[Senate Hearing 115-367]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 115-367
EXAMINING EFFORTS TO MAINTAIN AND
REVITALIZE NATIVE LANGUAGES FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
AUGUST 22, 2018
__________
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COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota, Chairman
TOM UDALL, New Mexico, Vice Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona JON TESTER, Montana,
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
STEVE DAINES, Montana CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
MIKE CRAPO, Idaho TINA SMITH, Minnesota
JERRY MORAN, Kansas
T. Michael Andrews, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Jennifer Romero, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on August 22, 2018.................................. 1
Statement of Senator Cortez Masto................................ 43
Statement of Senator Daines...................................... 4
Statement of Senator Hoeven...................................... 1
Statement of Senator Murkowski................................... 6
Statement of Senator Schatz...................................... 5
Statement of Senator Tester...................................... 4
Statement of Senator Thune....................................... 7
Statement of Senator Udall....................................... 2
Witnesses
Baird, Hon. Jessie Little Doe, Vice Chairwoman, Mashpee Wampanoag
Tribe.......................................................... 12
Prepared statement........................................... 14
Hovland, Hon. Jeannie, Commissioner, Administration for Native
Americans, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services........ 8
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Hummingbird, Lauren E., Graduate, Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi,
Cherokee Nation Immersion School............................... 32
Prepared statement........................................... 34
Rawlins, Namaka, Director, Strategic Partnerships and
Collaboration, Aha Punana Leo.................................. 18
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Sims, Christine, Ph.D., Director, American Indian Language Policy
Research and Teacher Training Center........................... 25
Prepared statement........................................... 27
Appendix
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL),
prepared statement............................................. 61
Barbry, John D., Director of Development & Programing, Education
Program, Language & Culture Revitalization Program, Tunica-
Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, prepared statement.................. 58
Barnes, Nancy, Juneau, AK , prepared statement................... 65
Begaye, Hon. Russell, President, Navajo Nation, prepared
statement...................................................... 60
Bowman, Dr. Jolene, President, National Indian Education
Association (NIEA), prepared statement......................... 67
Burr, Terri, Ahl'lidaaw Language Facilitator, Tsimshian Education
Department, prepared statement................................. 71
Cancuba Collective, prepared statement........................... 54
Dawson, Desa, ACTFL Past President; Director of World Language
Education, Oklahoma State Department of Education, prepared
statement...................................................... 54
Dewitt-Narino, Lisa Maria, prepared statement.................... 60
Doak, Ivy, Ph.D., Denton, TX; Former Executive Secretary, Society
for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas
(2008-2017), prepared statement................................ 57
Gettleman, Todd, Kealakekua, HI, prepared statement.............. 81
Greymorning, Dr. Neyooxet, prepared statement.................... 56
Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, prepared statement................... 64
Hayton, Allan, Language Revitalization Program Director, Doyon
Foundation, prepared statement................................. 50
Hayward, Amber Sterud, Director, Puyallup Tribal Language
Program; Zalmai Zahir Ph.D. Candidate, Linguistics University
of Oregon, Lushootseed Language Consultant, prepared statement. 50
Heaton, Raina Ph.D,, Linguistics, Assistant Professor of Native
American Studies; Assistant Curator of Native American
Languages, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History,
University of Oklahoma, prepared statement..................... 70
Kowalski, Sandra, Director of Indigenous Programs, Office of
Rural, Community and Native Education, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, prepared statement.................................. 72
Kroskrity, Paul V., Professor of Anthropology; Professor and
Chair, American Indian Studies, UCLA, prepared statement....... 69
Macaulay, Monica, President/Kristine Hildebrandt, Vice President,
Endangered Language Fund (ELF), prepared statement............. 56
Montler, Timothy, Distinguished Research Professor of
linguistics, Department of Technical Communication, University
of North Texas, prepared statement............................. 79
National Council for Languages and International Studies,
prepared statement............................................. 66
Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Tom Udall to:
Hon. Jeanie Hovland.......................................... 82
Dr. Christine Sims........................................... 81
Richards, Norvin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, prepared statement... 68
Sam, Paula, Enrolled Member, Northern Paiute (Gidutikad Band) of
the Fort Bidwell Reservation, prepared statement............... 70
Speas, Margaret, Professor Emerita of Linguistics, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, prepared statement..................... 61
Thornes, Tim, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Linguistics,
Department of English, Boise State University, prepared
statement...................................................... 79
Tuttle. Siri G., Ph.D., Director, Alaska Native Language Center,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, prepared statement............. 53
Whalen, Douglas H., Chair/Board of Directors, Endangered Language
Fund; Margaret P. Moss, Incoming Director, First Nations House
of Learning, University of British Columbia; and Daryl Baldwin,
Director, Myaamia Center, Miami University (Ohio), joint
prepared statement............................................. 71
Whitaker, Tyler A., Linguist, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana,
Language & Culture Revitalization Program (LCRP), Cultural &
Educational Resources Center (CERC) Library, prepared statement 80
Wilson, William H., Ph.D., prepared statement.................... 73
EXAMINING EFFORTS TO MAINTAIN AND
REVITALIZE NATIVE LANGUAGES FOR
FUTURE GENERATIONS
----------
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m. in room
628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Hoeven,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN HOEVEN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA
The Chairman. We will call this hearing to order. I would
like to thank everyone for attending and certainly thank all of
our witnesses and, of course, the outstanding Vice Chairman of
the Committee.
Senator Udall. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. So, the Committee today is holding an
oversight hearing to examine efforts to maintain and revitalize
Native languages for future generations. Native languages are
an ancient and distinct part of Native identity and culture and
have played a crucial role in our Nation's history.
The Native Code Talkers of World War I and World War II
helped save thousands of American and ally lives by using their
language to send coded messages during several military
campaigns. These codes were never broken by the enemy. Matter
of fact, I saw the movie. It was a tremendous movie. It was
written by a fellow I knew and grew up with, John Rice. Really
a powerful movie about the Code Talkers; really amazing what
they did.
Though these languages have been critical for Indian
Country and our Nation, of the many distinct Native languages
that have historically existed in this Country, over 200 have
become extinct within the past 400 years. Without the
initiatives created to preserve the remaining languages, more
of them would become extinct over the next few decades.
Congress has identified this need to preserve and
revitalize Native languages and has disavowed past policies
designed to eliminate languages and cultures. Through the
passage of the Native American Languages Act and the Esther
Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act, Congress
formalized the promotion of Native languages. These laws have
helped facilitate opportunities for Native communities to
learn, research, and preserve their languages, ultimately
strengthening their culture and their traditions.
Now, turning to our witnesses, we have with us this
afternoon the recently confirmed Commissioner of the
Administration for Native Americans, Ms. Jeannie Hovland.
Welcome.
Do you pronounce it Hoveland or Hovland?
Ms. Hovland. I pronounce it Hovland.
The Chairman. Okay. I thought so. I was misinformed. I
won't say by who. But I have some very good friends and they
pronounce it Hovland, and that's why I asked.
Ms. Hovland. It is kind of the Dakotas how we pronounce it,
Hovland.
The Chairman. That is right. My name is Hoeven and nobody
ever says Hoeven, it is Hooven and everything else under the
sun. But I thought maybe it was Hovland because I do have a
number of friends that have the same spelling.
So, this is your first time appearing before Congress since
confirmed. Thanks for being here. We look forward to working
with you very much.
Ms. Hovland. Thank you.
The Chairman. I want to welcome you and all of our
witnesses today.
Before I do that, because we are going to have some
different Senators doing some of the introductions, I am going
to turn to Senator Udall for his opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO
Senator Udall. Thank you so much, Chairman Hoeven. Really
appreciate your working with me on today's hearing on Native
languages. Native language revitalization has been a long-time
priority for me, and I appreciate the Committee highlighting
this issue.
I would also like to just recognize my former congressional
colleague.
The Chairman. We can't allow that.
Senator Udall. I will just say there is a good guy out
there, Congressman Bill Delahunt, back there, who served in the
House with me and probably several of the other members up
here.
Before I begin, I would like to welcome Dr. Christine Sims
of the University of New Mexico. Dr. Sims is a member of the
Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico and a leader in Native language
revitalization. Thank you very much, Dr. Sims, for being here
today and thank you for your very important work there out in
New Mexico.
I would also like to welcome Administration for Native
Americans Commissioner Jeannie Hovland to her first hearing
before the Committee. I look forward to hearing your plans for
your term as Commissioner. I know that Senator Thune has said
very nice things about you, but you probably already know that.
Native languages are not only crucial to the communities
that speak them, but they also have played an important role in
our shared American history. Like Senator Hoeven, I would like
to honor the work of the Code Talkers.
One notable example is the Navajo Code Talkers of World War
II. The Navajo recruits who arrived at Camp Pendleton were
tasked with developing a secret code using their Native
language. Without using any modern technology, Code Talkers
were able to develop and implement a secret code that is
attributed to saving countless lives of the allied troops and
civilians and securing our victory in the Pacific.
Today, in my home State of New Mexico, 23 pueblos and
Tribes speak seven major Native languages, each different and
distinct and reflecting the beauty of diversity of New Mexico
itself. The diversity of Native languages in New Mexico is a
microcosm of the vast diversity of languages throughout Indian
Country.
There are an estimated 200 Native languages currently
spoken in the United States. Some others have gone extinct, but
they are waiting to be brought back again. They all represent
some of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world, coming
from at least 29 different language families, and each serves
the irreplaceable role for its community of speakers. The
revitalization of Native language is crucial to the cultural
identity and sovereignty of Native communities throughout
Indian Country.
Today's hearing is a chance for us to highlight the
diversity of Native languages that exist and to ensure Federal
resources are supporting all aspects of Native language revival
and preservation.
Our witnesses here today represent this range and different
needs of four different Native communities on their unique
paths to language revitalization and maintenance: the Cherokee
language, the Hawaiian language, the Wampanoag language, and
the Keres language. Each of these languages is unique and
requires individualized resources, curriculum, and training to
support revitalization efforts.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, 74 Native languages will disappear
within the next decade if we don't take significant action.
This is why programs like the Esther Martinez Immersion Grants,
which I have supported throughout my service in both the House
and the Senate, are so vital.
The Esther Martinez program has helped revitalize 58
different Native languages and involved over 4,500 elders in
preserving languages, and it has helped over 12,000 youth to
maintain Native languages for future generations. The success
of this program is why I have sponsored S. 254, the Esther
Martinez Native Language Preservation Act, and that would
reauthorize the program until fiscal year 2023.
Native languages hold within them the culture, the history,
and the resiliency of Native communities throughout Indian
Country. My hope is that today's hearing is an important step
among many to support the revitalization of Native languages
for all Native communities.
Thank you to the panel for your valued work, and I look
forward to hearing the testimony, Mr. Chairman.
I see that Senator Thune has arrived, also. I said a good
word about you.
The Chairman. Thanks, Vice Chairman.
Before we turn to Senator Thune, I am going to turn to
Senator Daines for an opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. STEVE DAINES,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
Senator Daines. Mr. Chairman, first of all, thank you and
Ranking Member Udall. Thank you for having this hearing on this
important topic.
Native American culture and languages are cornerstones,
truly, of our national heritage, and that is why, in the last
Congress, Senator Schatz, Murkowski, Sullivan, and I authored
an amendment, which was subsequently enacted into law, to study
the benefits of Native language immersion education, a medium
which today's witnesses highlight in their testimonies.
Like many Indian Tribes across our Nation, Montana Tribes
are teaching their languages. The Crow, the Little Shell, the
Salish Tribes, for example, have developed language apps that
you can download on your smartphone. I often like to talk about
how technology can break down barriers to geography. These
innovative efforts are a way to harness technology to break
down generational language gaps and support these Tribes'
cultures.
It is also a real pleasure to welcome Ms. Jeannie Hovland
to this Committee. It is great to have a confirmed Commissioner
of the Administration for Native Americans at the Department of
Health and Human Services before this very Committee.
I will close by reinforcing just how important the topic of
today's hearing is. The United States didn't always promote
Tribes speaking their Native tongues; in fact, it was going the
opposite direction for quite some time, and some tribal elders
still remember firsthand that very dark time when the Federal
Government indeed did the opposite, because, as my Tribes tell
me back home in Montana, when you lose a language, you lose a
culture. I am glad we are discussing not just preserving Native
languages but revitalizing them for future generations.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Tester.
STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
Senator Tester. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank all the folks who are testifying here
today. I appreciate it. I look forward to this hearing.
It wasn't so long ago that kids were taken from their
homes, put in boarding schools, forbidden to speak their
language in an attempt to assimilate Native people into our
Country. The legacy of this policy still lives on today through
intergenerational trauma evidenced by generations of folks who
did not have the opportunity to learn their Native language.
We have a responsibility to do something about that, and
hopefully we will continue to assist in any way to repair the
damage that was done so many generations ago.
We know that language is intricately connected to culture,
tradition, ceremony, song. It is the lifeblood of people.
Without it, much is lost, and that is why it is of utmost
importance that we don't let these precious resources slip
away; that we do everything we can do to invest in
preservation.
We see the staggering statistics coming out of Indian
Country, and they are staggering; from high dropout rates to
low test scores to high suicide rates. Language is a key piece
to strengthen a people, and the Native American cultures around
our Country need to be strengthened. Investing in Native
language invests in that culture and it will help boost their
self-esteem; it helps boost their ability to be successful in
this world.
So, hopefully, especially you, Ms. Hovland, we can find out
some good ideas on what has worked and what hasn't, and how we
can move forward in a way that makes sense for Indian Country
to make them all they can be.
The Chairman. Senator Schatz.
STATEMENT OF HON. BRIAN SCHATZ,
U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Chairman Hoeven and Vice Chair
Udall, for your leadership in convening this hearing.
It is my honor and privilege to introduce one of the most
respected leaders in the fight to preserve and revitalize the
Hawaiian language. Her name is Namaka Rawlins, and we are lucky
that she is able to join our distinguished witness panel today.
Aloha, Namaka.
In 1982, Native Hawaiians were facing the imminent loss of
their language. For more than 80 years, the use of Hawaiian in
schools, both in conversation and as a medium for education,
was prohibited. The number of fluent speakers had dwindled to
just a few elders, combined with the isolated population of
Hawaiians living on Niihau, less than 50 of whom were under the
age of 18.
Inspired by the success of language nests overseas, a group
of Native Hawaiian educators pulled together and put forth the
idea of creating a preschool program that allowed Native
Hawaiian children to be educated exclusively in their Native
language. The first Aha Punana Leo preschool opened in 1984 and
it was a success.
Namaka has been part of this incredible group of educators
for more than two decades. Her leadership has ensured the
successful navigation of State and Federal legal and policy
obstacles to create an immersion program that educates students
from preschool through graduate school.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to visit some of
these schools and to see what is happening with my own eyes.
What is happening in Hawaiian immersion schools is truly
special. Students that would ordinarily be considered the most
likely to fail are succeeding at an unprecedented rate.
Since 1999, students attending Nawahi, where Namaka sits on
the board of directors, have an 85 percent college enrollment
rate, with some seniors earning upwards of 36 college credits
prior to graduation. These students are among the best and the
brightest across the State.
I could spend many more minutes of unallotted time listing
Namaka's many titles and accomplishments to maintain and
revitalize the Hawaiian language. She has worked hard at home,
across the Country, and around the world to help Native
communities maintain indigenous languages.
I thank you for being here today and for all you have done
for Hawaii. Your work has changed lives by helping children to
reach their full potential, and I look forward to learning more
from the hearing. Mahalo.
The Chairman. Senator Murkowski.
STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Murkowski. [Greeting in Native language], Mr.
Chairman. Thank you.
You all know me as Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, but my adopted
Tlingit name is Aan Shaawk'i, a name that I am very proud of,
Lady of the Land. I have come to have great respect for those
who are not only sharing their culture, but sharing their
languages, preserving their identity.
So being able to work with you and the Vice Chairman and so
many on this Committee to ensure that we look to our Native
cultural languages, our heritage languages with an eye towards
revitalization, what we can be doing is so very, very
important. We say it all the time, but I think when a Native
person knows their language, they know their culture, they know
who they are; it is part of their identity. We see that in
academic performance; we see it in social indicators. We just
see the value.
We, following Senator Schatz's comments, know what it is
means to lose languages at a rapid pace. The late Chief Marie
Smith Jones was the last full-blooded Eyak. She was the last
fluent speaker of the Eyak language. She was a fierce activist
for Native American rights. But when she passed in 2008, the
Eyak language went dormant.
Today, in Alaska, we have five ANA language grants. One
that I would like to just address very briefly here is a
preservation and maintenance grant that the community of
Igiugig is implementing, and they have a project that they have
entitled We All Speak Lake Iliamna Yup'ik. When they applied
for their grant, they figured that there were only 23 fluent
speakers of this dialect left that were still living.
In the past three years, this grant has taken
apprenticeships that are starting in the preschools, a
preschool immersion program teaching Yup'ik with the children
there, taught by a master, taught by an apprentice. We, too,
have the language nests, we call it Unglu, which is Yup'ik for
nest. It is taught by a speaker, an elder by the name of Annie
Wilson. Annie was born and raised there in Igiugig. She is
currently one of the last 23 fluent speakers that are there.
But, again, what we are seeing in the young children, what
we are seeing in the results coming out of the school,
measurements of academic success have been really
extraordinarily impressive. Igiugig School has a perfect five-
star rating on our Alaska School Performance Index. Our Igiugig
students perform at some of the highest levels in the State,
and we think that much of this can be traced back to, again, a
sense of identity, a sense of self, and truly a purpose.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the Committee hearing today
and for those who work so hard to preserve and revitalize our
Native languages.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Thune.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN THUNE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
Senator Thune. Chairman Hoeven and Vice Chairman Udall,
thank you for the opportunity to be here today.
