20-Year Ban on New Uranium-Mining Claims in Grand Canyon Holds Up in Court

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The Havasupai Tribe, and the Grand Canyon watershed, won in U.S. District Court this week when a judge denied the uranium industry’s motion to overturn a 20-year federal ban on uranium mining on 1 million acres in the ecologically sensitive landmark and haven of sacred places to many tribes. Still under contention, though, are previously existing claims that are held still valid.

The March 20 move upheld a ban signed by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in January 2012, when he prohibited new uranium-mining claims, as well as development on certain old claims whose rights may have expired, for 20 years on 1 million acres surrounding the canyon. In response the National Mining Association, Nuclear Energy Institute, Northwest Mining Association and other groups filed four lawsuits challenging both the ban and the federal government’s authority to enact it. The Havasupai Tribe was among those who stepped in to combat the industry.

“It’s a great day for the Grand Canyon, and for rivers, wildlife, and communities across the West,” said Ted Zukoski of Earthjustice, one the attorneys representing conservation groups and the Havasupai tribe in the case, in a statement from the Center for Biological Diversity. “The uranium industry was hoping to cripple the Interior Department’s ability to temporarily protect lands from destructive mining. Today’s opinion upholds the Interior Department’s authority to take such protective measures.”

Salazar had enacted a two-year block on new mining claims for those million acres in 2009 to give the department time to study whether to institute a more permanent or longer ban. In March 2011 the state of Arizona’s environmental protection department granted permits to Denison Mines Corp. of Canada to reopen three mines near the canyon, even as the U.S. government was gathering information on whether to extend the ban. In January 2012 the Interior Department announced the 20-year ban, which was then challenged in court.

Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon threatens sacred sites of the Havasupai, Hualapai, Kaibab Paiute, Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo peoples. Tribal health is also at risk, with radioactive material posing a danger to Navajo citizens, said Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly in a statement when the ban was announced in January 2012.

Not covered in the ban protected by the March 20, 2013, court ruling is the question of previously approved mining and new projects on claim sites with existing rights, the Interior Department said in its statement announcing the ban last year. The Bureau of Land Management estimates that as many as 11 uranium mines could be developed under existing rights. On March 7 the Havasupai tribe and three conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for allowing Energy Fuels Resources Inc. to start up a uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park, citing a lack of formal tribal consultation and the company’s failure to update the federal environmental review it had conducted in 1986.

“We regret that the Forest Service is not protecting our sacred site in the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property from destruction by uranium mining,” said Havasupai tribe chairman Don Watahomigie in a March 7 statement from the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Havasupai are returning to the federal courts to protect our people, our religion and our water.”

In addition the four uranium-industry lawsuits that were covered by the March 20 ruling could still raise arguments on other legal grounds, the Center for Biological Diversity said, adding that court proceedings will continue to unfold this spring.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/22/20-year-ban-new-uranium-mining-claims-grand-canyon-holds-court-148319

Chile’s Crimson Shore Under Investigation

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Thousands of dead sea creatures blanket the southern shores of Chile. photo: AP
Thousands of dead sea creatures blanket the southern shores of Chile. photo: AP

Thousands of dead prawns washed ashore along with hundreds of dead crabs, blanketing the beaches of southern Chile in crimson.

These massive mounds of dead sea creatures on the shores of Coronel Bay are extremely disturbing to all, but the cause of death is still unknown and under investigation.

Chilean fishermen are accusing local thermoelectric plants for heating the waters while using it as a cooling agent for their generators. In an article by the Associated Press, Chilean prosecutor Ana Maria Aldana, told state television, “We’re going to be collecting as much evidence as possible to determine if this is an environmental crime.”

However, others believe this may have been caused by El Niño, a weather phenomenon that occasionally warms the Pacific Ocean, according to BBC News.

Endesa Chile, the country’s largest electric utility company, is rejecting any blame. The company said studies indicate these deaths are “due to the flow of deep waters coming from the continental platform, induced by currents of wind on the ocean,” the Associated Press reported. Experts are testing the water’s temperature and oxygen levels in search of an explanation.

Whether it’s due to a natural phenomenon or man-made pollution, local fishermen are worried about the future of their livelihood.

“The way everything is being destroyed here, come the high season in November, we’re already thinking we won’t have anything to take from the sea,” Marisol Ortega, a spokeswoman for the fishermen, told BBC News.

