Interrupting White Mountain Apache Language Shift: An Insider's View

Abstract

"My grandfather, who raised us, was a Spaniard, and my grandmother was a full-blood Apache. My grandfather was an interpreter [in Spanish, English, and Apache] for the military at Fort Apache. My grandmother didn't use English very much, spoke some Spanish when necessary, and spoke mostly Apache. Five of their children, including my mother, survived into adulthood and were trilingual… The traditional ways is how I tried to raise my children, in the same way I was taught, so they will know who they are. Our Apache ways and language did not hold them back from getting higher education degrees."—Geraldine Johnson Adley, age 68, White Mountain Apache mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and retired school worker; November 1997.