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Transcription: [00:04:16]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
This is rough. Saul help me out. Ah, Valanna. Yesterday when we were talking, you said, now that so few people learn -- why -- know the Luiseño language, why is that? What's happened, why do they not speak that language anymore?
[00:04:38]

{SPEAKER name="Valanna"}
Well, that I know of, when we went to school, Indian School in Rincon, we were little Indians, and we spoke our language.
[00:04:52]

{SPEAKER name="Valanna"}
And the teachers didn't like it. So, they told us that we shouldn't speak Indian. We had to learn to talk English.
[00:05:01]

{SPEAKER name="Valanna"}
But we didn't know how, you see, so we kept on talking Indian and they'd punish us.
[00:05:07]

{SPEAKER name="Valanna"}
That's why, all the kids were afraid. And that way, we had to learn just a little of what we know now because they didn't allow us; they didn't want us to talk Indian, when we went to school.
[00:05:26]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
It's important to point out, too..

[[Cross Talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Valanna"}
That's why.
[00:05:29]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
In the Mission systems,our traditions were discouraged and we were punished for it underneath the Spanish.
[00:05:36]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And in two or three generations, we lost a great deal.
We lost almost throughout California, native languages and traditions, and then after that, after secularization, we were under the Mexican regime and we went to work on ranchos.
[00:05:51]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And then after that was abolished, and the Americans came in, you see, we've dealt with three regimes. We had to please everybody.
[00:05:57]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And then when the the Americans came in, their federal schools, reservation schools, were detribalizing; that was the purpose of them.
[00:06:05]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
They would take us and bus us off the reservation and out of the areas we were in. And it's true we were punished if we practiced any traditional arts or languages, and that's what we've been up against.
[00:06:16]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
That's what I was kind of trying to do; was establish a bit of history and tell you who we were and where we've come from, and we've been through that.
[00:06:23]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
The Spanish, then the Mexican, then the American. And at all costs, we've retained our Indian-ness; at least we've tried. At times when it was very difficult to resist, the only thing we had to resist with was our hearts. [[chuckle]] So, back to Velanna. [[laughter by both]]
[00:06:40]

Transcription Notes:
I think "Louise" is Speaker 1 here, listening to the next entry. Rincon school. Luiseño