Those who spoke them risked severe punishment, and Coosewoon often found herself among the disciplined students. That expertise in her first language has not been easy to maintain.Ĭoosewoon couldn’t recall exactly which of her relatives dropped her off at the boarding school as a young child, but she remembers the moment as being the greatest threat she faced in preserving her mother tongue and culture.Īt Fort Sill Indian School, native languages were banned.
“My brain still thinks in Comanche, and sometimes the English translation just can’t do it justice.”Ī prominent tribal judge, Coosewoon wears many hats in the Comanche Nation, but as one of the few fluent Comanche speakers, she considers herself to be, above all else, a linguist.
“You’ll have to excuse me,” she said with a smile that never reached her eyes.
Rita Coosewoon, 87, was reminiscing about her childhood spent in the Fort Sill Indian School when she stopped herself mid-sentence, grasping for a word.
