How Did The Confederation Of Siletz Indians Preserve Their Culture

Languages are an important part of any culture, especially dying cultures that need to be preserved. This true for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, a group of Native American tribes who originally spoke many different languages. They were all forced onto a small reservation, completely wiping out their lifestyle and almost completely wiping out their language. Their story needs to be told, both how they almost lost their language forever, and how they are rebounding today. To preserve the culture of the Confederation of Siletz Indians, the story of their languages needs to be told because their culture has been lost, but a language offers a way to save part of the culture, and their story can provide to hope to many Native peoples

The Rogues did not live together, they lived in small bands that each spoke a few languages. These bands often met up to share their culture with stories or get married (Keenan). A crucial part of the culture was the diversity of languages spoken and and the diversity of culture different languages created. As white people moved in, some of this culture was lost. White settlers polluted the streams that the Rogues relied on for fish and over hunted in the woods. This forced some of the smaller bands of Rogues into larger tribes (Keenan). Forcing the bands to make larger groups for survival meant that some of the cultural diversity was lost. The loss of language began at this point in time because now everyone in a larger tribe had to speak the same languages to be understood, not just a small band. The large number of languages that were used in a tribe became too many, so only the few most popular remained in use. The next key event in the story of the Rogues is the Rogue River War. It began with some tribes of

After the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians learned that their last language was moribund, they made an instant decision to turn that around. They paired up with linguists to create the Siletz Dee-Ni Online Talking Dictionary (Johnson). Bud Lane, one of the last living speakers of Siletz Dee-Ni, recorded almost all of the 10 thousand entries in the dictionary and is currently working on creating more language classes for school. Currently, Siletz Dee-Ni is taught through 8th grade, but it cannot be taught in high schools until the tribe designs a language course that meets the guidelines in Oregon for foreign language classes (Johnson). Another way that people on the Siletz reservation are trying to reinforce their language is translating Word into Siletz Dee-Ni. The thought behind it is working in English all day reinforces English, while working in Siletz Dee-Ni reinforces Siletz Dee-Ni (“Digital Technologies”). The Siletz Language project has proved many reasons why native people should try to regain their language. The Online Talking Dictionary website has visitors who live in Europe, the world as a whole is learning from the uniqueness Siletz Dee-Ni has to offer