How to speak native american indian

The idea of using American Indians who were fluent in both their traditional tribal language and in English to send secret messages in battle was first put to the test in World War I with the Choctaw Telephone Squad and other Native communications experts and messengers. What is a code talker? A code talker is the name given to American Indians who used their tribal language to send secret communications on the battlefield. But did you know that there were at least 14 other Native nations, including the Cherokee and Comanche, that served as code talkers in both the Pacific and Europe during the war?

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Content:

• Learn to Speak Native American
• Majority of state’s Native Americans now speak only English at home
• A Brief History of Native American Languages in the US
• Native Greetings
• Native American Signed Languages
• 5 Things to Know About Native American Languages Spoken in the 21st Century
• Indians Striving to Save Their Languages
• Tribal Talk
• Wisconsin’s Native Tribes Are Taking Action to Keep Their Languages From Dying Out

WATCH RELATED VIDEO: (Part 3) Indigenous Native American Prophecy (Elders Speak part 3)

Learn to Speak Native American

The Europeans who arrived in Virginia discovered numerous tribes with distinct identities, but the different tribes used only three major linguistic groups: Algonquian, Siouan, and Iroquoian. At the time of first contact in the 's, Native Americans in the Western Hemisphere spoke , different languages. Based on similarities between them, there were "families" of languages.

Linguists compare words for common terms in different languages, such as "child," to identify original source languages and how they have differentiated over time. The technique offers a clue regarding how long people have been in the Western Hemisphere. One thesis is that First American Amerind , Eskimo-Aleut, and Na-Dene are the three major groups of languages in the Western Hemisphere, and those three groups reflect three migrations via Beringia at different times.

The time required for the evolution of language differences suggests people have lived in the Western Hemisphere for 50, years. However, genetic evidence suggests that language differences are not based on initial "waves" of migration from Beringea. It is more likely that more than three groups moved out of Beringea into North America, and movements were not limited to three major migrations of people using separate languages. Perhaps the first people arrived more than 50, years ago, but none survived and the first languages brought to North America disappeared with them.

It is possible that there were additional migrations by people speaking languages not associated with First American Amerind , Eskimo-Aleut, or Na-Dene, but languages used by those migrants completely died out.

When the English arrived in the 's, Native Americans in Virginia spoke languages associated with three major groups. Different tribes spoke different variants of Algonquian, Siouan, or Iroquoian languages. In contrast, there were 22 linguistic groups and regional dialects spoken within California, where the Native Americans maintained a hunting-gathering lifestyle.

In contrast to the settled agricultural tribes in Virginia, the groups on the West Coast lived in fragmented, separate spaces and their languages did not coalesce. Powhatan was born in an Algonquian-speaking town on the Fall Line of what was later named the James River. He expanded his original control over six tribes towards the east, north, and south, but gained no control towards the west.

Powhatan's enemies on the west all spoke Siouan languages, suggesting they shared a common culture and perhaps common resistance against efforts by Powhatan to gain control over territory west of the Fall Line.

North of Tsenacommacah, the Dogue and other tribes associated with the Piscataway tayac also spoke an Algonquian language. South of Tsenacommacah, the Nottoway, Meherrin, and Tuscarora also lived in Tidewater and on the eastern edge of the Piedmont. Those three tribes spoke Iroquoian languages. Lawrence River, and the Huron living north of Lake Ontario. A trader going north from the Nottoway River would have to use Algonquian words.

Once the trader reached the James River, they were within Tsenacommacah. In Powhatan's paramount chiefdom, all the tribes spoke an Algonquian language.

If the trader kept going north, he would leave Tsenacommacah but still need to know the Algonquian words. He would have to cross the Potomac River and go further north, up to the modern Pennsylvania border, before reaching the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock. North of Tsenacommacah, between the Potomac and the Susquehannock, the territory was still occupied by Algonquian-speaking tribes associated with the Piscataway tayac. Once reaching the Susquehannock, translation skills were still necessary.

The Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee lived west of the Blue Ridge, but they were isolated from the Iroquoian-speaking tribes in Tidewater by Siouan-speaking tribes. Siouan-speaking Monacans and Manahoacs controlled the northern Piedmont. The reason for the disjunct territories, and why Iroquoian-speaking, Siouan-speaking, and Algonquian-speaking groups were not all located next to each other, is not clear. How the Native Americans communicated when they reached North America 15, years ago is unknown.

It is not likely that the languages used during the time Paleo-Indians made Clovis spear points were the same languages spoken when Europeans arrived. Native American cultures changed dramatically over the 15, years, as did the European cultures. Paleo-Indian populations may have been so mobile that everyone used the same signals to coordinate hunting, cooking, and living together.

The roots of the languages used when Europeans arrived may date back into the Archaic Period, to a time when groups of hunter-gatherers focused on living in a particular area.

Such groups learned through seasonal rounds when fruits and nuts ripened, and where to go in order to maximize the harvest. The hunter-gatherers learned the migration routes of wild animals and the times when fish were most abundant in streams.

Competition for good sites for collecting food would have led to defined, territorial boundaries between different groups. Boundaries may have fluctuated as different groups fought for territory, but during the Archaic Period different bands of hunter-gatherers established distinct cultures. One factor could have been the domestication of the first plants during the Archaic Period, as the Eastern Agricultural Complex was invented.

As the benefits of early agriculture became clear, the desire to control particular river bottoms would have increased. Within a specific territory, common cultural patterns would have developed and a common language would have evolved.

One group developed the proto-Iroquoian language as a common form of communication. At other locations, separate groups developed early versions of Siouan, Algonquian, Muskohegan, and other languages. Territorial boundaries limited interaction between different groups, and different languages may reflect ancient competition and ancient homeland boundaries. If that hypothesis about the formation of language is true, then the English who arrived in should have found all Algonquian-speaking groups living in one homeland, all Iroquoian-speaking groups living in a second area, and all Siouan-speaking groups living in a third territory.

However, the Europeans encountered a different pattern, with tribes speaking the same languages separated by tribes speaking different languages. To create such a pattern, an extra step is required - always assuming related languages developed in one common area initially, and were not invented in parallel by different groups in separate places. To have the fragmented pattern of languages and territory discovered by the Europeans in the 's and 's, some Iroquoian-speaking, Siouan-speaking, and Algonquian-speaking groups must have migrated away from tat central place where their languages first evolved.

Those migrants must have carried common words and grammar from their homeland. Some migrants ended up in Tidewater, while others established control over territory in the Piedmont or the Blue Ridge.

All retained key elements of the common language they had shared. The cultural component of language was never frozen. It changed as people migrated, and once they settled in a new location. Though the way people talked gradually shifted as different groups became established in different areas, language did not diverge as much as pottery styles or stories about the creation of earth. Common ancestry can be traced through common patterns of speech.

The migrants that had started with a common language did not always stay allies, despite their shared heritage. For example, the colonists discovered in the 's that the Cherokee and the five tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York constantly raided each other's towns, as well as towns of their Siouan-speaking neighbors. The Iroquois Confederacy exerted as much effort to gain dominant status over the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock as over the Algonquian-speaking Delaware.

The hypothesis that language evolved as agriculture was adopted, and that language was retained as groups dispersed, does not answer the question "where was the original homeland" of a group. For the Cherokee, one hypothesis is that the language goes back to the first stages of domesticating plants. Linguists suggest that one group speaking proto-Iroquoian split off 3, years ago.

Cherokee is the one Southern Iroquoian language that developed after the split and has survived. The other proto-Iroquoian speakers stayed together longer, and the Tuscarora, Meherrin, Nottoway, Susquehannock, Five Nations, and Huron all descend from the Northern Iroquoian speakers.

