NALI '94 & Kawaiisu Info

CAVEMAN -- San Bernardino, Calif. USA (cjcoker@CSUPOMONA.EDU)
Mon, 31 Oct 1994 15:16:05 -0800

Hi all:

I am going to the Native American Language Issues Institute's 14th Annual
Conference in Glorieta, New Mexico, next week. Is anybody else going?
In the flyer announcing the conference, they mention Kawaiisu as being
an endangered language in the United States. I may be wrong about this,
but I've always thought the Kawaiisu as a people have been extinct (or
whatever term is proper) for at least 100 years, and I think more. (The
Kawaiisu were from the Tehachapi/Mojave area of the Mojave Desert in
Southern California.) Am I mistaken about this? Are there still Kawaiisu
people around? Are there still speakers of the language?

Serrano is listed also. So far as I know, there is ONE remaining speaker
of Serrano -- I think that qualifies as endagered.

Any comments or observations about any of the above would be welcome:
1) any knowledge about the conference, as I never been to this one before,
2) anything on any subject about the Kawaiisu, and 3) anything on any
subject about the Serrano.

Chuck Coker
CJCoker@CSUPomona.Edu

P.S.: I travel by motorcycle. Any one know how deep the snow gets between
Barstow, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico on I-40? Do I need to worry
about snow at all yet? Alternative routes might include I-10 from San
Bernardino, California to (almost) El Paso, Texas, then I-25 north to
Santa Fe; or maybe even D-2 across Mexico, from Tijuana, Baja California, to
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua (El Paso, Texas, US), then north on I-25. Any
suggestions? (They don't make snow chains for motorcycles.)

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There have been no dragons in my life, only small spiders and stepping in gum.
I could have coped with the dragons.
Anonymous (but wise)
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