This is reminiscent of some of the bizarre, massive sea creature die-offs in Indian Country, such as the millions of lifeless sardines that floated into the Redondo Beach Harbor of southern California in 2011 and last year’s colossal fish kill on the Canadian shores of Lake Erie.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/23/chiles-crimson-shore-under-investigation-148314

Historic Federal Lawsuit Dealing with Removal of Indian Children Filed on Behalf of Lakota

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents, http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA – Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union Thursday filed a lawsuit on behalf of three American Indian parents, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Rosebud Sioux Tribe for the illegal removal of Indian children from American Indian families in the US District Court in Rapid City, South Dakota.

American Indian Parents LawsuitACLU and Tribal Leaders at Court House

The 39 page lawsuit pertains to the lack of adequate hearings when American Indian children are removed from their familial home.

In one case cited in the lawsuit, one custodial hearing lasted a mere 60 seconds. American Indian parents were not even allowed or permitted to see the court papers. The judge signed the documents to remove the children within in seconds.

The case has been in the making for months as American Civil Liberties Union attorneys reviewed the circumstances surrounding the procedures used in the Pennington Court system.

“This case is not about numbers, this case is about the procedural fairness,”

stated Stephen Pevar, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney.

“This lawsuit seeks to put an end to disgraceful and unlawful practices that unfortunately have been standard practice in Pennington County, South Dakota, for a long time.”

American Indian Parents LawsuitSigns say it all

Outside of the Andrew W. Bogue Federal Building in Rapid City, American Indians began to gather to protest shortly before 9:00 am. Facing brisk temperatures on the second day of spring that were in the low 20s, some 100 tribal members stood outside the federal building as the attorneys and Oglala Sioux Tribe President Bryan V. Brewer, Sr. went inside to file the lawsuit.

“This is the first step. Our children have been abused for far too long,”

stated President Brewer outside before he went into the federal building to file the lawsuit with American Civil Liberties Union attorneys.

“ This has to stop, we will not tolerate this any longer. Today is a historic day.”

People carried signs that read: “Protect our children from the state” and “No more exploitation of Indian children.”

Several tribal members were visibly upset as they took the microphone to tell their stories of how children were removed from their homes without due process by county or state of South Dakota officials.

Mary Black Bonnet, 38, a tribal citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, spoke about being removed from her family when she was only 18 months old and adopted by a non-Indian family and ended up in Niles, Michigan.

“I fought for 22 years to get back to my people. I kept telling myself, “I have to get away from these crazy people.” I wanted to get back to my people,”

referring to her natural, American Indian family. As she spoke, her daughter clung to her.

American Indian Parents LawsuitMary Black Bonnet – Rosebud Sioux

Some of the attendees discussed how the state of South Dakota and Pennington County officials have ignored the Indian Child Welfare Act, ICWA, that was passed by Congress in 1978 in response to the large number of American Indian children who removed from their homes in at disproportionate rates.

“This hits the heart of our tribe. With this lawsuit we want to see our rights that ICWA should guarantee to us. Pennington County is violating our rights,”

stated Juanita Scherich, ICWA director for the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

“I had to witness the actual filing of this lawsuit. This is so historic,”

said Sheris Red Feather, whose son, Patrick, committed suicide while in the custody of the State of South Dakota when he was 15.

She went upstairs of the federal building to watch the filing of the lawsuit at the federal court by the lawyers and President Brewer.

Tribal Councilors Robin LaBeau and Robert Walters of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe attended the event to demonstrate the support of their Tribe to the lawsuit.

“We are here to support this lawsuit 100 percent. It comes down to our support of all Lakota children,”

Weekend fun: Liqueur, egg hunt, frogs, music and more

Source: Heraldnet.com

Jason GanwichMeg McLynn pays tribute to singing legend Patsy Cline.
Photo: Jason Ganwich. Meg McLynn pays tribute to singing legend Patsy Cline.

Try a new liqueur: Check out Skip Rock Distillery’s new raspberry concoction at a release party Saturday in Snohomish. In addition to the liqueur, you can taste Skip Rock’s other products, as well as treats using the liqueur from other Snohomish businesses. Read more in our story here.

