Coeur d’Alene tribal member and language expert Cheffrey Sailto delivered his opening message twice, in two languages.  

“It’s really important for me when I speak, I speak Coeur d’Alene first, English second,” Sailto said. 

His talk about the revitalization of the Coeur d'Alene language was held in Chnek’we’n, or the Edminster Student Union Building at North Idaho College as part of American Indian Heritage Week. Chnek’we’n means “we are one.”  

He spoke of squandering time he could have applied to learning the language of his heritage from tribal elder Lawrence Nicodemus, who helped develop a writing system for Salish. 

“We dance for the ones who can’t, we sing for the ones who can’t, we speak for the ones who can’t. I speak for Lawrence,” Sailto said. 

As he matured, Sailto sought out how to learn the language. 

His mother was the only child in the family to not be taken to the boarding schools that separated children from their tribal culture and families. 

Sailto’s grandmother (hnchche’ye’) was afraid that if she taught her daughter their language, she, too, would be taken away with her other children. 

As he reflected on his family’s heritage and began working with youth tribal programs, he began to realize the lack of the Coeur d’Alene language has had on him and his community.  

“We didn’t know what a rock was in our language. We couldn’t even say what the lake was called,” Sailto recalled. 

Sailto now teaches the Coeur d’Alene language at Lakeside High School in Plummer, and he has stepped into his mentor’s shoes to fill the need in the community to keep a connection to the past.

“I get to do what Lawrence did, but there was a sense of ‘I don’t deserve this.’ I’m their only source,” he said.    

Fighting for revitalization of the language means fighting to make sure the words and culture that power it are accurately represented.

“If I don't, who will?” Sailto asked.

Sailto is still surprised to find himself in the position of becoming an elder at 43 but has come to terms with stepping into the role of mentor in the Coeur d’Alene language. 

“Chn syetsunme’schint. I am a teacher,” Sailto said. 

    The audience listens to Cheffrey Sailto speak about the ways his family was cut off from learning the Coeur d'Alene language due to the separation of children from their families and their cultures due to the American Indian boarding schools.