Only a handful people in the Inland Northwest are lifetime Salish speakers. The Spokane Tribe is trying to change that with a bold pilot program that’s immersing 17 people in the world of Salish and its cultural meaning. The learning program is coordinated by longtime Salish advocate Sulustu (his English name is Barry Moses).
In a recent conversation, Sulustu told SPR’s Brandon Hollingsworth that reviving Salish is about more than words.
"I believe that the language is really important for preserving the culture," Sulustu said. "The culture and the spirituality that I was raised with, there's a belief or an understanding that we as Indigenous people have a relationship to the natural or the spiritual world...and all of that is dependent upon the language."
In some ways, the immersion program resembles other forms of teaching and learning languages: lesson plans, text, vocabulary, and grammar and syntax work. But it also includes in-person conversations with the few remaining Salish speakers. There's also a big time investment.
Students spend eight hours a day on their Salish studies. That's because short bursts are considered ineffective for the program's aims. Sulustu compared the work to his experience studying Spanish in college. He spent time in Mexico, where Spanish is spoken and written everywhere. Being surrounded by the language helped him adapt to its everyday use. There's no comparable experience with Salish.
"You turn on the television, it's English. You turn on the radio, it's English. You go to the store, it's English," Sulustu said. "And there are so few speakers left, that we recognized that we had to create an immersion almost in an artificial sense."
The Spokane Tribe Business Council agreed to pay the students enrolled in the program, which allows them to devote eight hours a day to their work without missing a step in paying for living expenses.
The council also wanted to help ensure the program would continue beyond the initial cohort of students.
"One of the requests they made is that the title have the word 'pilot' somewhere in it. And the design behind that is that this will become a prototype, a model that we can follow and replicate," Sulustu said.
Over the course of the two-year immersion program, its managers will examine what works and what may need adjustment, with an eye toward recommendations for the program's future.
Sulustu said he hopes the majority of the current students complete the program. They will become better Salish speakers, he said, and form a nucleus for more conversation and cultural strength.
"That they will have a much higher degree of fluency than they have now, and that creates, I think...a community of practice," Sulustu said. "We become the people who we have to talk to with each other, in the language."
Many of the people enrolled in the Salish language program have kids or grandchildren, he said, opening a potential path for a revival of the language across generations.
