At our first meeting in the new year, presenter Kiera Maracle, from the Cattaraugus-Allegany Reservation, presented a fascinating talk on the Seneca Nation Language Program.This immersive course is offered by four Elders at that site.
Kiera described the language as both literal and descriptive and primarily, a complex oral language.
Throughout her presentation, Kiera gave club members a better understanding of the cultural complexities of the language among the various members of the Haudenosaunee Nation.
She also helped us understand some of the difficulties and forced relocation of her people and told of her grandparents, in a residential school in Ontario, being forced to speak only English – one of several ways native people were forced to “forget” who they were as a people.