Fall to pieces: Hear a musical tribute to legend Patsy Cline at the Historic Everett Theatre on Saturday. Entertainer Meg McLynn will perform a tribute concert, “Foolin’ Around With Patsy Cline.” The eight-piece Purple Phoenix Country Band will back up McLynn on stage. Read more in our story here.

Local musician: Arlington country singer Jesse Taylor’s album release party for his debut studio album, “Out Here in the Country,” is 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at Skookum Brewery, 17925 59th Ave. NE, Arlington. There will be raffles, live music and beer. Cover charge is $5. To hear cuts from the album, go to www.jessetaylormusic.com.

Meet frogs: Meet rescued amphibians at the Evergreen branch of the Everett Public Library on Saturday. “Frog Lady” Thayer Cueter of Just Frogs and Friends Amphibian Center in Edmonds will share her knowledge of frogs and toads and their habitats. Find details in our story here.

Folk musician: Dana Lyons is best known for his hit song “Cows With Guns,” and now he is touring along the route of the proposed coal export trains to raise awareness about coal trains. Lyons will perform as well as give a short presentation on the effects of the proposed coal export trains. The event is from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Cafe Zippy, 2811 Wetmore Ave., Everett. Suggested donation $10 to $20. For more information, call 425-303-0474 or go to www.cafezippy.com.

Easter at Hibulb: Celebrate Easter early this Sunday from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve, 6410 23rd Ave. NE, Tulalip. Events include story time, a movie, crafts and a scavenger hunt. Cost is regular admission to the center, $10 general, $7 for seniors, $6 for youths; free to kids 5 and under; $25 for families.

Teen Flashlight Egg Hunt: Teens in sixth to 12th grades can hunt for eggs containing prizes and candy at a free event at 7:30 Friday night. The event is at Heatherwood Middle School gym, 1419 Trillium Blvd., Mill Creek. Participants must bring a waiver signed by a parent, which can be picked up at City Hall, printed from the city’s website, www.cityofmillcreek.com, or available at the event. Bring a flashlight and a bag.

Listen to music: The Monroe Concert Band presents a free performance Sunday afternoon. The theme is “Classics” as the band celebrates the music of Mozart, Bach, Handel in a toe-tapping way. The show is at 2 p.m. at the Wagner Performing Arts Center, 639 W. Main St., Monroe.

Shop for kids’ stuff: A sale of used kids’ gear is this weekend in Mill Creek at Gold Creek Church, 4326 148th St SE. The Just Between Friends sale will include clothes, games, toys, furniture and more. The sale is from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Click here for more details.

See a play: Mariner High School drama students will present the classic “Alice in Wonderland” Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Little Theatre on the campus at 200 120th St. SW, south Everett. The play, adopted from the Lewis Carroll novel, was originally produced and later revived on Broadway and includes a variety of dance and musical elements. Tickets, available at the door, are $7, $5 for students, and $3 for senior citizens and children under 13.

Native Americans march against coal trains

Idle No More
by LOR MATSUKAWA / KING 5 News, kgw.com, March 22, 2013

SEATTLE — Two-hundred Native Americans and their supporters marched through Seattle during Thursday night’s rush hour to protest proposed coal trains that would pass through the city on their way  to a shipping terminal planned to be built near Bellingham.

The group called “Idle No More” represented several tribes who support the Lummi Nation, which opposes the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal because they say it would hurt the environment.

“There’s wind energy, there’s solar enegy, there’s tidal energy,” said one of the event organizers, Olivia One Feather of the Standing Rock Nation. “Now is the time to come together and brainstorm on what we can do to move past coal.”

The group rallied at Westlake Park before following a police escort to the headquarters of SSA Marine on Harbor Island. SSA Marine is the terminal’s developer. Senior Vice President Bob Waters said the company respects the right of people to express their opinions. He said the $700,000 project is undergoing a “vigorous” environmental study co-lead by the Washington State Dept. of Ecology, Whatcom County and the Army Corps of Engineers. He said construction is easily “a couple years out.”

As the participants played drums and sang songs of healing, Shania Belgarde, a senior member of the Chippewa Nation, clapped along.  Her message to government leaders: “I’d just like them to listen to us, the Native Americans.  We need our land.”

Watch video coverage here.