I want to introduce Jeannie Hovland in just a minute, but
thank you for the attention of this subject. I think
preservation of our language and culture is such an important
part of our Country's heritage, so I appreciate your focus on
this and for giving me the privilege of being here today to
introduce a former member of my staff and the current
Commissioner for the Administration for Native Americans at the
Department of Health and Human Services, and that is Jeannie
Hovland.
Before I say a few words about Jeannie, I want to thank you
both and your staff and the members of this Committee for your
efforts during the confirmation process and getting her
installed in this important position.
Jeannie Hovland is an enrolled member of the Flandreau
Santee Sioux Tribe. She joined my staff in 2005. That was a
great find for our office and for me and for our staff. During
much of this time, Jeannie led outreach efforts to Native
American communities and with tribal leaders across South
Dakota, and, with nine Tribes spread across the State of South
Dakota, this was no small task.
I am sure, if you asked her, she could tell you the fastest
route from Sioux Falls to Standing Rock or from Mitchell to
Mission, but she spent many early mornings and late nights on
those roads, putting miles on her car and sometimes spending
time away from her children to ensure that folks living in
tribal communities heard from us and, more importantly, that we
heard from them.
Over the years, I consistently heard praise from tribal
leaders about Jeannie's hard work, praise for her presence at
tribal council meetings, visits to tribal programs, her
oversight work on Federal programs that are operating in tribal
communities. Over time, Jeannine also became an important
policy advisor and helped inform my work on tribal issues here
in the Senate. She left her mark on many important bipartisan
legislative items of note, including the Tribal Law and Order
Act and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, just to name a
few.
I think maybe most important, and the thing that often gets
overlooked, were the words of thanks from individual tribal
members who Jeannie helped: a tribal veteran needing assistance
working through the bureaucracy at the Indian Health Service or
the VA; a tribal program director in search of grant funding to
keep the doors open; a tribal rancher looking for answers from
the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
For Jeannie, there was no problem too large or too small.
She is undaunted by a challenge and believes profoundly there
is a solution to every problem, and I can think of no better
advocate for Indian Country than Jeannie.
As she continues carrying out her duties as Commissioner
for the Administration for Native Americans, I have no doubt
that the Committee will find that Jeannie is not only talented,
hard-working, honest, diligent, but she is also passionate
about finding solutions that will improve the lives of people
in our tribal communities.
So, Jeannie, thank you for all your great work that you
have done on behalf of Indian Country. I encourage you to keep
it up.
And I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and you, Mr. Vice Chairman,
for giving me the opportunity to speak today. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Thune.
Did I miss any opening statements? If not, we will turn to
our witnesses and we will begin with Commissioner Hovland.
STATEMENT OF HON. JEANNIE HOVLAND, COMMISSIONER, ADMINISTRATION
FOR NATIVE AMERICANS, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Ms. Hovland. Thank you, Senator Thune. That means so much.
I appreciate that you gave me the opportunity to have worked
for you in South Dakota and to work with the great Nations of
the Lakota, Dakota, Nakotas, so thank you. That means so much
to me and I am glad you are here today.
Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and members of the
Committee, it is my honor to testify before you about Native
American language preservation and maintenance. I had the
pleasure of meeting some of you during my confirmation process
just over a month ago. I have been eager and grateful to visit
our grantees and their communities. Seeing the diversity of
tribal nations firsthand is the best way to understand their
concerns and specific social, economic, and cultural contexts.
I attended our Native Youth Summit in Montana and visited
grantees in Hawaii and New Mexico. Next week I will join
Federal partners and nearly 150 experts and practitioners in
Oklahoma at the fifth annual Native American Language Summit.
Next month I will host my first Tribal Consultation for ACF and
travel to Alaska for the secretary's Tribal Advisory Committee.
These visits promote ANA's mission and goal of self-
sufficiency and cultural preservation for Native Americans. We
provide discretionary grants, training, and technical
assistance to Tribes, tribal organizations, nonprofits, and
Native American communities, and support Native American
languages, environmental regulatory enhancement, and social and
economic development strategies.
Language revitalization is essential for continuing Native
American culture and strengthening self-determination. Native
American values and traditions, which are a source of
resilience and cultural cohesion, are embedded in language.
Many of you are familiar with the important role Native
American Code Talkers played in the United States' victories in
World War I and World War II. Although these heroes were not
allowed to use their language in day-to-day life, their
languages were relied upon to communicate vital information. We
need to honor their sacrifice by keeping their languages alive.
The use of Native American languages has declined, but a
fundamental desire to maintain and revitalize Native languages
remains. In response, the Esther Martinez Native American
Languages Preservation Act amended NAPA to specifically target
grants for language immersion and restoration programs.
The three-year EMI projects have been funded for just over
a decade. We continually refine our processes to elicit
stronger applications and improve evaluation.
In fiscal year 2018, ANA strengthened its approach by
requiring that applicants describe a feasible monitoring and
outcome evaluation plan. In addition, all applicants must now
achieve one of four project outcomes: increased language
fluency, increased community member use of language learning
resources, language teachers certified, or increased capacity
to implement a language program.
Since 2010, ANA has held annual competitions for
preservation and maintenance and EMI language projects. The
funding we distribute for all program areas varies based on the
number of projects ending. For example, the total funding for
new EMI projects this year is just over $2 million. With this,
we are able to meet about 29 percent of new funding requested.
Congress requested that ANA support language funding at or
above the minimum of $12 million for Native languages overall
and $4 million for projects funded under EMI. We have met that
target annually and, in fiscal year 2018, we will again.
One of our current EMI grantees, the Cook Inlet Tribal
Council in Alaska, is operating a Yup'ik Language Nest.
Language nests are for the youngest learners, and these
children are in a full day, year-round Early Head Start
setting. When they transition to the Head Start classroom, they
continue to receive a minimum of 500 hours of instruction
solely in Yup'ik. The project also provides weekly family-
centered Yup'ik language instruction to parents and caregivers.
Another current EMI grantee, Sitting Bull College, received
startup funding in 2012 to hire and train staff and recruit
families for a Lakota immersion preschool on the Standing Rock
Reservation. In 2015, they received EMI funding to develop
language immersion classes and curriculum for children
kindergarten through third grade. The project also includes
intensive training for staff in language acquisition, immersion
techniques, rigorous parent involvement, and language learning.
We thank Congress for the additional funding provided to
ANA in recent years. These appropriations have funded five NLCC
projects in four States to build upon the successes of ANA's
short-term, project-based Native language funding and address
gaps in community coordination across the Native language
educational continuum.
During my tenure as Commissioner, I have three main goals
to strengthen all language programs: using ANA resources
efficiently without duplication; identifying and providing
outreach to lower capacity Tribes and communities that have
never had a language grant; and making materials more readily
available to use as sample resources.
I am thankful for the longstanding support of this
Committee. I look forward to working with Congress to reform
NAPA, including amending the Esther Martinez Native American
Languages Preservation Act.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I would be
happy to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hovland follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Jeannie Hovland, Commissioner,
Administration for Native Americans, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services
Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and Members of the Committee,
it is my honor to testify before you on behalf of the Department of
Health and Human Services concerning Native American language
preservation and maintenance. My name is Jeannie Hovland and I serve as
the Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans (ANA)
within the Administration for Children and Families. I had the pleasure
of meeting with some of you and your staff during my confirmation
process just over a month ago. As you may recall, I am a proud member
of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe located in South Dakota and worked
for Senator John Thune of South Dakota for nearly 13 years.
I am a proud proponent of our programs and I have been eager and
grateful to visit our grantees and their communities. Seeing the
diversity of tribal nations first hand is the best way to understand
their concerns and specific social, economic, and cultural context. I
have been able to spend time at our ANA Native Youth Summit in
Missoula, Montana, to visit some of our grantees on the Big Island and
Oahu in Hawaii, and in the Pueblos of Santa Ana, Cochiti, Isleta, and
Taos in New Mexico. Next week, I will travel to Midwest City, Oklahoma
to join our Federal partners at the Bureau of Indian Education and the
Department of Education's White House Initiative of American Indian and
Alaska Native Education in the fifth annual Native American Language
Summit. This year's Summit theme is ``Honoring the Gift of Native
American Languages'' and we expect nearly 150 experts and practitioners
to attend. Next month, I will host my first Tribal Consultation for the
Administration for Children and Families, meet with our Tribal Advisory
Committee, and travel to Fairbanks, Alaska for the Secretary's Tribal
Advisory Committee.
These visits are important for promoting ANA's mission and
underlying goal of self-sufficiency and cultural preservation for
Native Americans. We provide discretionary grants, training, and
technical assistance to tribes, tribal organizations, non-profits, and
Native American communities, including American Indians, Alaska
Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. We support
three program areas authorized under the Native American Programs Act
of 1974 (NAPA): Native American Languages, Environmental Regulatory
Enhancement, and Social and Economic Development Strategies.
We believe that language revitalization is essential for continuing
Native American culture and strengthening self-determination. Native
American values and traditions are embedded in language. These values
and traditions are a source of resilience and cultural cohesion that
connects us with past and future generations.
Many of you are familiar with the important role Native American
Code Talkers played in the success of the United States victories in
World War I and World War II. Although these heroes were not allowed to
use their language in day to day life, their languages were relied upon
to communicate vital information. Unfortunately, most of the code
talkers have passed away. We need to honor their sacrifice by keeping
their languages alive along with their legacy.
The use of Native American languages has declined for a variety of
reasons, including resistance to bilingual education in many states and
the basic fact that a majority of Native American students attend
English medium schools. However, there is still a fundamental desire to
maintain and revitalize native languages. In response, Congress
supported this effort by passing the Esther Martinez Native American
Languages Preservation Act of 2006. This law amended NAPA to
specifically target grants for language immersion and restoration
programs. These two methods show promise in creating fluent speakers
who, in turn, continue to revitalize, preserve, and maintain native
languages.
The three year Esther Martinez Initiative (EMI) projects have been
funded for just over a decade. We continually refine our application
and project reporting processes to elicit stronger applications and
better ways to document grantees' progress in meeting their project
objectives. With the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 funding opportunity
announcements for the EMI Program and Native American Language
Preservation and Maintenance Program, ANA strengthened its approach to
funding rigorous immersion and language acquisition programs through
the addition of the ANA Project Framework. In this framework, a new
project monitoring tools section requires the applicant to describe a
feasible monitoring and outcome evaluation plan. In addition, all
applicants must now achieve one of four project outcomes: increased
language fluency; increased community member use of language learning
resources; language teachers certified; or increased capacity to
implement a language program.
Since 2010, ANA has held two separate annual competitions for the
language projects, Native American Language Preservation and
Maintenance Program and EMI. Between 2010 and 2018, ANA received 843
applications for all Native American language projects. Of those, 155
applications were for EMI projects. The amount of funding we distribute
for all program areas varies based on the number of projects ending.
For example, the total funding for new EMI projects this year is just
over $2 million. With this, we are able to meet approximately 29
percent of funding requested in new applications.
Congress appropriated approximately $54 million to ANA for FY 2018,
of which we awarded approximately $45.7 million through competitive
funding opportunity announcements. Congress has requested, in its
explanatory statement accompanying the FY 2018 appropriations, that ANA
continue to support language funding at or above the minimum of $12
million for native languages overall and $4 million for projects funded
under EMI. We have met that target annually. In FY 2018, we estimate
providing $4.3 million for EMI grants, $5.86 million for preservation
and maintenance grants, and $1.9 million for Native Language Community
Coordination, for a combined total of over $12 million in our language
specific funding area. Approximately $31.6 million was awarded for our
social and economic development strategies, and just under $2 million
was awarded for environmental and regulatory enhancement grants. The
balance of our funds was spent on contracts to support technical
assistance and grantee support.
I would like to share information about the success of two of our
current EMI grants. One is the Cook Inlet Tribal Council in Alaska.
They are operating a Yup'ik Language Nest. Language nests are for the
youngest learners, and these children aged birth to three are part of a
full day, year round Early Head Start setting. When they transition to
the Head Start classroom, they will continue to receive the minimum of
500 hours of instruction solely in Yup'ik. The project also provides
weekly family-centered Yup'ik language instruction to parents and
caregivers, and monthly referrals to cultural activities in the
community. Our regional program manager of Tribal Head Start programs
was able to visit them recently and was impressed with what they have
been able to achieve. Tribal Head Start grantees have consistently
requested additional resources to implement immersion, and ANA funding
has been used to enhance Head Start services when resources are
unavailable from the Office of Head Start.
In 2012, ANA provided start-up funding to Sitting Bull College for
a Lakota immersion preschool on the Standing Rock Reservation. During
the first three years, the college was able to hire and train staff as
well as recruit families to be part of the immersion school. After the
important progress of this project, they applied and received EMI
funding in 2015 to develop language immersion classes and curriculum
for kindergarten through third grade. They have chosen to follow the
Montessori Method, and therefore, the project also includes intensive
training for staff in Montessori methodology, language acquisition,
immersion techniques, rigorous parent involvement, and language
learning. In addition, the college is seeking North Dakota
accreditation for a kindergarten through third grade school.
We thank Congress for the additional funding provided to ANA in
recent years. With these appropriations, we funded five Native Language
Community Coordination Demonstration (NLCC) projects to build upon the
successes of ANA's short-term, project-based native language funding.
The five projects are located in Alaska, California, Montana, and two
in Oklahoma. The NLCC is intended as a demonstration that will address
gaps in community coordination across the native language educational
continuum. In 2016, ANA staff held the first cohort convening for team
building, goal setting, and baseline measure development. In 2017, we
developed both cohort-wide and project-specific indicators. Recipients
were actively engaged in deciding which measures would be indicators of
success for their community and across the cohort. We are now beginning
the third year of this demonstration project and have worked with our
staff and contractors to begin setting the stage for the Report to
Congress which will be completed at the end of this demonstration.
Currently, ANA has four geographically focused technical assistance
centers. This year, ANA awarded an additional contract to specifically
support NLCC projects. The virtual NLCC Technical Assistance Center
assists recipients in maximizing language revitalization efforts. The
Center launched a website that connects the five NLCC recipients and
provides native language resources, tools, and community engagement.
The website is also available to all ANA native language grantees and
the public.
During my tenure as commissioner, I have three main goals to
strengthen our language program:
1.) Ensuring that we are using ANA resources the best we can
without duplication.
2.) Making sure we identify and provide outreach to lower
capacity tribes/communities that have never had a language
grant.
3.) Making materials more readily available to use as sample
resources by cataloguing them, and, with the permission of the
tribe or entity that developed them, sharing them more broadly.
We are thankful for the long standing support of this Committee in
achieving the mission of ANA. We look forward to working with Congress
to reform the Native American Programs Act, including the amendments to
the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act to (1)
authorize the transmission of products developed under Native American
language grants to the National Museum of the American Indian in
Washington D.C., (2) incorporate evaluation practices with current
principles to measure effectiveness of outcomes or impact to identify,
implement, and sustain effective programs and practices, and (3)
eliminate duplicative and ineffective procedures related to publication
of annual funding opportunity announcements that currently require ACF
to engage in a rulemaking process under the Administrative Procedure
Act prior to publishing annual funding opportunity announcements to the
public.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and I would be happy
to answer any questions.
The Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner Hovland. Again, we
look forward to working with you in your new capacity.
Next we will hear from the Honorable Jessie Baird, Vice
Chairwoman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe, Mashpee,
Massachusetts. Thanks for being here.
STATEMENT OF HON. JESSIE LITTLE DOE BAIRD, VICE CHAIRWOMAN,
MASHPEE WAMPANOAG TRIBE
Ms. Baird. [Greeting in Native language.] Chairman Hoeven
and Vice Chairman Udall and honorable members of the Committee,
on behalf of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, thank you for holding
this hearing.
I am Jessie Little Doe Baird. I introduced myself in the
language given to my people by Creator. I am the Vice
Chairwoman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and come from a line
of Women Chiefs. I have a Master of Science in linguistics from
MIT, I was named a McArthur Fellow for my work in linguistics,
and I serve on the American Academy of Arts and Science
Commission on Language Learning. Most importantly, I am a
teacher of the Wampanoag language.
Our people are direct descendants of first Indian Nation
that helped the Pilgrims in 1620. My blood and bones come from
the land you know as Mashpee. We were the first Indian Nation
to adopt an alphabetic writing system in 1632, and the first
Bible published in the New World was printed in Wampanoag
language.
Nevertheless, pressure from non-Indian settlement of our
aboriginal lands eventually robbed us of our ability to speak
our own language. Seven generations later, we have used these
written tools left by our ancestors to heal this wound.
In 1993, we established the Wopanaak Language Reclamation
Project. Working with my colleagues at MIT, I worked to recover
lost portions of our language and began teaching our language
to other Wampanoag citizens.
We are the first Tribe to reclaim a language with no living
speakers in history. We have trained two credentialed Wampanoag
linguists and we have over 15 certified language teachers. We
are developing a dictionary that currently holds over 12,000
entries and curriculum for language acquisition. We have
immersion language camps, schools that teach in our language,
and community language classes.
My Nation could not have accomplished these things without
Federal assistance. ANA and Esther Martinez funding made it
possible to develop a core team of fluent speakers and
certified teachers who have developed language programs and
services to meet the needs of our Nation. Continued funding is
crucial.
The Federal Government also helped by setting aside a
federally protected Reservation for us. Having a Reservation
allowed us to open our own tribal school. Here, Wampanoag
children attend a tribally-run preschool and kindergarten where
they are taught in our language.
