Ei Baa Hashne’

From the Flagstaff Arizona Daily Sun:

Tribal leaders lashed out Tuesday at efforts by some state lawmakers to enact English as the official language of Arizona.

Vivian Juan-Saunders, chairwoman of the Tohono O’odham nation, told a special joint session of the Legislature that English will continue to be the primary language of this country.

“Our children learn it in our schools and we have no desire to change that,” said Juan-Saunders, who also is president of the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona. She said native Americans want their children to learn English.

“However, making people use only English in government-transacted business is reminiscent of the boarding-school era for American Indians when speaking one’s own language, which resulted in physical and verbal abuse administered by teachers and employees of the school,” she told lawmakers during the annual event at the Capitol.

Kathy Kitcheyan, chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, was more blunt.

“In plain English … to the state of Arizona, we don’t like it and we don’t want it,” she said to legislators. “We as the first Americans never asked our visitors to speak a specific language.”

… [Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa,] said, it simply requires “official functions of the government” to be conducted in English. That, however, includes not only laws, public proceedings and regulations, but also publications, orders, actions, programs and policies.

“If you’re going to come here and be successful, you have to assimilate,” Pearce said. “You can’t come here from another nation and demand services in that language.”