Students Help Preserve Endangered Language

Ofstad scholar Kate Riestenberg and Sky Campbell, director of the language department of the Otoe-Missouria tribe, pose with students working on documenting the tribe’s language documents. Pictured, from left to right: Maria Padron, Riestenberg, Campbell, Ricky Rassool, Katie Kraeski and Sarah Holtmeyer.
 
As part of her linguistics course in learning about how communities respond to the global crisis of language endangerment, Clayton B. Ofstad Scholar Kate Riestenberg arranged for students to collaborate with Sky Campbell, director of the language department of the Otoe-Missouria tribe.

Toward advancing the goals of language preservation, Truman students are working with historical Otoe-Missouria language documents and digitized recordings. After the course ends, students will have the opportunity to continue this work. This project benefits students by adding real-world context to class topics and providing an opportunity for them to apply their linguistic skill set. It also benefitted the Otoe-Missouria tribe by advancing their ongoing work.
 
Riestenberg is currently a posdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution.