<\/p>\n
Lynda Grove d\u2019Wolf learned the Ute language from her grandmother, Bessie Blue Elk Grove, who raised her in Ignacio.<\/p>\n
Few Southern Ute children nowadays have that experience, and few Southern Utes regularly speak the language.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Wolf, age 66, is worried about the language\u2019s survival. Of about 1,500 tribal members, \u201cthere are probably 35 that speak it fluently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Wolf, along with a Durango technology developer, has created a Southern Ute language application for smartphones. The app offers the Southern Ute translations for certain categories of words, including greetings, weather, animals and foods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe passion I have for the language is \u2013 the language is who we are,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a gift from our creator. Without the language, we become paper Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n
D\u2019Wolf studied Ute language and culture at Prescott College in Arizona, earning a master\u2019s degree. She initially created some Ute language lessons on CD and posters before her adult children persuaded her an app would reach more users.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what an app was,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m 66 years old, and I\u2019m old school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southern Ute is closely related to the Ute Mountain Ute, Paiute and Shoshone languages, d\u2019Wolf said.<\/p>\n
In Southern Ute, snow is Nuvu, fall is Yunant, while the Navajo tribe is Paga Wii-ci. A person with sexy eyes is Naa Sava Ciche, and a horse is a Kava.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Wolf brought her ideas to Robin Johnson, a Durango coder, who developed the app in only a couple of months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely different,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI got to learn a little bit about the Ute language. For me, it was a fun little side project.\u201d<\/p>\n
The application can be downloaded from the App Store by searching for its name, Kavia Nuccie. It costs $4.99.<\/p>\n
For those who want to learn Southern Ute, there are few avenues. The Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy teaches the language through sixth grade. The Southern Ute Cultural Center also offers reading and writing and conversational Ute classes.<\/p>\n
KSUT-FM, the tribal radio station, airs a \u201cUte Word of the Week\u201d every weekday morning. A recipe show, \u201cKaren\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d airs in Ute, said Sheila Nanaeto, KSUT\u2019s director for tribal radio.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Wolf has been disappointed that the tribe hasn\u2019t embraced her language materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not what you know, it\u2019s who you know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Native languages around the nation are slipping away because of English\u2019s dominance, easy access to mass media and intermarriage between tribal members and English speakers.<\/p>\n
Efforts to preserve native languages date back to Sequoyah, a Cherokee who developed that language\u2019s syllabary in 1821.<\/p>\n
The Southern Ute reservation stretches across much of southern La Plata County, but many tribal members live in and around Ignacio and Bayfield. Because of the tribe\u2019s proximity to the two towns, \u201cWe have assimilated quite well into the white man\u2019s world,\u201d d\u2019Wolf said.<\/p>\n
Intermarriage with nontribal members also has reduced the number of Utes who speak the language, she said.<\/p>\n
Some tribes, including the Navajo Nation and the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory of Quebec, Canada, have made partnerships with the language learning company Rosetta Stone. But d\u2019Wolf said she\u2019s not interested in selling her language materials to a for-profit corporation.<\/p>\n
In contrast to the small population of Southern Ute speakers, Navajo is the most commonly spoken native language in the U.S., with 148,500 speakers, according to the UCLA Language Materials Project.<\/p>\n
For the Southern Utes, a much smaller tribe, survival of the language is far more precarious.<\/p>\n
Southern Ute is a descriptive language, d\u2019Wolf said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a bunch of us get together and speak it, it\u2019s unique,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty. It\u2019s not a hard language.\u201d<\/p>\n