Description:

Oklahoma holds the highest density of indigenous languages in the United States. This Hotspot includes languages originally spoken in the area as well as the languages of tribes from farther east that were forcibly relocated onto reservations in Oklahoma during the 1800s. Many of these languages are highly endangered as the younger generations shift to speaking English.

One endangered language of this area is Euchee, which is a language isolate, unrelated to any other language in the world. In 2005, only five elderly members of the Euchee tribe were fluent in the language. The Euchee were forced by the U.S. government to move from Tennessee to Oklahoma in the early 1800s. Until the beginning of the 1900s, most Euchee tribal members spoke the language fluently. After that, government boarding schools severely punished American Indian students heard speaking their own language in school. To avoid beatings and other punishments, Euchee children abandoned their parent's language in favor of English. Today's speakers spoke Euchee fluently before they went to school and have maintained the language despite strong pressure to abandon it. For more about the Euchee Language Project, go here.