Teaching Lusieno To Luisenos
By KRIS LOVEKIN
Tony Foussat drives north from Escondido to the Pechanga reservation near Temecula to learn Luiseno, the language of his grandfather. He is not expecting a certificate or to advance his career as a sheet metal foreman. He just wants to recapture a piece of his history and then hand it down to his daughter.
Foussat, a 35-year-old member of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, is one of about 60 new students in the Takic Language Revitalization Project, an ambitious partnership between Pechanga cultural leaders and UC Riverside aimed at reviving nearly extinct native languages.
"At home, after my lesson, I talk a little bit to my daughter," Foussat said. He has taught some of the language to his wife, who is not a Native American, who likes to try the throaty consonants and doubled vowels of the Luiseno tongue.
"It's hard, but he's a good teacher," Foussat said about Eric Elliott, a linguist hired by the project to teach classes for adults and children at the new Pechanga Tribal Government Center.
Elliott, who grew up in the Coachella Valley and learned the Luisenos, Cahuilla and Serrano languages from elders of area tribes, is a shy professor-type who comes alive in front of a classroom. Using computer-generated slides with celebrities as diverse as Jiminy Cricket, Britney Spears and Mother Teresa, he tries to appeal to all ages.
"Make that 'k' as far back in your throat as you can without upchucking," he advises one recent adult class about the word qualwun, (kal-one) which is the plural of the verb "to be located somewhere."
At the children's class, immediately following, Elliott asked about the number of tickets they had earned and heard them answer in Luiseno.
"H'k su?" (how many?) Elliott asked. "Mahaar" (five), the children answered.
"It's easy if you know it from before," said Bianca, 12, whose family speaks some Luiseno at home. Her 9-year-old brother, Trevor, who wears his hair in a long braid to below his waist, said one of the advantages to brushing up his Luiseno is to have a secret language. We can talk so no one else knows, he said with a smile.
Theoretically, that won't last much longer as this project moves forward and more people take lessons. The younger students are catching on even more quickly than the adults, Elliott said. That makes him optimistic about the pre-schoolers, who have just begun their lessons.
Learning Luiseno is an important part of being Luiseno, said Gary DuBois, director of Pechanga Cultural Resources. We challenged UCR to create a comprehensive model of revitalization, and they rose to the challenge.
Joel Martin, who holds the Rupert Costo Chair of American Indian Affairs, pulled together a team that includes literary scholars, anthropologists and historians, as well as language experts and early childhood development professionals from the UC Riverside Extension.
Without the second-language teacher training expertise provided through the International Education Program, we could not have gotten this off the ground, and we Wouldn't have such good prospects for success, Martin said. The team will write grants for new funds and promote the project as a national model at conferences. In November, in fact, they will present the program at the National Congress of the American Indian in San Diego.
Language revitalization is difficult, Martin said. Not only are there distractions that pull people away from language learning, but many projects fail because they lack sustained tribal support or systematic university involvement. This project had both from the start, Martin said. Eventually, the project will become self-sustaining as tribal members take over the teaching roles.
We would like to make language learning rewarding for all ages, part of a larger healing process, and an important affirmation of Native identity, Martin said. California Indians have made it clear that they think this is a very important project, and we have taken that to heart.
Foussat, the sheet metal worker who comes from Escondido to learn the language, said this project has filled a need for him.
A few days before he died, my grandfather started speaking Luiseno to me, reverting back to his childhood, Foussat said. Not being able to understand his grandfather was frustrating for Foussat and it underscored the distance he felt between himself and his ancestral tongue. He wants to make sure his 7-year-old daughter, Tehya, does not experience the same thing.
Tehya means precious, but not in Luiseno. Foussat said he didn't know any Luiseno at the time she was born. Like her father, she plays the flute. She carries it to events on the reservation. At a recent one, she held on to her father's arm tightly as she watched the dancers. Afterward, she thanked me for taking her, Foussat said, his pride in his daughter visible on his face. She has a good feeling about it.
Luiseno is one of approximately 100 tribal languages native to California. Fully half of those languages are now nearly extinct.
We are hoping that the partnership at Pechanga blossoms and becomes a model for what can be done elsewhere, said Martin. UCR is a neighbor to more than 30 federally recognized tribes as well as several unrecognized ones. What we need to do now is take a strong program and make it useful to all California Indians.