PRESERVING A LANGUAGE: Q&A WITH LYNETTE ST. CLAIR Lynette St. Clair, Shoshone linguist, cultural preservationist & education consultant on the Wind River Reservation, talks about her life growing up on the Reservation and her efforts to preserve the Shoshone language. WIND RIVER CANYON HOW HAVE YOUR EXPERIENCES AS AN INDIGENOUS WOMAN SHAPED YOU? I feel blessed to have been raised in the family to which I belong. We are taught that we must be thankful for all that we have and give thanks for those blessings. We are also taught to respect who we are and where we come from. My involvement in the education field is because of these experiences. When I was younger, the majority of the people within the schools I attended were not the same as me. There were few tribal teachers, and those who were Shoshone or Arapaho or members of other tribes were support staff. I respect that, but I also think there’s always room for growth. I started out in the school system as the school secretary and eventually became a teacher and then an administrator. I want to show our students that through hard work, dedication, and the right support, they can reach their goals. WHY IS PRESERVING THE SHOSHONE LANGUAGE IMPORTANT? Our language is who we are. Without it, we will be lost. This was told to me by my uncle Starr Weed Sr. The language is attached to everything indigenous: our spirituality, our ways of living, our very existence. It’s in everything we do. We can’t have a ceremony if we don’t speak the language and we can’t carry on our stories, history, or ways of doing things if we don’t know our language. This is what I see that is missing in our youth, which is why it’s critical that we preserve our language. To center our people. To bring them full circle and to carry it forward for the next seven generations. @BLAKEPOE Fremont Peak LYNETTE ST. CLAIR WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE PEOPLE TO KNOW WHEN VISITING THE WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION? I want people to understand that our reservation is one of the most beautiful places on earth! Our com-munity welcomes visitors but also wants you to understand that there are some traditions and customs that we wish to retain that are not for public knowledge. @ISAIAH.ORTIZ_ Wind River Range Read the full article at TravelWyoming.com/preserve. 73
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