“This conversation is complex. No matter how long it takes, I still have a long way to go. It could be overwhelming, but the more you study—the less overwhelming it is. Colonization and assimilation were meant to keep us in the dark. But just trying to learn our language is the disrupter.”

-Newell Lewey, Passamaquoddy Tribal Linguist

The trauma that is attached to language loss is largely unrealized. You may not know there is a problem until one day, while you are listening to a song, you feel it so deeply and it is affecting you, but you don’t know why, and you don’t know the words. Language loss is tied to the loss of land and the disruption of kinship networks. It is a denial of access to a sacred space.

Utilizing the framework of Maria Yellowhorse Brave Heart, trauma recovery involves four steps: confronting the trauma, understanding it, releasing the trauma and transcending it. Deciding to enter into a process of learning the language of our ancestors allows us to move through these steps.