CTUIR lauds Native Language Revitalization Plan

By Terry Murry on Wednesday, December 11th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The departments of the Interior, Education, and Health and Human Services have issued a 10-year National Plan on Native Language Revitalization. It outlines a government-wide strategy to support revitalizing, protecting, preserving, and reclaiming Native languages. Billions of dollars are being reserved to make the plan a reality.

“Native languages were not just the way our ancestors communicated with each other long ago, but they were and still are essential to our cultures, our connection to the land, and our existence as Native people,” Board of Trustees Member-at-Large and Cultural Resources Committee Chairman Toby Patrick said. “Not too many years ago, the federal government tried to kill our languages with boarding schools and assimilation, so that’s why I’m deeply encouraged by the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to set aside $16.7 billion to help tribes revitalize, protect, and preserve our Native languages. With these funds, I hope we can start replenishing Native speakers here at CTUIR and all around Indian Country.”

The plan was announced at the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit.

“Indigenous languages are central to our cultures, our life ways, and who we are as people,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said at the summit.

The plan calls for:

Expanding access to immersion language environments by:

Supporting 100 language nests, educational programs, that provide childcare and instruction in a Native language for children under the age of seven. 
Funding 100 new K-12 Native language immersion schools, educational institutions where at least 50% of instruction is conducted in a Native language. 
Supporting 37 centers dedicated to language preservation, instruction and cultural studies to revitalize and support language and culture, including those at Tribal Colleges and Universities.
Providing scholarships for families to support language and culture.
Bolstering community-led revitalization efforts by:

Supporting 100 mentor-apprentice programs—initiatives pairing fluent speakers with adult learners for intensive language transmission. 
Restructuring the way federal funds are allocated to support Tribal sovereignty and self-determination through a flexible funding model that flows money directly to Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations. 
Funding community-based summer, supplemental and after-school programs to increase Native language learning opportunities outside of traditional classrooms.
Developing, growing and sustaining Native language support networks by:

Recruiting and training 10,000 Native language teachers to meet the need for educators. 
Establishing a $100 million innovation fund to encourage Tribes, individuals and the private sector to develop new solutions for language revitalization through curriculum and technology.

Supporting technical assistance providers to create schools and programs, including those with expertise in urban Indian settings and with the Native Hawaiian Community.