If they're lost, who are we?

If they're lost, who are we? — Washington Post

David Treuer on the loss of Native American language and culture. It's not all bad news:

'There were just over 200,000 Native Americans alive at the turn of the 20th century; as of the last census, we number more than 2 million.'

And the Blackfoot language is 'on the upswing'.

But the main message is that Native American culture is under threat.

The bit I found the most fascinating was the discussion of identity. Here's an extract:

'My favorite example of this difference was the question posed to an Ojibwe man by the Indian agent whose job it was to put him down on the treaty rolls. "Who are you?" the Ojibwe was asked, through an interpreter. "Oshkinawe nindaw eta," he replied, puzzled ("Only a young man"). The Indian agent noted this, and the Ojibwe man's family still bears his Anglicized response, Skinaway. The man had no thoughts, really, about himself as an Indian or as an individual. The question -- who are you? -- didn't even make much sense to him because the terms of identity didn't make any sense to him; they were not his terms. Nowadays, unlike Skinaway, many of us have come to rely on ways of describing ourselves that aren't ours to begin with.'