For the past two years, a handful of Osage language students and teachers have been diligently working on forming a nonprofit organization to raise funds for preservation efforts.
At the 3rd Annual Dhegiha Gathering at the Cherokee Nation Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Aug. 6-7, in front of more than 65 members of the Dhegiha linguistic family, they announced they have succeeded. It is called the Dhegiha Preservation Society.
“From that first (Dhegiha) meeting that we had, that first year (in 2011), everything’s come to fruition,” said Veronica Pipestem, Osage language instructor. “We have a nonprofit now, we have a 501c3, ready to go.”
The Osage Language Program has paid for the majority of expenses for the first three Dhegiha Gatherings and with the Osage Nation in a current spending freeze for the next three years, other sources of funding needed to be found.
The Dhegiha name comes from a branch of the Siouan linguistic family comprising of the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, Kaw, and Quapaw languages. A majority of the tribes in the Dhegiha family are subject to little or no funding for their language programs.
“As we strive to teach and cultivate the Osage language among our people, we need this Dhegiha Gathering every year to revitalize those efforts,” Lookout said. “We look forward to the work of the Dhegiha Preservation Society and the benefits it will bring to our speakers in our Dhegiha family.”
Elected to the DPS board are Bill Lynn, Osage language instructor and petroleum geologist; Candy Thomas (Osage) who currently sits on the Osage Gaming Enterprise Board; Everett Bandy (Quapaw), Director of Public Relations with the Quapaw Tribe; Dwight Howe (Omaha), Cultural Mentor at the St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, Neb.; and Jodie Revard (Osage) who currently sits on the Osage Nation Foundation Board.
Timeline of events in forming Dhegiha Preservation Society:
· Drafted mission statement for nonprofit in business committee meetings
· Drafted charter and bylaws with the assistance of Homer Law Chartered
· Established temporary board to complete filings for Dhegiha 501c3 committee
· Incorporated with the state of Oklahoma
· Elected board members at 2013 gathering
Pipestem said board members will serve 3-year terms, will be responsible for fundraising and accounting, documenting the organization’s activities, preparing taxes for the organization, financing and planning subsequent Dhegiha Gatherings. Board members will receive no compensation, are required to meet twice annually and will raise funds to support board and organization activities.
“The funding opportunities for this type of organization, which is an intertribal organization that does language preservation, are really promising,” Pipestem said. “I think there’s lots of people that would give money to something like this. We have a worthy cause and we’re doing good work here. There’s room for expansion, sometimes we know that our tribes kind of have a longer process for funding things and this 501c3 is going to take some of that out of there and make it a little easier.”
More than 65 people attended the Dhegiha Gathering. Presentations from various tribal members, immersion teaching workshops and other informational sessions were held.
“The members who have attended the gatherings in the past years have mentioned things like conducting research, publishing materials and making video and recordings to be used by Dhegiha tribes,” Lynn said. “The DPS takes the financial burden from our tribe and will grow as time passes. One of our elders used to say, just talk. The other day my one-year-old granddaughter said ‘Momma?’ I said ‘I.Na?’ Then she smiled and said ‘O.Da.Sa.’ There is hope for the future.”
DPS Mission Statement
The Osage, Omaha, Quapaw, Kaw, Ponca, Northern Ponca Peoples, are bound to one another through a shared history, ancient, social, political and cultural relationships and related languages, the latter of which is in jeopardy of extinction. Cognizant of the critical importance of the Dhegiha languages to the cultural and social wellbeing of each respected tribe, undersigned hereby come together to establish the Dhegiha Preservation Society for the purpose of protecting, preserving, preservating the Dhegiha languages through training, education, publication, program development, curriculum development, outreach and social and cultural exchange activities.
By
Shannon Shaw Duty
Original Publish Date: 2013-09-03 00:00:00
