Welcome to Paw'd Defiance, where we don't lecture but we do educate. This podcast comes to you from the University of Washington Tacoma. Our show is about more than campus. During each episode we'll highlight a different person, program, area of research or educational topic that is relevant not only to the university but also to the Greater Tacoma community and beyond.
•UW Tacoma student and Puyallup Tribe member Shelby Cross•Season 1•Episode 21
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The Lushootseed Language Institute (LLI) is a collaboration between the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and UW Tacoma's Professional Development Center. The LLI is one part of the Puyallup Tribe's larger effort to revitalize Lushootseed. Up until the early 1800s, Lushootseed was the only language spoken by indigenous peoples living in an area from present day Olympia in the south to Skagit Valley in the north. The Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains provided the eastern and western borders. In this episode we hand over the microphone to UW Tacoma student and Puyallup Tribe member Shelby Cross as she works her way through the LLI. We'll hear her struggles and successes as well as her personal reasons for wanting to learn Lushootseed.
Speaker 1
From Europe . Tacoma. This is pod defiance. Welcome to pod defiance where we don't lecture but we do educate. I'm your host Catherine Feltz . Today on the pod, the Lushootseed language Institute Lushootseed was once the primary language spoken by indigenous peoples living in an area from present day Olympia in the South to Skagit Valley in the North, the Puget sound and the cascade mountains provided the Eastern and Western borders forced assimilation, displacement and disease brought the language to the brink of extinction. The Gallop tribe of Indians and UDaB Tacoma's professional development center teamed up a few years ago to offer the Lushootseed language Institute. The L L I is one part of a larger effort by the PLF to revitalize their language. Today we'll hear from UTAP Tacoma , junior and [inaudible] tribal member shall be cross like our episode about MSL we've handed over the microphone shall be , will take us through her experience in the LLI. We'll hear her practice the language as well as insights into why she wanted to learn Lushootseed Shelby
Speaker 2
cross seeds stuck [inaudible] pubs shud tall, odd shad Fife Washington. My name is Shelby cross . I am a member of the Puyallup tribe. Uh, I go to university of Washington Tacoma. I am studying business management and minoring in American Indian studies. Uh, so this summer I decided to go to the liquid language Institute and I convinced my dad to do it with me and I'm planning on teaching everyone in my immediate circle , um, as many words as I can. I am really, really excited that I have this opportunity and I not only get to learn it myself, but I get to share it with others. Uh, my great grandparents were the last in my lineage to have spoken the shoot seed before this. Uh, it was really important to me to learn Lushootseed. I really feel like it is kind of just a duty of mine to, not that I owe it to anyone or anything, but I, I really wanted to learn it for lots of reasons. Um, I know when residential boarding schools happen , they their hardest to wipe out all of the native languages. Um, and that angers me to no end and I am very happy to be a part of reversing that as much as possible. Ah , they'll last Lish Oh my gosh. The last first language Lushootseed speaker , um, already passed away many years ago. Um, so as of like over 10 years ago, everyone who speaks or knows the chute seed has learned it as their second language. So that's really scary and that's like a kind of a , a first sign that the language is really, really endangered. That um, people just got to step up and put in work to learn it and use it and teach other people it. So , uh, being a part of revitalization efforts, even in a small way as trying to incorporate it into my everyday life, I know that's helping and at least a little bit. I am biracial. I feel like it's important to like do as much as I can. If I'm going to take part in anything that is native that I do as much as I can for the community and learning Lushootseed is one of those things. Oh, there are 43 letters in the [inaudible] alphabet and it sounds like a lot, but a lot of them are
Speaker 3
okay
Speaker 2
like related to each other,
Speaker 3
like just
Speaker 2
globalizing letters is just putting either a glottal slept next to it or an apostrophe with it. And that just cuts the sound short. So like instead of
Speaker 3
it's, it is
Speaker 2
pop it out. That's all the vowels are a Schwab I N D U a Schwab is just an E that is upside down, but it doesn't make it E or a sound . Well actually no, I was wrong. It doesn't make an E sound. It's only ah , and then the letter I makes to sound witches , E and a and then you makes O or, Ooh , so a E a O . Like after you learn what the symbols mean that are effecting the letters around it. It's pretty phonetic. It's phonetic and nothing. Well not, nothing like, not a lot correlates to English words. Some of the letters do, but most words are completely different. Like when I was learning Spanish, there were some words that were the same or very similar that I could just figure it out. But you just gotta like know what things are and how to put together sentences and do a lot more to be fluent. So the word for , um , filling is Le Jeddah and let Jeff . So that to me sounded a little bit like late J , uh, and late Jay in Spanish means milk. So , um, that reminded me of sends it means to fill . It reminded me of when I was younger and I would drink a bunch of chocolate milk before dinner and my mom would get really mad at me cause I just filled up on milk and I didn't eat any of my food and I wasn't allowed to do that after awhile . So milk and then fill up. That's like the first verb sort of word that I learned because I made that connection and it was a lot of fun. Uh , and then another word that I , um, remembered because I could relate it to something was um,
Speaker 4
[inaudible] ,
Speaker 2
which means cat. And so Mike cat's name is peaches, but I mostly just call her peach. And so that was a really easy transition from peach to peach beach . Ah, Oh. We do the domains, which is like everyday tasks and conversations and doing that every day , having that repetition is really helping. Helping me learn a tug. [inaudible] dot.