It would be nearly impossible in an off-Reservation public
school to exercise this level of cultural sovereignty. We pray
that our lands remain in trust so that we may continue this
vital work.
The interconnectedness of our language and our land is more
fundamentally explained by our word ``nutahkeem,'' which
loosely translated means ``my land,'' but literally means ``my
land that is not separate from my body.'' In our language,
there is no other way to express ``my land.'' Another of our
words, ``nupunuhsham,'' means two things: ``I have fallen
down'' and ``I have lost my land rights,'' that my feet, part
of my body, which is also my land, have also been removed from
under me. Our land and our language are inextricably tied to
one another and our ultimate survival as a people.
Our language provides our children with tools to live a
productive and satisfying life. There is a correlation between
language immersion and positive outcomes in graduation rates
and protective social factors against addiction, depression,
and suicide.
There are many ways that our trustee can help us improve
and advance this vitally important work. In particular, I
recommend several initiatives.
One, provide continuation funding as an extension of ANA
and Esther Martinez funding pools; two, provide continuous
teacher fluency funding so that we can continue to grow our
immersion teacher pool; three, provide Federal funding to
enhance cooperative relationships between LEAs and TEAs to help
bring expert Native speakers into public school systems serving
Native children; four, encourage both SAMHSA and IHS to
incorporate mother languages into their toolbox as evidence-
based treatment tools; five, leverage dollars from the ACF's
Child Care Development Fund to create immersion child care
centers; six, provide funding for on-Reservation immersion
programs to foster immersion teacher certification and
curriculum development; seven, very important, create a
national online curriculum clearinghouse to organize by
language family; and eight, finally, enact Federal legislation
giving Tribes the right to develop tribal education materials
for Tribe-State education plans.
In sum, the story of America and how we became one great
Nation is a story woven from many different peoples and many
different languages. The Wampanoag language is an important
thread in that history. For us, the preservation of our
language is the preservation of ourselves, and we are now able
to properly introduce ourselves to our ancestors once again
when we leave this world.
Thank you, Committee, and I welcome any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Baird follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Jessie Little Doe Baird, Vice Chairwoman,
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
Good Day.
I am Jessie Little Doe Baird. I introduced myself in the language
given to my People by the Creator. I am the Vice Chairwoman of the
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and I come from a line of Women Chiefs. I have
a Masters in Science Degree in linguistics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and in 2010 I was honored to be named as a
McArthur Fellow, which came with a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation fellowship in recognition of my efforts in reclaiming the
Wampanoag language. \1\ I am a teacher of the Wampanoag language and
since 2014, I have sat as an appointed Commissioner on the Commission
on Language Learning, created by The American Academy of Arts and
Sciences in response to a bipartisan request from Congress to study the
nation's language education needs. \2\ Our people are direct
descendants of the first Indian nation to reach out a hand to help the
Pilgrims in 1620. My blood and bones come from the very land that you
know as Mashpee. When I die, just like my ancestors, my body will
return to the land, very literally returning home to join the bones of
my Ancestors. This is the Mashpee way.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ ``Jessie Little Doe Baird is a linguist who is reviving a long-
silent language and restoring to her Native American community a vital
sense of its cultural heritage . Through painstaking research,
dedicated teaching, and contributions to other groups struggling with
language preservation, Baird is reclaiming the rich linguistic
traditions of indigenous peoples and preserving precious links to our
nation's complex past.'' MacArthur Foundation website: https://
www.macfound.org/fellows/24/
\2\ In 2014, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and
Representatives requested that the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences undertake a study of the nation's language education needs to
answer two questions: (1) How does language learning influence economic
growth, cultural diplomacy, the productivity of future generations, and
the fulfillment of all Americans? (2) What actions should the nation
take to ensure excellence in all languages as well as international
education and research, including how we may more effectively use
current resources to advance language attainment?-- In response, the
Academy created the Commission on Language Learning. The Commission's
final report, entitled America's Languages: Investing in Language
Learning for the 21st Century, provides recommendations to ``improve
access to as many languages as possible, for people of every age,
ethnicity, and socioeconomic background.'' American Academy of Arts and
Sciences website: https://www.amacad.org/content/Research/
researchproject.aspx?d=21896
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chairman Hoeven and Vice Chairman Udall, and Honorable Members of
the Committee, on behalf of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe I thank you for
holding this hearing and for the focus you are bringing to the
preservation of Native languages. We appreciate that you understand
that our language is inextricably intertwined with our culture, our
history, and our sovereignty. We know you understand that the story of
the Mashpee Wampanoag is an integral part of the story of the United
States, and that the preservation of our language is important not just
to us, but to the preservation of the collective history of all
Americans.
The Wampanoag was the first Indian nation to adopt an alphabetic
writing system in 1632. The first bible printed in the New World was
printed in the Wampanoag language in 1663.
The largest corpus of Native Written documents in North America are
written in Wampanoag. Yet after relentless pressure from non-Indian
settlement of our aboriginal lands and the pressure that came with it
to interact with the non-Indian community around us in English,
including assimilation efforts such as the Carlisle Indian Boarding
School, we were robbed of the ability to speak our own language. For
six generations we could not introduce ourselves, or speak to our
ancestors, in our own language.
But today, seven generations later, we have used those written
tools left by our Ancestors to heal this wound, as we are the first
American Indians to have reclaimed a language with no living speakers.
We started in 1993 when we created a long-term strategic plan that
culminated in the establishment of the Wopanaak Language Reclamation
Project. I initially worked with linguists at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology to begin the recovery of the language, learning
from the Wampanoag bible and other historical Native Wampanoag written
documents, and drawing on correspondence with other related Algonquian
languages and linguistic principles to fill in the gaps. As I reclaimed
my own language, I began to work with other Wampanoag citizens to teach
them the language as well. After 24 years of planning and hard work, we
have succeeded in recovering our language--we are the first to reclaim
a language with no living speakers. In the process, we created the only
inter-tribal cooperative project for the tribes of the Wampanoag. We
have trained and produced two credentialed Wampanoag linguists, and we
have over fifteen certified language teachers. We are developing a
dictionary that currently includes over 12,000 entries, and a
curriculum for second language acquisition of adult learners. We have a
three-week summer youth program for ages 5 to 13, and schools that
teach our children in Wampanoag. We have a family immersion language
camp, and community language classes that are currently held in
Mashpee, Aquinnah, Plymouth, and Boston.
The Wampanoag Nation and Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project
could not have accomplished these things without vital partnerships
with the Federal Government. The Administration for Native American
language funding and the Esther Martinez Native American Languages
Protection Act funding have made possible our ability to develop a core
team of fluent speakers and certified teachers who in turn have
developed curriculum for a myriad of language programs and services to
meet the needs of our Nation. Continued funding for these programs is
absolutely crucial the preservation of first American languages that
are at risk.
I want to underscore that the federal government also played a
crucial role in helping us preserve our language when in 2015 it set
aside a federally-protected reservation on which we are able to engage
in true self-determination. Having a reservation allows us to provide a
school setting under tribal law that provides appropriate culturally-
based education for our children. Here, Wampanoag children are able to
attend a tribally-run pre-school and kindergarten where our students
are taught in the Wampanoag language and by means of curriculum and
teacher certification as determined by the tribe rather than the State.
This year we will be adding a first grade class. This level of language
instruction would be nearly impossible in an off-reservation public
school environment and we are praying that our lands remain in trust in
order to continue this work.
The interconnectedness of our language and our land is even more
fundamentally explained by our word ``nutahkeem'', which loosely
translated means `my land', but is better understood as ``my land that
is not separate from my body''. In our language, there is no other way
to express, `my land'. Another of our words--``nupunuhsham'' means both
`I have fallen down', and, `I have lost my land rights', that my feet
(part of my body/which is also my lands) have been removed from me. Our
land and our language are inextricably tied to one another, and to our
ultimate survival as a people.
When we teach in our language, we honor all of our Mothers and
Fathers who came before us. We also are the Mothers and Fathers who are
making a way forward for our own children. We are providing them with
the tools to live a productive and satisfying Wampanoag life. Federal
programs are absolutely vital to the protection of Native American
languages, the initiatives they fund are the seeds than can be grown to
mightier vines with some additional efforts.
We know there is a correlation between language immersion teaching
and positive outcomes in graduation rates, higher education, and
protective social factors against addiction, depression, and suicide.
There are so many ways that the federal government, our trustee, can
help us improve and advance the vitally important work of language
protection. In particular, I would like to recommend several
initiatives:
Provide continuation funding as an extension of ANA and
Esther Martinez funding pools. Those tribes who demonstrate
effective work to their program funding officers should be able
to continue the work. Especially for small tribes that lack
robust economic development opportunities, outside funding is
key to continuing the hard work of language staff. For example,
the current ANA language funding cycle is no longer than three
years. Without continuation funding, the work is likely to
halt.
Provide speaker pipeline funding for language programs. If
we are to continue to grow our investment in a speaker
population from K-12, we need fluent speaking teachers. I can
tell you from my own work, this happens when a Master and
Apprentice model is employed, where a fluent speaker spends a
minimum of 25 hours per week with an apprentice speaker in an
immersed language setting. This schedule yields a speaker that
is at least an intermediate high speaker on the ACTFL (American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) scale. These
speakers then become our certified instructors and are able to
deliver core subject curriculum in the target language.
Immersion schools can then reliably add grades with trained,
fluent speakers.
Fund cooperative relationships between Local Education
Authorities and Tribal Education Authorities where language is
concerned. The local school is one of the most effective tools
to be leveraged as a partner in Native language maintenance and
growth. Within a given local district, the expert speakers of
local languages could enter the school system as tribally
certified experts. This would ensure that youth are being
provided with the best possible language instructors. This is
exactly the case for my language where we have partnered with
the local Mashpee School District and our language project
staff provides tribally certified language instructors.
Students in the Mashpee High School may take Wopanaot8aok to
meet their world language requirement. Tribes need to be
supported financially in these partnerships.
Encourage both SAMHSA and the Indian Health Service to
incorporate Mother languages into their toolboxes as evidence-
based treatment tools. We are currently facing a massive opioid
epidemic that is wreaking havoc on Native Community
populations, both at the youth and adult level, as well as
extremely high rates of suicide and alcoholism. Since we know
that traditional ceremony and language provide strong
protective factors against suicide, drug use, and alcoholism,
and that language is being incorporated in Tribal Action Plans
to address these issues across Indian Country, language must be
incorporated into our treatment methodology paradigm and
designated as an evidence-based tool in order to qualify for
funding under many prevention and treatment grant
opportunities.
Leverage a pool of resource dollars from the Administration
for Children and Families current Child Care Development Fund.
A portion of the current program budgets to tribes could create
immersion childcare nests with little additional effort on the
part of the government and ensure that a wider number of babies
have the advantage of heritage language as early as possible.
Encourage tribes to exercise the sovereignty provided by
their trust lands. Congress should provide funding to assist
Tribes in developing their own immersion teacher certification
processes and cover curriculum development staff in order to
provide on-reservation immersion schools.
Empower national American Indian Language experts. With your
support and leadership, we could easily act to leverage
national American Indian Language experts to create a national
online curriculum clearing house organized by language family.
This would be an invaluable resource of curriculum tools
available to language teachers for all Native American
Languages.
Provide federal legislation giving tribes the right to
develop tribal educational materials for tribe-state education
plans. While States have the latitude to create tribe-state
education plans, States have the ultimate authority over
whether they enter into these plans, the tribes they consult,
and what the plans looks like. Federal dollars that require the
Tribe to be the lead in crafting the tribal service portion of
these plans makes good sense and would leverage both state
education dollars that come from the federal budget as well as
local education resources.
In conclusion, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify
today, and for your interest in the protection of Native languages. The
story of America and how we became who we are today as one great Nation
is a story woven from many different peoples and many different
languages, all critical to our understanding of who we are. The study
and preservation of our language is a critical thread, as important to
the preservation and understanding of the fabric of American history as
any other. And of course for us the preservation of our language
ultimately is the key to preservation of ourselves. With our language,
we are once again able to properly introduce ourselves to our Ancestors
when we pass from this world into the next.
The Chairman. Thank you, Vice Chairman Baird.
Next we will hear from Ms. Rawlins. She is Director,
Strategic Partnerships and Collaboration, Aha Punana Leo,
Hawaii.
The hurricane that was approaching Hawaii, have you heard
what the status is?
Ms. Rawlins. We were talking about that earlier with our
Senator Schatz. We are watching, got up early this morning and
started to kind of track the hurricane. I understand it was
downgraded to a category 4 only because it is one mile below a
category 5.
The Chairman. When I saw, they were saying cat 5.
Ms. Rawlins. Yes.
The Chairman. We will hope and pray for the best there.
Ms. Rawlins. Yes. Thank you.
The Chairman. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF NAMAKA RAWLINS, DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
AND COLLABORATION, AHA PUNANA LEO
Ms. Rawlins. [Greeting in Native language.] Greetings,
Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall. Aloha, Senator Schatz and
members of this distinguished Committee. Aloha. Warm greetings.
My name is Namaka Rawlins and I am a specialist for the Aha
Punana Leo, and I will be sharing the efforts of our work from
Hawaii.
The three entities that I represent here are part of a
larger picture of Hawaii, and even a larger picture nationally
for schools that are teaching in our Native American languages,
that are teaching the subjects of math and science and reading
and such, history.
The Native American language immersion medium schooling is
the most effective method in language revitalization, and I
want to say to all of you that I am so honored to be here to
speak before this Committee. I also want to acknowledge the
distinguished panel that I sit with this afternoon.I also want
to acknowledge Senator McCain and his work in 1990 in
establishing the Native American Languages Act that has been
the piece of legislation that has helped us move our languages
forward towards a living language, and I have to recognize that
because it has been this body, this Senate Committee, very
important Committee on Indian Affairs that has been helping us.
I appreciate all of the opening remarks that the Senators
provided from your States in supporting our work here,
Senators. I really, really appreciate that.
So, I have provided my written testimony and I just want to
kind of highlight a few things because I think there is more
that can be done, and it can just be support from this
Committee, because what we are finding is that while the
immersion method is the best practice for language
revitalization, there is insufficient understanding of its
merits among mainstream educators, those that control the
environment for our children's education.
So, one major misconception is that children attending
immersion schools will not be able to speak English. This is
not the case. As we have seen over the last many, many years,
since 1999, all of our students at Nawahi graduate English
proficient.
The majority of our Native language immersion schools are
with our students that are identified as at-risk. So, for
example, the enrollment at Nawahi is 96 percent Native
Hawaiian, and 70 percent of our students are eligible for free
and reduced lunch. So, in Hawaii's mainstream schools, at-risk
children are likely to drop out or, if they graduate, not
continue to post-high.
Native American language immersion medium benefits exceeds
revitalization goals. Our parents are also learning, along with
our children, and they were recognized by our State board of
education as active participants in their children's education.
It was due to the efforts of our parents that the preschool to
graduate school, the P20 Hawaiian Medium Education Program
exists today.
There are 180,000 public school students. Twenty-six
percent are Native Hawaiians, and yet only 9 percent of the
teaching force are Native Hawaiians. However, at Nawahi, the
student population is 96 percent Native Hawaiians and 97
percent of the teaching force are Native Hawaiians. So, growing
your own teachers is very vital in language revitalization and
maintenance.
The Native American Languages Act provides the framework to
ensure and support the survival of Native American languages.
It is the Congress that can help to assist us in supporting the
efforts being done in communities, by allowing statutory
flexibility to align and support best practices.
I am here to answer any questions. Mahalo nui.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Rawlins follows:]
Prepared Statement of Namaka Rawlins, Director, Strategic Partnerships
and Collaboration, Aha Punana Leo
Greeting
Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, Senator Schatz representing
my own home state of Hawaii, and all other Senators on this
distinguished Committee on Indian Affairs, warm aloha to each and every
one of you.
My name is Namaka Rawlins. I am one of twelve children raised on
the Keaukaha Hawaiian Homestead, lands restricted for Native Hawaiians.
I am the Outreach Specialist of the `Aha Punana Leo, Inc. and the
Liaison of the state Hawaiian language college and its laboratory
school. These entities work together and represent Hawai`i's only P-20
vertical alignment of the Hawaiian language medium education system.
P-20 refers to an educational pipeline from early childhood through
to the doctorate all taught through the Native Hawaiian language. Our
consortium is the oldest, largest and most developed integrated Native
American language system. We are part of a larger effort within our
state that serves over 3,000 students preschool to grade 12 totally
through Hawaiian.
I am also Vice President of the National Coalition of Native
American Language Schools and Programs. Our National Coalition provides
mutual support among immersion programs and schools operating in 17
states, with over 1,000 students in languages other than Hawaiian.
There is a strong grassroots movement in Native communities nationwide
to create more schools and programs of this sort.
Focus of Testimony Is Academic and Social Outcomes
Shortly after being elected Senator Schatz visited our program. He
encouraged us to collect information on our outcomes beyond our
successes in saving our language and culture. Here I will focus on the
sorts of information that Senator Schatz has urged us to collect. I
will provide an addendum later with more detailed information on our
Hawaiian language and culture revitalization efforts and the National
Coalition.
Definition: Native American Language Medium/Immersion
I want to state that the three Hawaiian entities which I represent
are but part of a larger picture in Hawai`i, and a still larger picture
nationally of schools that teach through Native languages. That is my
testimony will be on schools and programs that teach math, reading,
history etc. through Native languages to both children who come to
school knowing the language and those who enter knowing only English.
