Republic of Upper Volta Republic of Upper Volta The Republic of Upper Volta (), now Burkina Faso, was a landlocked West African country established on December 11, 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before attaining autonomy it had been French Upper Volta and part of the French Union. On August 5, 1960, it attained full independence from France. Thomas Sankara came to power through a military coup d'état on August 4, 1983. After the coup, he formed the National Council for the Revolution (CNR), with himself as president. Under the direction of Sankara, the country changed its name on August 4,
Alaska Native languages be a distinct language, known as Middle Tanana. The last speaker died in 1993. Before colonization, most Alaskan Native groups had their own unique languages, which were used for everyday communications. Many people spoke several different languages in order to facilitate business and rapports among the different native groups. Upon contact with non-Native languages, the usage of native languages and the languages themselves have changed. As Russia was the first country to colonize Alaska, Russian words for goods or objects that were new to Native Alaskans were adopted into their native languages. For example, kofe (coffee) and chay (tea) are