A recent conference on the Mille Lacs Ojibwe Reservation in Onamia, Minnesota, April 4-6 provided 300 participants with an insight into the future of Native languages.

One keynote speaker said that Native languages are in danger of extinction and literature does confirm this disturbing fact.

Only 187 languages remain in North America. Ofelia Zepeda, an associate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona, said 35% of those would be gone in the next decade. Other presenters said the last speaker of Miami, Peoris and Quapaw passed on in the past year and twenty languages in California have become extinct this century. The list makes additions every year.

A couple of presenters outlined how United States history was one major factor to this decline.

Genocide, population displacement, habitat destruction, modern commerce, intermarriage, acceptance of Christianity were just a few historical reasons given. "We must remember, but dwelling on these past events will not solve our present situation, which is the possibility of losing our language," said Kenneth Funmaker, Sr. Culture Coordinator for the Hocak Tribe of Wisconsin.

Research shows 155 of the remaining languages are "moribund" - no longer being learned by children."

"In modern times," Zepuda said, "Indians are undergoing a breakdown in community functions, people are moving around and away from tribal communities." She suggests more tribal government support is needed but most of all, the Indian people themselves need to get involved in preserving their own languages. Nobody can do it for them.

Despite all of these reports and an outlook that is somewhat grim, the participants in this conference, sponsored by the International Native American Language Institute, continue on in their quest to keep and preserve the remaining languages.

The journey to the conference took many paths. Some flew into Minnesota at the expense of their governments. Others drove many miles on their own and with little money. Some chose to listen to the wisdom of the speakers, while others chose to indulge in the lure of casino gambling. But those are the choices Native people are faced with today. Choices like this lead to a decline in culture too. Either way, the main idea was to pick up one bit of information to help them back on their reservations.

And there was a large group of presenters who did provide that information. Some suggestions were: develop a master-apprenticeship program, change attitudes in the community, saturate community with language, recruit more language teachers from the elders, utilize a language nest, watching illustrated stories on video or CD-ROM, create more learning manuals, immersion language teaching, using themes in teaching languages, more reliance on internal tribal resources.

All are fine and proven methods that are necessary learning devices for language survival. To sit still and not do anything will lead to dire consequences for tribal languages. James Crawford, a free-lance writer, states "the death of a language signifies, in many respects, the death of a culture as well."

Although the group represented at the conference was relatively small, it was a group genuinely committed to language preservation.

Money may not be the key to language preservation, Joan Webkamigad, Co-Chair of the institute said, "In my experiences with language groups, it's those with little money who succeed because they have determination and a will to preserve the language."