This approach is often called ``Native American language immersion
schooling'' or ``Native American language medium schooling''. Native
American language medium/immersion is the method that linguists and
other scientists have found to be the most effective in actually
reversing the loss Native American languages as living first languages.
Students who graduate from our Hawaiian language medium school are
raising their own children speaking Hawaiian, something that had
happened in our community since the early 1900s.
I am honored to be here with you and to sit on a panel with such
knowledgeable witnesses. This committee has been the entity that has
stood up for our languages. I especially want to acknowledge the
leadership of Senator McCain of Arizona who introduced the Native
American Languages Act (NALA) in 1990, a landmark piece of legislation
authored and approved in a bipartisan manner from this Committee.
I mention that history, Senators, because this committee has been
the driving force to help restore our languages in a larger nation
where there is little understanding of distinctive needs of schooling
through Native American languages. This committee and its bipartisan
outreach is the one that has the most access to understanding the
distinctiveness of our needs and assure integration into the larger
body of federal law.
English Acquisition
While Native American language medium/immersion education is best
practice for language revitalization and maintenance, there is an
insufficient understanding of its merits among educators and others
influencing the learning environments of Native children. One major
misunderstanding is that children in these schools will not be able to
speak English. We have had students graduating with total Hawaiian
medium education since 1999. All have been as proficient in spoken and
written English as their peers graduating from total English medium
high schools. Within our National Coalition, I have never heard of a
student in a Native American medium/immersion school that has not been
able to speak, read, write English upon reaching age 18 and moving to
college or the workforce. Our methodology is similar to that used to
teach English in Nordic countries such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden,
Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Finland.
``At Risk'' Students Core of Our Enrollment
The enrollment both in Hawai`i and in the National Coalition
schools is heavily skewed to ``at risk students''. For example, in our
P-12 laboratory school Nawahiokalani?opu?u, the enrollment is 97
percent Native Hawaiian with 70 percent free and reduced lunch eligible
status. Almost all students use non-standard Pidgin English or Hawaiian
in their homes--that is they fit the federal definition of ``Limited
English speakers''. In addition, our laboratory school is located in
one of two districts in our state identified as having the most
educational and social challenges. Most members schools in the National
Coalition are located on reservations with large numbers of Native
students who come from dire social and economic situations.
No High School Dropouts
In the local English medium schools in Hawai`i, ``at risk''
students are those expected to drop out or if they graduate from high
school do not pursue post high education. Senators, Native American
language medium/immersion education has produced outstanding results
relative to high school graduation and college attendance rates. Our
Hawaiian language consortium's demonstration school Nawahiokalani`opu`u
has had a rate of 100 percent high school graduation from its first
class in 1999. Its college attendance rate directly from high school is
over 80 percent.
In our laboratory school, all students have the same curriculum
regardless of their educational status. Our curriculum combines college
preparatory courses taught through Hawaiian plus work on the land and
sea that connects to our Native Hawaiian traditions. We value the
student who decides to seek out a life career in traditional Hawaiian
farming, hunting, and fishing or music just as much as the student who
goes on to become a doctor or lawyer. All students are expected to
serve their community through the Hawaiian perspective based on
language and culture.
The results I have described above regarding English proficiency,
academic achievement and community commitment is from the data we have
collected over these many years. Similar results are being realized
among schools and programs teaching totally or primarily through a
Native American language throughout our National Coalition schools.
Early Reading Advantages
At the Punana Leo language nest preschools, we teach our 3 and 4
year olds to read Native Hawaiian starting with chanted syllables. Our
pre-K children can read single unfamiliar words, sentences and short
paragraphs the year before entering kindergarten.
Another factor to early reading is the Hakalama, the Hawaiian
writing system. Like the writing system of other Native American
languages, the Hawaiian writing system is highly systematic. One letter
one sound. English spelling is highly irregular. Many sounds per
letter; many letters per sounds. The early reading skills we can easily
teach through Hawaiian or another Native American language cannot be
easily taught in English until two years later in grade 1. Through our
National Coalition we are sharing best practices regarding reading
instruction through Native American languages.
Members of the National Coalition are reporting the same results
for early reading through their own languages.
Early reading is a huge advantage. Once a child can read in one
language it is easy to learn to read in another language. A student who
is a good reader in a Native American language can easily transfer that
reading skill to English and other languages. We have evidence for that
in our laboratory school where our students study in addition to
Hawaiian and English, Japanese, Latin and the most recent addition of
Mandarin Chinese.
High Bilingualism and the Brain--Cognitive Advantage
Scientist tell us that knowing two languages at a highly proficient
level has a positive effect on the brain. That is students who are
highly proficient in two languages have a cognitive advantage. This
cognitive advantage affects the learning of mathematics, science,
social science, third languages, and other academic subjects.
Scientific research has also shown that they have a high level of
``executive control'' in their thinking process, that is they can
concentrate better.
Senators, we know that maintaining and revitalizing traditional
languages at a very high level of proficiency has positive academic and
social effects. Also, maintaining and revitalizing our traditional
languages contributes to distinct Native identities. However, that
knowledge and awareness of best practices is not widespread among the
mainstream educators who hold power over our children's schooling. Our
challenge is overcoming administrative and other institutional
barriers. These barriers prevent the high level of proficiency in the
Native American language needed to produce the cognitive advantage as
the base for further learning including English.
Flexibility Key To Unleashing Power of Parents
One size fits all education is an obstacle to advancing and
developing Native American language medium/immersion education. The key
is flexibility that allows the parents and local language oriented
community members to move the program forward. Parents taking on
responsibility for its development is a huge aspect of a Native
language medium/immersion educational effort. This is why Native
American language medium/immersion education has resulted in major
social change in communities. Every single parent and family member
plays a crucial and important role.
In Hawaiian medium education we have witnessed families who are
positively impacted by our program. Parents work to learn the language
and become teachers. It is not possible to import teachers from out-of-
state as we do for community schools taught in the medium of English.
Our parents have to work together to fix and clean classrooms, operate
fundraisers, and provide support for sports and cultural activities.
Our parents have to figure out how to develop books and teaching
materials on their own as they cannot be imported from elsewhere in
order to support Hawaiian language learning.
The non-profit where I work, the?Aha Punana Leo, was founded in
1983, the same year that Senator Andrews of North Dakota was able to
establish a permanent Senate Committee of Indian Affairs. We began with
no money. Our organization surveyed the number of children aged 18 and
under statewide with fluency in our language. There were less than 50-
37 to be exact. It was also illegal in Hawaii for our language to be
used in school, a hold over from a 1896 law. We moved forward to
establish language nest preschools and from there full preschool to
high school programs and then a Hawaiian language college with its own
teacher preparation program through Hawaiian. We started with parents
laying cement, creating simple books, supporting teachers by bringing
in different cultural plants and fish, by studying our languages and
making the decision to go to college.
NALA Alignment Crucial To Moving Forward
The Native American Languages (NALA) policy that your committee
established in 1990 has been a key tool in the growth of schools and
immersion language programs. NALA helped propel our movement to reclaim
and revitalize our indigenous language. Yet, the reality is that most
federal educational and other key legislation affecting our Native
communities are not properly aligned with NALA.
Senators, members of this important Committee, I ask that you
continue your good work, your strong bipartisan leadership, on behalf
of our Native American language revitalization and maintenance efforts.
I urge that you use your unique strengths as a bipartisan group to move
other committees to align their work and legislation to NALA, the
Native American Languages Act. I urge that you inform them of best
practices that have emerged from Native American language medium and
immersion schools and that those best practices be referenced in
legislation and policy as well.
Attachment
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chairman. Thank you.
Next, we will turn to Dr. Christine Sims, Director of
American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher Training
Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Dr. Sims.
STATEMENT OF CHRISTINE SIMS, Ph.D., DIRECTOR,
AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGE POLICY RESEARCH AND
TEACHER TRAINING CENTER
Dr. Sims. Thank you. [Greeting in Native language.]
Greetings from Acoma Pueblo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and
distinguished members of the Committee, for your invitation to
come and speak to you about critical issues that affect not
only our indigenous peoples of New Mexico, but throughout our
Nation.
The American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher
Training Center actually came out of support from this
Committee I would say probably in 2003, when I came and
testified for the first time before this Committee about the
need for resource support for Tribes who were beginning to
initiate some of the first language immersion programs in the
Southwest.
Our Center came into being in 2008 and it still continues
as a resource to Tribes by providing them technical assistance
in program planning, but also teacher training for Native
language teachers.
In my written testimony that I submitted, I included two
areas that I think are really critical in terms of sustaining
these efforts that began, as Namaka has mentioned, with the
1992 Native American Languages Act.
We have seen exponentially the growth of many of these
programs; however, there still continues to be a shortage of
funding resources, a shortage of technical resources, a
shortage of training resources to be able to help sustain these
efforts, so in my testimony I have included two key areas: the
expansion of these language efforts into school settings was,
again, something that has been very new for some of our Tribes,
and how the impact of educational policy, especially at the
Federal level and State level, have impacted some of these
efforts.
And the second area that I highlight in my testimony is the
expansion of language revitalization efforts, especially among
early childhood education. That is a growing focus that we see
across our State, but also in many Tribes across the Nation.
In the interest of time, I am just going to highlight a
couple of things.
In New Mexico, where we have both State and federally
funded early childhood programs, for example, we have seen the
emergence of efforts that have made to transform, if you will,
some standard models of what we do in early childhood
education.
The Montessori Keres Children's Language Learning Center,
KCLLC, is one such program in the Pueblo of Cochiti. This is an
independent initiative in which Keres is being taught in a full
immersion setting for young children ages 2, 3, and 4, and in a
dual language program for ages 5 through 8. These are very
different initiatives that we have not tried before, but they
are very critical in terms of continuing to support efforts
like these.
Some of the educational policies that have impacted the
work of Tribal Nations have come about, unfortunately, through
policies like the No Child Left Behind Act, which was a real
detriment to our languages in a couple of ways. One, it reduced
instructional time, it placed unfair requirements for teacher
credentialing. Many of these things undermined, actually, some
of the efforts that were being made.
I would caution us to think about continuing Federal
policies in education, such as Common Core, that are still
English-based kinds of standards. We need to consider how those
also impact our efforts to teach language in our schools.
Lastly, I would remind everybody here on this Committee how
urgent it is because our elders and our fluent speakers are
aging and, as those are our most critical resources, we need to
replenish that supply of younger adults who are speakers, who
have learned the language. I believe Ms. Hummingbird will speak
about her experiences shortly.
But we need this kind of people to take the places of those
who are now passing on, because, in order to continue any of
these efforts in language revitalization, we need that pipeline
of resources to be able to teach.
At the University of New Mexico, we try to do our best to
do that, but we also need that kind of resource support so that
these efforts will continue.
I would be happy to answer more questions in any of these
areas, but, again, I want to just thank you all for this
opportunity to address you today. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Sims follows:]
Prepared Statement of Christine Sims, Ph.D., Director, American Indian
Language Policy Research and Teacher Training Center
Introduction
Mr. Chairman and Distinguished members of the Committee, [Greeting
in Native tongue.] In my native Keres-Acoma language, Greetings to all
of you this afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before
you today and present my remarks on an issue that is critical to all
American Indian peoples, that is, the survival of America's Indigenous
languages and cultures. My name is Christine Pasqual Sims. I am from
the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico. I am an Associate Professor in the
Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in the
College of Education at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and I also
direct the American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher
Training Center (AILPRTTC). My remarks today on ``Efforts to Maintain
and Revitalize Native languages for Future Generations'' will address
two key areas that I believe are critical to the sustainability and
continued growth of language initiatives that have emerged over the
last decade and a half. These are: (1) the expansion of language
efforts into schools and the impact of educational policy and (2) the
expansion of language revitalization efforts in early childhood
education and the implications for continued support services for
Native language initiatives. My testimony is based on my collaborative
work with American Indian tribes, Native language teachers and
practitioners, language program administrators, schools, and members of
tribal communities. I understand that my oral remarks must be brief
today, however, I have prepared my comments in more detail in my
written testimony respectfully submitted for the record.
Part One: Background of Our Work
The American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher Training
Center (AILPRTTC) is based in the College of Education at the
University of New Mexico (UNM). The Center came into being in 2008
following the passage of the Esther Martinez Language Preservation Act.
I testified before this Committee in 2003 regarding the proposed
amendments to the Native Languages Act of 1990/1992, and again in 2006,
before the U.S. House of Representatives Field Hearing on the Recovery
and Preservation of Native American Languages (Sims, 2003; 2006). In
both of my testimonies I advocated and strongly recommended UNM as a
demonstration site for a regional technical assistance and teacher-
training center to help support tribes in their efforts to establish
community-based and school-based language initiatives. This was a
direct outcome of cumulative work I had completed while a doctoral
student at UC-Berkeley and my early work in Native bilingual education
through a New Mexico-based non-profit training organization, the
Linguistic Institute for Native Americans, which I co-founded in the
early 1980s. My relationship over the years with various tribal
language communities, listening to their goals and visions for
restoring spoken languages, their challenges in implementing language
initiatives and the need for support services to initiate and expand
their language efforts, has continued to guide my present work at the
Center.
With initial support from the U.S. Department of Education I was
able to see our Center become a reality and today the AILPRTTC is still
involved in the work of providing Native language teacher training and
technical assistance to tribes. UNM is the only Institution of Higher
Education in New Mexico that provides these services on a year round
basis. We work closely with tribes providing training for speakers of
Native languages through workshops, university courses, an annual
Native American Language Teachers' Institutes (NALTI), language
symposia and community forums. We have also had the opportunity to
mentor and support seven Indigenous graduate students pursuing Master's
and Doctoral degrees with a focus on bilingual education and American
Indian Languages and Education. As resources are available, we are able
to hire these students as Graduate Assistants in our Center working
with us on outreach and language teacher training activities, gathering
participant evaluation data, helping prepare training materials for
workshops and summer institutes, and learning the technical aspects of
materials development equipment used in training teachers how to
produce their own language teaching materials.
While the majority of our institutional and tribal partners are
located in New Mexico and the southwest, our annual summer institutes
also attract participants from tribes and indigenous communities
outside New Mexico expanding our outreach far beyond the state. We have
had, for example, participants from Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina,
Iowa, Oklahoma, and Ecuador. The Center continues to build and expand
these efforts by bringing together the academic resources of the
University's College of Education and veteran practitioners in the
field of Native language teaching, tribal government leaders, and
members of indigenous language communities. We consider the engagement
of tribal communities as the critical resources and decision-makers in
efforts to maintain their respective languages in the midst of rapidly
expanding global influences. As well, the impact of national and local
education policies that often place tremendous pressure on school-age
generations to abandon their mother tongue and shift exclusively to
English language use is a continuing challenge facing many tribes
today.
In summary, the mission of the AILPRTTC is to serve as a local,
regional and national center of outreach, service, advocacy, and
collaborative research, examining policy issues affecting the survival
and maintenance of American Indian languages.
Part Two: Growth and Expansion of Language Efforts and Impact of
Federal Educational Policies
Over the course of nearly two decades, efforts to teach Native
languages have grown almost exponentially across this nation since the
dawn of a new century. In New Mexico for example, the first summer
immersion programs that began in the mid-1990s as community-based
efforts involving fluent language speakers from the community gradually
expanded into school settings by 2001 so that children could continue
to receive year round instruction in the Native language. In 2003, I
spoke before this Committee about some of these early efforts in my own
Pueblo of Acoma as well as other tribes such as the Pueblo of Cochiti,
both of whom were embarking on language immersion initiatives in their
communities for the first time (Sims, 2003). In anticipation of these
new developments, we researched the most prominent and successful
Indigenous instructional models that existed at the time, namely the
immersion programs developed by the Maori, Hawaiian, the Akwesasne of
New York and the Karuk people of California. We learned about their
immersion programs and how they implemented this approach as an
effective way to teach language. We trained each other, sharing the
experiences of other tribes through community forums, institutes and
conferences, gradually developing an informal network of fluent
speakers, elders, parents and community members committed to seeing
their children learn their Native language.
According to a 2018 report produced by the Language and Culture
Bureau in the New Mexico Public Education Department most of the
state's 7 major Native languages, including Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Keres,
Zuni, Navajo and Apache are now being taught in at least 15 different
public school districts. Other tribes, such as the Dine Nation, have
addressed language revitalization efforts by establishing Navajo
language immersion schools in Arizona. These schools are in operation
today, in towns and rural communities such as Ft. Defiance, Tuba City,
Leupp, and Rough Rock, Arizona. More recently, in northwestern New
Mexico, a Navajo immersion charter school, the Dream Dine Charter
School and a Dual Language Program in the Central Consolidated School
District are additional examples of alternative school-based language
efforts. The New Mexico Public Education Department reports that
approximately 5,800 children participate in Navajo language classes in
various public schools (NMPED Language and Culture Bureau, 2018).
Immersion schools in particular, have produced some of the more notable
examples of the Navajo language rebounding among children who are
becoming fluent once again in the language.
These developments over the past 10-plus years have not been
without their challenges. There has been a concomitant pattern of
federal rules and policies that have often threatened the very goals
that tribes have set regarding the education of their children,
including language and culture programs in schools. Some of these past
policies are well-known such as the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) which was so detrimental to Native language initiatives in
schools on several fronts, including teacher credentialing
requirements, standardized assessment requirements, prescribed
curriculums and scripted instruction. Most notably, for Native language
teachers and students, the heavy NCLB emphasis on English literacy,
language arts, and mathematics meant a reduction in time and attention
to Native language instruction. In New Mexico and Arizona, for example,
we observed reductions in Native language instructional time, in some
cases, to a mere 30 minutes two to three times a week in elementary
schools. Native speakers were also eliminated as teachers of language
in Arizona public schools due to the ``highly qualified'' requirements
of NCLB.
