Major funding for Injunuity was provided by
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
[Music]
To me language is very important. 
Language is the definer of our culture....
...and our language is our culture.
It's very important that the essence of the language
of Native languages in particular
need to be preserved because they are so expressive
and they come from a very rich history.
A time before contact, a time before calendars and clocks
and existence of the modern world.
As Indian people we become acculturated by not assimilated
we have not assimilated because
we still operate from our value system
we still operate from that hard warring that we had.
Our cultural imperative is to understand where
we came from and to be connected to that past and that part of us.
The language offers that bridge between the past and today
so its important that we keep that connection
I know some Eskimo. I've learned some of my language
cause my grandma, who's Eskimo, from Alaska
she lived in a really small village
Really there's one school in the whole village
there's one post office in the whole village
and there like the only two buildings that have running water.
It seems to me like only the elders speak the language up there
It's the same how what happened on reservations 
like another culture can...
it was the Lutheran Church...
...and they were like, "Oh you can't speak your language...
...in school you can't speak your language in church".
They almost made it to where people were ashamed to speak their language
and I think because of that it was a generation somewhere where 
they didn't teach their kids to speak.
If they offered Navajo as a language in...
...an urban city I think that would be an honor actually.
With technology that's how our students relate to...
...globalization
And they feel like they need to interact with kids abroad
here in the states as well as internationally
but I think if they saw a program where a Dine language
was being offered as a course of study like Spanish or French
I think that would perk their interest 
because now we see some of them that are still a little bit ashamed
to speak their language and I think that
started back when boarding schools
were here on the reservation.
For our generation and for those to come after we have to preserve those teachings
whether it be written, be through a video, through YouTube.
We have to preserve it.
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[Music]
Major funding for Injunuity was provided
by the corporation for public broadcasting
