ABSTRACT Chiwere is an endangered Siouan language, surviving today in the minds and speech of only about 40 Ioway and Otoe-Missouria Indians, all of whom are elderly. This project aims at preparation of a grammar and associated studies of Chiwere before the language dies, taking with it much of the expression and tradition of the culture for which it had been the framing element. The study goals are (1) to write a grammar of Chiwere, based on field work and archival materials; (2) to collect reminiscences and traditional narratives in Chiwere, as records of the past and as documents of the persistence of a culture; (3) to offer counsel to interested Chiwere speakers and tribal groups, as requested, on the preparation of teaching and dictionary materials; (4) to provide direction to papers on specific topics in language, culture, ethnohistory, and prehistory; and finally (5) to train and direct the work of several graduate students toward increasing the number of scholars concerned with Siouan languages. These goals will be achieved using standard structural linguistic field research methods, employing controlled elicitation of grammatical forms with careful transcription and analytic translation of a corpus of tape and video recorded texts.
