Da:ydi-xw na:tinixwe mixine:whe? The Necessity of Working Outside the Public School for Hupa Language Revitalization

• In Event: Neoliberal Effects on Indigenous Education: Community Response and Decolonial Possibility

Abstract

To say that Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe, the Hupa language, has not been welcome in the settler-state run schools at any point in time would be an understatement. They lived their lives in the traditional Na:tinixw way, which included distinct political, social and economic systems. Education was a life-long process guided by teaching from ninisa:n, the land, kisdiya:n, elders and kixuna:y, the spirit ancestors. However settler colonial schooling would soon do its best to erupt this process. Since the establishment of the Hoopa Valley Indian school in 1893 English has always been the primary language of instruction, a policy sometimes violently reinforced. Through massive assimilationist policies, speakers of Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe have dwindled down to numbers one can count on their fingers. In 1991 and 1997, after countless hours of lobbying Hupa ancestors and elders won a major victory by implementing Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe classes taught in the public schools on the reservation. At this time there were high hopes in the community that this initiative would help to revitalize the language. However, pressure from the state and the major influence of neoliberal policies on public schools, in the form of high stakes testing, have made this hope virtually impossible.
Through an analysis of attitudes and events within the community I bring to light these ideas, actions and policies in order to then imagine a new institution that gives Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe the time, attention, respect and honor that the language deserves. These attitudes come to light through interviews, observations, personal memory and autoethnography with the community and in the public schools. As a member of the community I purposefully insert myself into the writing and also hold myself accountable to our educational needs and desires (Tuck, 2008).
In this paper I will give a brief overview of the history of colonial schooling and its participation in the continual attempted elimination of Na:tinixwe lifeways with a specific focus on the Hupa Language or Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe. I will then focus on the current historical moment to show the ways in which under the regime of neoliberal settler capitalism the safety zone, depoliticized enclosure, created to introduce the Hupa language into the public elementary school on the reservation is under constant threat of being eliminated all together. All of this is to show that as Jodi Byrd (2011) argues inclusion is the problem not the answer. I ultimately ask, how might we, Na:tinixwe, be complicit in our own domination and how might we further push our current practices of refusal and resurgence? I end this presentation with a meditation the (re)newed decolonial possibilities for education opened up by a recent language program outside of the limits of the public school.

Author

• Sara Chase, Berkeley University of California