The Returner : a First Nations autobiographical study : understanding the causes of First Nations language decline and extinction from the perspective of a First Nations language worker

• Main Author: Kelly, John Medicine Horse
• Other Authors: Engel, Joanne B., Education, Oregon State University. Graduate School
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: Oregon State University
• Subjects: Indians of North America > Canada > Ethnic identity; Indians of North America > Canada > Languages; First Nations
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/mg74qq366

This study documents thick-description single-source data from the life and experiences of a Native American / Native Canadian language worker. The worker, raised and educated in the United States, was separated from his ancestral village until his thirties. The worker, with a Masters degree in education from Oregon State University, returned to live in his village in Canada in 1993, dedicating his life to assisting with preserving and revitalising his people's language and culture. As such, the socio-psychological parameters of his life from birth until the present provide vital insights into the lives, the problems and the angst typically faced by First Nations language workers. The purpose of this study is twofold. 1. Through the traditional genre of Aboriginal autobiography, the dissertation provides crucial insights and primary-source data regarding First Nations realities. The intent is to encourage further studies of the plight of the few existing First Nations language workers, many of whom leave their work due to becoming overwhelmed and discouraged. 2. The author advocates for the founding of an international Aboriginal Peace Corps, a proposed coalition of First Nations communities, national governments and the private sector. The goal of the Aboriginal Peace Corps would be to put skilled workers into indigenous communities to work alongside community members. In view of the high rate of deaths among elders, the last language speakers in most communities, immediate assistance is urgently needed. While time remains, only through an Aboriginal Peace Corps can communities obtain sufficient expertise in accelerated language learning and in resource technologies to revitalise and perpetuate their languages.