In response, there were valiant efforts to push back on these
policies from all fronts, including tribal leaders, expert academics
(Beaulieu, Sparks & Alonzo, 2005; McCarty, 2003; Wilson, 2012;), Native
language educators, and other language advocates. Additionally, in
states like New Mexico where 22 different tribal nations exist, each
with their own Native language, proactive movement was made towards
establishing tribal oversight for verifying the Native language
proficiency of their respective community members and recommending them
for certification as Native language teachers through Memoranda of
Agreement (MOA) with the New Mexico State Department of Education. The
New Mexico 520 Alternative Certificate for Native Speakers was created
in 2002 followed by the passage of the 2003 Indian Education Act by the
New Mexico state legislature. This Act specifically called for the
development of strategies for ensuring the maintenance of Native
languages in an effort to ensure equitable and culturally relevant
learning for Native students in public schools. These represented major
shifts in both policy and process where tribes exercised their
sovereignty and self-determination concerning language and education
issues. These MOAs are still in effect today with most of the 22 tribes
of New Mexico having established their own individual agreements with
the New Mexico Public Education Department.
As NCLB was phased out, a new federal education policy centered
around Common Core Standards, once more set the bar for the nation's
public schools. What was no different from NCLB, however, was the fact
that these standards were once more English-based sets of standards,
primarily relying on standardized on-line PARCC assessments to measure
the academic progress of students. Various states, including New
Mexico, remain closely tied to these assessments which often show
American Indian students scoring at the lowest levels on these tests.
As a result, the emphasis is once again placed on schools and teachers
to raise test scores in order to avoid being labeled as failing schools
and ineffective instructors.
A very recent ruling by the First Judicial Court of New Mexico, in
the Yazzie/Martinez Case (Yazzie, et al. v. State of New Mexico, et
al.), however, found the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED)
and the Secretary of NMPED to be in violation of the rights of ``at
risk'' students including Native American, English language learners,
and other economically disadvantaged students. The Court ruled that
they had failed to provide sufficient programs and services required by
the state's constitution for these students' education. For Native
American students specifically, their continued failure in reading,
math, and science was determined to be a direct link to the failure of
state education policies and a failure to implement the 2003 New Mexico
Indian Education Act. State resources to local school districts were
also shown to be insufficient, hindering their ability to provide
programs encouraging the use of the cultural and linguistic backgrounds
of the students. In particular, it was noted that ``culturally relevant
instructional materials'' were also lacking (Chosa, C., Fairbanks, C.,
Pecos, R., & Yepa, J., 2018, p. 6). The implications of this case have
been described as a ``watershed moment'' in the state's education
history opening the potential for increased attention to Native
language programs. Indeed, this was identified as one of the key
priorities at a recent statewide Pueblo Indian Convocation held July,
2018 at Santa Ana Pueblo with specific recommendations such as:
Increasing Native language teacher capacity;
Providing professional development for Native language
teachers that is closely aligned to local tribal goals for
language instruction;
Increasing the compensation of Native language teachers
equal to regular teachers rather than educational assistants;
Assessing language teaching and language development
utilizing appropriate and more authentic measures to document
these processes;
Ensuring that federal policies that are supportive of
language efforts (Head Start for example) are understood by
program directors, administrators and school Principals, and
implemented at the local level with appropriate input from
tribal communities, tribal leaders and parents.
Part Three: Growth and Expansion of Language Efforts In Early Childhood
Education
The challenge of cultural and linguistic survival for many tribes
today has become an increasingly urgent focus in developing early
childhood programs that support the maintenance and revitalization of
Native languages. The legacy and outcomes of more than two centuries of
dominant education systems aimed at assimilation of American Indian
children (Adams, 1988) has specifically been associated with the loss
and erosion of native languages across all tribal groups in the United
States (Krauss, 1998). The impact such losses can have on the self-
identity, self-confidence and academic success of today's Native youth
are fundamental considerations for how Native children's development
and learning are supported in their early years.
American Indian early childhood programs, including federal and
state funded Head Start programs serving children from birth through
age 5, therefore, play a critical role in supporting Native children at
their most vulnerable and critical stages of sociocultural, emotional,
physical, cognitive and Native language development.
The National Office for American Indian/Alaska Native Head Start
Programs reports that nearly 37,000 or 45 percent of American Indian
and Alaska Native children were served in Head Start programs in Region
XI in 2015 (2015 FACES Report). The 2019 version of the Family and
Child Services Survey (FACES) is currently being updated to include
more descriptive information about children's exposure and
participation in Native language and cultural learning. I have been
involved in this latest effort as well as joining the National Advisory
Council for American Indian/Alaska Native Head Start Programs. A
positive sign in federal agencies such as Head Start is a growing
recognition that local language revitalization efforts are important
and critical in the development of children as well as strengthening
family and community relationships through language. In New Mexico, we
have observed the transition of one of these federally funded programs
from an English-based program to a full Native language immersion
program. In Jemez Pueblo, the Walatowa Head Start Program provides a
Towa language learning environment for pre-school children. The Towa
language is only spoken in the Pueblo of Jemez and is an unwritten
language. Heretofore, this language has been a viable one, spoken
across all generations of the Pueblo. Towa erosion however was
increasingly evident, especially among preschool children and the
concern among the community was the need for reinforcing and re-
strengthening Towa language use among the youngest generations. Thus,
the decision was made to revamp the entire program. This transition has
been taking place over the last five years engaging tribal elders,
parents, and educational leaders in the community in the process.
Parents play an important role in making choices about how the program
can respond to the Native language development needs of their children
while also becoming involved in reinforcing language use at home.
In another Pueblo community, the Pueblo of Cochiti, another recent
development focused on young children learning the Keres language has
taken root in a Montessori school, established by an educator from this
community. Ms. Trisha Moquino, a Native speaker of Keres, trained as a
Montessori teacher envisioned a learning environment in which children
would be exposed to fluent Keres teachers and begin to learn the
language in an immersion setting. The school now provides a full Keres
immersion environment for children ages 3-5 and a dual language program
for children ages 6-8.
Home-based care is also another language initiative being
implemented in one Pueblo community. In this program our Center has
provided guidance to caregivers who are fluent speakers in how to
support Native language development for young children while they are
in their care. In this Keres-speaking community, young female
caregivers have increased their awareness of how critical their role is
in using the Native language in everyday home environments. All now
actively use their language with children and plan activities in the
home setting that engage them in play and creative experiences. Thus
children are given a true ``head start'' in hearing and using the
language with fluent speakers as an everyday part of their daily
experiences.
In one community where a local Bureau of Indian Education school
has transitioned to a tribal grant school, adults who are not fluent in
their Native language are embarking on utilizing a Master-Apprentice
model in order to learn language that they can in turn use with young
children they will teach. Communities with fewer fluent adult speakers
such as these often face critical challenges in how they will implement
language instruction and this often necessitates different approaches
to the problem.
In all of these initiatives, our Center's involvement has been to
support these efforts by providing training for fluent speakers in
strategies for language immersion teaching, planning, and materials
development. We have also guided adult language learners in forming
teams as a means for improving and strengthening their Native language
in order to teach young children. The outcomes of these particular
initiatives are proving to be encouraging as parents and community
members report a growing number of children learning and using these
languages at school and in the community as well as adult and parent
engagement in language and cultural learning. As these initiatives grow
and expand, however, so too will new questions and challenges arise.
For example, how will the gains that children are making in learning
their Native language be documented, considering that some languages
such as Keres and Towa are unwritten? How will children's Native
language development continue to be supported as they mature and
transition to Kindergarten and elementary schools? How are parents to
be supported when they are not fluent in their own Native language?
The implications for expanding language revitalization efforts in
early childhood are especially significant when one considers that
intergenerational transmission of Native languages has traditionally
been the process for sustaining languages across multiple generations.
When that process is broken, alternative choices to standard mainstream
models of early childhood education have to be considered in order to
stem further language erosion. In New Mexico, where there is a current
push to pour more dollars into early childhood programs, much of the
emphasis is on mainstream English-based models. In response to this
growing public discourse, our Center has recently developed a position
statement on what early childhood education policies and state funding
streams need to consider where Native languages are endangered. Our
position is that early childhood programs must first ensure that tribal
voices are at the forefront of designing and implementing programs that
will help them achieve their collective vision for young children,
encompassing the child and his/her family as members of unique cultural
and language communities, and providing them rich linguistic and
culturally appropriate early learning experiences.
Informed policy makers must also consider how public policies,
funding resources, and programmatic decisions can impact the future
survival of Native languages and cultures that are an integral and
necessary foundation for the health and well-being of young Native
children. In particular, such programs must be of high quality
reflecting tribal goals for their children, as exemplified in their
curriculums, appropriate instructional practices that support Native
language and culture, collaborative family and community relationships,
high staffing qualifications, and positive learning environments. We
believe that these principles also extend to how program evaluations
are conducted. They must be conducted through appropriate processes
that are inclusive of tribal goals, family and children's strengths,
needs, and learning experiences. In summary, we take the position that
early childhood programs for American Indian children:
must implement Native language instructional programs and
provide learning environments that are consistent with tribal
goals for their children including their sociocultural,
emotional, physical, cognitive and linguistic development.
must collaborate with children's families and their
communities in order to foster children's development and
nurture families as advocates for their children.
must develop children's sense of belonging and developing
their ability to contribute to his/her community by utilizing
cultural and other resources that link their culture and
language learning experiences to home, family and community.
must develop Native children's sense of individual worth,
while helping them to thrive and reach their full potential
within the contexts of family and tribal community life.
Finally, in order to ensure that all Native language programs are
successful in their planning, implementation, and sustainability, there
must be:
Funding resources allocated to sufficiently support the
sustainability and growth of local leadership and staffing,
provide appropriate facilities, physical environments,
equipment and materials, and effectively implement high quality
experiences for Native children's learning and language
development.
Funding resources that will sufficiently build the
professional development and growth of a tribal language
teaching workforce with the knowledge, sensitivity, and
competencies necessary for working with Native children, their
families and communities, as well as specialized knowledge and
competencies in the Native language and culture of the children
they serve.
Funding resources that will create pathways for members of
tribal communities who wish to pursue coursework leading to
specialized degree programs in early childhood, elementary or
secondary education at local tribal colleges or universities
that offer an emphasis on working in tribal communities and
their languages.
Funding resources that sufficiently support pathways and
mentorships for tribal community members who will work in
collaboration with elders and fluent speakers and holders of
cultural knowledge in order to sustain a viable culture and
language teaching workforce in Native communities.
Funding resources that will sufficiently support working
partnerships between tribes, tribal language programs and
universities in order to provide year round technical
assistance and training for Native speakers, tribal members,
and education administrators in their efforts to develop, and
maintain their native languages.
Part Four: Final Conclusions
While my testimony has touched briefly on a number of issues
related to current efforts to maintain Native languages for future
generations, what I have presented today has hopefully provided a
window into the complex nature of language revitalization work in our
communities. The nature of this work is challenging, yet deeply
rewarding, when one sees the outcomes of local tribal choices and
decisions that promote the revitalization of Indigenous languages.
Without these critical linguistic resources we stand to lose cultural
knowledge, our collective histories, traditions and spiritual
practices. Working in collaboration with tribal communities, we are
always reminded that thoughtful consideration must always be
acknowledged for the inherent wisdom and knowledge about language that
Native speakers possess. Their perspectives about the issues and
challenges they face in maintaining their languages as well as the
solutions they generate and implement to address language needs in
their communities is paramount in our work. We are often reminded by
our elders that our languages have been gifted to us by our Creator and
in this sense we often speak about these languages with a sense of
sacredness. It is also with a sense that sustainability of languages
requires long-term commitment to Native communities and a willingness
to learn from them and be guided by their wisdom and knowledge. My hope
is that this will also be a consideration among legislators and policy
makers when deliberations are made concerning the education of Native
children.
Thank for giving me the opportunity to share my observations,
thoughts and reflections with you today. I look forward to any
questions that you may have for me as well.
REFERENCES
Adams, D.W. (1988). Fundamental considerations: The deep meaning of
Native American schooling. 1880-1900. Harvard Educational Review 58
(1), 1-28.
Beaulieu, D., Sparks, L., & Alonzo, M. (2005). Preliminary report
on No Child Left Behind in Indian Country, Washington, DC: National
Indian Education Association.
Chosa, C., Fairbanks, C., Pecos, R., & Yepa, J., (2018). Victory
for New Mexico Schools: Court Rules in Yazzie/Martinez Case that Every
Child Has the Right to A Sufficient Public Education Under New Mexico's
Constitution. Native American Budget & Policy Institute. Albuquerque,
NM: University of New Mexico.
McCarty, T. (2003). Revitalising Indigenous Languages in
Homogenising Times. In Comparative Education. Vol.39, No.2. Pp. 147-
163. Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Krauss, M. (1998). The condition of Native North American
Languages: The need for realistic assessment and action. International
Journal of the Sociology of Language, 132, 9-21.
Sims, C.P. (2006). Recovery and Preservation of Native American
Languages. Testimony presented to the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Education and the Workforce. U.S. House of Representatives
Field Hearing at the All Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Albuquerque,
New Mexico, August 28,2006.
Sims, C.P. (2003). Proposed Amendments to the Native Languages Act
of 1990 and 1992. Oral Testimony presented to the U.S. Senate Committee
on Indian Affairs recommending UNM as demonstration site for Native
American Language Teacher Training. Senate Russell Building,
Washington, D.C. May, 2003.
Wilson, W.H. (2012). USDE Violations of NALA and the Testing
Boycott at Nawahiokalani'opu'u School. In Journal of American Indian
Education. Vol.51, Issue 3. Pp.30-45.
The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Sims.
Now, Ms. Lauren Hummingbird, Graduate, Cherokee Nation
Immersion School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF LAUREN E. HUMMINGBIRD, GRADUATE, TSALAGI
TSUNADELOQUASDI, CHEROKEE NATION
IMMERSION SCHOOL
Ms. Hummingbird. Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and
members of the Committee, [greeting in Native language]. I am
Lauren Hummingbird, a Cherokee Nation citizen and a graduate of
the Cherokee Immersion School, Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi, and
Sequoyah High School, located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my testimony about
revitalizing Native American languages for future generations.
Preserving the Cherokee language is preserving our Cherokee
identity. The heritage and traditions of our Tribe are rooted
in our language. Our language allows us to pass along
traditional Cherokee knowledge and values to our children and
our grandchildren.
In 2003, a Cherokee Nation started the Cherokee Immersion
School, Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi. At age 3, I was one of the
first immersion students. I have many fond memories of the
school which I consider less a school and more of a home.
At the immersion school, my teachers became more than
instructors; they were and remain like mother and father
figures in my life. Most importantly, the elder speakers in the
school became my extended grandparents, providing compassion,
encouragement, and emotional support. Each of the teachers and
staff became an important part of my life and helped shape who
I am today. I was guided by their teachings and I recently
graduated from high school at the top of my class.
I believe that my success comes from my history and the
support of my family and the knowledge of my Cherokee language
and culture. I am proof that despite the historical ideals,
bilingual children outperform their monolingual peers in
school. The richness of the Cherokee language allowed my mind
to focus and understand difficult concepts and graduate at the
top of my high school class.
[Speaking in Native language], which means it is hard for
Native Americans to talk about just their language. That is
because a Native's language is so much more than just their
language. [Speaking in Native language], which means it is the
foundation of their culture and it is the foundation of my
culture.
Native languages, including Cherokee, have faced many
adversities over the years. Our ancestors were removed from our
homelands in the Southeast United States on the Trail of Tears.
Not only did we lose precious family members on the Trail; we
also lost connections with plants, animals, culture, and
language in that area.
Our bond was with the land, and we lived together in that
ecosystem. Our language is woven into the culture just as river
cane is woven into a basket.
Likewise, after removal from Indian territory, our
ancestors were placed in boarding schools to be normalized.
They were punished for practicing our traditions and speaking
the language, and that pain has been passed down through
generations and their language was suppressed. Today, the
Cherokee Nation has 360,000 citizens, but only 1,200 speakers
left, and their average age is 65.
Language preservationists at the Cherokee Nation indicate
that we lose 12 speakers each month, and history shows that,
without intervention, the historic oppression of native
languages means the loss of identity and extinction of a
culture.
I commend the leaders of the Cherokee Nation. After seeing
the continued decline of Cherokee speakers, the Government took
the initiative to develop the immersion school. The Cherokee
Immersion School is the first and only school to be chartered
by a Tribal Government in Oklahoma. This means that students
follow the same learning objectives as other students in public
school districts, with the curriculum being translated into
Cherokee.
In the last academic school year, there were 135 Cherokee
students enrolled in preschool through the eighth grade. Today,
the Cherokee Nation Government contributes more than $2.3
million to the school's overall budget of $2.7 million. The
Cherokee Nation has also developed and funded the Master-
Apprentice Program to provide language bridges between
generations of speakers. Without the dedicated support of our
Tribal Government and our businesses, the future of the
Cherokee language would be in jeopardy.
We have started with the working language preservation, but
there is much more work to be done. Without additional support,
we face a slow and tortuous loss of language, culture, and
identity.
[Speaking in Native language] again for the opportunity to
share my testimony, my story, and my future. I am happy to
answer any questions that you may have for me.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hummingbird follows:]
Prepared Statement of Lauren E. Hummingbird, Graduate, Tsalagi
Tsunadeloquasdi, Cherokee Nation Immersion School
Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and members of the Committee:
Osiyo, my name is Lauren Hummingbird, and it is my honor to provide
testimony for this oversight hearing entitled ``Examining Efforts to
Maintain and Revitalize Native Languages for Future Generations''.
