American Indian languages get 'Breath of Life'

An intensive five-day workshop at OU's Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History taught participants how to study and teach the linguistics of tribal languages

BY JAMES S. TYREE | Published: June 7, 2010 Comment on this article

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NORMAN — Tracey Moore is a member of the Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee and Sac & Fox tribes who aims to help keep their disappearing languages alive by learning, speaking and teaching them.

She learned how recently during the Breath of Life workshop at the University of Oklahoma's Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

The May 24-28 program taught participants how to conduct linguistic research on tribal languages, starting with archival materials at the museum.

The program is designed for people from tribes that lack fluent speakers of their language who want to help preserve the language for future generations.

Moore was eager to return home to Fairfax, where she would study even further and share that knowledge with her students in the Osage Nation's Language Program.

"It's just inspiring; I can't wait to go back and dig in,” she said. "With the linguistics part, I will have the ability to learn all my languages.”

Mary Linn, curator of Native American Languages at the Sam Noble museum, organized the workshop and invited scholars from other universities to work with participants.

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