Volume 17 Number 1
October 1977

Evalyn Titus Dearmin

PROJECT PAIUTE was funded for the fiscal year 1975 by the U. S. Office of Education, Ethnic Heritage Studies Division as a cultural preservation effort of a remote-rural Paiute community in northern Nevada. The Research and Educational Planning Center of the University of Nevada (Reno) worked with the Humboldt County School District, the Fort McDermitt Indian Education Committee and four Paiute teacher aides in a three-component project involving the development of a bilingual/bicultural reading text for Paiute students, K-4; the conducting of in-service training in Native American education; and the preparation of a pilot bilingual curriculum.

Two publications were prepared as a consequence of the project. Ki Na Soo Mu Wa Kwu Tu-Never To Be Forgotten is the bilingual reading text which contains number concepts, kinship terms, seasonal cycles, animals peculiar to the Great Basin, and anatomical word lists. Thus the Old Ones Have Taught--Native Americans: A Commentary and Guide for Teachers, originally intended as a teacher’s guide for the reading curriculum, finally evolved into a resource guide for non-Indian teachers and teachers-in-training because the greater immediate need in Indian education was found among Anglo teachers. In the State of Nevada approximately 3,000 Indian students are presently enrolled in public schools. Only one administrator and 11 certified teachers in the state are Indian (see Note 1). For the most part, then, the Indian students are taught by non-Indian teachers who share neither the Indian child’s values, customs, beliefs, nor sometimes language.

From Project PAIUTE, particularly the bilingual phase, emerged a number of problems and resolutions which others undertaking similar bilingual projects for Indian students might profit from examining. The experiences of Project PAIUTE may ease the ramifications of establishing bilingual education for a small rural population of Indian students. Essentially, the author’s thesis is that the customary procedures and processes for establishing bilingual education don’t work very well for a small isolated community whose language has yet to be fully documented.

Although educators seem generally committed to the view that bilingual education is beneficial for certain groups of students whose dominant language is not English, that view seems to be based more on promise than performance—at least the kind of performance we can measure and compare in conclusive ways (see Note 2). Much long-term research remains to be done before we can answer in any systematic way two basic questions of bilingual education: (1) will a child learn to read more rapidly in his second language if he is first taught to read in his primary language? and (2) will the child achieve greater general knowledge of other subject matter areas in his second language if he is taught these subjects first in his native language? (see Note 3). For many American Indian populations we shall probably never answer these questions.

Through the Bilingual Education Act of 1974 it has at least now become national policy to accurately assess and describe the needs of limited and non-English speaking children in the U. S. The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, which will be instrumental in developing the tools for this assessment, has expressed the magnitude of such an assessment:

With all due respect to the scope of the enterprise, it will be exceedingly difficult, if not finally impossible, to provide a "total description of the functional usage of the child’s language within all social domains" for many Indian children who meet every presently advanced criteria for bilingual education--and therein lies a chief obstacle to establishing bilingual education for them.

Except for most Blacks, who lost tribal languages long ago, other large minority groups in the continental United States have a homeland culture and language still intact and represented through a long, written tradition. Through a constant infusion of immigrants, their languages are continually being revitalized (see Note 5). The same situation does not obtain for American Indians whose languages have been subjected to profound depredation, and for many, ultimate extinction. The assumption of most linguists is that the surviving remnants of Amerindian languages will eventually expire (see Note 6). One must then question at the outset whether bilingual education is merely postponing the inevitable for Indian students whose languages are in such a precarious state of survival.

One example suffices to illustrate the problem. The Northern Paiutes who are still fortunate enough to be living on land their ancestors walked and who have still preserved much of their social organization and social beliefs (see Note 7) have been unable to maintain the Paiute language as their dominant mode of communication, with one unique exception at McDermitt, Nevada, the site of our project. At McDermitt Combined School, 68.9 percent or 169 of the enrolled students are American Indian, and of these, 80 percent speak Paiute as their dominant language (see Note 8). The principal and teachers report that students customarily speak Paiute in the hallways, on social occasions, and among themselves within classrooms. Those reservation members who are unable to speak Paiute suffer a stigma.

Other Paiute communities within the State of Nevada have largely lost their language and look to McDermitt as an important language reservoir. Some Paiute communities are endeavoring to retrieve their language through special educational programs within the school (see Note 9). The preservation of the language is perceived as signally important by the Inter-tribal Council of Nevada which encourages parents to instruct their children in tribal languages and lore, believing this to be a task for the home and not the school. Time and circumstance will prove the effectiveness of their laudable efforts--but the fact remains that one small pocket of Paiute students does preserve the language and is in need of special language treatment, no matter how precarious their language.