Free annual Easter Egg Hunt in Jennings Memorial Park

Marysville Parks invites you to hop overSeal_of_Marysville,_WashingtonCity of Marysville Parks and Recreation

6915 Armar Rd.
Marysville, Washington 98270
(360) 363-8400 * web: marysvillewa.gov
 

March 11, 2013

MARYSVILLE – Marysville Parks and Recreation invites your family to the free annual Easter Egg Hunt from 10-11 a.m. on Saturday, March 30 in Jennings Memorial Park, 6915 Armar Road.

More than 10,000 plastic eggs filled with candy and prizes will be hidden in and around Jennings Memorial Park Rotary Ranch for your child aged 8 or under to find. Limit is eight eggs per child.

Participants are asked to bring a canned food item for donation to the Marysville Community Food Bank. Additional parking will be available at the nearby Marysville Middle School parking lot, 4923 67th St. NE.

This Marysville Parks and Recreation Easter Egg Hunt is sponsored by Steve Fulton State Farm Insurance, Marysville Noon Rotary Club and Grandview Village.

For more information, call the Parks Office at (360) 363-8400.

 

Porterville, CA loses at Indian gaming table

City may have to give back $215,000 in grant funds

By DENISE MADRID | dmadrid@portervillerecorder.com, March 22, 2013

The city of Porterville might give back more than $215,000 in grant money it received in the last two years to mitigate the impacts of tribal gaming, and lose out on thousands more.

During a closed-door meeting last week, the Tulare County Indian Gaming Local Community Benefit Committee, charged with selecting grant recipients, voted to request the money be return, Porterville City Council and committee member Cameron Hamilton announced during the council’s regular meeting Tuesday night.

The committee, a seven-member body made up of county, city and Tule River Tribe representatives, is responsible for the allocation and administration of funding provided by Senate Bill 621.

The bill was passed in 2004 and makes the money available to counties, cities and special districts affected by local tribal gaming from the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund.

Gaming tribes that operated 200 or more gaming devices on or before September 1999 contribute a variable portion of their net winnings into the fund. In Tulare County, the Tule River Tribe contributes winnings and must sponsor the grants and find the proposed grant projects have a valid relationship to the impacts associated with Eagle Mountain Casino.

A small portion of the funding is earmarked for the county’s administrative expenses, with the remaining divided 60 percent for nexus geographical proximity grants and 40 percent for discretionary grants.

Until last week, only the city and county qualified for the nexus grants while the city, county and special districts qualified for the discretionary grants.

“It all boils down to one thing; the nexus was not correct,” said Mike Ennis, a member of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors and the committee. “Porterville had been taking 60 percent and was supposed to get 40 percent. For the last three years, this was something we’d been talking about and we finally got (former state Sen. Michael) Rubio’s people to come down and look at it.”

Read more here.

 

 

Obama to designate national monument in San Juan Islands

“The San Juan Islands will become the third national monument in Washington, joining Mt. St. Helens and Hanford Reach.”

March 21, 2013 at 9:00 PM

Posted by Jim Brunner  of Seattle Times

President Obama plans to designate a national monument in the San Juan Islands, handing a long-sought victory to island residents and members of Washington’s congressional delegation.

Obama will sign a proclamation Monday creating the monument, a White House official said Thursday. The action will provide permanent protections for nearly 1,000 acres of undeveloped federal lands on the islands, including Lopez Island’s Iceberg Point and Chadwick Hill and the Cattle Point Lighthouse on San Juan Island.

The news was hailed by members of Washington’s congressional delegation who had worked for years to preserve the lands.

“We’re very pleased because it’s such an incredible unique spot in the United States… it will be permanently protected for generations to come,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said in an interview Thursday.

The lands that islanders had sought to preserve are already federally owned and overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. While there were no apparent plans for the government to sell or develop the properties, the monument designation offers virtual certainty they will remain protected in perpetuity.

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, credited “years of persistence” by environmental and business leaders who built a coalition to campaign for the monument.

“San Juan Islanders have been shouting from the rooftops for years: protect these lands. Well the president heard our message loud and clear,” Larsen said in a written statement.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray thanked Obama and outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for the action, saying in a statement through her office the San Juan Islands will now “join our nation’s most iconic parks, wildlife refuges, and landmarks as a permanent, federally protected national monument.”

The president’s authority to create national monuments was given by the Antiquities Act of 1906, first utilized by President Theodore Roosevelt to designate Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. There are now more than 100 national monuments across the country, including the Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty and Colorado’s Canyon of the Ancients.

