Article: $450K language grant meant to keep Coushatta from being at loss for words.

Byline: Beth Gallaspy

Jul. 15--ELTON, La. -- Bertney Langley spoke only Koasati when he started school nearly five decades ago.

When he greets a contemporary in the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, he still says, "Chi sami?" instead of "How are you?" and continues in the language their ancestors have spoken for centuries. To younger members of the Indian tribe, even to his own young children, he switches to English or they might not understand him.

Maybe they will within a few years.

Langley, 55, and his wife, Linda, a research professor of anthropology at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., recently received a $450,000 federal ...

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