The federal government now requires it, and even though the language has never been written down except by linguists documenting it through the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet; even though the language exists in a collection of dialects differentiating communities within short distances of each other; even though the linguists who could assist in developing curriculum materials and training teachers are few in number and distant in geography; even though the reservation community itself is not agreed that their language should be used as a means of instruction in school; and putting aside the view that the loss of a language is the loss of a precious code which might help reveal to us the workings of creative intelligence the fact remains that 134 Paiute students might be made more comfortable in schools and achieve better if bilingual education were instituted. Despite the enormous obstacles presented by the current state of the art in bilingual education and the available funding for such an enterprise, as Muriel Saville and Rudolph Troike have pointed out, "Children will not wait for us to develop ideal educational systems; we have an obligation to do the best we can for them now, in the light of our present knowledge, capacity and experience" (see Note 10).

Other smaller Indian communities which still preserve their language experience the same difficulty. The sparsity of their numbers does not alter their predicament. Yet, to proceed as much educational research leads us to believe we must proceed in assessment from identification of language needs to determination of scholastic achievement--although it serves the needs of methodology, it scarcely serves the interests of these smaller, isolated groups of Indian children. It is simply not feasible to develop in a short time the kinds of instruments researchers require to discover whether a change has taken place and to what magnitude. The most eminent Paiute scholar, Professor Sven Lijeblad, who has traveled among the Paiutes for more than 30 years and who has amassed enough data to keep a team of scholars busy for the next 50 years, probably could not provide a "total description of the functional usage of the child’s language within all social domains." Furthermore, the prospect of doing so would probably not even interest him.

It seems to me that the interests of educational research and of bilingual legislation in rigorous evaluation sometimes impede rather than enhance the initiation of bilingual education only because the time is still too far distant when we can define and measure all that we should. We get too involved with a theoretical process before dealing with the practical problems at hand. As Noam Chomsky observes in Reflections on Language:

The difficulties of synthesizing language learning theory and language planning are certainly well documented (see Note 12). Oftentimes those most concerned with bilingual education--linguists, tribal communities, the federal government, educators, and educational researchers seem to work at cross-purposes. For example, at the Center for Applied Linguistics’ 1973 Conference on Priorities in American Indian Language Work, a set of recommendations was offered for (1) linguistic research, (2) preparation of pedagogical materials, and (3) training. These recommendations, although eminently sensible on the one hand, on the other demonstrate the divergent strains. Of the six recommendations for the development of pedagogical materials for Indian students, three emphasize the use of qualified linguists:

(1) There should be evidence of reliance on prior linguistic scholarships; if there has been no previous linguistic work, it should be an integral part of the project, with necessary time allowed for its completion and criticism by recognized specialists. Pilot projects should precede full-scale implementation to allow for carefully controlled experimentation. (2) Whenever development of an orthography for a language is needed, the consultation of linguists and members of the community should be sought. (3) Whenever pedagogical materials are to be prepared, the consultation of linguists should be required (see Note 13).

These serve as proper admonitions to proceed cautiously and carefully in preparing the necessary curriculum materials, but linguists are usually highly trained individuals residing in academic environs. Their own research interests may be more arcane then mundane. Because of the very nature of their discipline, linguists investigate questions of a philosophical nature: what is language, does it have universal restrictions or limitations, what are the common strands? Scholarly questions involving phylum affiliations, glottochronology, language isolates, and "Chomskyan linguistics" (see Note 14) are their major concerns. Although they may indicate a willingness to assist, the work of defining an orthography which children can use to learn to read and the work of actually preparing the many materials needed for a bilingual program is a very time consuming task which requires constant supervision. A reservation like McDermitt which is located in a remote-rural area, 240 miles away from the University of Nevada, at Reno, is too inaccessible for continual consultation. The problem of defining an orthography also is compounded by the variations of the IPA linguists use to describe a language and by the alternative codes already developed by other tribes.

More than half the time in Project PAIUTE was spent attempting to define a code which accommodated the dialects of the four teacher aides. We consulted with linguists, resident missionaries who had linguistic training through the Summer Institute of Linguistics, another language retrieval program at Schurz, Nevada, and tribal elders. The work was frustrating, and sometimes confusing, and was complicated by the fact that all the teacher aides had family responsibilities and held full-time jobs. The work was done at night whenever it could be arranged. As a consequence of this experience in defining an orthography, it is advised that the reservation community seek linguistic training for several of their own members before further development of a bilingual program.

