January 4, 1975: The Indian Self-determination & Education Assistance Act is signed.
January 23, 1919: Native American Code Talk are put into service by the U.S. Army.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Navajo Code Talkers
The code that was never broken
Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima: the Navajo code talkers took part in every assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They served in all Marine divisions, transmitting messages by telephone and radio in their native languagea code that the Japanese never broke.
Why Navajo?
The idea to use Navajo for secure communications came from Philip Johnston, the son of a missionary to the Navajos and one of the few non-Navajos who spoke their language fluently. Johnston, reared on the Navajo reservation, was a World War I veteran who knew of the military's search for a code that would withstand all attempts to decipher it. He also knew that Native American languages notably Choctaw had been used in World War I to encode messages.
Johnston believed Navajo answered the military requirement for an undecipherable code because Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. It has no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest.
More information is available here: http://www.nativeamericans.com/CodeTalkers.htm
Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima: the Navajo code talkers took part in every assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They served in all Marine divisions, transmitting messages by telephone and radio in their native languagea code that the Japanese never broke.
Why Navajo?
The idea to use Navajo for secure communications came from Philip Johnston, the son of a missionary to the Navajos and one of the few non-Navajos who spoke their language fluently. Johnston, reared on the Navajo reservation, was a World War I veteran who knew of the military's search for a code that would withstand all attempts to decipher it. He also knew that Native American languages notably Choctaw had been used in World War I to encode messages.
Johnston believed Navajo answered the military requirement for an undecipherable code because Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. It has no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest.
More information is available here: http://www.nativeamericans.com/CodeTalkers.htm
Identity of Yosemite Indians sought in the mists of history
By: Vanessa Colón
Who were the early inhabitants of Yosemite Valley -- Miwoks or Mono Lake Paiutes?
The answer matters to David Andrews, a Paiute who believes his ancestors' history has been underplayed by the National Park Service.
Yosemite National Park's historical displays mention both Indian groups as having a presence in the glacially carved valley. But the park has generally given the Miwok more prominence.
Andrews believes that history needs to be rewritten. He has led a two-year effort to persuade the park to give the Paiutes a more prominent role in displays chronicling the Valley's earliest inhabitants.
"What they are teaching little Johnny is false. I find it offensive," said Andrews, 55, who lives in Sacramento and is chairman of the Yosemite Mono Lake Paiute Community.
Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman said the park has based its historical displays on academic research and early historical accounts.
"If there's proof something that's been done is incorrect, we'd change it," Gediman said. But, he added, the park service remains unconvinced at this time that it has to change its exhibits.
Having Yosemite's story reflect the Paiute's role is a matter of cultural pride and historical accuracy, said Andrews, who said his effort is supported by other members of the Paiute community. It's also important, he said, for building a case with the federal government to have an Indian community formally recognized as a tribe.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/315939.html
Who were the early inhabitants of Yosemite Valley -- Miwoks or Mono Lake Paiutes?
The answer matters to David Andrews, a Paiute who believes his ancestors' history has been underplayed by the National Park Service.
Yosemite National Park's historical displays mention both Indian groups as having a presence in the glacially carved valley. But the park has generally given the Miwok more prominence.
Andrews believes that history needs to be rewritten. He has led a two-year effort to persuade the park to give the Paiutes a more prominent role in displays chronicling the Valley's earliest inhabitants.
"What they are teaching little Johnny is false. I find it offensive," said Andrews, 55, who lives in Sacramento and is chairman of the Yosemite Mono Lake Paiute Community.
Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman said the park has based its historical displays on academic research and early historical accounts.
"If there's proof something that's been done is incorrect, we'd change it," Gediman said. But, he added, the park service remains unconvinced at this time that it has to change its exhibits.
Having Yosemite's story reflect the Paiute's role is a matter of cultural pride and historical accuracy, said Andrews, who said his effort is supported by other members of the Paiute community. It's also important, he said, for building a case with the federal government to have an Indian community formally recognized as a tribe.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/315939.html
Pair breathe life into dead language
Takelma are thought to be the earliest residents of Southern Oregon
By: Paris Achen
In 1933, anthropologist John Peabody Harrington chauffeured the last known fluent Takelma speaker, Frances Johnson, from the Siletz Reservation near Newport to the Rogue River Valley to capture some of the phrases and stories of the dying indigenous language.
During the trip, Harrington took about 1,200 pages of field notes on the language, now extinct, said storyteller Thomas Doty.
Johnson died the following year.
Seventy-five years later, Doty and author John Michael Greer hope to revive the Takelma language by writing its first handbook.
"We are basically taking an essentially extinct language and bringing it back to life," Doty said.
"Talking Takelma," the first publication of the Takelma Language Project, will draw on the work of Harrington, 1884-1961, Edward Sapir, 1884-1939, and other anthropologists.
The project began about a year ago as part of Doty's effort to make the stories and culture of Southern Oregon's oldest population available to current residents and descendents of the tribe.
No timeline has been set for its completion, as both writers are working on the project in their spare time.
An English-Takelma dictionary and a collection of traditional myths in Takelma and English are planned to follow the handbook, Greer said.
The Takelma are the earliest known people to have lived in Southern Oregon.
"They are a people we know very little about and could have known more had they not been removed or decimated by disease," said Jeff LaLande, archaeologist with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Harrington and Sapir both worked with Johnson to learn more about the Takelma and about the lowland dialect of the language.
Get the whole story here: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/NEWS/801110323
By: Paris Achen
In 1933, anthropologist John Peabody Harrington chauffeured the last known fluent Takelma speaker, Frances Johnson, from the Siletz Reservation near Newport to the Rogue River Valley to capture some of the phrases and stories of the dying indigenous language.
During the trip, Harrington took about 1,200 pages of field notes on the language, now extinct, said storyteller Thomas Doty.
Johnson died the following year.
Seventy-five years later, Doty and author John Michael Greer hope to revive the Takelma language by writing its first handbook.
"We are basically taking an essentially extinct language and bringing it back to life," Doty said.
"Talking Takelma," the first publication of the Takelma Language Project, will draw on the work of Harrington, 1884-1961, Edward Sapir, 1884-1939, and other anthropologists.
The project began about a year ago as part of Doty's effort to make the stories and culture of Southern Oregon's oldest population available to current residents and descendents of the tribe.
No timeline has been set for its completion, as both writers are working on the project in their spare time.
An English-Takelma dictionary and a collection of traditional myths in Takelma and English are planned to follow the handbook, Greer said.
The Takelma are the earliest known people to have lived in Southern Oregon.
"They are a people we know very little about and could have known more had they not been removed or decimated by disease," said Jeff LaLande, archaeologist with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Harrington and Sapir both worked with Johnson to learn more about the Takelma and about the lowland dialect of the language.
Get the whole story here: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/NEWS/801110323
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