What we are doing

Expanding effective language revitalization techniques

Fortunately, there are effective techniques that work to quickly transmit language from elders to young people. The experience of Indigenous Peoples in Hawaii and New Zealand shows that immersion schools, language nests (a fluent speaker working with a group of learners), and master-apprentice programs (pairing an elder speaker with one learner) are very successful.

But many Native American communities are in need of funding, political support, and training to make these programs work.  We're working on all three fronts. We're partnering with tribal language programs to develop and submit a range of federal, private, and corporate grants. In Washington we've partnered with the National Alliance to Save Native Languages to conduct an ongoing lobbying campaign to persuade the congress to increase funding for Native language programs, and after bringing some 200 tribal members to the Capitol in the summer of 2009, the Senate and House appropriations committees voted to increase the amount of money allotted for immersion programs (though it is still far too little). And for all the small, isolated, struggling programs, we are building The Language Gathering, a website hub to where language advocates can share techniques, ideas, words (for related languages), fund-raising tips, and a host of other information.  This platform will engage members from the 300+ tribal language programs and projects in our contacts database.

We're guided in our efforts by four specific language programs and the National Alliance to Save Native Languages to provide on-the-ground assistance they request: the Sauk, Euchee, Wampanoag, and Northern Arapaho programs. For more information on these programs and the National Alliance, click here.