How a University and a Tribe Are Teaming Up to Revive a Lost Language [yesmagazine.org]

Myaamionki Nakamooni (“Miami Land Song”)

tawaana siipiiwa aciwa
trees, rivers, hills
myaamionkiši iiyaayaani
I am going to the Miami lands
myaamionkiši iiyaayaani
I am going to the Miami lands
mihtohseeniaki niihkaanaki
people, friends
myaamionkiši iiyaayaani
I am going to the Miami lands
myaamionkiši iiyaayaani, iiyaayaani
I am going to the Miami lands, I go

For indigenous people, language and song are everything. Since language is mostly an oral tradition for tribes, songs and stories handed down through generations express history, culture, and spirituality. For the Miami people, speakers of the Myaamia language, this ability was almost lost. By the 1960s, there were no remaining speakers; linguists had declared the language to be dead.

But today, the Myaamia language is alive—and thriving. The Miami Land Song—recently created by George Ironstrack, the assistant director of the Myaamia Center—is evidence of that.

[For more on this story by Mary Annette Pember, go to http://www.yesmagazine.org/pea...st-language-20180509]