The politics of writing

My name is Nathan Romero, and I am from Cochiti pueblo. I am 35 years old, and I currently reside in Hawai'i. I had the opportunity to be a part of the language doumentation project here at UH Manoa for the first time. The reason why I wanted to be a part of this project was to offer an opinion about the situation that Cochiti finds itself in, in these modern times. I wanted to share it with other people from Cochiti and throughout the world who find themselves in the same situation. When we ask "How will Cochiti Keres keep from vanishing in the years to come?" I find myself on the side of eventually having the Cochiti Keres language documented as just one of the many answers to that difficult question.

Cochiti is a relatively small Native American pueblo, with a population of approximately 1,200 people, 950 of which are currently living in the pueblo itself. It is one of many other pueblos situated along the Rio Grande in the state of New Mexico, and is located 50 miles north of Albuquerque and 30 miles south of the capital of Santa Fe.

www.encarta.com

The language spoken in Cochiti is Eastern Keres, an unwritten language.
Over the course of several years, the pueblo of Cochiti has had to confront the issue of losing its language as a non-fluent generation has come to replace the fluent generation in number as the years have progressed. There are a multitude of reasons why the young men & women turning twenty-one this year are far less fluent in Keres than the twenty-one year olds of twenty-five years ago. These reasons are very complex and highly personal to each individual who is not fluent in Cochiti Keres.

Cochiti has done well for itself concerning the confrontation of language revitalization issues. We see that we are not alone in this struggle and that the Cochiti dialect of Keres, if not helped in some way, shape or form, may follow the trend of world-wide indigenous languages that will face extinction within the next 100 years.
Cochiti has implimented various ways of combatting this extinction by setting up several very successful immersion & revitalization projects teaching Keres strictly in the oral tradition of our ancestors in order to help combat the language loss of the community.

These programs are where the hot-spot of opinions about the documentation of the Cochiti Keres begins, but more importantly ends. After all, at one time the Cochiti Summer Youth Language Program (CSYLP) encompassed a large cross-section of talented teachers, teachers' assitants & trainees of every level of fluency. This cross-section included members of the younger non-fluent generation, the older fluent generation, and the elders who are extremely fluent, very eloquent in the language, and knowledgable about the culture. I use this example because it represents an interesting cross-section of both such a united cause & such a crossfire of opinions concerning the notion of whether or not the language should be written and/or documented. After all "How will the Keres language survive in Cochiti?" is a very passionate subject for some people (both young and old). You can hear it in their voices.

Shall we begin?
You see it is not that simple in Cochiti to say (despite the obvious situation) "Let's start the documentaion process," and have everyone's enthusiasm or full support. For documentation is a highly comlpex matter. The idea of documentation to this day remains for some a far stretch of the imagination (not that they are short-sighted) and an unnessesary effort for an older already fluent gereration who may have no need or want to have to re-learn something they are already proficient at. The thought of writing/documenting Keres may in their opinions be completely culturally out of context with what it means to be "Cochiti" in the first place. Add to that a certain level of distrust that comes from generations of Cochiti people who have seen their culture exposed, exploited, unfairly and unflatteringly portrayed in various forms of litertature and you have a gray area that makes some people feel ill at ease. How do you resolve differences in opinion that range from…

The language shouldn't be written because we do not need it to be written.
The language can't be written due to its complexity.
The language needs to be taught in an oral tradition(that's how I learned it) & not otherwise.
The language is something that is uniquely Cochiti's & if it were written, then anyone could have axcess to exploit it if they wanted to, by any modern means. We have to think about these things too.

The language should be written so that I can have something more for my kids to learn from… like books, or a dictionary for myself.

The language should be written because my parents cannot teach me, and I really want to learn.
The language should be written because I need something to read & re-read in order to say something over & over again. That's how I learn the fastest.

It's easy for the adults to say that we shouldn't write our language because they already know it…they don't need to see it written down, besides they are not the ones being made fun of. We are!
We already are writing in Cochiti in our own ways! Everyone's way of writing is different.

