Telling Stories in the Face of Danger: Language Renewal in Native American Communities

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Table of Contents: List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Sustaining Stories: Narratives as Cultural Resources in Native American Projects of Cultural Sovereignty, Identity Maintenance, and Language Revitalization / Paul V. Kroskrity -- Part I. Storytelling as Cultural Resource -- 2. Kiowa Stories Express Tribal Memory, Ideology, and Being / Gus Palmer, Jr. -- 3. You're Talking English, Grandma: Language Ideologies, Narratives, and Southern Paiute Linguistic and Cultural Reproduction / Pamela A. Bunte -- 4. The Politics of Storytelling in Northwestern California: Ideology, Identity, and Maintaining Narrative Distinction in the Face of Cultural Convergence / Sean O'Neill -- 5. Tales of Tradition and Stories of Syncretism in Kiowa Language Revitalization / Amber A. Neely -- 6. Kumiai Stories: Bridges between the Oral Tradition and Classroom Practice / Margaret C. Field -- Part II. Storytelling Troubles and Transformations -- 7. They Don't Know How to Ask: Pedagogy, Storytelling, and the Ironies of Language Endangerment on the White Mountain Apache Reservation / M. Eleanor Nevins, Thomas J. Nevins -- 8. Growing with Stories: Ideologies of Storytelling and the Narrative Reproduction of Arizona Tewa Identities / Paul V. Kroskrity -- 9. Silence before the Void: Language Extinction, Maliseet Storytelling, and the Semiotics of Survival / Bernard C. Perley -- 10. To Give an Imagination to the Listener: Replicating Proper Ways of Speaking in and through Contemporary Navajo Poetry / Anthony K. Webster -- References Cited -- Contributors -- Index. Publisher Marketing: Stories are important in all human societies, and especially in those whose languages are threatened with extinction. "They aren't just entertainment," writes Laguna Pueblo novelist Leslie Marmon Silko in "Ceremony." "They are all we have . . . to fight off illness and death. You don't have anything if you don't have the stories." The contributors to this volume, all linguists and linguistic anthropologists concerned with the revitalization of indigenous languages, draw on that understanding as they explore Native American storytelling both as a response to and a symptom of language endangerment. Edited by Paul V. Kroskrity, the essays show how traditional stories, and their nontraditional written descendants, such as poetry and graphic novels, help to maintain Native cultures and languages. Highlighting language renewal programs, "Telling Stories in the Face of Danger" presents case studies from various North American communities that show tribal stories as vehicles of moral development, healing, and the construction of identity. For the Arizona Tewa, storytelling is tied to the growth and development of children, as well as to the cultivation of corn and other staples. In some Apachean and Pueblo groups, people are traditionally scolded with the rebuke: "Didn't your grandmother ever teach you the stories?"Several essays presented here describe successful efforts to maintain, revitalize, and renew narrative traditions or to adapt them to new institutions, such as schools. Others consider less successful efforts, noting conflicts among older and younger tribal members or differences between academic and traditional language expertise or between insiders and outsiders. The contributors, some of whom are members of the communities they describe, also examine the use of narrative as an act of resistance."Telling Stories in the Face of Danger" bridges the gap between anthropology, linguistics, and Native American studies. It will engage readers in a crucial dialogue as it brings ethnographic research to bear on language endangerment. Review Citations: Reference and Research Bk News 04/01/2012 pg. 176 (EAN 9780806142272, Paperback) Choice 09/01/2012 (EAN 9780806142272, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Kroskrity, Paul V Paul V. Kroskrity is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and coeditor of "Native American Language Ideologies: Beliefs, Practices, and Struggles in Indian Country."