The Kwelth Tahlkie Culture and Heritage Board (KTC&HB) of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (CTGR) have made it a priority to revitalize one of the languages which historically has been associated with being a Grand Ronde Indian-Chinook Jargon, referred to as činuk wawa 'Chinook talk' or simply činuk. The purpose of the present study was to observe the language planning process as executed by the KTC&HB. Initial guiding questions were: (i) What stages is the KTC&HB going through in the process of planning for činuk revitalization? (ii) How do these efforts compare with theory and actual practice in other settings? (iii) How will the KTC&HB achieve their goals, and how successful will they be? The researcher participated in the language planning process, functioning as a linguistic consultant. From January through May 1998, over 150 hours were spent on location in Grand Ronde, working primarily with the Tribe's language specialist to develop materials on činok. The language planning efforts have resulted in the production of a variety of language materials, which are, at this point, still in draft form. They include an orthography-developed to increase readability and learnability of the language, a grammar—including both syntactic and phonological descriptions, and a dictionary—based on a wide variety of sources on činuk. Participant observation reveals that there is support for the language planning efforts in GR at a number of levels: the Tribal Council, the KTC&HB, and the činuk lu?lu,, a group often to fifteen tribal members committed to learning the language. This group will assist the language specialist in future language planning decisions. The success of the early stages of language planning in this case can be attributed, at least in part, to the Native locus of control, which has been established. Clearly defined and articulated relationships with outside linguists will also contribute to the success of this case. The cinok lu?lu is off to a good start, as well, with highly motivated community members striving to learn the language quickly.

Throughout the world, languages are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Perhaps half of the 6,000-7,000 languages worldwide will go extinct in the next 50-100 years. One of these dying languages, Chinook Jargon or Chinuk Wawa, a language found in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, is in the process of being revitalized through the concerted efforts of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (CTGR). Reasons to revitalize endangered languages often seem irrelevant to our modern daily lives, and revitalizing these languages is a difficult process requiring much dedication, commitment, and persistence. In light of this significant struggle, understanding people's motivations could contribute to a better understanding of how to involve more people in language revitalization. Ideally, such an understanding would contribute to strengthening a community's efforts to revitalize their language. This exploratory, ethnographic case study explores the motivations of eight participants in the Portland Chinuk Wawa language community involved in revitalizing Chinuk Wawa over a nine-month period in 2011. The results of the study showed that seven major themes of motivation were prevalent for the participants: connections made through Chinuk Wawa, preservation of Chinuk Wawa, relationships, instrumental motivation, affective motivation, identity motivation, and demotivation.