This ANA Native Language Preservation and Maintenance Program project concerns assessment and documentation of the Pomo languages. The 21 Pomo speaking tribes of Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino Counties of Northern California, which collectively have over 11,500 members, share seven distinct languages, six of which are still in use inter-tribally today. While there have been some tribal level language assessments conducted by individual Pomo tribes on some of the Pomo languages in the past, since 2005, there has not been a comprehensive, community-wide language level assessment. In 2005 there were very few remaining fluent speakers among most of the Pomo languages. It is important to obtain a clear and complete picture of how many fluent, semi-fluent and conversational speakers exist, and where they are over a tri-county region so that documentation under this project and by tribal communities, can be targeted toward the Pomo languages that are in the most fragile state. Since language curriculum was prioritized by the Pomo communities in 2005, the documentation that occurs under this project will be structured to capture the language resources needed to construct conversational curricula.
The project goal is to increase Pomo community knowledge of the status of all of the Pomo languages currently in use and to develop new resources that can be used by them to spur language growth in the absence of fluent speakers. To achieve this goal, the project will implement the following three, interrelated and quantifiable objectives over the course of 24 months: 1) Within the first six months of the project, conduct an updated needs assessment of the Pomo languages that are currently in use among the Pomo speaking tribes in the tri-county target region and produce a comprehensive status report on all of them; 2) Within the first six months of the project, develop language resources lists for an existing conversational Pomo curriculum, to be used to guide documentation activities with fluent speakers; and 3) Between month seven and month 24, based on the findings of the needs assessment, conduct language documentation with the remaining fluent speakers of the Pomo languages, targeted toward languages with the least number of speakers, and produce 10 or more hours of documentation with each of 7 to 10 or more speakers by the 24th project month.
The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center (CIMCC), a Native-governed institution, will implement to project using Pomo staff and with members of the target community.
To implement the project CIMCC will form 35 partnerships during the project including partnerships with tribes and fluent speakers. CIMCC anticipates leveraging an additional $39,900 during the project including language assessment participant incentives and volunteer hours from the project language committee. The number of new language resources is also an impact indicator. One hundred or more hours of Pomo language recordings will be produced. Over the long term, these resources are expected to result in two or more new language programs.