This kind of training for the indigenous population is generally being encouraged by linguists and anthropologists (see Note 15) but the possibility of acquiring such training is unbelievably complicated by the difficulty tribal people have in severing strong ties to reservation family life and entering an "alien" university environment. And too many possess a pervasive suspicion of Anglo educational systems and reject as "apples" those Indians who do complete post-secondary training. Obviously the best solution would be to bring the training to them somehow. The UNR College of Education is now proposing a special program to accomplish this objective partially.

Tribal people themselves have some concerns about their languages which are basically different from the concerns of educators and linguists. The English language was forced upon them. One of the teacher aides in Project PAIUTE, who is now only 41 years old, was sent by her guardian to Stewart Indian School at the age of six. The only two English words she knew were "yes" and "no," and she did not know what they meant. She served as a domestic for a wealthy Lake Tahoe family during the summer months and was allowed to return home for only two weeks a year. She was not permitted to speak her language at school. Despite that repressive background she speaks Paiute fluently and has taught her children Paiute.

For many Indian people, like this teacher aide, preservation of language means preservation of a world view and a philosophical center which secures their identity apart from the Anglo society and apart from other Indian tribes which are frequently treated collectively as a group under the umbrella title "Indian."

In Akwesasne Notes, Gayle High Pine eloquently reflected on the implications of language and culture maintenance for tribal people. She rejected "pan-Indianism" as a kind of "racism" which is "killing our languages and our nations." She argued for cultural survival through the preservation of the natural languages of the separate tribes:

This concern, a central one for tribal people, is sometimes peripheral to those of educators who ask primarily if bilingual education will facilitate learning, if it will enhance the nurturing function of the schools, if it will increase self-concept, if it will promote greater academic achievement, if it will effect a better transfer to the English language. For many tribal people language is a sacred trust, not lightly shared with outsiders. Because of these different emphases, educators and tribal communities may have some difficulty finding a common ground initially in establishing bilingual education. Certainly we did. The bilingual/bicultural Paiute reading text prepared during Project PAIUTE has yet to be introduced generally into the classrooms because the non-Indian teachers who comprise the staff must be instructed in the home-style of learning through oral legends and an oral tradition. And teacher attitudes, community attitudes, student attitudes all must be dealt with very circumspectly to avoid creating greater hostility than already exists. A fear exists on the part of both Indians and non-Indians that bilingual education will mean non-Indian students will be taught Paiute.

The principal of the school, himself a Hupa, states in his master’s thesis that,

Factionalism exists on the reservation as well. The Indian Education Committee and the Ft. McDermitt Tribal Council do not arrive at the same objectives. The principal of the school suggests that an organizational development program (OD) which includes all segments of the community might help reduce conflicts. He concludes that,

Obviously any school program, much less a bilingual program, must suffer from these divisions. Furthermore, the kinship system operating in reservation life is not very well understood by those outside it; yet it affects dramatically the Indian child’s use of language and his self-concept. Since the allotment period the reservation has become a closed society of families who exercise greater or lesser power depending upon cattle and land ownership (see Reference 19). The tribal council political organization and tribal law are also little understood by outsiders; yet initially a bilingual program depends upon active consultation of the school personnel with the tribal communities. As a research analyst for the Nevada Inter-tribal Council recently observed, tribal people do not share the same philosophical base as educators; they operate from a very different perspective. Bridging that barrier successfully perhaps cannot now be done at McDermitt. When more of the indigenous population enters the ranks of the certified teaching staff, perhaps some transformation will occur.

Finally, the federal government through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Supreme Court Law decision, and the Bilingual Education Act, exercises a significant influence upon educational programs for Indian children. But once again, their interests in language programs do not necessarily coincide with those of educators, linguists, or tribal people. Their interest is in equalizing opportunity for the four major ethnic groups in the United States. They tend to collect these groups under umbrellas which diffuse language particularities, and they seem overly impressed with target audience numbers in establishing funding criteria. The rules and regulations of the Bilingual Educational Act for establishing and evaluating bilingual programs are so stringent they operate to exclude Indian program applicants. When a language code has not yet been developed, one cannot begin the very first day with teachers, students, and curriculum materials. Pressure for legislation changes from a number of Indian organizations will probably make these funds more accessible in the future. In any event, bilingual education is not a suitable alternative for Indian children who have lost their native languages and who still lack facility in English.

