A Matter of Survival
A national movement is afoot to revitalize the hundreds of native languages that once flourished across North America and the Hawaiian islands.
By Peter Eichstaedt
Laramie, Wyo.
To the average ear, the words and sounds of Arapaho are from another world. But to Felicia Antelope, they’re the sounds of home. Antelope is a student at the University of Wyoming and an Arapaho from the Wind River Reservation in the central part of the state. She is one of a dozen students in Wayne C’Hair’s twice-weekly Arapaho language class.
Although Antelope, 35, grew up speaking her native language at home, she quickly forgot it after her elementary school teachers told her she had a problem.