The differences between the languages spoken by the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca emerged about 1, years ago, two millennia after the Southern Iroquois split. The period of separation of different tribes can be related to the differences in their languages. The Susquehannock language is closest to that of the Onondaga, suggesting they were the last two groups to separate. The Cayuga language is the most distinct from the other four nations that formed the Iroquois Confederacy, suggesting they were isolated from the other tribes for a substantial time.

It appears that an Iroquoian-speaking culture developed in the northeast, with a homeland in New York near the St. Lawrence River, as much as 3, years ago. Some of them migrated south far enough to occupy the upper Tennessee River Valley.

A later migration, within the last 1, years, brought people speaking Northern Iroquoian languages into Virginia east of the Blue Ridge. An alternative hypothesis proposes that the proto-Iroquoian culture developed in Southern Appalachia. According to the southern hypothesis, the Cherokee evolved in-situ. After developing a familiarity with raising corn, a group then migrated to the northeast and introduced agriculture in the St. Lawrence Valley. One weakness in that theory is that Iroquoian pottery in the St.

Lawrence River lowlands pre-dates the introduction of corn. A migration of Iroquoian-speakers from the south may have brought a new group of farmers with a new crop to the northeast, but the Iroquois were already there. They could have learned how to grow corn via trade with Native Americans in the Mississippi River and Ohio River valleys, and diffusion of culture rather than migration of people could explain the change in agricultural practices.

Even when the Iroquoian-speaking culture was dominant across Virginia, the Cherokee remained a separate society and retained a distinct Southern Iroquoian language. The Tuscarora were physically close to the Cherokee, but the Northern Iroquoian and Southern Iroquoian languages remained significantly different. A later migration brought Algonquian-speaking groups south from New England. The proto-Algonquian language emerged around BCE. The culture developed in the forests north of the Great Lakes to Maritime Canada, north of the homeland of the proto-Iroquois in New York.

They occupied much of Tidewater east of the Fall Line, south to the barrier islands of North Carolina. The Algonquian-speaking immigrants killed, displaced, or absorbed whatever Iroquoian-speaking groups were living in Tidewater, except for the occupants who developed into the Susquehannock, Tuscarora, Meherrin, and Nottoway. The Algonquian-speaking group later evolved into the historic tribes in Tidewater that the English colonists encountered.

Sir Walter Ralegh's group that arrived in , and the "Lost Colony" of , met Algonquian-speaking residents on the barrier islands and the North Carolina coastline. After the arrival of the Algonquian-speaking immigrants, the territories of the resident Iroquoian-speaking cultures was divided.

At some point, the Siouan-speaking tribes moved into the Piedmont and valleys west of the Blue Ridge, pushing down to the New River. They stayed only a few years, but immediately dominated the fur trade with Virginia's colonists until moving to the Savannah River in the 's. The Rickahocan may have filled a space abandoned by the Monacans and Manahoacs, or forced them south to join the Catawba, Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo. The status of the Siouan-speaking tribes when the colonists arrived is not documented as well, since it took over 60 years before English explorers crossed the Blue Ridge.

By the time settlers began moving into the Shenandoah Valley and pushing south towards the Tennessee River in the early 's, the towns of the Monacans and other Siouan-speaking tribes had been abandoned. Details of their languages were not documented well enough to trace their movements effectively. The languages such as Catawba that emerged from proto-Siouan share a term for squash gourd domesticated around 1, BCE but not corn introduced around CE.

Majority of state’s Native Americans now speak only English at home

Native American tribes have lived and thrived upon the North American landscape for thousands of years—since long before there was a United States. Historically, about distinct Native languages were spoken in North America. Language is the essence of culture. Although most American Indian people today speak English, they still consider their traditional languages to be extremely important for cultural identity.

