One Man, Two Languages: Confessions of a freedom-loving bilingual

LIFE OR DEATH. During World War II, bilingual American Indian codetalkers of various tribes provided unbreakable codes that protected U.S. troops. Pictured is Roy Hawthorne, Navajo codetalker, from a forthcoming book by photographer Kenji Kawano.

When the movement for “English Only” began some years ago, I told participants at a bilingual education workshop that I was against it. A teacher there asked me why. I was so shocked by her question that I had no ready answer, and my silence has bothered me ever since.

I was unable to answer because I had never thought that advocating speaking, reading, writing, and thinking only in English might eventually become such a divisive topic. I was rendered momentarily mute because I had thought that the English-only proponents could not curtail the freedom of expression guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. With their red, white, and blue proclamations and websites, they try to make the speaking of only English into a near-patriotic event.

The way I understood them, the framers of the Constitution guaranteed freedom of expression; they did not qualify that freedom by saying it could be exercised only in English or only in some other language, for that matter.

I have often questioned the direction this country takes in regards to civil rights, human rights, and especially the freedom to express ourselves. The ideals propounded in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are excellent. This country’s proactive striving towards those ideals is still the best effort by any government to reach those ideals. Although sometimes diverted by self-interest groups, this effort encourages members of a minority like me.

It keeps me hopeful in spite of the fact that the government of this country deliberately tried to annihilate my Cheyenne ancestors in the 19^th century and tried to kill our language, culture, and spiritualism at the same time. Even now, at the dawn of the 21^st century, these attacks still occur in both overt and covert forms.

My reaction to the teacher’s question was primarily emotional; I feel the English-Only Movement is just another way of killing the Cheyenne language and other Native American languages. These English-only people have wholly missed the lesson of freedom — freedom for people like me even if I don’t speak the Queen’s English, even if I don’t look like Thomas Jefferson or George W. Bush or Dolly Madison or Pat Nixon.

Essence of our being

I am a freedom-loving person who happens to think, speak, and write daily in two languages. I read the research, conveniently ignored by English-only advocates, which proves that bilingual education and immersion in Native language classes works; these Native students do better on standardized tests than their peers. By ignoring this research, the English-only proponents imply that sound pedagogy does not matter.

I have been bilingual all of my speaking life. I know no other way. I do not know about English monolingualism, the speaking of only English. I do know, however, that speaking two languages has not lessened my patriotism to America or my allegiance to the flag. Nor has either language ever hindered my academic and life achievements, such as they are. Any failures in my life are generally attributable to other flaws in my whole character.

I am a speaker and listener of one of the first languages of this land—Cheyenne. I enjoy speaking this language with fellow Cheyenne speakers because embedded in this language are lessons that guide our daily lives and, thus, all that we are as human beings. We cannot leave behind the essence of our being. It cannot be legislated out of us, beaten out of us, nor snuffed to nothingness. The United States government and some schools have tried, but they have failed to suppress our language and destroy our culture.

credit: Tom Meyer/San Francisco Chronicle

For me, the Cheyenne language binds me to my reservation, my relatives, my culture, my fellow tribal members, and to life in general. This language forms an equally powerful bond between my wife and me, and she is non-Cheyenne and a monolingual English speaker. She accepts the fact that my bilingualism is an essential part of who I am. Were it not for my bilingualism, I would not be the person she worships. (I cannot resist a bit of humor).

Furthermore, Cheyenne is the language of our hallowed ancestors, our sacred rituals, our spiritualism, and our humor. It holds within it the respectful way I approach other people; the awed manner in which I say the place names of our sacred sites, like Noavose (our holy mountain near Sturgis, SD); and the reverential way in which I talk to the creator. It contains the holy, serious, and humorous ways with which I interact with all people. Cheyenne is a language laden with laughter. My language gives me the psychological and emotional support to pursue my dreams. I do all this with my Cheyenne language.

Cheyenne & English complementary

I am taking this opportunity to write about these multi-layered aspects of my language because I want children and non-speakers of the Cheyenne language to understand the metaphysical and metacognitive aspects of speaking another language. A bilingual person does not neatly dichotomize each language into separate compartments, nor are the languages automatically adversarial. The Cheyenne and English languages complement each other wonderfully. Speaking, reading, writing, and thinking in Cheyenne make me whole and enhance my life spiritually and intellectually. English enables me to make a living in the non-Cheyenne, English speaking society and similarly enhances me spiritually and intellectually.

Both the Cheyenne and English languages have helped to form who I am, for good or bad. Both languages have helped me to achieve a modicum of success in the “white man’s” world. Beyond the languages’ utility, I take pleasure in reading, writing, and thinking in both languages.

I like reading and hearing the soaring words of Martin Luther King, Jr., the solemn phraseology of the Lake Poets, the majesty and wit of Shakespeare, the whimsicality of Ogden Nash, and the inspiring obscurity of Dylan Thomas. I enjoy hearing the Cheyenne lyrics and vocatives of our honor and flag songs. I like hearing the rhythmic, precise terminology of Cheyenne prayers. For me, both languages have equal weight and influence in all that I do.

I am writing about aspects of languages that transcend school curricula and patriotism. Apparently the promoters of English Only do not fathom such a relationship with multiple languages.

Since one of our cultural values is to not draw attention to ourselves individually, I am writing with considerable discomfort in the first person singular, but I must because only I know my relationships to my two languages. However, I also know my thoughts and words convey the same sentiments, anger, and pain felt by thousands of other Native Americans.

But, as much as I hate to write this, I must acknowledge that the groups promoting English Only also have the right to express themselves under the laws of this land. I would not seek to curtail that right. Voltaire said it best, and I paraphrase it here: I may not agree with what the promoters of English Only advocate, but I will defend to the death their right to advocate it. I just wish the English-only group would understand our Declaration of Independence and Constitution and their guarantees. If they do not want to understand them the way we do, then they should at least acknowledge our basic human, psychological, emotional, and spiritual need to speak our non-English languages.

Hena’haanehe. That’s all there is.

Dr. Richard Littlebear has been president of Chief Dull Knife College on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana since 1999. He is a frequent contributor to Tribal College Journal. His most recent article was “Beyond Discovery: Lewis & Clark from an indigenous perspective” in Vol. 14, N.3.