Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >Our library in Humboldt County has a set of the tapes.  HSU might have a
> set.  My cousin has been speaking to someone who might have a set of the
> tapes.  If you are really interested, I can ask her if she might be able to
> get a copy of the Wiyot tapes.

Those tapes go high on my 'gotta have' list.  A copy of the tapes would be 
fantastic but it's far above the call of duty.  If you are by the Humboldt 
County library, it would be forever appreciated if you would check to see if 
the 
tapes have a catalong number, library of congress number, etc.  and then I 
can 
request them or a copy through inter-library loan.

I was always suspicious about that 'last speaker died' business.  I can't 
help but imagine there are groups of native speakers all over the country who 
say, "So that's what you think.  Good.  Now you are out of the picture."

Nobody permanently occupied the area where I live now during pre-invasion 
times.  But by historical times it was sojourned by the Tsalagi (Cherokee) 
who 
speak an Iriquoian language and by the Shawnee who are Algonquins.  My 
checkered 
pedigree has a whole branch of a family, of all things, called Bush, who were 
Cherokee.  Herself's family suddenly took on a racial trait of dark hair and 
nearly black eyes some 200 years ago and the geneology has the husband of one 
great great grand dame bloted out of family records.  Turns out he was 
Shawnee, of course and no one wanted to own up to it.   One of my sons has a 
haunting 
appearance, he has red hair, freckles, and nearly black eyes.

So things Algonquin (and Algic, to include the western branch) interest me.

There is a community not 70 miles from here in Morganton NC where shop signs 
and street signs are in English and Cherokee.  I've been there to visit but 
could not get anyone to talk with me.  They would smile politely at my 
attempts 
and then go silent.

I'm not even going to try to fathom it.   </HTML>