A Brief History of Native American Languages in the US

With entries from nearly 50 tribes and growing , the posts showcase the diversity of Native languages indigenous to the United States. This month we are highlighting the names of female family members and how those words translate in Indigenous languages. Thanks to our tribal partners, we learned quite a few ways Native American tribes translate moon names. Please note, the words and phrases in these posts were provided by members of the tribes listed. According to the U. Census , of the distinct non-English languages spoken in the United States, nearly half are Native North American languages. Despite the large number of languages, the total number of speakers of these languages is less than a half million, combined as compared to the 60 million people speaking other non-English languages in the U. As of , the U. More alarmingly, they continue to disappear at a rate of one language every two weeks.

Native Greetings

The U. A Native North American language is spoken in the homes of nearly 15 percent. Roughly two-thirds of homes where a Native language is spoken are located in New Mexico, Arizona and Alaska, so it is not surprising that the most commonly spoken Native language is Navajo. Navajo is far and away the most commonly spoken Native language in the U.

Native American Signed Languages

What was interesting was that Tonto and the Lone Ranger, by implication, were together all the time. The Lone Ranger spoke, very strangely for his social status, a rather unusually pristine mainstream educated English. Tonto is always shown to be no more than two feet away from him and, somehow, he always spoke a type of pidgin. Learn more about how culture drives language change. The continent was populated by hundreds of different groups of Native Americans—till the Europeans came. Initially, the Native Americans outnumbered white Europeans.

5 Things to Know About Native American Languages Spoken in the 21st Century

His mom spoke Cherokee; his grandparents spoke Cherokee; his siblings and cousins all spoke Cherokee. When he was growing up in Lyons Switch, Oklahoma, everyone around him spoke Cherokee. But when Duvall went to kindergarten in the mids, everyone spoke English. As one of the few Cherokee-speaking kids in his class, he was told by his teachers to stop. When Duvall spoke his own language, his teacher kept him inside for recess.

Indians Striving to Save Their Languages

Bill Waawaate is Indigenous, smart, educated, and the millionaire-founder of a highly successful snowmobile company. He also is a comic book superhero from a First Nation in Canada. Johns wanted his feather-caped superhero to speak English, French and Cree, a language spoken by more than 95, First Nations people in Canada. He assumed he could rely on Google Translate for help.

Tribal Talk

RELATED VIDEO: Indigenous Peoples' Voices

By: Michelle Konstantinovsky May 29, The U. Census Bureau published a compilation of four years worth of data in to paint a picture of the state of Native North American languages. While the report, titled " Native North American Languages Spoken at Home in the United States and Puerto Rico: to ," made headlines and drew attention to the diversity of languages spoken among Native North Americans, it didn't illustrate the often-overlooked nuances between indigenous speakers. Here are 5 facts you may not know about some of the most common native North American languages today. The census stated that nearly , people speak Navajo, but that term isn't entirely accurate.

Wisconsin’s Native Tribes Are Taking Action to Keep Their Languages From Dying Out

Six children, ages 1 to 2 and full of energy, are playing with toys, bouncing around the room and interacting with three teachers. Across the room, a little boy sneezes. Another teacher — tall, year-old Donald Tourtillott — leans over. What makes this place unusual: No adult in this room is talking to these children in English. All communications are required to be in Menominee, a language familiar to hundreds of tribe members but spoken proficiently by only about 10 of them. This is a language-immersion day care on the Menominee reservation in Keshena , and part of an ambitious effort to resurrect the language that has lost so many of its native speakers that it might be headed to extinction without some kind of intervention. The number of people who learned Menominee before they started speaking English — known as first-language speakers, or native speakers — is down to five elders, all of them older than 80, according to Ron Corn Jr.

For instance, Greg Anderson, director of Living Tongues, told National Geographic in that only five language families exist in Oregon today — with most of them comprising only a handful of speakers — compared to 14 language families in Oregon years ago. Large amounts of local knowledge about fauna and flora, ecosystem management, local place names, spiritual values, and so on are all submerged, altered or gone because the original languages that expressed these concepts are gone or no longer well understood. According to the Indigenous Language Institute, there were once more than indigenous languages spoken in the United States, and approximately remain today.