Speaker 3
[inaudible]
Speaker 2
Oh, [inaudible] coil bolts .
Speaker 3
Yeah .
Speaker 2
With, I don't know how to say with yet.
Speaker 3
[inaudible]
Speaker 2
[inaudible] w O T school. So yesterday I went to the store with my boyfriend and I wrote down a list of the things that we needed to get while we were there. Um, cause my phone was dying so I wrote it down on paper and I wrote everything in English. And then I crossed out the words that I knew in the shoot seed and wrote it in [inaudible] . And so I have a PHP Herschel letter, cat litter, a road trip, shushing road trip, food shampoo. I don't, not to say that yet. And cash for Coliseum gas money. Um , I kind of forget.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 2
That I can't just Google translate. Lushootseed I wish I could. It would make life a lot easier probably, but it would. Mm . That leaves too much room for error. I think. Uh, the way that the months are laid out are really cool. January is good month and February means frog. Merge means gust of blowing wind. April is time of whistling may as time of digging. June is time of salmon berries , July time of blackberries, August time of, so all berries. [inaudible] September time of silver, salmon, October time of elk meeting call, November time of dog chow , dog salmon or chum salmon, December. She theor paddles. I want to learn the meaning behind some of these, but I enjoy that. That is related to things that happen externally from the concept of time. Time of salmon berries in June is that's what's happening and that's why that month is called that. That's really cool. I had no prior experience speaking the shoot seed at all. It was just like I knew how to say hello, like good day, hush the Hill . That was about it. After the first day I went home and I just watch TV and shut my brain off cause it like physically hurt. It was so much information and me trying so hard to understand, but it was like impossible because if you haven't heard the language before that much besides like people introducing themselves at different events and online and all that, then it's like gonna be really overwhelming. And it was, and I was expecting way too much out of myself. I loved playing slow hall and I love learning about it and trying to figure out the rules and the songs and the , um , like while we're playing yet , um, people are drumming and singing and that really just gives a whole different spirit to it. Cause without that, I don't think it would be as fun honestly. Cause they get to sing along and stuff. Trying to remain not competitive is also a challenge because I'll wanna win. But yeah, I ended up finding a saw hall , like set of all the sticks and bones that , um, just like an entire set, like none of the pieces were missing. There was extra um, at my dad's house and I was like, Hey, I'm gonna take this cause I wanna start teaching my friends it. Cause if none of Lushootseed I can teach them some of the words from slow haul that I know cause there are like names for things and commands and all that. I'm really excited to do that. I'm going camping right after LLI is over and I am going to make us all play. I mean I'm not going to bring a drum because I don't want to be disruptive to other campers, but I'll try to sing, I guess it's probably not going to be good . I'm probably not going to sing. And I did ask if that was okay and I was told that I can teach people how to place the hall and it's okay. And I think that is honestly like my entire brain dump that I have for my experience with the LLI and trying to explain the best that I can as much about it. That would make sense to someone who wasn't there and why I wanted to do it. And how amazing it is that this exists. This Institute that you'd up to coma is hosting it this year, and I am so happy to have done this and I'm looking forward to hopefully doing it again next year.
Speaker 1
Thank you for listening and a big thank you to moon yard recording studios and to UDaB Tacoma, senior lecturer, Nicole Blair for letting us play your music on the show. Be sure to subscribe and go to Apple podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, Google podcasts, and pocket casts .
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