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> but you'd think for endangered languages you'd want to make it as easy as possible to access language learning resources. For a lot of Native Americans/Firs

> but you'd think for endangered languages you'd want to make it as easy as possible to access language learning resources. For a lot of Native Americans/First Nations peoples, it's actually a highly contentious issue. Some of them don't want outsiders, with no connection to the culture or the group, coming in and learning it just to prove they can, especially when children of the group haven't had the opportunity to learn it because of colonialism and other, often horrible, things. The Hopi are known for this, and actually decided to forego teaching the language at a school because they couldn't guarantee Navajo students wouldn't sign up for it. So, really, there's a lot more involved than it just being an 'endangered language' that everyone should have the right to learn and that they should want everyone to learn. There's a lot of ethnolinguistic and postcolonial issues involved as well.

lastofthemojito 6y ago
I remember when I first read about the Treaty of Wangxia being shocked that one of items in the treaty was that China would revoke a law that made it illegal for outsiders to learn Chinese. [0] The very idea that it could be forbidden to learn a language seemed nonsensical to me at first, although upon reflection, it must have been a good way to keep foreign ears from prying too much (I believe China's ban on foreigners learning Chinese was more about counterintelligence and less about wanting Chinese speakers to have some deep, authentic connection with the culture). I hate stuff like that hostility between Hopi and Navajo people though. If anything, learning a neighbor's language tends to bring people together! 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Wanghia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Wanghia
- dorchadas 6y ago
  > I hate stuff like that hostility between Hopi and Navajo people though. If anything, learning a neighbor's language tends to bring people together! I tend to agree, but I also respect the wishes of the various groups. They've undergone experiences at the hands of colonizers that I can't begin to imagine, and if they want to try to preserve something of their culture so that it stays in their culture, and not just let any outsider with a passing interest learn it, I support them in that. Though I do wish more were like the Cherokee Nation, which offers free online courses for anyone across various levels of Cherokee, also integrating culture and such.
protomyth 6y ago
Well, the bigger issue is that a lot of folks like to write grants to serve Native Americans and then get the money and don't provide the service, or, and this is a personal favorite, don't ask the reservation if they even need the service. Special awards to those who not only got money granted to provide and unneeded service, but by virtue of their applying to serve the reservation, got the legitimate reservation organization's grant blocked and unfunded. It is actually illegal, as in there is a tribal resolution, for me to provide any demographic information to any entity without tribal permission. The worst part is those folks who say they are Native American from a particular tribe and are NOT on that tribes enrollment rolls. They are always fun to deal with.

lastofthemojito 6y ago

I remember when I first read about the Treaty of Wangxia being shocked that one of items in the treaty was that China would revoke a law that made it illegal for outsiders to learn Chinese. [0] The very idea that it could be forbidden to learn a language seemed nonsensical to me at first, although upon reflection, it must have been a good way to keep foreign ears from prying too much (I believe China's ban on foreigners learning Chinese was more about counterintelligence and less about wanting Chinese speakers to have some deep, authentic connection with the culture). I hate stuff like that hostility between Hopi and Navajo people though. If anything, learning a neighbor's language tends to bring people together! 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Wanghia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Wanghia

dorchadas 6y ago
> I hate stuff like that hostility between Hopi and Navajo people though. If anything, learning a neighbor's language tends to bring people together! I tend to agree, but I also respect the wishes of the various groups. They've undergone experiences at the hands of colonizers that I can't begin to imagine, and if they want to try to preserve something of their culture so that it stays in their culture, and not just let any outsider with a passing interest learn it, I support them in that. Though I do wish more were like the Cherokee Nation, which offers free online courses for anyone across various levels of Cherokee, also integrating culture and such.

protomyth 6y ago

Well, the bigger issue is that a lot of folks like to write grants to serve Native Americans and then get the money and don't provide the service, or, and this is a personal favorite, don't ask the reservation if they even need the service. Special awards to those who not only got money granted to provide and unneeded service, but by virtue of their applying to serve the reservation, got the legitimate reservation organization's grant blocked and unfunded. It is actually illegal, as in there is a tribal resolution, for me to provide any demographic information to any entity without tribal permission. The worst part is those folks who say they are Native American from a particular tribe and are NOT on that tribes enrollment rolls. They are always fun to deal with.