For example, in the Paiute lexicon, words for body functions are quite neutral. The Paiute cycle of legends which contains many of these words is considered to be quite obscene when translated into English. Yet the legends are part of a memorial style of learning central to the Paiute child’s family existence. Although it is certainly true that "learning a second language requires learning new patterns of thought" (see Note 21) until the native patterns of thought are fully documented, we can’t securely assess language ability, or language interference, or intelligence. Because of the pressures of time and historical circumstance, we may not be able to do this before the Paiute language ceases to exist as a vital language. Nevertheless the tasks, although difficult to perform, are appropriate ones for the schools which are in the best position to offer responsible leadership in establishing bilingual education. Taking the long view of linguistics and borrowing the words of T. S. Eliot,

1. Statistics provided by Nevada Department of Education, Carson City, Nevada.

2. Kal Gezi, "Bilingual - Bicultural Education: A Review of Relevant Research," California Journal of Educational Research, 25:5 (November, 1974), pp. 223-239. See also Patricia Lee Engle, The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education: Language Medium in Early School Years for Minority Language Groups, Papers in Applied Linguistics, Bilingual Education Series: 3 (Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1975), pp. 24-27.

3. Engle, p. 1.

4. Robert J. Silverman et al., Oral Language Tests for Bilingual Students: An Evaluation of Language Dominance and Proficiency Instruments (Portland, Ore.: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1976).

5. A Better Chance To Learn: Bilingual Bicultural Education, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Clearinghouse Publication No. 51 (May, 1975), p. 13.

6. Charlton Laird, Language in America (New York: World Publishing Co., 1970), p. 81.

7. See Warren L. d’Azevedo, Ed., et. al., The Current Status of Anthropological Research in the Great Basin: 1964, Social Sciences and Humanities Pubs. No. 1 (Reno, Nev.: University of Nevada, Desert Research Institute, 1966); a very useful overview of the Northern Paiutes and band structures is presented in The Northern Paiute Indians by Julian H. Steward and Ermine W. Voegelin, 1954 (unpub. ms. prepared for Department of justice, Lands Division, Indian Claims Section, in the Northern Paiute Case Dockets Nos. 87 and 17, before the Indian Claims Commission; copy available in Special Collections, University of Nevada Library, Reno.)

8. Statistics supplied by Mr. Harold Abel, paraprofessional counselor, McDermitt Combined School. Statistics are supported by initial results of teacher-aide administered Home Language Preference Questionnaire (adapted from questionnaire designed by Cultural Awareness Center Trilingual Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque).

9. The Schurz Elementary School at Schurz, Nevada is developing a full language retrieval program K-8. Contact Ms. Judy Trejo for further information. The Pyramid Lake Paiutes at Nixon, Nevada have held language retrieval workshops.

10. A Handbook of Bilingual Education, rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: TESOL, 1971), P. 2.

11. Reflections on Language (New York: Random House, 1975), p. 214.

12. See for instance Implications of Language Learning Theory for Language Planning: Concerns in Bilingual Education by Christina Bratt Paulson, Papers in Applied Linguistics, Bilingual Education Series: 1 (Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1974).

13. Jeanette P. Martin, A Survey of the Current Study and Teaching of North American Indian Languages in the United States and Canada, CAL/ERIC/CLL Series on Languages and Linguistics No. 17 (Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1975), pp. 84-87

14. Frederick J. Newmeyer, Review of Themes in Linguistics: the 1970s, ed., Eric P. Hamp, in Language 51:1 (1975), p. 166.

15. Martin, pp. 10-12.

16. Akwesasne Notes, 81:1 (Early Spring, 1976), 31.

17. Mahlon 1. Marshall, A Cross-Cultural Model for Instituting Planned Organizational Change in the School Service Area of McDermitt, Nevada, unpub. thesis, California State University, Sacramento, 1976, p. 1.

18. Ibid., p. 6.

19. See Ruth Edna Meserve Houghton, The Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation: Social Structure and the Distribution of Political and Economic Power, unpublished thesis, University of Oregon, 1968, p. 59.

20. 1973 Proceedings National Indian Bilingual Education Conference, Curriculum Bulletin No. 15, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Branch of Curriculum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1973, pp. 117-118.

21. Saville and Troike, A Handbook of Bilingual Education, p. 45.

22. T. S. Eliot, "Four Quartets," The Complete Poems and Plays: 1909-1950 (New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., Inc., 1930), p. 145.