"Dawa jii’ be’ ant’ ee.” In Apache this means, “Live it every day,” but not everyone in the tribe understands what this means, whether they are full Apache or part, simply because they do not speak or understand Apache.

To the community of the San Carlos Apache Nation, this message is an outcry to its members to embrace a culture that is fading away, particularly in the area of the Apache language.

Because of this decline in tribal members speaking Apache proficiently, several community members organized a public meeting for language preservation in the summer of 2006. From this meeting, a coordinator was introduced and a survey process began. “We want to know how many men, women and children speak Apache and how well they speak it. We also want to know their clan and if they were raised learning Apache,” Joycelene Johnson, the San Carlos Apache language coordinator, said.

Through a series of 40 questions, the Language Preservation Committee hopes to answer questions about the decline in the use of the Apache language, as well as other components of Apache culture.

The San Carlos Apache Nation has more than 36 clans, such as the Willow Tree, Walnut, Blackwater and the Red Street Clan. The committee has also worked hard to include members of the four San Carlos districts of Bylas, Gilson Wash, Seven-mile Wash and Peridot.

Although she didn’t understand why at the time, Johnson said she realized she had a deep interest in the Apache language when she began attending the extended campus of the Eastern Arizona College in the mid-1980s. In the 1990s, she became enthralled with the Apache language and taught it to students in all grades of a local school district for 15 years. It was around this time that she wondered why many tribal members were not speaking Apache to their children at home or preserving it for future generations.

“I spoke Apache as my first language and didn’t speak English until I started school. Apache was the common language when I was growing up, but it’s not as common today,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she remembers studying every sound of the Apache language and once asked her grandfather if she could record him singing, speaking and conversing with other family members in Apache. He did not like her requests and one day told her something in Apache he learned as a child.

“Granddaughter, do not deliberate on the language; what I’m going to tell you was told by the Ancient People. ‘When all mankind begin to speak one language, the world will end,’” Lundo Johnson said.

Over a 30-year period, Johnson said she witnessed a steady decline in the use of the Apache language, and that has resulted in many young to middle-aged tribal members not understanding their native tongue.

The San Carlos Apache Planning Department also formed the Language Preservation Program to assess the status of the Apache language. The overall program was funded through a grant from the Administration of Native Americans in October 2005. The main purpose of the program is to reflect how many tribal members speak Apache; the level of proficiency the Apache language is spoken in; how the language is valued and the factors contributing to its decline.

“Several respondents from a pretest survey expressed that learning the Apache language would make them feel more Apache,” Johnson said.

Because the decline in speaking Apache may be contributing to other tribal issues, Cassandra Kipp, executive director of the Planning Department, said this is the first phase toward creating a remedy for the culture problem.

“It is felt that this is a critical problem as language is a key component of one’s culture and identity. There is a tremendous need to formally assess and determine the actual status of the Apache language,” Kipp said.

“We also hope the tribal members want to develop long-range goals directed toward the revitalization and preservation of the Apache language,” Johnson said.

Four universities have also became involved in the program since last summer, providing linguists, anthropologists and archaeologists. Northern Arizona University, the University of Arizona, the University of Massachussetts and the University of Northern Texas are taking roles in studying the reasons behind the loss of language. More than a dozen community members of several ages and backgrounds serve on the Language Committee and the Project Evaluation Team.

The Apache words, “bigonlsih, bigonl’aah, beyanlti” translates to mean “live it, learn it, speak it,” and is read on the theme poster created by the San Carlos High School Apache history class of instructor Betty Kitcheyan.

To get involved or for more information contact Joycelene Johnson at 928-475-2331 or email her at ndee biyati@yahoo.com.

Contact Steph Slater at 928-428-2560, ext. 248, or e-mail her at steph@eacourier.com