We are grateful to announce this year’s Keynote Speaker at the NILI Summer Institute 2022 Tuxámshish Revitalization Learning Series (TRaiLS) online. Me’-lash-ne/Loren Bommelyn will be honoring us with his insights and perspectives from 40 plus years of language work. For a more complete bio about his outstanding decades of work in Me’-lash-ne’s own words, please continue reading below.

Keynote Speaker: Loren Me’-lash-ne Bommelyn
Talk Title: “The Heart and Soul of Language Work”
Date/Time: Tuesday June 21, 12-1:15pm PDT

Me’-lash-ne is a speaker and author of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ language. He was born at Taa-‘at-dvn California in Crescent City in 1956. He was reared at Nii~-lii~-chvn-dvn on the Smith River near Fort Dick California. He was born into Federal Termination that devastated the Dee-ni’ social fabric, caused spiritual chaos and then participated in the rebirth of the linguistic and cultural revitalization, and Federal Restoration of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation.

The Tolowa community started the Language project in the 1950s. Language instruction began in the schools in 1969 under the Eminence Credential Licensure.

His generation was the first to attend the university and permeate the Cultural Divide. He completed teaching credential in 1980 and became the first credentialed Indian Language teacher in California. He returned home to teach Tolowa and Art in the public school system. He attended the University of Oregon in to earn his master’s degree in Linguistics in 1997. He retired from 34 years of teaching in 2014 and from 25 years with the Nation’s Council in 2017.

The Tolowa Dee-ni’ teachers traveled the world from Hawaii and New Zealand to the Southwest and throughout California and the Northwest, seeking program models to save their language from extinction. Programs for Immersion, ASLA, Keys, Acorns, Domains to Language App creation. Their work faced data recovery scarcity, inter-tribal conflict, orthography issues, and new word creation push back.

Today, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ continue the journey of language instruction, being a Language Hunter, teaching and struggling to rebuild their speech community obliterated by federal policy. Their language lays at the heart and is the soul of their worldview.

Me’-lash-ne 2022