It is also my honor to represent the first graduating class of
Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi School, Cherokee speakers, and the Cherokee
Nation, the largest federally-recognized tribal government in the
United States with more than 360,000 tribal citizens and headquartered
in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Preserving the Cherokee language is preserving Cherokee identity,
as the heritage and traditions of the tribe are rooted in our language.
For generations, our language has allowed us to pass along traditional
Cherokee knowledge and values to our children.
The United Nations estimates that across the world more than half
of the 6,000 globally spoken languages will disappear by the end of
this century. I am proud to say that will not be the story of the
Cherokee language. When languages are in jeopardy, there is more at
stake than meets the eye. Our Native languages hold inherent cultural
and social knowledge. That knowledge is embedded within our words, in
the stories we tell, and the way we communicate with one another.
My testimony will cover three points. First, a Native language is
not just a language; it is the foundation of a culture. Second, the
revitalization of Native American languages is happening, it is
happening now because it must happen now. Third, the generational pain
suffered by past federal policies ractices has brought us to this
painful point. It is time that we, you and me, must act to support
programs that preserve our Native languages.
Personal History and Story
In the 2003-2004 school year, the Cherokee Nation started the
Cherokee Immersion School, Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi. I entered the
school as a 3-year-old in the inaugural class 15 years ago, and I
graduated from Sequoyah High School \1\ in May of this year. As I
advanced through the immersion school year after year, the school
continued to add new enrollees each year. Last year, 135 students were
enrolled in pre-school through the 8th grade. The Cherokee Immersion
School was the first and only school chartered under the Oklahoma
Charter Schools Act of 2012, and reauthorized in 2016. Students follow
the same state learning objectives as public school districts. The
materials and content are converted into the Cherokee language. In 5th
and 6th grade, students split their time between Cherokee and English,
and transition to all English curriculum in 7th and 8th grade, except
for Cherokee language classes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Cherokee Nation operates Sequoyah High School, a Bureau of
Indian Eduction funded boarding school located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
With an enrollment of 360 students representing more than 24 tribes, it
is regionally and state accredited for grades 7-12.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In order to understand why it is important for Native American
languages to be revitalized, it is important to know something about
Native American people. Native Americans today are still coping with
federal policies and decisions that negatively impacted our ancestors.
I experience many difficult emotions when I envision our ancestors as
young children. They were told they would be punished for practicing
our language and beliefs. It is difficult for me to understand that
time and those practices because I envision a world where Native people
were hated and looked upon as a lesser people. I do not understand what
it was like for our elders to be physically brutalized for simply
speaking their language. The mental and emotional scars remain today. I
do not think anyone can understand what it was like. The mental and
physical abuse of the past caused my people to become scared of the
world, and it nearly cost me my culture.
Many of the Cherokee speakers became silent and quit speaking our
language for fear of retribution. There are some courageous elders that
continued to speak our language, and because of their courage, a small
part of my language survived. I do not know where my people would be
today if it were not for those who had the courage to practice our
traditions and speak our language, no matter the punishment. I know
many people who CAN speak our language, but refuse to do so due to the
the trauma caused by a Native American boarding school experience. A
language is not just a small part of our culture. . .it is everything
to us.
As a young Cherokee woman, knowing how to speak my language not
only gives me the opportunity to keep my culture and language alive but
it also shows the world that we are still here. We are not remnants of
a past culture, but we are a thriving people. I started as a three-
year-old in the Cherokee Immersion School. The school helped teach me
who I am and the ways of my people. The Cherokee Immersion School
helped raise me. As students, we never felt like we were in school
because school was a second home. The teachers were and continue to be
mother figures and father figures to the students. Our elder mentors
are like our grandparents.
There are differences between a Native American language immersion
school and a traditional English speaking public school. My experience
is that immersion students did not learn anything in English and we did
not have individually assigned textbooks. The immersion teachers had
the additional responsibility of translating every textbook lesson into
Cherokee. This happens well before classes begin. Public school
teachers do not have this added responsibility. While public school
students have libraries full of books to read for research or leisure,
my Cherokee immersion class had no more than twenty children's books
available in the Cherokee language. That was seven years ago, and
things have greatly improved since then. Even though Immersion teachers
have previously developed materials that they continue to use, we still
do not have access to individual textbooks. There are more Cherokee
children's books about our traditional stories, and some books are now
being published in Cherokee by a few publishing companies.
As a young student, I did not realize that I would grow up
differently than other children. We did not just learn about the normal
everyday school subjects. We were taught about the traditional foods of
our people and ways of life. On field trips, we would visit one place
multiple times, but we would always learn something new about our way
of life or a new word. Those are memories and knowledge that I would
not trade for a public English speaking school experience. I believe
that I understand my identity and I am happier because my parents took
the risk of enrolling me into a new program that had no promise of
success or sustainability.
As our education progressed, some parents became concerned that the
immersion students would fall behind before entering into an English
speaking high school. They believed that students would not understand
the basic subjects of math, science, and geography. However, when my
sixth grade class graduated in 2012 these parents witnessed that we
were not behind. My classmates and I comprehended all of the required
subjects. The only thing we did not know well was English, and we spoke
what most call ``broken English''. However, with the assistance of a
few summer classes we caught up with the traditional English-based
public school students. We did struggle with the desire to learn
English. We knew that our identity came from the Cherokee language and
not the English langauge. We felt like we had to become someone
different. Today, I find that I have to say something in Cherokee
because I do not know how to properly convey the meaning and emotion in
English.
I graduated from the Cherokee Immersion School in 2012, and
graduated from high school with many of my immersion classmates in May
2018. We all graduated in the top of our class. Some classmates even
completed numerous concurrent college credits. I am one of two
immersion alumni that are still immersed in the language. I am
currently a student in the Cherokee Nation's Language Master Apprentice
Program for adult participants.
Immersion programs have far reaching effects on communities.
Studies connect language loss to higher levels of substance abuse and
poor health habits, both of which are heightened in Native communities.
I believe those who speak their language or learn their heritage can
reverse this trend of poor health and decisionmaking. Research also
show that bilingual children out perform their monolingual peers in
school. On average, bilingual students show twice the progress in
reading and math levels than that of their monolingual peers.
There is such a visible gap between the elder generation of fluent
speakers and the children that are attending the Immersion School.
Eight years ago, no child was being taught their Native language on a
daily basis. But today we have more than 130 students enrolled in the
Immersion School. These are Cherokee children who know how to speak our
language, not only to each other, but to the older generations as well.
Our elders are such an important resource for immersion students. They
know how our people lived and the skills we shared with the world. Our
elders also teach about the pain and difficulties our ancestors faced
during federal removal and forced assimilation practices. This new
generation of Cherokee speakers is providing our elders hope and
strength. The students learn from the elders that their ancestors
overcame difficult times, survived and prospered. These lessons teach
the students that they too are strong and can succeed in life.
When I entered the Immersion School, I did not know that Native
American languages were dying or that some were already gone. I did not
know my people were punished because they were Native American and
Native language speakers. And I did not know that we, as Cherokees,
were forced from our homelands. I did not understand that my peoples'
rights and land were taken over lust of land and money. That lust and
greed for land and money came at the expense of Native people, the
language and culture.
It is hard for a Native American to talk about just their language.
That is because a Native's language is so much more than just a
language. It is the foundation of our culture. If I did not know my
Cherokee language then I would not have such a great love for my people
and our ways. I would not know my identity. I see people who do not
know their Native language and they seem lost. I believe this is
because they do not understand who they are without the knowledge of
the language. I have been told there is a big hole in their heart
because they know nothing about their culture.
Language programs similar to the Cherokee Immersion School, which
was created by the Cherokee Nation tribal government, are long overdue.
There are several tribes that have only one fluent speaker left. That
means their language is nearly dead already. Some tribes are attempting
to create their own Immersion School system, but they will face many
difficult challenges without adequate support. Immersion schools are
not fully funded by the federal government, and it is not a common
practice. Immersion schools require a lot of courage and commitment
from the tribe, teachers, parents and students.
In my home, although my parents are not Cherokee speakers, my
maternal grandparents are fluent speakers, as well as their siblings. I
enjoy speaking Cherokee with our elders. There are numerous occasions
where I will sit with a group of elder speakers that do not expect me
to understand their Cherokee spoken conversation. When they realize
that I understand and answer them in the Cherokee language, it
surprises them. Their facial expressions quickly turn from surprise to
relief. I know our elders fear that our language will not survive, but
immersion students like me provide hope for the future of our language.
One may ask, ``Why should I care about the revitalization of the
Native American languages that are left?'' My answer refers to today's
most commonly known Native American language story. It is the story of
the Navajo Code Talkers. As most are aware, the United States enlisted
the help of Navajo speakers as ``code talkers'' during World War II to
relay coded messages in Navajo. Without these Navajo speaking patriots,
our history would be different today. Cherokee Nation also had code
talkers that served the United States valiantly in WWI and helped our
allies win.
Native American languages typically go unnoticed in United States.
Our Native languages add vibrancy to America's identity and culture.
Without additional funding and commitments to preserve Native
languages, our languages and identity will slowly die.
It is difficult for me to express the pain in my heart when I
imagine the slow disappearance of our langagues. Now is not the time
for my generation to be complacent, and say it is simply ``okay'',
because it is not ``okay''. The generational pain from federal policies
that led to boarding schools and the Trail of Tears are still felt
today. I feel it. Despite that pain, I want to learn more about my
culture and who I am. I am steadfast in my beliefs, and I know I am not
alone. No matter how difficult or time consuming or the resources
needed to sustain language immersion programs we must preserve our
languages.
Multigenerational Efforts to Preserve and Revitalize the Cherokee
Language
The Cherokee Nation estimates there are only 1,200 fluent speakers,
and the average age is 65. Our language experts estimate that we lose
12 fluent Cherokee speakers each month. The Tribe developed the
Immersion School, the Master-Apprentice Program and the 14th Generation
Master Apprentice Program to address this growing decline of Cherokee
speakers.
The Master-Apprentice program is designed to immerse adults in the
Cherokee language by requiring more than 4,000 contact hours with
Master speakers. Similar to the immersion school, enrollees spend on
average 40 per week studying and speaking only Cherokee. This program
has graduated six adult fluent speakers since the effort began in 2014.
The 14th Generation Master Apprentice Program is designed specifically
for high school students who want to continue their langague education
after school and during the summer. This program has about a dozen
Sequoyah High School enrollees and interest is growing.
These multigenerational programs help preserve and promote the use
of the Cherokee language for generations to come and fill the gaps
between Immersion School, high school, and home. The youth, who have
been educated in the Immersion School, are among the most valuable
Cherokee language assets going forward. The Cherokee Nation has made
significant investments in these children, and we must keep exposing
them to language learning opportunities. Without the aggressive
commitment from our tribal government and our businesses, the future of
the Cherokee language would be in jeopardy. I am proud to say that is
not the case.
Conclusion
I have provided personal testimony and stories as a young Cherokee
language speaker and learner. I have also shared my personal
perspective and concerns. I provided a brief view into the monumental
work the Cherokee Nation has undertaken to keep our language
flourishing.
Creating new speakers, and in turn letting them pass along what
they have learned, will keep Native languages flourishing for
generations to come. Supporting cultural education and growing the
language curriculum will help the children succeed on their lifelong
journey and allow them to reach their God-given potential in school, in
life and as Native speakers.
I ask that you remember my stories and information as you consider
future initiatives and funding. Thank you for again for this
opportunity to testify. Wado.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Hummingbird.
Okay, we will turn to questions, and I would like to begin
with Commissioner Hovland.
In your written testimony you discuss three main goals to
strengthening language programs at the Administration for
Native Americans. One goal you mentioned was to provide
outreach to Tribes that have never received a grant. You talked
also how the ANA is continually refining the application
process.
How do you go about doing that? How do you balance granting
funds to the strongest applicants, while also reaching out to
some of the Tribes that have never gotten a grant?
Ms. Hovland. Thank you, Chairman Hoeven. That is an
excellent question and a balance that can be difficult to find.
I am in my seventh week, and I am learning a lot, and I
have a lot to learn. As I spoke to some of you through my
confirmation process, often what I heard was Tribes that didn't
have the capacity or the funds to hire a grant writer often
didn't receive grants; and that is one of my priorities, is to
ensure that they are not overlooked, to make sure that our
underserved Tribes and lower capacity Tribes have that
opportunity to be not only successful at writing a grant and
receiving one, but implementing it.
Actually, ANA has some fantastic tools online and training
offered to our Tribes at no cost, and I think part of it is
just getting that information out, especially to the more rural
communities coming from North Dakota.
We are very experienced with rural communities, and getting
information out there sometimes can be a challenge, so I think
just making more awareness about it. But also, at ANA we really
need to identify the Native communities that haven't ever
received a grant, or haven't for a long time, or possibly don't
have the capacity for a grant. We need to help them build that
capacity.
Starting with identification, visiting with what their
barriers have been, while continuing to fund the grants based
on the process, but seeing how we can try to capture funding
for those underserved.
The Chairman. How much will you be able to get out and
actually get around to the different Tribes? Are you going to
be able to do much of that, meet with them?
Ms. Hovland. Personally, I would love to be able to do it,
but, realistically, it is not possible.
The Chairman. Pretty tough?
Ms. Hovland. It is tough. We do have four regions in the
United States, Alaska, and the Pacific Islands, and they are
able to get out, have boots on the ground, but I want to get
out there personally to as many as I can. I have been able to
get to Hawaii, to New Mexico, and to Montana, and I will get
out there as much as I can, but definitely want to get to those
communities that haven't had a visit from the Commissioner in
many years and just kind of hear, gather the thoughts and
insights on how we can try to reach them.
The Chairman. Ms. Hummingbird talked about how studying her
Cherokee language really helped her in school with her other
studies. Are you seeing that and is that something that you can
promote to try to help these young people with their academics?
Ms. Hovland. Absolutely. I think the mission of ANA, the
testament of the positive outcomes is Ms. Hummingbird, and I am
so glad she is here today.
I am so proud of you. You did a fantastic job.
Yes, I think the best testament to the difference ANA can
make is witnesses like Ms. Hummingbird. Again, I have only been
here for under two months. I had the honor of being invited
into the Native communities in Hawaii and New Mexico, and the
Keres program, all of them were amazing. Not only are the
younger generations learning their language, but there is
interaction with the elders and intergenerational activities;
and it is building communities, and healthy, strong communities
help with academics, help with the substance abuse and other
issues that we face in our communities, so there are a lot of
positives that come out of it.
The Chairman. So, Ms. Hummingbird, your being here, your
presentation was very impressive. Are you able to get other
young people to take the language, learn the language, be
diligent? How do you do that? How much do you use your Native
language and so forth? How do you interact with others using
your Native language? Can you just give a sense of that?
Ms. Hummingbird. The best way I can put it is that I use it
on a daily basis. It is not just something that I would use
with my fellow classmates that I graduated with from the
Immersion School; I have family members that know and are
fluent in Cherokee, so I know that they would much rather speak
their Native language than English. It makes them feel a lot
more comfortable. My little brother is currently going through
the Immersion School as well, and he started at six months, so
I continue teaching him even when he is outside of school.
People think that it is something that we wouldn't use on a
daily basis, something that just doesn't ever get used, but, in
reality, we use it on a daily basis. It is a very important
part of our lives.
The Chairman. I would think your elders would enjoy it,
when they are able to visit with you in Cherokee.
Ms. Hummingbird. Yes. I have had a few elders and
interactions with them where they start having a conversation
in Cherokee, and they kind of assume that we don't know what
they are talking about.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Hummingbird. So, when we are sitting there, nodding
yes, they kind of think, oh, they are just lost. No, we know
what you are talking about. And when we answer them in
Cherokee, it just surprises them. And it is not so much a
surprise as it is relief that they know there is a generation
coming up and learning our language.
The Chairman. I would think so. Absolutely.
Vice Chairman Udall.
Senator Udall. Thank you so much, Senator Hoeven, for
pursuing this hearing.
Let me say to you, Lauren, what you have done, I think, and
what the Cherokee Nation has done, is a really impressive move
forward in terms of Native languages.
You have talked a little bit here about how it has impacted
your life and your community. Can you tell us how it has
changed your educational and career goals now that you are able
to be a fluent Cherokee speaker?
Ms. Hummingbird. It affected my education because I am a
bilingual person, so I can understand complex situations a lot
easier than monolingual peers at school. But knowing my
language and knowing the history and the culture of my people
has created this desire within me to learn more, as much as I
possibly can. In doing that it has made me want to teach
children, adults in any way I can, even if it is just a word or
two on the street, or if that means going back and getting a
teaching degree and then going back to the Immersion School to
teach or the Master-Apprentice Program to teach. I would do
anything for my culture and my people, and I know that learning
my language is one of the most important things to them.
Senator Udall. Do you see one of the things that happens
with young people your age, if they learn Cherokee fluently,
they feel more motivated to succeed, to interact with the
community, to make sure that you grow a stronger community?
Ms. Hummingbird. It has definitely created this stronger
person within them because learning their language has created
such a pride within them; they know who they are. They know who
they really are and who their ancestors were and how they
lived, and they are so very proud of it.
So, when they learn it and they go out into these
communities, they are so much more comfortable and the
communities accept them a lot easier, because sometimes they
get a little scared if somebody doesn't know their culture very
well. But when they come in, they learn Cherokee, they learn
the ways of our people. They get a sense of pride, and you can
see that when you walk up on them; you won't even know that
they know their language, but they have that pride and then
they tell you about I know my language and I know my culture.
