It’s like describing a color to a blind person.
Sondra Segundo struggled to say how the almost extinct Haida language is more colorful than English. More descriptive.
But words failed her.
It’s a difficult language to learn. Segundo, a 46-year-old middle school teacher, and her aunt Jeane Jimenez, 66, can carry on only basic-level conversations in the language.
Both women came from Seattle earlier this week to participate in a two-day program on Native cultures at the Haines Borough Public Library.
The Haida people live on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island and Canada’s Haida Gwaii islands, which are the former Queen Charlotte Islands.
Before the Europeans showed up in the late 18th century, the Haida numbered more than 15,000. Disease shrank that to less than 600 by 1915. Today, there are an estimated 4,500 Haida in the world, with more than half living on Haida Gwaii and Prince of Wales Island.
Meanwhile, the language was dying. A few dozen people spoke it beyond a few words. Most of them were elderly.
A major reason: Haida children were forced to attend white schools in the early 20th century to be assimilated into white culture. These schools forced them to speak English and forbade them from speaking Haida. That contributed to a cultural sense of not belonging for the Haida.
A Seattle native, Segundo listened to Haida spoken by her grandparents and a little bit by her parents.
Around the turn of this century, she gradually realized that the Haida language was dying out with just old folk speaking it. “The fact that it was going away – it broke my heart,” she said.
If Haida disappears as a language, she believes something will die within the Haida people. “It’s everything. It’s who I am. … it lights something up in our spirits,” Segundo said.
Despite their familiarity with the language, learning Haida is still difficult for Segundo and Jimenez. Relatives have to help them learn the correct pronunciations. Some sounds come from the throat in ways that English speakers don’t use.
Jimenez and Segundo sing Haida songs. “We know what the songs are about. But we don’t know exactly what the words are,” Segundo said.
Segundo writes new songs to be sung in Haida – again having relatives help her with the lyrics.
She also wrote a children’s book about the Haida people – “The Girl With Killer Whale Eyes.” It is a coming-of-age story about a girl connecting with orcas and her heritage. As Segundo read the story to about 20 people at the library on Monday, she interspersed the prose with Haida songs.
Segundo is putting the finishing touches on another children’s book with Haida songs and words in it. It is about her grandparents who were married for 55 years and died of natural causes on the same day.
Segundo is optimistic that the Haida language will return from the brink of extinction. Haida toddlers are being taught the language. Students can learn Haida at the University of Alaska Southeast at Juneau, Ketchikan and Hydaburg.