The Akimel O’odham language is spoken by about 8,000 -12,000 Pima Indians in southern Arizona and Sonora Mexico.
I’m about 25% Pima Indian. On my father’s side, my grandmother was 100% Pima and my grandfather was Black Forest German.
On my mother’s side, my grandfather was Irish and my grandmother, German/Scottish.
About 6 weeks ago, I started learning German and am really enjoying it. Tonight, I had my first thought of “why don’t I learn O’odham?”
If I still lived in Arizona, I would definitely start classes as it is listed as a “threatened” language. But I live too far away to really be a part of the language community and its continuance. The little research I did suggests that distance learning would be very difficult, if not impossible.
The reason I even thought of trying to learn Akimel O’odham is this beautiful song has been on my mind the past few days: Ian Tyson ~ Navajo Rug (Vinyl) - YouTube