A story in today’s Sacramento Bee (originally published in the Contra-Costa Times) profiles the efforts to rescue the Hupa language from extinction. Native Hoopa resident Kayla Carpenter, 22, is a doctoral student studying linguistics at UC Berkeley. She tells reporter Matt Krupnick that she and her colleagues are “using education as a tool, rather than having education used as a tool against us.”
That’s a reference to the late 19th century, when the tribe’s children were punished by white teachers if they dared speak their native language.
After completing her doctoral thesis, Carpenter plans to return to her family and culture in Hoopa. She narrates the above video in the Hupa language.
This article appears in Queasy Eats.
Step 1. Train teachers in the Hupa language.
Step 2. Start language immersion in elementary school, teaching the Hupa language in kindergarten alongside English.
Side benefits include a more advanced understanding of both languages, and an easier time learning a third language in high school.