S. Neyooxet Greymorning

Professor, anthropology and Native American studies

Hometown and state?
My family moved around a bit while I was growing up, but I’ve always considered Oklahoma to be home. I came to UM in 1994 through an invitation from James Flightner (past Dean of Arts and Sciences) and Gregory Campbell to apply for an open position at UM.

What surprised you most when you first came to UM? 
The first three weeks of the term, when I first started work here, I was driving from the Social Science Building to Native American Studies. The surprise came when I didn’t have time to get to my car, and instead ran to NAS and then realized, after I got there faster than it took me to drive, that the campus was not huge in size as my impression of it had been for my first three weeks.

What is the best-kept Montana secret? 
Chico Hot Springs.

Favorite food source?   
Buffalo.

Describe any research or special projects you’ve been working on.
Reinvigorating, stabilizing and maintaining indigenous languages. Accelerated Second Language Acquisition (ASLA) has been extremely effective as a teaching and learning tool across numerous languages and age groups. One of the main reasons that it is so effective is because it doesn’t rely on learners having to memorize. The main goal I have is to bring this methodology to as many communities whose languages are at risk of being lost -- to give them a fighting chance of stabilizing and maintaining their languages.

Already this year I have worked with about a dozen different languages throughout North America and Australia.  This past April, while in Australia, I worked with two aboriginal languages. I then left Australia mid-April, returned to Missoula, and ran a workshop with language instructors of three different Native language groups from California; two instructors of interior Salish and three coastal Salish speakers from Vancouver, British Columbia; three Inuit language instructors from Barrow, Alaska; three Apache speakers from San Carlos; two Miq Maq speakers from Nova Scotia, Canada; two Ojibwa language instructors from Thunder Bay, Canada; and two Native speakers from Laguna, New Mexico. After that I flew up to Juneau, Alaska, to run a three-day workshop with a group there that represented Tlingit, Haida and Inupiaq. After that workshop, I returned to Australia and did some follow-up work there.

What courses do you teach? 
Indians of North America; Indigenous Peoples and Global Development; Introduction to Arapaho Language; Indigenous Peoples: The Politics, Policies and Passion Framed Within an International Perspective; Indian Culture as Expressed Through Language; Indigenous Worldview Perspectives; Contemporary Issues of American Indians; and Native Health and Healing.

What is your favorite place on campus? 
Down by the river.

-- Interview and photography by Winona Sorensen