My thesis research concerns uncovering and describing all the reference tracking roles played by the morpheme -go in Jicarilla Apache (ISO: apj; Glottocode: jica1244). The Jicarilla language utilizes a complex system of verbal inflections to mark tense, aspect, person, location, valency, as well as subordination of clauses. There are two suffixes which mark subordinating clauses: -i/-í’ and -go/-o. Phone, Olson, Martinez, & Axelrod (2007) have described -i/-í’ as subordinating given information, and -go as subordinating new information. Jung’s (2002: 173) analysis suggests additional evidence that ­-go marks new subordinated information in temporal expressions as well as some auxiliary constructions. But I have found that many of the functions of -go outlined in the descriptions above should instead be considered realizations of a switch reference system as defined in Haiman & Munro (1983). 

I had the opportunity to present on this topic in the 15th High Desert Linguistics Society Conference, held at the University of New Mexico in November of 2022. Below are the slides from my presentation. 

My full thesis can be found here, hosted through BYU's ScholarsArchive.

My interest in Jicarilla Apache came about due to my experiences on the Jicarilla homelands while working for Philmont Scout Ranch - a nonprofit organization that has occupied those homelands for 80 years. Currently the Jicarilla Apache Nation is building a relationship with Philmont Scout Ranch while also working on various language preservation projects, including retranslations of Jicarilla works published by community outsiders.

The aims and methods of the Boy Scouts of America, which owns and operates Philmont Scout Ranch, recognizes that the outdoors are a laboratory for the best and most meaningful learning to take place. Research such as Dr. Mary Hermes' Forest Walks project in Ojibwe as well as Jicarilla language seasonal camps have shown that the outdoors can be a fantastic classroom for language learning, as well, especially when that classroom is the land originally connected to that language. And Philmont has been using that classroom for decades to teach Jicarilla history and vocabulary to the participants that visit their Apache Springs camp in the southwest corner of the Philmont backcountry.

Knowing that language vitality and connection to that language's traditional lands are deeply connected, and knowing that the BSA's mission involves connecting youth to the outdoors, there are natural steps that could be taken for Philmont and the Jicarilla nation to take to work toward the goals of continued vitality of language, community, and land. The first logical suggestion would be collaboration in Jicarilla language seasonal camps. Those could easily take place at Philmont, which is equipped to support and guide wilderness camps in all seasons. And the scout ranch could also benefit from generational conservation knowledge that can protect and replenish the land that is loved by millions of youth and adults. These steps and the growing relationship between the Jicarilla nation and Philmont can be an example to language communities across North America. There are hundreds of BSA camps across the U.S., many of which sit on homelands of indigenous nations. And there are even more nonprofit organizations and even for-profit adventure industry groups who would likely be open to beginning a similar relationship with the indigenous nations whose homelands they occupy. Navigating those introductions and initiating such relationships is a role that linguistic researchers can play, if desired, for the communities with whom they collaborate. 

Of course, the best eventual outcome is always repatriation of land, and there are many resources that can aid in those efforts. Organizations exist to help indigenous groups reclaim control of their ancestral lands, which the Esselen Tribe in California have recently successfully done with a former BSA camp, Pico Blanco.