Chapter 8: Revitalizing Critically Endangered Languages in California: Case Study and Promising Practices

Language is the vehicle that drives a culture. The expression and interpretation of one’s unique society, spirituality, and view of one’s universe is expressed through language. Despite efforts to destroy American Indian cultures and languages, as Gloria Castaneda explains above, the tools to revitalize California Native languages (Figure 8.1) are all around us, fragmented yet available to gather and combine with new materials to build a “stronger” vessel than before. The rate of language regression for many California tribal communities is diminishing, thanks to language revitalization efforts, and cultural activisim across the state.

In this chapter, the authors set out to highlight the work of members from the Living Language Circle started by the Yocha Dehe Wintun and Santa Ynez Chumash to bring together California Native Language Teachers for annual forums (Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, n.d.b). The language and culture of a people is like a library filled with an invaluable store of knowledge that is irreplaceable, and when the language is eliminated, the effect is like a library burning down. This chapter highlights methods, strategies, and promising practices to rebuild that library. The authors sent a survey to various community members working in language revitalization throughout the state. The UC Berkeley linguistics department hosts an interactive map of California Indian languages and states that, linguistically speaking, “California is . . . the most diverse area of North America” (Berkeley Linguistics, n.d.). There are over 20 different Native language families in California, and prior to EuroAmerican contact and disruption, “between 80 and 90 different languages were spoken within the boundaries of what is now the state of California” (Berkeley Linguistics, n.d.). The map in Figure 8.2 is from Leanne Hinton’s work on California Indian languages and identifies the major California Indian language groups, and Figure 8.3 is a screenshot of the UC Berkeley interactive language family map on the linguistics department website.