Group photograph of Indians on the Shinnecock Reservation, eastern Long Island, circa 1930 (National Museum of Health and Medicine, Otis Historical Archives)

Unfortunately, the words — meaning, respectively, “father” and “to stand” — aren’t recognizable to present-day members of the Unkechaug Tribe, either. That’s because neither the language of the Unkechaug nor the Shinnecock, both of whom live on Long Island, has been spoken in more than two centuries.

Now Stony Brook university on Long Island is helping the tribes to revive their lost languages, according to this story by Patricia Cohen in today’s New York Times.

They’re relying on sources as diverse as a vocabulary list drawn up by Thomas Jefferson when he visited New York in 1731 and interviewed three elderly women — the source of the two words above. The idea is to help tribal members become proficient in their own languages:

Chief Harry Wallace, the elected leader of the Unkechaug Nation, said that for tribal members, knowing the language is an integral part of understanding their own culture, past and present.

“When our children study their own language and culture, they perform better academically,” he said. “They have a core foundation to rely on.”

The Long Island effort is part of a wave of language reclamation projects undertaken by American Indians in recent years. For many tribes language is a cultural glue that holds a community together, linking generations and preserving a heritage and values. Bruce Cole, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which sponsors language preservation programs, has called language “the DNA of a culture.”

At the University of California, Berkeley, the Breath of Life program has seen people whose heritage includes 25 languages in its workshops. The people who created that program are looking to start a similar one in Washington, D.C. And at the Myaamia Project that’s a joint effort between the Miami Tribe and Miami University in Ohio, director Daryl Baldwin has helped his children become fluent.

That’s really important. As Cohen reports:

Of the more than 300 indigenous languages spoken in the United States, only 175 remain, according to the Indigenous Language Institute. This nonprofit group estimates that without restoration efforts, no more than 20 will still be spoken in 2050.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Berkeley, Breath of Life, buffalo post, Daryl Baldwin, Gwen Florio, Henry Wallace, Indigenous Language Institute, Language preservation, Long Island, Miami Tribe, Miami University of Ohio, Myaamia Project, National Endowment for the Humanities, Native American news, native languages, Shinnecock Nation, Stony Brook University, Thomas Jefferson, University of California, Unkechaug

Video slot machines at a tribal casino in California. (AP photo)

It’s about time the federal government recognized the Shinnecock Tribe – actually, it’s about 200 years late, says the New York Times in this editorial.

But having dispensed with congratulations, the Times turns immediately to the matter of a casino being sought by the tribe, whose members mostly live on a small reservation on Long Island that is an enclave of very modest means surrounded by astounding wealth.

While the real estate is undoubtedly valuable, it’s ill-suited for a casino – hence, the tribe’s efforts to obtain permission for an off-reservation casino, possibly at a New York City racetrack or in the Catskills.

The Times does not like that, not one bit:

Casinos are also a magnet for tainted money and a handmaiden to addiction, crime and other social ills. That is why we would urge the tribe to spend its energy on finding other ways to leverage its valuable real estate.

The Times hopes the tribe’s 1,000 members can use the benefits long denied its members as a means toward financial empowerment and urges that it “foresee a future apart from slots and dice.”

We hope the tribe uses – and sees great success with – whatever means toward financial security it deems best.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Federal recognition, Indian gaming, Native American news, Shinnecock Nation

In this June 15, 2005 file photo, Shinnecock Indian Nation, trustee James Eleazer, Jr., right, addresses the media as tribal Chairman Randy King, center and Charles Smith, left, listen outside court in Central Islip, N.Y., where King filed papers claiming tribal ownership of 3,600 acres of land in Southampton, N.Y. AP Photo/Ed Betz)

Earlier this week, the federal government gave preliminary approval for recognition of Long Island’s Shinnecock Nation – a key step in the Shinnecock people’s quest for a casino.

But as the AP’s Frank Eltman reports here, the tribe still faces huge hurdles if it wants to build a casino anywhere but on its seaside territory in the Hamptons.

Tribal leaders and neighbors alike agree it’s not the best location.

“I don’t feel the type of facility we’re envisioning would be right for eastern Long Island,” Fred Bess, a Shinnecock trustee, tells Eltman.

As Eltman writes:

Tribal leaders have a pending lawsuit in which they are laying claim to more Hamptons land, but have expressed a willingness to negotiate a settlement. Off-reservation possibilities include a planned resort in Calverton in Suffolk County, the Belmont Park horse track in neighboring Nassau County, Aqueduct Raceway in Queens or as far north as the Catskills.

One state senator is pushing the Belmont plan, noting that the racetrack just outside New York City can be reached by several highways and the Long Island Railroad.

But BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling says only four off-reservation casinos have been approved – none of those since the 1990s. Several tribes around the country, however, are seeking off-reservation casinos on land that was historically theirs.

A Supreme Court decision this year says tribes recognized after the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act can’t have off-reservation land put into trust – a requirement for a casino. Federal regulations also mandate that casinos must be located within 75 miles of a reservation.

But Bess says those obstacles aren’t insurmountable.

“I believe there are provisions set aside for newly recognized tribes that will address this,” he says.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian casinos, Indian gaming, Native American news, Shinnecock Nation