Senator Udall. That is great. I know that your parents who
are here and behind you are very proud of you, but your little
brother went to sleep during your testimony, so I don't want to
wake him up.
[Laughter.]
Senator Udall. Dr. Sims, could I ask you a little bit
about, in your testimony you describe the importance of
establishing community-based and school-based language
initiatives?
Dr. Sims. Yes.
Senator Udall. And you specifically highlight the
importance of funding to support growth of local leadership,
staffing, facilities, materials, mentorships, and a tribal
language teaching workforce, among other things.
Do you believe the Esther Martinez Program administered by
the ANA is helping to create this infrastructure for language
revitalization?
Dr. Sims. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman, for the question.
We have had quite a bit of support in terms of implementation
from ANA, implementation of new programs. In some instances I
think there could be more done to actually help build that
teacher workforce that we need. I would say that if there was a
way, in the ANA program planning that is done, that there is
some mechanism or some way in which we make sure for every
local program that is developed, there is attention paid to
providing the kind of professional development and training
that our community people need in order to implement these
programs.
We have done that on our own somewhat through the work of
our Center at UNM, but you know the need is there when every
summer, for example, in our summer institutes we continue to
get Native speaking members of communities who come and who ask
for help. What are the best strategies to use when I am doing
an immersion program? So those are continuing needs that I
think we could probably do better on and find more resources to
build that teaching force capacity that we need.
Senator Udall. Great. Thank you.
I am going to come back to Ms. Hovland to ask about your
suggestions you made in addition, but yield back, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Murkowski.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, each of you, for your testimony here today,
your leadership in so many areas.
Ms. Hummingbird, I will repeat the praise that you have
received from the Chairman and the Ranking Member. You have
articulated not only a sense of purpose and place, but if there
is anyone who would doubt that the benefit of these language
immersion programs goes beyond just what happens in the
classroom, you have been able to outline it in living and
beautiful color, and I just so appreciate that.
Ms. Hovland, did I hear you correctly that it is $12
million in ANA grants overall? Is that the right number?
Ms. Hovland. Yes, that is correct, for languages
specifically.
Senator Murkowski. I think about what it is that we try to
advance through our appropriations process. To think that
through these grants we are achieving outcomes like we are
seeing Ms. Hummingbird articulate here, it is not just, again,
about keeping a language alive; it is a culture, it is an
identity, it is a purpose, a sense of self, and that, to me, is
priceless. So, I think you know I am a fan of what we have seen
with the ANA funds, and we are proud that, in Alaska, we are
grant recipients of a couple of these and seeing them move
forward.
I appreciate what you said, Ms. Hovland, to the Chairman
about the efforts to try to assist those smaller Tribes who are
daunted by the prospect of these grant applications, who don't
have paid grant writers; who just really don't even know where
to start. So, it is a challenge to try to make sure that you
are covering all your bases here, but I would just encourage
you, if it is a way to streamline the grant process, whether it
is training, whether it is some form of assistance to provide
for this level of capacity, it is so important that we don't
overlook some of these smaller Tribes.
I thank you for coming to Alaska. I understand you are
visiting Fairbanks here pretty soon for this consultation. I do
hope that you will have an opportunity, when you are up there,
to get out into rural Alaska, as well. It is a beautiful time
of year to be out there, and if you need any recommendations as
to where you might want to go on your trip, we are happy, happy
to help with that.
I am glad, though, that you are going up there with this
consultation purpose. The U.S. Department of Ed got themselves
in a little bit of trouble; they invited Alaska tribal leaders
to a national tribal consultation in Kansas City, Missouri, but
it was to discuss a very specific Alaska program, and it was
complicated further by the timing, the advance notice that was
given. Cost and conflicts with subsistence activities really
limited the ability of many to travel to that conference.
But it was also complicated by the fact that the Alaska
Native organizations and the rural tribal consortiums, they
also run federally-funded education programs, and Department of
Ed had unwittingly excluded Alaska Native educational leaders
from this tribal consultation. So, as you go up there to do
your consultation, I just want you to keep some of those things
in mind.
In the minute that I have, I would ask for you to perhaps
give me some background here in terms of how you plan on
engaging in consultation with these rural tribal communities,
as well as the Native corporations and the regional nonprofits
to make sure that all the voices are being heard within your
Administration.
Ms. Hovland. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. I am looking
forward to the trip and I will get in touch with you and your
staff for suggestions, so thank you.
Senator Murkowski. Great.
Ms. Hovland. I am working on a strategy for outreach, and
there are going to be different prongs for it. One will be
where I am able to do outreach, but also consultation. As
Commissioner, it is a dual role. I am also Deputy Assistant
Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, so
I ensure that ACF is holding their consultation every year with
our Tribes, for the recognized Tribes. So, that is one portion
of it. I will be at those and I help facilitate the tribal
consultation for that.
But I also want to do, beyond that, as much meetings. I
really strongly believe in getting to the communities and
meeting with grassroot folks all the way up to leadership, and
I want to do that as much as possible. Realistically, I won't
be able to get everywhere, so I also want to have meetings
where we can have like a consortium of Tribes come and visit,
so I want to do that throughout the United States, Alaska, and
our Pacific Islands.
Whenever I am going up north, I will be sure to let you and
your staff know, and I would love to have you come along and
work together to try to address some of these issues.
Senator Murkowski. Again, I appreciate that, and we are
happy to help sketch out any part of a schedule that you are
willing to work with, so I thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Schatz.
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to all of the testifiers.
I will start with Ms. Rawlins. One of the things that
really amazed me when I first visited was that the quality of
the education is extraordinary, and I mean that in the very
conventional sense. I think we all understand intuitively what
Ms. Hummingbird talked about and what we all kind of
understand, which is that language is necessary for culture to
thrive, and language and communication is necessary for
families to thrive.
So we all understand intuitively the reason for Native
language education, but I think what may have set what you do
apart is that because of the obstacles that you encountered at
the State Department of Education, the Federal Department of
Education, and just about everywhere else, you had to prove in
very kind of Western conventional terms that the outcomes were
as good or even better. I am wondering if you can talk to that
side of everyone's brain to talk about how positive the
outcomes have been.
Ms. Rawlins. Yes. Mahalo for that question. I want to start
off by addressing that in the attitude that we took in the very
beginning in working together with one another, in addressing
the obstacles that came when we saw that the language was
banned, so we had to change the law. So, working with families
to work with our State legislature and with the Department of
Education to allow us to move from the Aha Punana Leo language
nest into the public school was one way of advancing that.
The conventional way of looking at education, what we saw
is, at our preschool, our children were reading already. So,
from before leaving the language nest, before entering the
kindergarten, compulsory education, our children were reading,
so we were teaching them to read the way our kupuna taught us,
through a syllabary, and having the children read, because our
language is very regular, and taking it forward into
conventional education.
We started to build off of the reading research that takes
a really good reader in the first language that then transfers
to the second language and other languages, and we have seen
this evidence at Nawahi, where our children are able to read in
Hawaiian and English, because we see English as a world
language; it is approached as a world language for our
students. And then from there to Japanese. We introduce
Japanese language at the elementary grade; Latin in the
intermediate and now back down into grades 4 through grade 7,
Latin, and this year we are now introducing Mandarin Chinese.
Our students have gone into college, have graduated from
college, and they report back to us. We had a student that
continued into the Peace Corps after graduating from Stanford,
attended the Peace Corps, enrolled in the Peace Corps, was
assigned to Kyrgyzstan and was one of the students in his corps
that learned Kyrgyz very easily. We have had other students
that have graduated, gone on to college and received minors in
French and Spanish.
So, we see the approach that we take as English as a world
language becomes the desire for our students to embrace
languages. They see, at first, our reading really, really well
in our first language, Hawaiian, taking that, transferred, and
that is all researched, the bilingual research that talks about
transfer of language skill, reading skills. So, we have seen
that evidenced at our Nawahi school.
Senator Schatz. Thank you. It just occurs to me that what
started essentially as a family and community and cultural and
tribal movement now has been accepted by those who are
conducting rigorous analysis of what actually works in the
classroom. I think this is a really interesting instance of us
not having to fight over what we feel is right in our guts and
sort of traditional Western analysis of whether kids are
hitting their marks.
What is really great about what you are doing is that all
of the data shows that this is working in the non-traditional
way and the traditional way. I think the State Department of
Education, but also the Federal Department of Education needs
to continue to provide that flexibility as we test against
metrics, as we make sure kids can do their times tables and
know basic science and basic American history; that we
understand that this is actually one of the best approaches to
do this, especially with this population.
I just want to thank every single one of you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Rawlins. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Cortez Masto.
STATEMENT OF HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. I want to thank the
Chairman and Ranking Member for this hearing and for all of you
for traveling here and then just talking about the importance
and how we can work together to really maintain and revitalize
languages, Native languages for future generations. So, thank
you. This is an incredible discussion.
Ms. Hummingbird, you are fantastic. It was so inspiring to
hear you today, and I know your parents and family must be very
proud. I know they are very proud of the other panel members; I
can see it on their faces as well.
I come from Nevada, and I had the chance to visit with the
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Museum in Nevada. The museum
director, Billie Guerrero, spoke to me about the importance of
language to the Tribe. She said that the language is the core
of the Tribe's culture and identity, what you all have been
saying. However, there are less than 30 tribal members who are
fluent in the Tribe's language, and most of them are elders
over the age of 60.
One thing that the Tribe is doing to revitalize the
language is having song nights. One of these nights the Tribe
gets together and they sing traditional songs in their
language; and not just songs, sometimes they are prayers. These
have been incredible opportunities for the Tribe to share their
songs, their language with a new generation.
So, I am just curious, Dr. Sims, let me ask you, or if any
other panel members have any thoughts on this, are there any
other unconventional ways that we haven't talked about today
for Tribes to engage their youth in learning and using their
Native language that you have seen that has been successful?
And maybe let me open it up to the panel, but I will start
with Dr. Sims.
Dr. Sims. Thank you for your question. I can think of a
number of things that have taken place, and they come from New
Mexico examples. I mentioned the Keres Children's Learning
Center in Cochiti, which is the Montessori School. There is
also another example that I draw from Jemez Pueblo in which it
is standard, mainstream, type of Head Start program, federally
funded. They have transitioned that into a complete total
immersion Head Start program.
While we might think of it as unconventional, actually,
these are conventional ways in which children have always
learned in these communities, which is to have those
intergenerational linkages with elders and people in the
community. So, in these two examples we see children learning
by going back into the community. Some of these programs are
right in the community, and there is no reason why those
intergenerational opportunities for learning can't happen,
because they are right there where grandmas and grandpas and
aunties and uncles and other elders are right there as
teachers.
So, I would hope that we continue to promote that, because
oftentimes our elders, our fluent speakers have not been part
of education. The historical legacy is you keep them away from
schools, and the idea was always that schools knew best how to
educate. And what we are saying is, no, our children are best
educated first by having those intergenerational linkages. And,
like I said, we might think of that as unconventional, but for
us it is conventional, and we need to promote that more.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Anyone else?
Ms. Rawlins. I will add a part of that. You are right about
the conventional. It is a new day for us, and I will give an
example. I also want to acknowledge, first, that I am also with
the National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and
Programs, which representative in 17 States of these schools
that are using language in education.
So, I will give an example of the Waadookodaading School in
Wisconsin, whose children, the activities that the children are
engaged in with elders as well is in the collecting of the
maple sap, and that whole activity that is part of their
culture in maple syrup collection--we don't have that in
Hawaii--is a part of their curriculum.
So, there are many instances, I am sure, that that is even
happening at the Cherokee language schools, as well as Jessie's
school here, is that the children are actively involved in
cultural activities in bringing through language in the actual
based, the place-based education as conventional for us in
language revitalization.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. I appreciate that.
I know my time is running out. I have one follow-up
question, if that is all right, and this is to Commissioner
Hovland.
Thank you for the comments today. Congratulations. Excited
to work with you.
Ms. Hovland. Thank you.
Senator Cortez Masto. Additionally, the Pyramid Lake
Paiutes just hired a cultural coordinator, and her name is
Heidi Barlese. Heidi is a tribal member that had moved away, to
Reno, but is now back home working to preserve the knowledge
and history of the tribal elders and sharing that with younger
generations.
She runs recreational camps in the summer where tribal
elders come and teach the Tribe's children about their language
and their history. She also visits with tribal elders to speak
with them about their language and history so that she can
record it and preserve that knowledge for future generations.
Now, I know not all the Tribes have the resources to hire a
cultural coordinator, and you spoke about the great work that
the ANA is doing and some of the great opportunities that exist
through grant funding, so I guess my question to you is, are
there existing grants within the ANA that could help Tribes
that hire cultural coordinators for the same purposes? I know
you talked about the $12 million. Is that $12 million that is
appropriated, would that be considered funding that could go to
something like that, a coordinator to help Tribes do the same
type of activities?
Ms. Hovland. That is a good question, and I will answer it
as best I can, being new to this position. The language grants
are specifically to teach language. There are portions. The
preservation and maintenance is the most flexible of the three,
and there it can be used to develop curriculum, to establish
repositories so that you can store materials.
But it is specific to teaching language, which the culture
goes hand-in-hand with, but there does need to be language
teaching in it. We have a social and economic development
program which can help build capacity for programs, but the
funding really is meant to be for projects versus programs, so
there is a definite beginning date and an end date.
Senator Cortez Masto. Okay. If there is a way we can, maybe
we will work together, figure out as we explore further
opportunities that might help preserve the language as well.
Ms. Hovland. Absolutely.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.
The Chairman. Vice Chairman, did you have some follow-up
questions?
Senator Udall. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Hovland, this is on the issue of the Esther Martinez
Act. You mentioned several successes in your testimony; the
Cook Inlet Tribal Council and what they have done there, the
Sitting Bull College, Lakota Immersion. And then you have heard
on the panel here some very strong statements about the Esther
Martinez Act and the good work that it is doing.
What is your position on the reauthorization of the Esther
Martinez Act?
Ms. Hovland. Thank you, Senator Udall.
Also, thank you for your comments, Dr. Sims. We definitely
want to know areas that are working well in ANA and areas where
we can improve upon, so we appreciate your comments on that.
It was very important, the reauthorization of the Esther
Martinez, and I have looked at the specific changes that have
been proposed, and I would be happy to have a discussion with
you, but, yes, we are excited to work with you and your staff
on reauthorization of that.
Senator Udall. So, on the whole, you are very predisposed
to reauthorization?
Ms. Hovland. Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Senator Udall. Okay. Now, let me ask you about you stated
in your testimony that you have been traveling across Indian
Country to consult with Tribes, and thank you for coming to New
Mexico, and see how you can work with them in your role as
Commissioner. Recognizing that different Tribes have different
needs when it comes to language preservation and
revitalization, what are you doing to ensure that your grant
programs are tailored to fit the needs of Indian Country?
I recognize you are new, and if you want to supplement some
of your answers when you get back, that would be great, too, if
I get you in some areas that you are not that comfortable in.
Ms. Hovland. Thank you, I appreciate that. As far as your
question, the preservation and maintenance program really is
the most flexible of the funding, and it really allows our
Native communities to develop their language program around
what they feel their priorities and their needs are.
So, specific to language, that is the most flexible. The
Social and Economic Development Program isn't specific to
language, but there is so much flexibility in it, which is what
I love about SEDs, that specific grant. Our Tribes and Native
communities are able to identify their needs and their
priorities and really build that program around it.
I would be happy to follow up with you and your staff on
some of the great things that are happening.
Senator Udall. That would be great.
You stated in your testimony that you are working on a new
framework for evaluating grants for language preservation. How
does the new framework differ from the previous framework and
how do your changes impact the ability of languages at the
beginning of the revitalization pathway to score highly enough
to receive a grant?
Ms. Hovland. I have to look at my written statement, but we
are working on IT infrastructure. Is that the portion you are
talking about, about gathering data from our grantees?
Senator Udall. Yes.
Ms. Hovland. So, ANA has had an older, antiquated IT
infrastructure, which made it difficult to extract data that
was required to report to Congress every year and also was
beneficial for us to see the outcomes, so they started working
on a new IT infrastructure which we hope to go live in the next
few months, which will allow our staff, at site visits, to be
able to enter data and comments onsite during the visits, and
we are able to get that information and extract it immediately,
which will be helpful for us in addressing the issues, as well
as getting reports to Congress on our outcomes.
Senator Udall. Thank you very much.
Vice Chairman Baird, you and your Tribe have quite a
remarkable story. The language of your people was lost for many
years, and with no living speakers you were able to use
centuries-old materials to revitalize the language. You
mentioned in your testimony that your Tribe received an Esther
Martinez grant to support your revitalization work.
How did the Esther Martinez grant support your Tribe's work
and what resources and programs were created by your Tribes
because of this grant?
Ms. Baird. Thank you for your question, Senator Udall. So,
we are currently operating Mukayuhsak Weekuw, which means the
Children's House. We are operating a preschool and kindergarten
under the Esther Martinez language grant currently. Prior to
receipt of Esther Martinez, we did not have the preschool or
kindergarten.
We started with the preschool and kindergarten. This year
we are adding first grade. So, you could say that we took our
ANA funding, we had prior ANA funding and we ran a Master-
Apprentice program where I spent a minimum of 25 hours per week
in complete immersion with our speaking team, and our next
project was to take those fluent speakers, after I made a pool
of fluent speakers, we developed curriculum that would cover
180 days of public school in the classroom, immersion
curriculum.
