I noticed the “1” on the calendar this week in a way I haven’t before. As if we have a single day with no history, a fresh start. Some Osages make resolutions or goals in the New Year— purge a closet, take more time off work, spend time with kids. Others don’t. Tammy Mason Lux said she follows the Osage admonition to do your best every day.
Language classes are coalescing this semester. The groups are getting acquainted and enjoying their time together. Ed Smith takes Noah Shadlow’s beginner class from his home in St. Louis.
“I like that we’re already learning sentences,” he said, saying “I want some turkey” on me. He also praised the light-hearted feeling that made him feel comfortable about “messing up pronunciation.”
On a recording of a culture/language lesson held years ago at the White Hair Memorial, people were chatting before class began. When an older woman arrived, she said “𐒹𐒰𐓏𐒷” naturally, part of the fabric of life. When I hear some of my classmates say, 𐒰𐒹𐒲, “yes,” with a particular soft nasal intonation, it sounds like what I imagine I’d have heard years ago.
The Puyallup Nation in Tacoma encourages the use of Twulshootseed in more and more spaces. They recommend making nests at home where only their language is spoken, in the bathroom or kitchen, for example. The practice of finding the words for everyday activities builds on itself. “I’m going upstairs,” I tell my husband, “𐒰𐒼𐒰𐒹𐒰 𐒴𐒷 𐓈𐒳 𐓀𐒻𐒼𐓇𐒷, breaking him in to more and more phrases. The more sentences I make, the more come to me.
Master Teacher Mogri Lookout received an honorary doctorate at Kansas State University in 2021, when he delivered the fall commencement address. He spoke entirely in Wah Zha Zhe ie on our Osage homeland, the same ground on which the school stood. The moment is powerful and available online to watch. A video at the event stated that their first degree was awarded in 1871, just as we were forced out.
Hearing and understanding Wah Zha Zhe ie spoken on our land was powerful. The Osage language resonates deeply in us. Colonial efforts to stop us from speaking our languages had a negative impact but weren’t successful. Our language is alive, a precious reflection of ourselves and our culture, worthy of our care and attention.
In a video of Bush people in sub-Saharan Africa learning their language, an elder told a group, “Listen very carefully.” She pronounced a word in one dialect and then another. As an outsider, I couldn’t hear any difference, but sometimes I feel that with Osage. It takes a while to distinguish particular vowels and stresses, yet there’s joy when it works.
Elder Eddy Red Eagle, Jr., explained that loving the language is like loving horses. “If you’ve got it, that’s just how it is.” Billy Proctor, one of those first Osage learners who studied and then worked with Mogri Lookout in the Osage language program, felt the same way. When he started out, Proctor said he was consumed.
The resolutions or goals we make can be simple. We can learn the days of the week in Osage. We can download the Osage Language app, and listen to phrases and songs, like “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” which will help us pronounce 𐓀𐒻𐓊𐓎, the word for grizzly, which we all need. But our direction has to feel right. One of my writing friends has been having a hard time. When they saw friends posting Lucille Clifton’s poem about running into the New Year, it was too much. “Some of us are just limping in,” they said. It makes sense that we take things at a healthy pace. It’s also true, it’s up to each of us to use and preserve our language.
Mogri Lookout’s commencement address
https://www.k-state.edu/graduation/ceremonies/fall2021/graduate-school.html
Puyallup Language Department’s ideas for language nests.
https://www.puyalluptriballanguage.org/nest/
For conversations about language preservation All My Relations podcast “Can Our Ancestors Hear Us?” including Puyallup language advocates:
https://www.allmyrelationspodcast.com/post/ep-9-can-our-ancestors-hear-us