I saw her post yesterday and was thrilled to see a quote from jessie little doe baird! :) Jillian does a wonderful job diving deeper into some of the complexities that I mention more briefly. Glad you mentioned it!
What a helpful & thoughtfully written article -- thank you for sharing, Ken! A great reminder to reflect critically on the stories that we tend to accept at face value.
Where you mentioned that "To reconstruct the language, baird — with the help of linguist Ken Hale — drew from multiple sources, both written and spoken" and that the John Eliot Bible was of significant importance to the reconstruction, has there been any rankings of which sources have become most important for language revitalization? A follow-up, are we in danger of losing any particular sources right now?
Good question, Aaron! As far as I can tell, Wampanoag was pretty rare in that it had a considerably hefty source of written documentation. Many of the languages that are now being lost are primarily oral languages, so the most important sources are the elders who can actually speak the language -- I don't think there have been any wild Rosetta Stone-like language sources for this reason.
Rebecca, I wish I had read your post before writing mine! BUT, I'm going to go back to my post and link to this so future readers can learn from you. I was especially fascinated to learn about that Bible. I knew that many Indigenous people were converted to Christianity. And it makes sense that the Protestants felt worshipers needed to have their own Bibles. But I never made the connection that a Bible written in the Wampanoag language exists! Do you happen to know if there are images of this Bible online? I'd love to look through it.
Yes, the Bible was super interesting to learn about! It must have been an incredibly ambitious project - Eliot had to first gain fluency in Wampanoag & also enlisted the help of Bilingual converts to get it translated (plus, they managed to get a printing press across the ocean?? It was the first Bible printed in the states!). I was able to find an online version here, hope it's fun to dig through! https://archive.org/details/mamussewunneetup02elio/mode/2up
How interesting that this was the first bible printed in the states!! And strange, I don't understand why they wouldn't have shipped over supplies instead of an entire printing press. And thank you for finding it for me! I'm so excited to look through it and maybe learn some Wampanoag myself!
This was a great companion to Jillian Hess's posted in Noted yesterday about the Wampanoag. Very interesting--thanks!
https://jillianhess.substack.com/p/a-pilgrims-notebook
I saw her post yesterday and was thrilled to see a quote from jessie little doe baird! :) Jillian does a wonderful job diving deeper into some of the complexities that I mention more briefly. Glad you mentioned it!
I enjoyed that post so much, and I was excited to see another newsletter in my inbox continuing my education!
Thank you for an interesting newsletter, Rebecca. I found this through Jillian Hess's Noted newsletter and am very happy to discover your work!
I appreciate your kind words, Chris -- glad that you enjoyed!
Thanks for another interesting newsletter, Rebecca. I'm reading this interesting Smithsonian article about Thanksgiving from the perspective of the Wampanoag people. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thanksgiving-myth-and-what-we-should-be-teaching-kids-180973655
What a helpful & thoughtfully written article -- thank you for sharing, Ken! A great reminder to reflect critically on the stories that we tend to accept at face value.
Thanks for sharing this additional reference, Ken.
Where you mentioned that "To reconstruct the language, baird — with the help of linguist Ken Hale — drew from multiple sources, both written and spoken" and that the John Eliot Bible was of significant importance to the reconstruction, has there been any rankings of which sources have become most important for language revitalization? A follow-up, are we in danger of losing any particular sources right now?
Good question, Aaron! As far as I can tell, Wampanoag was pretty rare in that it had a considerably hefty source of written documentation. Many of the languages that are now being lost are primarily oral languages, so the most important sources are the elders who can actually speak the language -- I don't think there have been any wild Rosetta Stone-like language sources for this reason.
That's fascinating! Thank you!
Rebecca, I wish I had read your post before writing mine! BUT, I'm going to go back to my post and link to this so future readers can learn from you. I was especially fascinated to learn about that Bible. I knew that many Indigenous people were converted to Christianity. And it makes sense that the Protestants felt worshipers needed to have their own Bibles. But I never made the connection that a Bible written in the Wampanoag language exists! Do you happen to know if there are images of this Bible online? I'd love to look through it.
Thanks for this post--I loved it!!
Yes, the Bible was super interesting to learn about! It must have been an incredibly ambitious project - Eliot had to first gain fluency in Wampanoag & also enlisted the help of Bilingual converts to get it translated (plus, they managed to get a printing press across the ocean?? It was the first Bible printed in the states!). I was able to find an online version here, hope it's fun to dig through! https://archive.org/details/mamussewunneetup02elio/mode/2up
How interesting that this was the first bible printed in the states!! And strange, I don't understand why they wouldn't have shipped over supplies instead of an entire printing press. And thank you for finding it for me! I'm so excited to look through it and maybe learn some Wampanoag myself!