Literally one of my favorite areas in the world, much less Montana. It’s great you got a guided tour!
Do you get to learn the languages you work with? Having worked as a copy editor in textbook publishing for so long, I find this work you’re doing endlessly interesting.
I pick up words and phrases either by accident or deliberately. For example I listened to the Crow word for meadowlark so many times alongside its song that when I heard that song for the first time this year, that Crow word popped into my head. I’ve also made a point to learn to say hello and introduce myself in each language whose experts I meet, out of respect, so I can at least greet people in their own language.
I always do that when traveling to a country whose language I don’t speak, so it makes sense! Reading about your work, I wish our Indian Education for All included some elementary Native language instruction — in more than one language — at a minimum.
It’s up to schools to do that, and there are so few certified language teachers for each language that you’d be hard pressed to find them off reservations. Even on reservation they often don’t offer the languages due to lack of instructors. That’s one of the reasons for my job at the Digital Academy, although we don’t provide elementary classes (yet).
I went up to that country for a number of years before I realized how beautiful some of it is. Fishing trips with my dad in the early 2000s were probably the best. Four Horns Lake by Heart Butte is stunning. Not Flathead Rez stunning, but damn nice.
Nice story. Thanks for informing me on the correct word for the language of the Blackfeet people. I've mostly seen or heard it as Blackfeet.
Literally one of my favorite areas in the world, much less Montana. It’s great you got a guided tour!
Do you get to learn the languages you work with? Having worked as a copy editor in textbook publishing for so long, I find this work you’re doing endlessly interesting.
I pick up words and phrases either by accident or deliberately. For example I listened to the Crow word for meadowlark so many times alongside its song that when I heard that song for the first time this year, that Crow word popped into my head. I’ve also made a point to learn to say hello and introduce myself in each language whose experts I meet, out of respect, so I can at least greet people in their own language.
I always do that when traveling to a country whose language I don’t speak, so it makes sense! Reading about your work, I wish our Indian Education for All included some elementary Native language instruction — in more than one language — at a minimum.
It’s up to schools to do that, and there are so few certified language teachers for each language that you’d be hard pressed to find them off reservations. Even on reservation they often don’t offer the languages due to lack of instructors. That’s one of the reasons for my job at the Digital Academy, although we don’t provide elementary classes (yet).
I’m extra grateful for your work!
Beautifully told. 💚
I went up to that country for a number of years before I realized how beautiful some of it is. Fishing trips with my dad in the early 2000s were probably the best. Four Horns Lake by Heart Butte is stunning. Not Flathead Rez stunning, but damn nice.