In Maine, One Man Battles to Recover the Language of Prayer

November 15, 2003

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/15/national/15RELI.html?ex=1070773200&en=6ae66569a356a856&ei=5070

On November 15, 2003 The New York Times published a story on one man in Maine who is fighting to save the local language of prayer. "Mr. Sockabasin, a member of the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe, has spent more than a decade trying to save its language. Though the tribe has been Roman Catholic since Jesuit missionaries from France arrived in northern Maine 400 years ago, few of its members today know how to pray in their native language... Having previously recorded his translations of songs and poems from English to Passamaquoddy (pronounced pass-eh-meh-KWAD-ee), Sockabasin is now translating the rosary and recording it on compact discs that he plans to distribute to schools and churches in eastern Maine and the adjoining Canadian province, New Brunswick. The project is the first in which the prayers have been translated into the native language, professionally recorded (in a local studio) and distributed."