The Ute tribe, more specifically the Southern Ute Tribe, don’t have very many fluent speakers of the Ute language currently. As of at least 2008, they only had 40 fluent speakers our of ~1,400 members, which is only ~2.8% (Oberly 324). While other tribes have been working hard for a long while to revitalize their native language, the Southern Ute had very little they had done by 2011 to teach the language to newer generations, but this doesn’t mean they haven’t done anything and aren’t currently working to revitalize the language.
For some quick history/context for the language, according to the paper, Southern Ute Grassroots Language Revitalization, “The Southern Ute language is a member of the southern Numic branch of the large Uto-Aztecan family” (Oberly 325). With this, we get to know a bit about where the tribe may have originated as well as potential extra history for the language. The paper provides a bit more insight along these lines but never fully delves into it.
Today, there are a growing number of those who are interested in learning the language and history of the language despite a drop in those who are attending the language classes. The tribal administration around the years 2012-2015 did not approve for a greater increase in these classes, but even though there was no official approval, this language project was still being funded and worked through by the Ute tribe (Oberly 327).
There is actually a major revitalization team who is working hard on getting the language out there to the people again in order to raise the number of fluent speakers. This team works with language project coordinators and teachers throughout the tribe to keep the language alive and well with both the newer and older generations. Language classes are also being used more frequently now to teach the language. In the paper linked as a source for this blog post, you can find information about general parts of these classes, including some of the material used (as pictured below).
To me, it’s interesting to see that, despite the Southern Ute tribe having a pretty stagnant history of trying to revitalize the language, they are making great efforts now in the ways of teaching it. Initially having this language revitalization project start out as a group of adults who wanted to learn the language and having it grow into a push to teach newer generations is a great step in the right direction to keep the Ute language alive and fluent among those in the tribe.
Information sourced from:
Oberly, Stacey, et al. Southern Ute Grassroots Revitalization. University of Arizona, 2015.
Link for citation above for easier access: https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/24646/oberly.pdf
The Ute Tribe 
Great post as always! I like learning how they are trying to bring it back now and that people are still interested in learning their traditional language.
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Outstanding blog post! Always a great read, I like how you give very accurate details helping paint the picture.
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