Started after co-founders Hali Dardar and Colleen Billiot heard a 1970’s audiotape of two women singing the “Alligator Song” in a native Houma language. The Houma Language Project is a collaborative effort that has worked to both study and revitalize the indigenous Houma language of “Uma,” according to this Houmatoday feature article.
Before the state of Louisiana was colonized and named, there were various languages spoken in the region by the natives who lived here. There were so many languages that the area was known as “Bulbancha,” which is Choctawfor “place of many tongues.” The Houma Language Project aims to make more Louisiana residents aware of the fact that a variety of native tongues existed in Louisiana well before colonization.
As of 2022, the Uma language of Houma, Louisiana has no active speakers, meaning that the Houma Language Project has very limited information to work with. In fact, most of their information comes from the 16th and 17th centuries. Luckily, the team members’ research has helped them to develop open resources like Anũpa’ Estwasúhah(which the Houmatoday article refers to as the Uma version of Wordle), a dictionary app, keyboard and pronunciation guides.
Colleen Billiot, a co-founder of the Houma Language Project, was originally inspired to learn more after hearing her own great grandmother, Elvira Billiot, sing on that 1970’s audiotape. She spoke about the project to WWNO Radio’s Kezia Setyawan, saying that team members have worked to reconstruct the Uma language in order to reflect what their ancestors would have actually said to one another. Billiot said, “it’s all done with so much on your mind about culture, heritage, and ancestral teachings. We always are looking forward and back for several generations and just trying to make sure that we’re doing the best we can in the space and time we have.”
In reanalyzing and essentially recrafting the Uma language, Billiot referred to her work as quite insightful, as it has given her a deeper understanding and insight into what Louisiana society was like when the language was actively utilized. She said, “we also put a great deal of thought into every word that we create. Even the rebuilding and reclaiming, you’re piecing together the language and the very rules and premises we follow for it. Muskogee languages, including Uma, are very verb-focused. It’s very intentional that the action is sort of more important than the who and the noun or what’s being acted upon.”
The Houma Language Project has recently had its first set of interns complete their Youth Language Internships, an opportunity that sprouted from an $84,000 federal grant for the United Houma Nation and the Houma Language Project. This grant was originally sourced from the Administration for Native Americans as part of the American Rescue Plan, the Congressional bill that was passed in March as a way of stimulating the United States economy to help it recover from the pandemic. The $84,000 federal grant focused on helping to both develop and save indigenous language efforts across the country.
Most of the volunteers for the Houma Language Project and all of the interns are Houma tribe members. Houma Language Project team member Brittany Verdin Jimenez spoke about how the internship has been an opportunity to create much-needed Native representation, which is something that she relayed isn’t available to them in a traditional school setting. Jiminenz said, “we’re still here, we still have stuff to share with our people. We are still doing everything we can to make sure that the next generation thrives.”
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