The San Juan Islands will become the third national monument in Washington, joining Mt. St. Helens and Hanford Reach.

Along with the San Juans, Obama on Monday also will designate new national monuments in Delaware, Maryland and New Mexico, according to the White House.

First Day of Spring: The Skies Have It, as NOAA Catches the Vernal Equinox in Space

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network, March 20, 2013

At 7:45 ET, NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captured this full disk image of Earth, then photoshopped the sun into its relative position.
At 7:45 ET, NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite captured this full disk image of Earth, then photoshopped the sun into its relative position.

Spring may have arrived on Earth with a winterish whimper, but what’s happening in the sky is preordained.

At 7:02 a.m. Eastern Time, the plane emanating from Mother Earth’s Equator was also bisecting her guiding star, the two poles exactly perpendicular.

Less than an hour later, far above the Earth, at 7:45 Eastern Time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-13 satellite captured this full disk image of Earth. The agency superimposed an image of the sun at its relative position and released a stunning photo.

On the ground it was nothing special, even generating complaints about a faux spring that did not generate a whit of warmth. But that did nothing to change what is going on astronomically between Mother Earth’s orbit and her guiding star. In fact, it’s more like New Year’s.

“Although popularly described as ‘the first day of spring’ in the Northern Hemisphere, the annual event is actually much more important than that,” reports space.com, explaining the significance of the sun’s position in the sky in relation to earth’s ecliptic. “More than any other event, it marks the beginning of the astronomical year.”

The vernal equinox, which marks the first day of the northern Spring season, occurred at 7:02 a.m. EDT on March 20, 2013. (Image: Starry Night Software/Space.com)
The vernal equinox, which marks the first day of the northern Spring season, occurred at 7:02 a.m. EDT on March 20, 2013. (Image: Starry Night Software/Space.com)

 

On this day the sun switches from the south to the north side of the celestial equator during the spring equinox, Space.com explained. Above is a look at what the sun’s position would be against the stars, if we were to dim our star so as to see it in context.

We are quite possibly spoiled from last year, when March temperatures were at a record high, the Washington Post said. This year they are unseasonably cool. However, those warm spring days are just a matter of time.

“Yet no matter what the weather outside, the spring equinox is a reminder that incoming sunlight is significantly stronger as the Earth’s northern hemisphere begins to tilt toward the sun,” the Washington Post said. “Even as winter overstays its welcome for some, we now see more daylight than darkness. That means spring can’t be far behind.”

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/20/first-day-spring-skies-have-it-noaa-catches-vernal-equinox-space-148274

Thornton Media Launches Kickstarter Campaign for 3-D Video Game To Teach New Languages Including Cherokee

By Ralph Richardson, Indian Country Today Media Network

In our highly competitive global economy, learning a new language is back in vogue, whether it’s Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic—or Cherokee. There are a plethora of programs, applications and schools to help people hone their communication abilities. Now comes a new strategy: Don Thornton, founder and president of Thornton Media, Inc. and a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, has developed Talking Games, the first 3-D video game that teaches language.

“The problem is that too many language courses are sitting on shelves gathering dust,” Thornton says. “The reason is boredom. You simply can’t get the player to continue using the game for hundreds of hours because they are bored. We intend to make language learning more fun.”

Don Thornton
Don Thornton

 

Thornton has utilized new technology to help preserve the language of his ancestors. “Our video game model is a true paradigm shift in the language software industry,” he claims. “It’s a disruptive technology advance that will change the way all languages are learned.”

Thornton says his grandmother, Lucinda Robbins, taught Cherokee in her home-town of Tahlequah, Oklahoma for 40 years. “While visiting her I purchased a Cherokee-English dictionary near her home, which I showed to her for her opinion,” he recalls. “She flipped through it and said she knew the professor who wrote it and commented that he used to ‘come over and ask me how to say words when I was sitting on my porch.’”

Eventually the professor didn’t even bother to sit on Robbins’ porch and “would just drop off lists of words and she would fill them out for him. He did this for three years. I flipped through the dictionary thinking at least he must have thanked her profusely for her help. But her name didn’t appear anywhere in the book. She told me about many similar projects that she had worked on. She translated books for people into Cherokee, and had a request to narrate the entire New Testament—a two-year project. At no time did she ever get paid for these major projects or even receive a copy of the work. It got me thinking how Indians don’t have control over their own cultural property and must rely on others.”

