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The Importance Of Everyone Supporting First Nations Education On First Nations Terms. (In Progress)
BLOG POST posted on October 23, 2012 by Craig
Blog posts are the work of individual contributors, reflecting their thoughts, opinions and research.
"The Government of Canada built an educational system in which very
young children were often forcibly removed from their homes, often
taken far from their communities. Many were inadequately fed, clothed
and housed. All were deprived of the care and nurturing of their
parents, grandparents and communities. First Nations, Inuit and Métis
languages and cultural practices were prohibited in these schools".
(*7)
"British Columbia has an extraordinarily rich linguistic heritage, being the ancestral home of more than half of the Aboriginal languages of Canada. Unique to this territory, these languages are globally renowned for their diversity and complexity. The tragic reality is that all of the 32 surviving First Nations languages of BC are critically endangered, many facing the loss of their last generation of fluent speakers within the next decade. The loss of any one of these languages, which have flourished for millennia being passed from generation to generation as rich and vibrant oral traditions, constitutes an irreplaceable loss of a living expression of intellect, of specific cultural understanding, of a vital link to the past, and potential keys to our collective well-being, health, and sustainability."(*10)
"The first reported use of Native American code talkers was on October
17, 1918."(*2)
"A source said it began in WW I, in the U.S. Army’s 30th Infantry
Division, with a few Cherokees speaking their language, which no
German listening in could understand.
At the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne, another U.S. division used eight
Choctaws to confuse any listening Germans. " (*8)
"Hitler did know about the successful use of code talkers during World War I,
and sent a team of some thirty anthropologists to learn Native
American languages before the outbreak of World War II. However, it
proved too difficult to learn all the many languages and dialects that
existed."(*6)
" During World War II, the United States employed Native American code
talkers who developed secret means of communication based on native
languages and were critical to winning the war."(*2)
"The United States Army recruited approximately 50 Native Americans
for special native language communication assignments." (*2)
From the following tribes.
"Assiniboine, Chippewa and Oneida, Choctaw, Comanche, Cree, Crow,
Hopi. Kiowa. Menominee, Mississauga ,Musquakie ,Sac and Fox and
Sioux"(*2)
"The Comanche Code Talkers were an elite group of young men who were
fluent in the Comanche language and used that knowledge, along with
the training they were given by the Army, to send critical messages
that confused the enemy during World War II. Seventeen young men were
trained in communications,... fourteen were deployed to the
European theater." (*9)
"To the frustration of the enemies of the United States, the code
developed by the Native American code talkers proved to be unbreakable
and was used extensively throughout the European theater.'(*2)
""One interesting role some Aboriginal Canadians would play in this
conflict would be as "code talkers." Soldiers like Alberta’s Charles
Checker Tompkins would translate sensitive messages into Cree so the
enemy could not understand any intercepted transmissions. Once the
message was received by another Cree-speaking "code talker," it would
be translated back into English so it could be understood by the
recipients."(*4)
"The United States Marine Corps recruited several hundred
"421 (*5) " ,Navajos for duty in the Pacific region."(*2)
"Praise for their skill, speed and accuracy accrued throughout the
war. At Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal
officer, declared, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would
never have taken Iwo Jima." Connor had six Navajo code talkers working
around the clock during the first two days of the battle. Those six
sent and received over 800 messages, all without error."(*3)
"The Japanese, who were skilled code breakers, remained baffled by the
Navajo language. The Japanese chief of intelligence, Lieutenant
General Seizo Arisue, said... they never cracked the
code used by the Marines."(*3)
The obituary of Navajo Code Talker,
"... in The New York Times tells of Carl Gorman being chained
to an iron pipe for a week at his mission school "because he insisted
on speaking his own language.""-Calgary Herald (*1)
Notes:
(*1) http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=8c5b8f12-bf14-4bea-9070-5cdffd9c8130&p=2
(*2) http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/hr4544/text
(*3) http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm
(*4) http://veterans.gc.ca/eng/history/aboriginal-pi
(*5) http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-navajo-code-talkers.htm
(*6) http://www.samuelholiday.com/code-talker-history/
(*7) http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100015644
(*8) http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/opinions/local_columnists/x1231828052/Reichley-Code-talkers-started-in-WWI-with-Cherokee
(*9) http://www.comanchelanguage.org/Comanche%20Code%20Talkers.htm
(*10) http://fnlg.arts.ubc.ca/FNLG1.htm
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