Technology and culture
As you can probably guess there may often be a completely opposite feeling about documentaion in the non-fluent generation who are very comfortable learning the Cochiti dialect through the various immersion classes and/or in their own home environments. Within our various non-fluent gererational age groups, a very natural inclination occurs among us when we decide to write down a word or sentence in Keres using our own personal familiar brand of phonetics or other script. Particularly if we are having trouble ennunciating a word or are having trouble with the meaning of a sentence or it's cultural context. Some tend to strech out the word and or sentence, then fragment it into sylables…Ku we tzee? Hatz shah kach pa pa shroo tzoo nah?

We, the non fluent generation, are a population that is very trusting in the technology of today. With computers in our schools, homes, work environments, play and leisure environments…(indeed everywhere) we have no reservations about accessing websites to use toward our advantage, especially where learning is concerned. We are very comfortable sending e-mails, text messages, faxes, "chatting" on line and instant messaging one another as a means of keeping the lines of communication open between one another. So we very much rely on the written word, and not having it as a reliable means of communicating, even when it is concerning our own language is a somewhat out of the ordinary concept for some.

We are not a generation completely cut off or removed from our roots due to technology. It's just that the youth in Cochiti are becoming more and more computer savvy as the years pass (they really have no choice in the matter). We are a generation that are pround to be Cochiti, even though we may not speak the language as fluently as our elders, we are trying and we have our own personal levels of comfortabilty and proficiency.

The clash
So the big problem, the big rift, comes in when generational ideals clash and one is made to seriously weigh the pros and cons of documention issues to the needs of the overall community. The division of the population of Cochiti into a fluent and non fluent generation for the sake of understanding these language documentaion issues does not imply that peace does not exist between the two, or that one cannot share or embrace the other's viewpoints. It simply draws the line in the sand about whether you are able to speak Keres fluently or not…and maybe that in itself is one of the problems.

The fluent generation has the luxury of choosing to reject language documentaion altogether as a means to an end of having the language survive (as in going back to traditional methods). We the non fluent generation are not so fortunate. To some of us, writing a word down on a piece of paper is the difference between language retention and language oblivian. It's that simple and it's that complicated.

Why a web site?
The intention of having a website is to share ideas for cause and concern. I learned that Keres is a language isolate. That means that there are no other languages in the world which it is related to, like English is to Italian or Spanish. To me this is why I think Keres is so unique, alive, strong and yet so fragile and in danger or dissapearing. I was shown that Keres with all its hard consonants (glottalized), whispered vowels (voiceless vowels) and rises in pitch (tone) can be indeed be written using the IPA International Phonetic Alphabet. But if it was to be finally documented it would have to be done in a way that makes sense to the speakers of Cochiti Keres and in a way that is true to the language, and that's where the work begins. This is why I think a website is needed, to gather information and opinions to start the process of dialogue about documentation with more than what was being offered before.

Traveling
The people of Cochiti have in the past traveled globally (during wartime) just like the current population in the present are doing now (for work and leisure). We are living in places far from the borders of our homeland, and in the search for higher education and jobs, we often attend schools, universities and work-sites where the core of Keres is not spoken. In situations like these, we often need and want to have a strong link to our language.

Insight
In ending I have to express that the scholars who helped out with this project were not prying and anxious for me to remark about any culturally sensitive areas. Quite the opposite. They were purely concerned about the language, and understand many of the reasons why it remains an undocumented language by Cochiti for Cochiti. They even offered ideas that would prevent the exploitation of the language (if it was to become written).

Resolution/Revolution
It would be great that if in the future, (given the green light and blessings from Cochiti of course), there was a specific Cochiti-UH Manoa partnership to cultivate these ideas and possibilites and that when the time is right for Keres to be truly documented, it can be done so with the best intents and by truly dedicated people.

For questions or concerns, please contact me at kaikaikai_1@yahoo.com