Wyoming Woman On Mission To Not Let Shoshone Language And Culture Die

Lynette St. Clair of Fort Washakie, Wyoming, grew up listening to the language of her Shoshone people.

The words of her ancestors filled her childhood home and flowed through social gatherings.

She was surrounded by her tribe’s culture and traditions from the time she could remember. 

“When I was growing up in our community, our language was very prevalent and it was spoken in almost every community space,” St. Clair said. “We could go to a powwow, or a basketball game and you could hear our language. It flourished.”

It wasn’t until 30 years ago that she realized that the Shoshone language was declining, especially in public spaces.

Their language and ways of life were in danger of being lost. 

Determined that the Shoshone language would not die, St. Clair has made it her mission to share their culture and history with the next generation.

Her efforts to create language resources started back in the 1980s when she worked for the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes’ Preschool Program.  

“We were able to develop a little language book for our preschool students,” she said. “My coworker, Marie Lyday, developed the Arapaho portion, and I developed the Shoshone portion.”

This coloring book was the beginning. Years later she would find herself creating language materials and resources to encourage the use of the Shoshone language.

However, she was alarmed that as time progressed, they weren't turning out any language speakers. 

“We really needed to step up our efforts,” she said. “We needed to help our people acquire our language through different methods.”

For those efforts to keep the Shoshone language from fading into oblivion, St. Clair was named last week as one of USA Today’s Women of the Year.

Young Students

Working with their elders and others in the tribe, St. Clair and her colleagues were able to create a language program that centered on the core values of the Shoshone people, not just on repetition. She explained that the language cannot be learned without knowing the stories that surround the words.  

“Our language is intertwined with the culture, traditions and our spirituality,” she said. “It is just our way of being.” 

As the coordinator of the Indian Education program, St. Clair was tasked with establishing monthly cultural programming. These events drew in the students, parents, and community and were a way to encourage everyone to participate in language and cultural preservation. 

Monthly events included Shoshone Bingo, Veteran’s Day Honoring, Friendship Powwow Celebrations, and Buffalo Days.

It brought her joy to hear young students playing traditional games and responding to questions in Shoshone. Her heart soared when she would hear the pledge of allegiance said in their tribe’s language. 

St. Clair became the Shoshone language teacher where she was able to pilot the curriculum she developed as the Indian Education Coordinator. Teaching the language was meaningful but came with challenges and gave her an appreciation for teachers. 

One day, a student was struggling to count from ten to eleven. Suddenly the concept of how to combine the singular numbers as a base to create the bigger numbers clicked. Excited, he began counting to twenty and was soon teaching another student how to count as well.

“It is moments like that, when I can see how successful our work has been,” she said. “We are preserving the language and the gauge of that success are those students. When they get it, they just take off.” 

St. Clair taught for several years before returning to work as an administrator. She retired from the school and continues her language advocacy through mentoring and consulting. 

Some of her former students, including St. Clair’s two daughters, are now advocates for the Shoshone language. Several are getting their education so they can return to their community and help preserve their culture. 

Complete success of language preservation for St. Clair will be the day that she hears the Shoshone language spoken in public at a basketball game as people just casually talk to each other. 

“I can't wait until that day,” she said. 

Staying Authentic In Hollywood 

The Shoshone language is complex and, admittedly, not easy to learn. Certain words are only appropriate in certain situations. For instance, it will be a different pronunciation if the word is used in a spiritual context. 

Speakers must be mindful of glottal stops and other nuances which can change the meaning of a word drastically. They also must know when it is considered rude to use slang or shortened words.  

“In order to understand the Shoshone language, you have to know the meanings behind the words,” St. Clair said. “Our language is very sophisticated.”

When St. Clair was asked to be a language consultant for the Outer Range series and American Primeval, she wanted to make sure that she was authentic with the words she gave them. 

At first, she was asked to just translate a few words and record their proper pronunciation. Over time, her role expanded to working on set with the actors and helping make sure the props, such as teepees and beadwork, were authentic to the Shoshone. 

The work could be difficult because the scripts provided very little context and the actors had little to no language experience. It helped that the actors were American Indian and familiar with native languages. 

“It was really challenging because you are asked to come up with a word such as horse,” she said. “But if it's a horse that somebody owns and is riding, it turns into a different word.” 

St. Clair enjoyed working with the producers and sharing the Shoshone culture with a wider audience. She also appreciated how much they wanted to keep it real and show that the Shoshone people are still present today. 

Modern Technology 

St. Clair embraces the opportunities presented through modern technology in the race to preserve the Shoshone language and culture. Another project she has helped develop is a Shoshone language app that not only teaches the language and proper pronunciation but shares tribal traditions. 

“We pulled the elders in from the community to help,” St. Clair said. “We also provided culture notes and certain songs that are relevant and important to our community.”

St. Clair said that using technology to preserve their ways is not new. In the 1930s, U.S. Army General Hugh L. Scott, wanted to preserve the plains Indian sign language before it disappeared forever. 

Scott arranged for a three-day council and gathered about a dozen tribes from the area. The event was hosted by the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. He invited several tribal leaders, including St. Clair’s great-grandfather Dick Washakie, to come together so he could record them signing. 

It was a special moment the first time St. Clair watched the old reel of her great-grandfather preserving their tribal way of life.

“Everything that we are trying to do is a reflection of the efforts from my great grandfather from decades ago,” she said. “It validated the efforts that we've been trying to do through technology and continuing to be creative and think outside the box of how to maintain our language and make it engaging for people.”

St. Clair said that she is hopeful that all the efforts of her community and others are going to work together to sustain their language and culture. 

“My efforts are not the first and won’t be the last in the work of language revitalization,” she said. “There are many, many people who have laid the foundation and who continue to work toward preserving our language and traditions. 

“My respect goes out to our teachers and elder mentors sharing their knowledge today. This is a collective effort and requires a community.” 

Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.