For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay people spoke their own language, a language that is part of the larger Yuman language family. Over the millennia, the first words that Kumeyaay infants heard were Kumeyaay and, without exception, all toddlers, children and young people were raised thinking and speaking in the language.
In this way, the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of an untold number of generations were passed on to each new generation of Kumeyaay. As a result, the energy and spirit of the Kumeyaay language was strong and well-sustained. The Kumeyaay cultural way of life flourished and endured on the lands within the Kumeyaay territory.
When the Europeans invaded the lands of the Kumeyaay nation, they launched a full-scale attack on the Kumeyaay language, culture and ceremonial spiritual traditions. The Spanish soldiers and the Catholic missionaries whipped, abused, exploited and killed Kumeyaay carriers of the language and culture.
Gradually, generations of a high death toll, and destructive abuses under the Spanish, Mexican and American political systems, took their toll. A language and culture must be lived by the people in order to be sustained. Because the Kumeyaay people were restricted to ever smaller and smaller areas of land, the people were not able to physically carry on the Kumeyaay way of life, which included traveling on and cultivating vast amounts of Kumeyaay lands. At that time, their lands extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River, and at least 50 miles on either side of the present-day border between the United States and Mexico.
After three major waves of European colonization, today there are relatively few fluent Kumeyaay speakers remaining.
Fortunately, the Sycuan Education Department has decided to make a commitment to the survival of the Kumeyaay language by establishing a Kumeyaay Language Institute and by offering a Kumeyaay language class. The class has been formed in partnership between Cuyamaca Community College and Kumeyaay Community College.
The core curriculum for the Kumeyaay language class was developed by a group of elders who came together as the KLI, facilitated and funded by the Sycuan Education Department. The institute had its very first meeting in the summer of 2005. That meeting was a historic occasion. It was the first time in recent memory that Kumeyaay elders had come together with the specific intention of developing a Kumeyaay language curriculum. Kumeyaay elders who have attended KLI meetings include Jane Dumas, Adolph Thing, Leroy Elliot, Anna Sandoval, George Prietto, Juan Mesa, Jo Camacho and Gloria Castaneda.
The elders have continued to come together at KLI meetings on a monthly basis. These meetings are facilitated by Stan Rodriguez, KCC board member; Nubia Ruiz, Sycuan Tribal Council member and KCC board member; and John Bathke, Dine’, program coordinator for KCC.
Today’s Kumeyaay language class on the Sycuan Reservation is taught by Stan Rodriguez. He is assisted by Kumeyaay elder Jane Dumas who, as a fluent speaker, is able to provide additional guidance to the class on precise pronunciation.
Two semesters of first-year Kumeyaay language were offered during the 2005 – ’06 academic year. Another semester of first-year Kumeyaay language began Aug. 21, with some 30 students enrolled. The Kumeyaay language class can be taken for five units of Cuyamaca Community College credit per semester.
The philosophy behind the class is straightforward. Fluent Kumeyaay elders consider the Kumeyaay language to be a gift from Mai Ha (the Creator), and they are determined to see new life breathed into the language by working to increase the number of fluent speakers. The only way to do this is by teaching the language to more and more people.
Rodriguez, from San Ysabel Reservation, was chosen to be the Kumeyaay language instructor. Together he and the elders have decided upon the most effective way to approach Kumeyaay language instruction. Institute members are currently working to develop a second-year Kumeyaay language curriculum.
KCC and the KLI acknowledge the previous work on the Kumeyaay language conducted in the 1960s and 1970s by Margaret Langdon, a linguist at the University of California at San Diego and the University of California at Berkeley. Langon primarily worked with elders from the Mesa Grande Reservation. This work resulted in a number of publications about the Kumeyaay language, including “Let’s Talk Iipaay Aa,” a Kumeyaay language textbook, and the “Dictionary of Mesa Grande Diegueno.”
Kumeyaay Community College wanted to establish a KLI in order to infuse renewed energy into Kumeyaay language instruction. The current Kumeyaay language class, taught on the KCC campus, attempts to be inclusive of all the Kumeyaay dialects instead of focusing on any one dialect.
<i>Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Delaware, is Indigenous Law Research Coordinator for the Sycuan Education and Kumeyaay Community College, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and a columnist for Indian Country Today.