People of the Sacred Language: Revival of the Hocak Language

Abstract

The native language of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is Hocak, today an endangered language. The Hochungra, meaning "People of the Sacred Speech", originally came from present day central Wisconsin. This thesis first identified four factors important in language loss: movement out of environment, external duress, internal duress and loss of critical mass. A qualitative analysis of these factors to Hochunk history revealed that the first two factors most explained the decline in the Hocak language. These same factors, in reverse, also accounted for the Ho-Chunk's ability to better preserve the language.