Shoshoni Added To Foreign Language Lineup Isu Students Can Now Get Credit For Learning Indian Language

Idaho State University has gained approval to offer Shoshoni for foreign language credit.

That meets one of the school’s long-range education goals. The Fort Hall Indian Reservation, including the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, is not far from Pocatello.

ISU faculty believe the school is the first university in this country to offer Shoshoni as a regular course offering. Elementary Shoshoni was taught in the Indian Studies Program last year, and intermediate courses were added this year.

Indian Studies Program director Christopher Loether said people who speak Shoshoni fluently can receive academic credit by exam.

Two members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are teaching in the program, linguist Drusilla Gould and Jeanette Wolfley, who is a tribal attorney.

Loether and Gould developed the curriculum, using the newest methods in applied linguistics. In addition to grammar, students learn how to use the language in real life situations.

Gould said there is a dialect for each of the 23 Shoshone bands on the Fort Hall Reservation. She tries to work in as many dialects as possible into the curriculum.

Gould has taught in the Fort Hall Head Start program and at Fort Hall Elementary School, and is doing follow-up work with second-graders she taught the two years previous.

Gould and Wolfley said for many years, the language was considered worthless and wasn’t taught during the era when many Indians were shipped off to boarding schools. Indians from that era now are grandparents and realizing the importance of revitalizing their language along with other components of their culture.

“There are young people who are realizing the language is being lost and who want to learn it,” Wolfley said.

Loether said each generation, fewer Indians learn their native language. Only about 5 percent of the Shoshone-Bannock children learn Shoshoni or Bannock as their first language.

This semester, Wolfley is teaching a survey of issues important to Indian communities, such as the environment, economic development, water rights, religious issues and other concerns.