The Blackfeet tribe of Browning, Montana has instituted a new school for kindergarten through eighth-grade on the reservation, with classes conducted almost entirely in the Blackfoot language. The effort is a response to the precarious state of the language, which until recently was spoken by just a few hundred elderly Blackfeet. Tribal public school administrators and teachers have collaborated on the program to introduce Blackfeet culture, history and language into the school curriculum. The Nizipuhwahsin (Our Original Language) Center, now in its ninth year, is at the forefront of a cultural and economic revival that has sparked new life in the reservation town, in a county that ranks as one of the poorest in the United States. News of their success has spread. Darrell Kipp, director of the Nizipuhwahsin Center, has hosted up to 60 members of other tribes wishing to learn how to start such schools of their own. “People recognize that we're creating superhealthy children who know their language extremely well, who are self-confident,” said Mr. Kipp. “These children will be the ones who identify the Blackfeet in the future, they'll be the leadership cadre of the future.”
