Friends, it heartens me to see my adopted relatives in the paper, and especially those who are doing their part to keep their language going and well.

And, I also want to say a word here about Karen and Eleanor Mitchell Firth of Fort MacPherson, whose mother, the well-respected elder Eunice, adopted me as her son a number of years ago.

The mother of these two translators is now going on 90 and has won great acclaim in the hearts of many visitors to the Delta for her consuming pride in her native culture. It always seems that as the years go by our real elders simply don't age all that much, and you always get to see that special sparkle in the eyes of the very special ones, like Bertha Allen, Emma Dick and Mary Kendi.Theirs was a day much different and more real than the cyber age we are in today. People had to walk just about everywhere they went, except for the longer dogteam or boat trips. And they really valued each other as people and watched out for one another.

Of course these are some of the values involved in one's language, and the two translators do well to point out that there are some glaring differences in the way our Dene languages compare to English.

For me English, although understandable as a way of communicating, doesn't have the same heart and soul as our Dene way of speaking. A joke in English is told to bring out a single laugh, while its counterpart in our own language is more a story, meant to really touch and tickle up the insides of a listener, making them feel good all over.

As for the serious part of keeping the Gwich'in language itself alive, it is sad that there are now less than 300 people who speak Dene, and as people rely more on computers the reason for them to carry on in their own language becomes less of a necessity - sad to say.

One of the things I always think about when it does come to the reason for relearning or speaking one's own language is something I always hear from our good pal former-chief of Lutsel K'e, Archie Catholique. He says his parents told him when you pass away you have to be judged by God in heaven. And, when he asks you in Dene what you are doing there and you answer in English he will tell you to go somewhere else, for you do not belong in the Dene heaven.

This does sound as severe of a punishment as may be meted out, but it certainly brings out the point that we should help to, at the very least, learn a few words and sentences in Gwich'in and Dene.

Mahsi cho, thank you very much!