First Americans

Eugene

(62,686 posts) Fri Feb 7, 2014, 09:21 AM Feb 2014

Last native speaker of Klallam language dies in Washington state

Source: Reuters

Last native speaker of Klallam language dies in Washington state

BY JONATHAN KAMINSKY
OLYMPIA, Washington Thu Feb 6, 2014 9:28pm EST

(Reuters) - The last known native speaker of the Klallam language, which the U.S. government once sought to phase out before funding an effort to preserve it, died in Washington state on Tuesday at age 103, friends and tribal leaders said.

The death of Hazel Sampson, who was taught the Klallam language by her parents before learning English, marks the end of an era, said Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. Sampson died at a hospital in Port Angeles, Washington.

Klallam belongs to the Salish family of Native American languages, spoken in the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada.

"It's the final chapter of one of our tribal citizens who grew up in the culture before we were exposed extensively to the non-Indian culture and language," Allen said. "We lost an elder who kept the culture and language of the S'Klallam people fresh in the younger generation."

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

2 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Last native speaker of Klallam language dies in Washington state (Original Post) Eugene Feb 2014 OP

Native Americans SamKnause Feb 2014 #1

This is sad to me, as is the sad history of wiping out entire tribes and languages using Lint Head Feb 2014 #2

SamKnause

(13,831 posts)

1. Native Americans

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Fri Feb 7, 2014, 11:59 AM

Feb 2014

Starting in the 1800's, the U.S. federal government started on a systematic effort to eliminate the use of many Native American languages by compelling young American Indians to study and converse in English, and by sending them to boarding schools, .................................

What a crock of shit.

Native American children were ripped from the arms of their parents and FORCED into boarding schools.

They were humiliated, mistreated, and beaten.

They were forbidden to speak in their native tongues.

They were forced to have their hair cut.

They were forced to wear the clothes of the white man.

They were forced to take the name of white men.

I don't know what kind of fairytale Chad Uran is trying to spread, but he is full of shit !!!!

The Native Americans had no choice.

They were forced using brutality.

Own up to what the U.S. federal government did to the Native American people and stop trying to sugar coat it.

Lint Head

(15,064 posts)

2. This is sad to me, as is the sad history of wiping out entire tribes and languages using

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Fri Feb 7, 2014, 12:08 PM

Feb 2014

ham handed military force backed by a politically bigoted and racist ideology in our country. The things we do know is lessened by the destruction of knowledge that will never be known and took thousands of years to accumulate. Bigotry and racism is dying a long slow death but will never be totally eradicated. I do fear a resurgence or backlash of bigotry and racism today simply because the populace is so transfixed into a lethargic state by popular media. Getting collective humans off the couch to keep the new barbarians away from the gate is apparently a yeoman's taste.

Reply to this discussion