{"id":43628,"date":"2021-11-22T01:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T01:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-language-gets-revival-with-voiced-dictionary\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:14:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:14:39","slug":"ute-mountain-language-gets-revival-with-voiced-dictionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-language-gets-revival-with-voiced-dictionary\/","title":{"rendered":"Ute Mountain language gets revival with voiced dictionary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Towaoc
Towaoc is the capital of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

TOWAOC \u2013 Transference of the Ute Mountain Ute language has dwindled, marred by forced assimilation and elders\u2019 deaths \u2014 but the tribe is hopeful that will change with the launch of a new spoken-word dictionary.<\/p>\n

The Uto-Aztecan language, Shoshonean, is steeped in oral tradition, but has faced pressure \u2013 particularly from a period of time when it was common for Ute Mountain Utes to attend boarding schools. In those schools, their native language wasn\u2019t used, and tribal members were expected to assimilate, said Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart.<\/p>\n

The dictionary will help to \u201cfill in the gap from the boarding school era,\u201d \u2013 the effects of which are still felt today, he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s estimated that there are now only a little over 110 Ute Mountain Utes fluent in the language, according to a press release.<\/p>\n

The free dictionary \u2013 released Thursday at a community event \u2013 isn\u2019t the first for the tribe. However, it\u2019s the most comprehensive pronunciation guide yet, narrated by 21 tribal elders to assist with learning.<\/p>\n

The language preservation endeavor blends tradition and modernity, and the dictionary is available as a mobile application on iOS and Android devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to create something that helps our children who are not knowledgeable about the language,\u201d Heart said.<\/p>\n

Over 10,000 words are recorded, said Juanita PlentyHoles, Tiwahe director and tribal member.<\/p>\n

The Tiwahe Initiative in Towaoc is a local branch of a national operation that provides opportunities for Native American children, youths and families. It was established on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in 2015, and the tribe is one of six in the nation to receive the funding, PlentyHoles said.<\/p>\n

With changing times, PlentyHoles said elders like herself ask themselves: \u201cWhat is going to be my contribution to our culture and our history?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorical traumas\u201d remain painfully palpable within the tribe, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the historical things that happened \u2013 with our people being taken away to boarding schools and told that they can\u2019t speak their languages anymore \u2013 that had a huge impact,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of those people never passed on their languages to their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elders fluent in the language are dying, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, for us, it\u2019s important because up to this point, all this stuff \u2014 our history, our language, our beliefs \u2014 all that was passed down from generation to generation verbally, and was the only only thing they spoke. There was no English up until the late 1800s,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Culture and language repeatedly surfaced as desired areas of future focus in Tiwahe planning sessions involving community input, PlentyHoles said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur language is unique \u2014 our languages have a family of their own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The spoken-language dictionary project, titled \u201cGrowing Utes,\u201d was funded with a Living Languages Grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at something that\u2019s linguistically written, it\u2019s kind of hard to sound it out,\u201d PlentyHoles said.<\/p>\n

So, with the help of The Language Conservancy \u2014 an organization dedicated to Indigenous language revitalization \u2014 the tribe embarked on a preliminary round of recordings in 2019, resulting in 3,000 pronounced terms, funded by Tiwahe. At the beginning of this year, recording resumed with the Living Languages Grant.<\/p>\n

Tiwahe and Ute Mountain Language and Culture Department members collaborated with TLC linguists to utilize Rapid Word Collection \u2014 an accelerated process for creating a language database.<\/p>\n

A dictionary produced in the early 2000\u2019s included some spoken word, but not to the extent of the revamped dictionary, Plentyholes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll tribes across the United States kind of have a commonality as far as culture and cultural practices,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019re also unique in that we have certain things that other tribes don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the dictionary will be made available beyond the tribe is an ongoing discussion, PlentyHoles said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, that\u2019s another debate,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of our people want it just for the community. And I understand that, because we want our kids to learn so that they can pass on. Everything we do is for the tribe. So, however the tribe wants to use it, that\u2019s up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spoken dictionary follows the launch of reservation school Kwiyagat Community Academy at the beginning of this school year. Considering the bleak boarding school era entwined in the tribe\u2019s past, the new charter stands for much more than just the simple schooling of young Utes. It has brought education back to the reservation and aims to instill young minds with the foundations of Ute Mountain Ute culture and language. Departing from a conventional standardized testing model, the school lends more time to enrichment subjects like music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to make sure that we\u2019re doing things for our future,\u201d PlentyHoles said.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared the decade beginning January 2022 to be the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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