Census Bureau counts as still in existence – a figure that academics warn could dwindle to fewer than two dozen by 2050, a legacy of the government’s former forced-schooling campaign that banned Native languages. ![]() It’s among roughly 150 indigenous languages the U.S. Still, the United Nations’ cultural heritage agency considers Comanche “severely endangered,” with only about 100 speakers. To them, the few minutes of Comanche spoken in “The Magnificent Seven” signal two important developments: long-overdue improvement in how Hollywood portrays Native Americans and the payoff of intensive efforts to preserve America’s first languages.Ĭomanches have fought hard to save theirs, helped by outside grant money that the tribe’s language preservation committee used to expand classes, hold a language festival and offer enrolled members free dictionaries and tutorial DVDs. The rarity of a moment like that in a big-budget movie is hard to overstate, said Poolaw and other Native Americans who praise Antoine Fuqua, the director who remade the classic 1960 Western, for his attention to authenticity. “This is a Native person playing a Native character speaking a Native language.” “It was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re speaking Comanche!'” said Poolaw, vice president of student and academic affairs at Comanche Nation College. ![]() Denzel Washington, left, and Martin Sensmeier, right, with Chris Pratt and Vincent D'Onofrio, converse in Commanche in "The Magnificent Seven." Photo by Sam Emerson/Sony Pictures via AP
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