Film highlights need to preserve Indigenous languages

At first glance, the recent film “Sooyii” is a historical drama about how smallpox ravaged the Blackfeet Nation in North America. But it’s also shot entirely in the Blackfoot language, making it a work that also addresses the importance of preserving Indigenous languages and what that means for Indigenous people, culture and identity.

Jesse Desrosier is a member of the Blackfeet Nation who teaches the native language at The Piegan Institute, an immersion school in Browning, Mont., and at Blackfeet Community College. He worked as a consultant on the film and translated the script into Blackfoot, recorded himself speaking the dialogue so that the actors could learn their lines, provided dialogue coaching on set, and plays the part of the father of one of the main characters in the film. It was the producers’ and director’s desire to shoot the film in the Blackfoot language that drew Desrosier to accept their offer to consult.

“That’s what really drew me in to wanting to help with the project because, as a language student my whole life, and a language teacher and advocate of revitalization of language, I know the importance of it,” he said. “I think we’re at a time in history now where we really need to be thinking about reaching a wider audience.”

Desrosier took some time to talk about the significance of this story being shared in the Blackfoot language and what’s at stake when Indigenous languages are lost over time. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For a longer version of this conversation, visit sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-lisa-deaderick-staff.html. To see “Sooyii,” it has been included in the 2021 Film Haus Berlin online film festival on Dec. 12. Visit filmhaus.org, or the film’s Instagram account @sooyii_film, for more information.)

Q:

Can you talk about the significance of being able to have this film in your Indigenous language? What does that mean to you as a member of the Blackfeet Nation?

A:

To understand the significance and importance of it, we must go back into the film industry. Since its inception, I think the film industry has had a romanticized idea of what Native American culture is. They’ve been responsible for the large part of stereotypes, misinformation and ignorance. They’ve portrayed Indigenous peoples as everything from savages, to heathens, to drunkards, so to understand having our own opportunity to use our language is giving voice to ourselves. It’s allowing us to write our narrative from our own perspective. It’s not that this film is going to be the first time this has ever been done. We’ve seen in the Marvel film “Wonder Woman” Eugene Brave Rock’s character speaking Blackfoot. This was very impactful to all of the Indigenous communities, but especially the Blackfeet people. To have that, I think the creators just don’t realize how powerful that can be, so having a whole film in Blackfoot gives even more depth to those characters and to that story.

Q:

Can you talk a bit about what the process of learning your native language was like for you, at a young age?

A:

I’ve always had a deep interest in my identity, in who I was. I’m not a full-blood Blackfoot, but I grew up here in the Blackfeet Nation, and we’re fortunate to still be part of our original territory. As a small child, I always had an interest in my identity as a human, and my identity as a Blackfoot person because that’s where I grew up. The language really called to me. It really gave me a deep understanding of history, of my environment, of my connections with my ancestors, as well as with everything around me. It really opened my mind to a different perspective.

In English, we speak a noun-based language. Everything is labeled as nouns and there are certain concepts that are completely different when you go from an Indigenous language to English. In English, our concept of time is linear, where we’re the only animate object going through the process of time in a straight line. Our understanding of ownership with nouns is that I could literally own anything — whether that’s land, animals or people. I can say “mine” and that’s giving possession. Then, there are the concepts of gender, kinship, family that are just labels.

In Blackfoot, like most Indigenous languages, it is a verb-based languages. Instead of labeling things as nouns, we are understanding things as a state of being, or as an action. With that, our concepts of ownership, gender, time, kinship, they all change drastically. The change is an added respect and understanding of where we, as humans, fit into this universe. We are neither above nor below anything; we are on the same field as every life form. When it comes to our connections to things, it’s how we associate and relate to these things. Ownership simply becomes a partnership agreement, or an attachment. When Blackfeet say, “we come from Blackfoot territory,” what I’m literally saying is “this is a part of me,” this land is literally a part of me, and I am, therefore, a part of it. It’s not that we own things, it’s that we are either connected to them as parts of ourselves, attachments of our own bodies, or we have an agreement, a partnership.

Q:

What happens when languages are lost? What do we lose?

A:

For most people, the idea of a new language is simply a new vocabulary, but that’s not the case. Linguists have proven for years that understanding any new language gives you an increased awareness of your environment, and you get a unique perspective through that cultural eye. By understanding any new language, you get to look at the universe from that perspective. The beauty of Indigenous languages, indigenous to this continent and this country, is we have deep understandings of our environment. Coming from a verb-based language, there’s a lot more conscription. For example, the word we use for “mountain” means “something’s being forced up.” This goes back to the evolution of mountains. There are place names within Blackfoot territories that have deep, scientific understandings. They tell the history of these sites, whether it’s from the last Ice Age to something more contemporary, our language is literally telling a story of the history of our environment. Plant names can give us ideas and clues about which plants can heal which ailments. Our seasons and the seasonal changes, the animals, they all have stories, they all have secrets embedded within the language.