Alive.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 13 Jan. 2018, http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/making-history-by-saving-it-uw-groups-keep-indigenous-languages-alive/.

Rowicka, Grażyna J. “Pronominal Markers in Quinault (Salish).” International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 72, no. 4, Oct. 2006, pp. 451–476. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.spscc.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=23953759&site=ehost-live