Dec. 9, 2016
Preserving a Language, Preserving a Culture
The Stoney Nakoda First Nation has a population of 5,200, and is located to the west of the city of 荔枝视频, from the foothills to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It鈥檚 the largest Nakoda speaking Nation in both the United States and Canada.
Yet, as Trent Fox will tell you, you won鈥檛 find much written by or about the Nakoda people in literature. More importantly, he says there鈥檚 a real danger that the Nakoda language could be lost forever.
鈥淚t is a language in rapid decline,鈥 explains the doctoral student in the Werklund School of Education. 鈥淭his is one reason that I am interested in language retention, and revitalization.鈥
Fox says there鈥檚 another motivation for his passion on the subject: his sister Kim. 鈥淪he was a teacher for 18 years, and she and I completed our Master鈥檚 degrees together in 2014.鈥
鈥淲e had plans to work together on language preservation. But she passed away a month after our graduation.鈥
These two facts clearly have a strong influence on his research. Entitled Historical Development of the Iyarhe Nakoda People and Language: Oral Histories, his work is an inquiry-based project rooted in Indigenous theory and one that specifically targets the Stoney Nakoda, the voices of whom Fox says are mostly absent in discourse related to Siouan languages, of which Nakoda is included.
Phyllis Steeves, Fox鈥檚 supervisor, says, 鈥淭rent鈥檚 research has potential to reframe current, generally accepted history of the Stoney Nakoda by bringing to scholarship previously unrecorded oral history as told by the Stoney Nakoda people themselves, through community knowledge holders fluent in the language. Trent's work is groundbreaking and critical in the preservation of the Stoney Nakoda language.鈥
鈥淚 hope that my research will not only fill this gap,鈥 says Fox, who is working towards his in , 鈥渂ut will allow people to develop a better understanding of our heritage, ancestry, and indeed who we are as the Stoney Nakoda or Iyarhe Nakoda people.鈥
鈥淭he issue then, is history and in particular, oral history. I want to know what oral histories will tell me with regard to our history and development of our language.鈥
Fox says his research will focus on connecting with the people themselves. He鈥檒l begin by consulting with Elders, and from there will analyze the oral histories that are shared.
Ultimately, Fox says he鈥檇 like to teach at the post-secondary level. And while he鈥檇 like to offer classes on the Stoney Nakoda language, he鈥檇 also like to teach the history of the people and First Nations-related courses.
And it appears he鈥檚 on his way, as, come the winter 2017 semester, Fox will be co-teaching Indigenous Languages - Stoney Language at the Werklund School at U荔枝视频 as a sessional instructor.
And Trent Fox says he鈥檒l continue his work in this area in the memory of his sister Kim, and in the hope for that his work will preserve an important part of his culture, before it disappears.