Determined to bring Cherokee back to the Cherokee, Thornton says he “started the company by adapting the world’s first ‘smart toy’ to teach an indigenous language.” He claims that development of Talking Games has created many “endangered language firsts,” including the first handheld translator, first two-way translator, first Nintendo DS language-learning apps, first language learning apps in the iTunes Store, and first language learning video game for an endangered language.

“All of the R&D for these projects was paid for out-of-pocket,” Thornton states proudly. “No grants. We have created custom language tools for more than 170 tribes and First Nations.”

All of this came from his desire to honor his grandmother, who, he says, “died in December 2012 at the age of 92. She was the best Cherokee speaker in our family.”

 

Earlier this month, Thornton was a speaker on the panel “Mobile Devices and Indian Country” at the National Reservation Economic Summit 2013 Conference with Jamie Richardson, senior systems engineer for Apple Inc. “The conference brings together American Indian businesses and corporations,” Thornton says. “I was the only panelist invited to speak with Apple about mobile apps.”

Despite his successes, Thornton still needs the support of Indian country to continue his work. His Kickstarter campaign launched on March 11, and his goal is to produce his game in both Cherokee and Spanish. Thornton hopes the inclusion of Spanish, which he says is the most requested second language in the country, will subsidize the inclusion of Cherokee. “If we are successful in launching this project it will benefit the revitalization of all endangered languages,” he says.

TRANS TK. e future for Talking Games looks bright, because the game Thornton has developed is engaging and fun. Users fight zombies, wrestle Bigfoot, and escape from aliens—all while learning a language. “The virtual world we create for Talking Games is not meant to simply recreate a town or community, but to create a ‘suspension of disbelief,’” Thornton says. “We want the player to sort of’ forget they are playing a game. This is the reason for the amazing addictive power of immersive video games. When you read a great book or see a great movie, you become lost in it, and part of your brain actually forgets you are playing a game. We use 3D characters that you interact with in our virtual world.”

Talking Games video still of Cecil and Cindy meeting for the first time (Thornton Media)
Talking Games video still of Cecil and Cindy meeting for the first time (Thornton Media)

 

No special glasses or equipment are required to play Talking Games. It is a role-playing game, or RPG, with 3D characters that exist in 3 dimensions, like Grand Theft Auto. In Talking Games, the player controls the main character, Charlie Vann, gets a head injury in a car crash and forgets how to speak Cherokee. His family and friends must help him to regain his language. The obstacles he must overcome include zombies, Bigfoot, and aliens. “The problem with most ‘serious games,’ Thornton says, “is that the motivation to play the game is external. You are ordered to play the game by your superiors, for instance. There are no internal motivators to play, making the game fun to play.”

Talking Games also differs from other language learning programs in that users must speak to play the game. In addition, Talking Games provides what Thornton calls an “immersion environment.” Virtual characters can only respond to the language the user speaks. These aspects of the Talking Games system create a richer learning environment.

Thornton says he has commissioned third party studies on 25,000 military personnel learning Arabic that show that video games that teach languages are “more effective than traditional methods” of language learning. “When you attempt to learn a new language, one of the biggest fears is that you will speak incorrectly and will be laughed at,” he explains. “There is a moment where you look the other person in the eye to see if they understood you. Some people are not bothered by making mistakes in public, but most people feel very uncomfortable if they make a mistake. Talking Games provides a safe environment to practice basic conversation. If you make a mistake in front of a video game character, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

Cecil negotiates with Coyote (Thornton Media)
Cecil negotiates with Coyote (Thornton Media)

 

This innovator in the area of language learning says he launched Thornton Media in 1995 “to create custom language tools to help indigenous communities to revitalize their languages while retaining control over their own cultural property.” Now, Thornton says, his company is still the “only language tool company in the world that retains no ownership over the cultural property of our Native communities.”

With the introduction of Talking Games, Thornton says he has expanded his goals to promote accelerated learning of all languages—but the heart and soul of his company remains with the languages of original peoples, like his grandmother. “Part of our efforts and profits,” he says, “will always be devoted to the revitalization of endangered languages.”

Support Thornton Media’s Kickstarter campagin at http://kck.st/WhweWy.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/22/thornton-media-launches-kickstarter-campaign-3-d-video-game-teach-new-languages-including