I Wish I Had Learned Our Language

There are times when I find myself thinking about my childhood and wishing things had been different.

I wish that during my growing-up years, especially in grade school, our schools had taught us our Native language.

I remember my grandparents speaking the language. I would hear them talking with one another, carrying on conversations that I could understand only in pieces. I knew a handful of words and expressions, but I never learned to speak the language fluently.

As a child, I don’t think I fully understood what I was missing.

Looking back now, I realize that language is so much more than words. It carries our history, our humor, our stories, our way of seeing the world, and the voices of the generations who came before us. When our Elders spoke, they were carrying something forward that had been passed down through countless generations.

I wish I could speak it today the way my grandparents did.

I wish I could sit with them again and carry on a conversation in the language they knew so naturally.

But while I have that regret, I also have hope.

I am so grateful for the people in our community and beyond who are working to revive our language and bring it back into the lives of our people. They are doing important work—not simply teaching words, but helping reconnect generations with something that belongs to us.

Maybe language revitalization is also a form of healing.

Maybe it is about giving our children something that many of us didn’t have the opportunity to receive.

And maybe someday, a child growing up in our community will hear their grandparents speaking our language and be able to answer them fluently.

That would be something beautiful.

For me, the wish remains: I wish I had learned our language when I was growing up.

But I am thankful that the story doesn’t have to end with my generation.

The language is still here.

And as long as there are people willing to teach it, learn it, speak it, and pass it on, there is hope that our grandchildren—and their grandchildren—will know the sound of our ancestors’ voices.

Notes From Alex