April
13
/ 2014
Less than 20 Native American languages spoken in the United States are projected to survive another 100 years and the Chickasaw language, or Chikashshanompa', is just one of many tribal languages that culture keepers are working to preserve. In 1994, the estimated number of fluent Chikashshanompa' speakers was less than 1,000 and today, the Chickasaw language has less than 75 fluent speakers, with the vast majority older than age 55. It is because of these declining numbers that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) categorizes it as “severely endangered.” Emily Johnson Dickerson, a full-blood Chickasaw who spoke only the Chickasaw language her entire life, died at her Ada, Oklahoma, home on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013, at the
