The California Valley Miwok Tribe recently received this correspondence from the coordinators of the Tuolumne Me-Wuk Language Program and we have decided to post it on our website in hopes of generating more support for the program.
A donation form can be downloaded from this link.
Additional questions or concerns can be directed to Candra Neff at cneff@mewuk.com or 209.928.5329.
“Dear Language Supporter,
This November the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians will be hosting the 3rd annual All Me-Wuk (Miwok, Miwuk) Language Symposium at the Black Oak Casino Conference Center. All Miwok communities, federally as well as non-federally recognized, are invited to attend.
Last year our theme was teaching the basics of the Miwok language. Our keynote speaker was Catherine Callaghan, author of the Lake Miwok, Bodega Miwok, Plains Miwok and Northern Sierra Miwok Dictionaries. Her talks included “Education of a Linguist” and “Miwok Language Sounds”. Leanne Hinton, author of How to Keep Your Language Alive (2002) spoke about “What Counts as ‘Success’ in Language Revitalization?”
We broke into language groups with a linguist in each group and then compared common words in each language. We also taught games so people could bring them back to their communities and had Nakia Zavalla, cultural director of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, talk about the new American Indian Language-Culture teaching credential. This year we will be learning to speak the Miwok language.
The Miwok peoples covered a large geographical area in California from parts of the Coast, the valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Languages from these areas include Coast, Lake, Plains, Northern Sierra, Central Sierra and Southern Sierra Miwok.
Las year the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians covered most of the cost of the Symposium. We are asking for your support for this year’s Symposium through a donation or a raffle prize.
Thank you for anything you can do.
Sincerely,
Carlos Geisdorff and Candra Neff
Tuolumne Me-Wuk Language Program”
