Center for American Indian Languages

Last updated
University of Utah Center for American Indian Languages
Type Public
Established2004
Location, ,
USA
Campus Map
Website www.cail.utah.edu

The Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL) was a research and outreach arm of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Utah. Its mission was to assist community members in the maintenance and revitalization (where possible) of endangered languages, to document these languages, and to train students to do this sort of work.

Contents

History

The Center was founded in 2004 by Americanist and historical linguist Lyle Campbell, and located in the Fort Douglas part of the University of Utah campus.

A library containing over 3,000 books and journals on languages of the Americas was part of the center. [1]

Shoshone language program for youth

A summer Shoshone/Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program (SYLAP), held at the University of Utah's Center for American Indian Languages since 2009 has been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition program. [2] [3] [4] Shoshoni youth serve as interns, assisting with digitization of Shoshoni language recordings and documentation from the Wick R. Miller collection, so that the materials can be made available for tribal members. [2]

Closure of center in 2012

In August 2012, the University of Utah announced plans to close the Center for American Indian Languages. "The College of Humanities instead will concentrate language-preservation efforts on Utah's tribal tongues," according to one article. [5] This closure, said to be for focusing efforts on the language of Utah tribes, "has shocked many in the language conservation world." [6] Linguists, including Ives Goddard of the Smithsonian have expressed serious concern about the negative impact on efforts to preserve indigenous languages throughout the Americas. [5] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bear River Massacre</span> 1863 massacre of Shoshone by U.S. military

The Bear River Massacre, or the Engagement on the Bear River, or the Battle of Bear River, or Massacre at Boa Ogoi, took place in present-day Franklin County, Idaho, on January 29, 1863. After years of skirmishes and food raids on farms and ranches, the United States Army attacked a Shoshone encampment gathered at the confluence of the Bear River and Battle Creek in what was then southeastern Washington Territory, near the present-day city of Preston. Colonel Patrick Edward Connor led a detachment of California Volunteers as part of the Bear River Expedition against Shoshone tribal chief Bear Hunter. Hundreds of Shoshone men, women, and children were killed near their lodges; the number of Shoshone victims reported by local settlers was higher than that reported by soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shoshoni language</span> Uto-Aztecan language spoken in western US

Shoshoni, also written as Shoshoni-Gosiute and Shoshone, is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in the Western United States by the Shoshone people. Shoshoni is primarily spoken in the Great Basin, in areas of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho.

The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goshute</span> Tribe of Western Shoshone Native Americans

The Goshutes are a tribe of Western Shoshone Native Americans. There are two federally recognized Goshute tribes today:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin</span> Cultural classification of Native Americans

The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are Native Americans of the northern Great Basin, Snake River Plain, and upper Colorado River basin. The "Great Basin" is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas and a cultural region located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, in what is now Nevada, and parts of Oregon, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. The Great Basin region at the time of European contact was ~400,000 sq mi (1,000,000 km2). There is very little precipitation in the Great Basin area which affects the lifestyles and cultures of the inhabitants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pocatello (Shoshone leader)</span> Native American leader (1815–1884)

Chief Pocatello was a leader of the Northern Shoshone, a Native American people of the Great Basin in western North America. He led attacks against early settlers during a time of increasing strife between settlers and Native Americans. After making peace with the U.S. Government, he moved his people to their present reservation in Idaho and led the Shoshone during their struggle to survive following their deportation. The city of Pocatello is named in his honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Numic languages</span> Uto-Aztecan language branch of US

Numic is the northernmost branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Plains. The word Numic comes from the cognate word in all Numic languages for “person”, which reconstructs to Proto-Numic as. For example, in the three Central Numic languages and the two Western Numic languages it is. In Kawaiisu it is and in Colorado River, and.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Shoshone</span> Grouping of Shoshone tribes in the Great Basin

Western Shoshone comprise several Shoshone tribes that are indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. The tribes are very closely related culturally to the Paiute, Goshute, Bannock, Ute, and Timbisha tribes.

The Skull Valley Indian Reservation is located in Tooele County, Utah, United States, approximately 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Salt Lake City. It is inhabited by the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah, a federally recognized tribe. As of 2017 the tribe had 134 registered members and 15-20 people living on the reservation.

The Timbisha are a Native American tribe federally recognized as the Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California. They are known as the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and are located in south central California, near the Nevada border. As of the 2010 Census the population of the Village was 124. The older members still speak the ancestral language, also called Timbisha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Utah</span>

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duck Valley Indian Reservation</span> Indian reservation in United States, Shoshone-Paiute

The Duck Valley Indian Reservation was established in the 19th century for the federally recognized Shoshone-Paiute Tribe. It is isolated in the high desert of the western United States, and lies on the state line, the 42nd parallel, between Idaho and Nevada.

The Treaty of Ruby Valley was a treaty signed with the Western Shoshone in 1863, giving certain rights to the United States in the Nevada Territory. The Western Shoshone did not cede land under this treaty but agreed to allow the U.S. the "right to traverse the area, maintain existing telegraph and stage lines, construct one railroad and engage in specified economic activities. The agreement allows the U.S. president to designate reservations, but does not tie this to land cessions."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gosiute dialect</span> Dialect of the Shoshoni language

Gosiute is a dialect of the endangered Shoshoni language historically spoken by the Goshute people of the American Great Basin in modern Nevada and Utah. Modern Gosiute speaking communities include the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation and the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Shoshone</span> Native American tribe in Wyoming

Eastern Shoshone are Shoshone who primarily live in Wyoming and in the northeast corner of the Great Basin where Utah, Idaho and Wyoming meet and are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They lived in the Rocky Mountains during the 1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition and adopted Plains horse culture in contrast to Western Shoshone that maintained a Great Basin culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Shoshone</span> Indigenous people of North America

Northern Shoshone are Shoshone of the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho and the northeast of the Great Basin where Idaho, Wyoming and Utah meet. They are culturally affiliated with the Bannock people and are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People.

The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Shoshone people, located in Box Elder County, Utah. They are also known as the Northwestern Band of Shoshoni Indians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brigham D. Madsen</span> American historian (1914-2010)

Brigham Dwaine Madsen was an American historian with an emphasis on indigenous peoples of the American West, the people of Utah and surrounding states, and Mormonism. He was a longtime professor at the University of Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native Americans in Utah</span>

Indigenous peoples have lived in the area now known as the state of Utah for thousands of years. Today they are divided into five main groups: Utes, Goshutes, Paiutes, Shoshone, and Navajo. Each occupies a different region within the state, many of which regions extend across borders into other states. In the 2010 census, there were a total of 32,927 American Indian and Alaska Natives living within the state, which totaled to 1.19% of the total population of Utah.

References

  1. "CAIL Library and Computer Lab". University of Utah. 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
  2. 1 2 "Shoshone/Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program". Center for American Indian Languages, University of Utah. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  3. Paul Koepp (2010-07-21). "University of Utah program helps Shoshone youths keep language alive". Deseret News. Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  4. Jenny Brundin (2009-07-18). "Ten Teens Study To Guard Their Native Language". Morning Edition, NPR. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  5. 1 2 Associated Press. "Linguists' quest to preserve languages in danger after University of Utah closes unique center". The Republic. Columbus, Indiana. Retrieved 2012-10-07.[ permanent dead link ]
  6. Brian Maffly (2012-09-07). "U. of Utah dismantling native language center: Fate of the preservation efforts in question as focus narrows to Utah tribes". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2012-10-07.
  7. Brian Maffly (2012-09-17). "University of Utah shifts focus on indigenous languages". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2012-10-07.