After we finished that piece of work, we then moved on to
implementation, which is Esther Martinez. So, we have children
coming in in preschool and kindergarten that are being taught
using, again, Montessori methodology to deliver curriculum to
children, and we already have preschool and kindergarten
children that are going through reading readiness and
kindergarten children that write their names.
The curriculum that they are using is also CBE, or
culturally-based education, where the lessons that they are
learning and the STEM, science, technology, engineering, and
math, components are mapped to traditional hunting, fishing,
growing, family structure, math, and actually the children work
on world geography and local geography as well.
So, in a very real sense, Esther Martinez has given us a
program where children are learning in the language and they
hadn't at that age level from fluent adults for a couple
hundred years, actually.
Senator Udall. Thank you very much.
Just one more question, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Sims, you mentioned in your testimony that Native
students are not properly evaluated due to English-based
testing and standards. You mentioned a set of recommendations
to improve on this shortcoming and to ensure that Native
students are evaluated fairly for future success.
How do we ensure fair and equal standards for Native
students that are learning and speaking from their Native
language? With an increase in immersion schools in tribal
communities, what can we do to make sure Native students are
not left behind?
Dr. Sims. Thank you for your question. I think this is a
very critical one and it comes at a time when we are seeing
kind of the emergence of more of these models of immersion that
obviously are very successful in producing children who now
speak these languages.
I would also mention that what we have not done enough of
is to also understand not only the linguistic benefits that
come from these kinds of experiences, but the extra linguistic
kinds of benefits that come from children learning in these
languages. What I mean by that is as these children and these
students are learning Native languages which have no
commonality with English, they are two different kinds of
communication systems.
The cognitive benefits that come with young children, as
young as 2, 3, learning these languages and becoming fluent, we
don't know enough about the value of what they are learning in
a different communicative system. This is why, when we use
English-based tests for Native children, especially those
learning their Native language, it doesn't do justice to them
in terms of what they are acquiring in their own Native ways.
That is not just about the ability to speak the language,
but it is all the cognitive things that are developing in young
brains, young children, when they are able to communicate, when
they are able to express their ideas.
Along with that, they are also learning what we call
cultural literacy. It is not just the ability to read and
write, but all the kinds of ways in which young children learn
how to read from being able to communicate with elders, with
parents, when they participate in different community events
and become parts of those communities actively involved, they
are learning the kind of literacy that we don't give enough
credit to.
So, one of the ways that we try to talk about doing
assessment properly and doing it more authentically is to look
at what the goals that language communities have set for their
children in terms of learning these languages. What do they
expect children to be able to use that language for? And, on
that basis, are in fact children using that language in the
ways that are appropriate to a particular culture?
Are the children being able to use these languages in ways
that are promoting not only their own individual growth, but
also how it affects their academics? You have heard Namaka talk
about how that principle of language transfer is an essential
one and kids, when they are taught well, have that skill to be
able to learn in any language.
Those are some of the things that I think we don't give
enough credit for, so, when we gather data, when we look at
what children are doing, it cannot be just solely on English-
based kinds of assessments.
Senator Udall. That, I think, is a tremendously important
concept.
Let me, finally, just thank all the panelists here. You all
bring a perspective from all over the Country, from various
Tribes and the successes we have had. I am particularly
encouraged hearing a lot of these, especially when we are
looking at the reauthorization of the Esther Martinez Act and
making sure that we take your input.
Several of the things I have heard over and over again is
that the grant length for Esther Martinez should go to five
years rather than three years and, also, the minimum class size
should go from 10 to 5. Those are things that have been proven
out through, I think, all of you talking about them and in your
communities.
Ms. Hovland, I think the more you travel, the more you are
going to hear about these.
So, thank you all very much. Really appreciate your
dedication here to language revitalization.
Dr. Sims. Thank you.
Ms. Baird. Thank you, gentlemen.
The Chairman. All right, thank you, Vice Chairman Udall.
Again, thanks to all of our witnesses.
The hearing record will be open for two weeks and, again, I
just want to add my thanks to you as well.
Commissioner Hovland, great to have you on board.
Thanks so much. We are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:05 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Allan Hayton, Language Revitalization Program
Director, Doyon Foundation
Sen. John Hoeven,
We are writing to provide testimony and share about our language
revitalization efforts as you prepare to enter into an oversight
hearing on ``Examining Efforts to Maintain and Revitalize Native
Languages for Future Generations'' this Wednesday, August 22, 2018.
Doyon Foundation is fully committed to the healthy future of the
ancestral languages of our region, and supports Indigenous language
revitalization efforts all across the United States.
The Doyon region in Alaska is the ancestral home to ten Indigenous
Alaska Native languages. Those languages are Dihthaad Xt'een Iin
aandeg' (Tanacross), Nee'aaneegn' (Upper Tanana), Deg Xinag, Dinak'i
(Upper Kuskokwim), Benhti Kokhwt'ana Kenaga (Lower Tanana), Holikachuk,
Denaakk'e (Koyukon), Han, Dinjii Zhuh K'yaa (Gwich'in), & Inupiaq. We
have been working diligently to create opportunities for learners, as
well as supporting the efforts of speakers and teachers of these
languages to share and document their knowledge.
Doyon Foundation is the recipient of two major language grants from
the Administration for Native Americans , and U.S. Department of
Education to create online language learning for nine languages. In
addition to the opportunities created by these two grants, Doyon
Foundation provides assistance to tribes and communities of our region
in the form of small grants, workshops, training, and scholarship
support for those involved in language revitalization efforts.
We are also seeing an increase in political support. In 2014 Alaska
Governor Sean Parnell signed House Bill 216 into law, recognizing
Alaska's 20 Indigenous languages along with English as official
languages of the State of Alaska. Half of these 20 Indigenous languages
are within the region Doyon Foundation serves. We feel strongly that
these languages are essential to the identity, well-being, and
prosperity of the people of Alaska, and represent a vast wealth of
knowledge, culture, history, and connection to the land.
We hope to see continued support for our work and for the work of
our Indigenous brothers and sisters nationwide breathing life back into
our languages.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our work.
______
Prepared Statement of Amber Sterud Hayward, Director, Puyallup Tribal
Language Program; Zalmai Zahir Ph.D. Candidate, Linguistics University
of Oregon, Lushootseed Language Consultant
Introduction
Honorable Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall and Members of the
Committee, thank you for holding this important hearing on examining
efforts to maintain and revitalize native languages for future
generations. The Puyallup Tribe greatly appreciates the work of this
Committee to empower Indian Nations and their citizens through the
preservation and expansion of Native language. It has been said that
Language is culture and culture is language. Thank you for the
opportunity to provide this testimony on behalf of the Puyallup Tribe
of Indians. We encourage Congress to continue to supplement Tribal
resources dedicated to expanding the use of Native language. It is an
element of self-identity and a foundation for future success. We are
seeing results now and want to accelerate our language programs.
Lushootseed
Lushootseed is the indigenous language of the Puyallup Tribe. It is
a member of the Salishian language family, which is comprised of 23
North American languages that extend from Canada to Oregon and from the
Pacific Ocean east into Montana. Lushootseed is classified as a Coast
Salish Language. It is spoken within the Puget Sound region of
Washington, including all of its river tributaries, the east side of
Kitsap Peninsula, Whidbey Island, and the Skagit Valley. Lushootseed is
the native language of thirteen tribes. They are Upper Skagit,
Swinomish, Tulalip, Snohomish, Sauk-Suiattle, Stillaguamish,
Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Nisqually and
Squaxin Island. These tribes make up a population of over twenty
thousand.
Status of Lushootseed
Four years ago, there were no known speakers that used Lushootseed
on a regular basis within the Puyallup tribal community. There were
those that had taken language classes and knew words and phrases, but
no one was using the language for communication. In 2014, the Puyallup
Tribal Language Program implemented a new approach that focused on
language use. This shift in methodology has changed the landscape of
the Lushootseed speaking community and has produced promising results.
The number of speakers within the first year started at 3 and has
roughly doubled each year. We can now say that there are strong
indicators that Lushootseed is being revitalized. The Puyallup Tribal
Language Program uses methods in line with the UNSECO frameworks for
language vitality as a metric for language revitalization. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-
languages/language-vitality/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
We want to address just two of these metrics: the absolute number
of speakers, and intergenerational language transmission. For the
absolute number of speakers, we define a speaker as someone who uses
Lushootseed one hour per day or more for communicative purposes. As of
2018, the Puyallup community has about 40 speakers. In terms of
intergenerational language transmission, there are 6 children of these
40 speakers (15 percent of speakers) being raised in homes where
Lushootseed is a primary language. This does not include the 600
children serviced in Lushootseed at Chief Leschi tribal school and
Grandview Early Learning Center tribal daycare. In addition to the
absolute number of speakers of 40, there are about 20 more speakers
that average language use under one hour per day. Their use is
increasing and indications are they will be speakers within a short
time. The Puyallup Language Program is estimating about 60 new language
students to begin instruction in the fall of 2018. This means that by
the summer of 2019, we are projecting a language community of 100
speakers, and if language use continues to grow at its current rate
where the number of speakers is roughly doubling each year, we are
estimating over 1,500 speakers by 2023 (Figure 1).
Language Revitalization Impact
The impact language revitalization has on the Puyallup community
has been invaluable. Teachers at the tribal school are beginning to
note positive changes in students. Behavior changes are resulting in
higher academic scores for the children where Lushootseed is used with
English for classroom instruction. This is creating a change in
language attitudes resulting in more educational events that involve
community classes. These classes are proving to be very popular with
high attendance. This includes the Lushootseed Language Institute, an
annual two-week language institute that is cosponsored with the
University of Washington Tacoma.
The higher number of speakers is increasing the frequency and
function of the language used within the community. Over the past four
years, there has been a positive increase in attitude toward use of the
Lushootseed language in the community, schools, tribal events and
social media. In the summer of 2018, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians
hosted Canoe Journey \2\ ``Power Paddle to Puyallup,'' where the
Lushootseed language dominated. Thousands of people heard the Puyallup
ancestral language upon entering our lands by canoe. This was the first
time in decades that a high volume of language has been used and heard
in our community. Council members, youth, community members and
Language Program staff greeted over 100 canoes in the Lushootseed
language, which in turn was reciprocated by incoming canoes in their
ancestral languages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Canoe Journey: A Northwest Native gathering of canoes
journeying from tribe to tribe and landing at a host tribe to celebrate
a week of singing, dancing and gifting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a personal note, the language revitalization efforts put forth
by the Puyallup Tribe has impacted my personal life, and the life of my
children. The model used in our office and throughout the community is
the same model used in my home with my family. Over the past four
years, Lushootseed language use has not stopped when work hours are
over, but has carried through very intentionally into my home and into
the lives of my children. The impact of this work had produced a
language nest \3\ in our kitchen and bathrooms, hours of Lushootseed
use and conversation in our home. Our revitalization efforts have
impacted our extended family and friends that enter into our home, as
they too have been exposed to the language over the past four years.
Our extended family are now able to understand and minimally
communicate with us in the Lushootseed language as well as in Salish,
my mother's tribal language. Because our home has been established as a
language home, my children are learning the value of multilingualism by
learning words and phrases in other tribal and non-tribal languages. We
have incorporated tribal languages into our home from the Salish,
Navajo, Crow, Blackfeet, Tlingit, Lakota, and Yakima tribes; non-native
languages including Spanish and German. My children understand the
importance of multilingualism and greeting people we meet in their
ancestral languages. My children get to benefit from a well-rounded,
traditional Indian education through the language. My family gets to
experience our culture through Lushootseed eyes--our songs, dances,
canoeing, pulling cedar, bone games, etc. The policies that are being
adopted in Washington D.C. directly impact the work that we do in our
community, in my home and in my children's schools and daycares.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Language nest: a physical location that does not allow the use
of English in its parameters.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
For these reasons, we are asking that Congress take special
consideration for indigenous language policy. National policies have a
direct effect upon language attitudes across all levels, and language
attitudes have a strong effect on language vitality (see UNESCO
frameworks). In addition, we ask Congress to continue to support the
revitalization and maintenance of Native languages and expansion of
language immersion programs. We appreciate Congress appropriating $2
million dollars in FY 2018 within the BIA's Education Program
Enhancements for capacity building grants for BIA- and Tribally-
operated schools to expand language immersion programs. Congress should
make such grants recurring so that we may cultivate generations of
Native language speakers. Language revitalization efforts across the
United States rely on Federal appropriations to build foundational
work, expand programs and sustain them. In addition, federal funding
used in educational programs are a vital part of language
revitalization. These programs require the development of a plethora of
language curriculum, materials, and personnel that can use them. By
funding such programs, Congress is part of an invaluable process that
will shape Native minds and lives within Tribal communities for
generations to come.
______
Prepared Statement of Siri G. Tuttle. Ph.D., Director, Alaska Native
Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
The Alaska Native Language Center was established by state
legislation in 1972 as a center for research and documentation of the
twenty Native languages of Alaska. It is internationally known and
recognized as the major center in the United States for the study of
Eskimo and Northern Athabascan languages. In this letter, I would like
to emphasize the importance of language study--language learning and
research--to the support of the indigenous languages of North America.
Language documentation, research and publication on language
teaching are all vital to the support of communities that are working
to preserve, revitalize and reclaim their languages. Even for languages
spoken by millions, written language materials are crucial to education
in both first- and second-language contexts. For minority languages,
these materials can make the difference between possible reclamation
(as in the case of Wampanoag, see Ms. Baird's letter) and loss through
interrupted transmission.
Normal intergenerational transmission of these languages was
intentionally disrupted through government-funded education, in a
program that did not end the use of the languages, but did cause deep
harm to indigenous communities and families that continues to surface
today. Both before and during the period of this intentional
disruption, speakers of indigenous languages chose to record their
knowledge, often in partnership with non-indigenous linguists. Their
body of work stands today as a remarkable testament to the power,
diversity and beauty of human language. They are the creators of
dictionaries, teaching materials and recorded narratives.
At ANLC, we see every day the need to ask further questions, not
just about word meanings and grammatical constructions, but about the
linguistic context required to turn an English speaking indigenous
person into a culturally competent speaker of their grandmother's
language. As always, collaboration between people with different
viewpoints can often provide insight: members of speech communities
help academic linguists understand cultural context, while academics
can help speakers and learners to communicate the riches of their
heritage to a wider audience. The support of the National Science
Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities has been crucial
to documentation and sharing of the Alaska Native Languages.
The study of diverse languages deepens our understanding of what it
means to be human as well as what it means to speak a human language.
For those who are not members of indigenous language communities, the
continuing use and study of indigenous languages is a gift to inquiry.
When people ask me why they should study a new language, I ask them:
``Why don't you want to know more about the world and the people in
it?'' The complex, elegant and poetic indigenous languages of North
America should be among the many world languages available to American
students as they prepare for lives in this new century. They cannot be
accessed without continued study, continued learning in the communities
of their origin, and continued care for historical recording and other
documentation. All of this work is part of what is termed
revitalization. Every part of it is needed.
It is incumbent on the United States Government to redress the harm
done to indigenous Americans through the suppression of indigenous
language and culture. Part of that redress must include support for the
use, study and teaching of Native American languages. In particular, it
must include support for the professional development of indigenous
Americans as language teachers and language scientists.
______
Prepared Statement of the Cancuba Collective
Halito! (Hello!)
I am writing on behalf on Cancuba Collective, which is an arts
collective out of Southern Louisiana that seeks to platform indigenous
artists and traditional ways. We have been involved in the Houma people
and language revitalization over the past year, and I'd like to share
one member's story.
They are a Houma native who does not live in Louisiana, but has
been involved in the community the best that they are able. They went
down this past year to help work on a few native issues in the area,
and along the way got involved in the Houma Language Project. In
promoting it to the local powwow in the spring of 2018, they found that
since the strong colonization of the French, the native language was
most certainly sleeping. Many tribal members didn't even know there was
a native language that was the predecessor to the cajun French that
many older folks speak. Their mother has since also gotten involved,
and they are using it as a way to bring themselves closer, as well as
to the greater tribal community. In talking to tribal elders, they were
excited about a younger person being involved in wanting to revitalize
the old ways, both in language and in arts and physical historical ways
like weaving and carving, and offered all they help that they could,
but funding things is already a problem for the tribe. Many young
people are involved in purely survival in the current state of the
world. especially in Louisiana, and so they are moving away or just not
involved in the tribal going ons. We deserve to have our language and
ways come out of slumber. We deserve to be able to speak to our
ancestors in our native tongue. Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Desa Dawson, ACTFL Past President; Director of
World Language Education, Oklahoma State Department of Education
Below is information from Oklahoma about our Native American
Language programs and our attempt to encourage the growth of programs
in the state to support our Tribes efforts to revitalize their
languages.
Oklahoma has 39 Federally-recognized Tribes that are sovereign
nations within its borders. The Tribes are all at various states of
language revitalization. All of the languages are on the endangered
list, and some have only a few speakers left. Monolingual speakers are
all but gone. In 2013 the Oklahoma State Department of Education worked
with representatives of the Tribes to develop an alternative pathway
for certification. A few Tribes did not participate due to a limited
number or complete lack of speakers of the language or the
unwillingness to have non-Tribal members learning the language;
however, the State of Oklahoma felt like this was needed because most
Indian students attend public schools since there are no reservations
in our state. We very much value working with the Tribes in matters
relating to education and wanted to find alternative pathways to
certification in order to support tribal efforts as well as award
students World Language credit for taking Native American Languages in
school.
In 2017-18, thirteen Native American languages were being taught in
the state as World Language high school graduation courses. A total of
31 schools offered programs taught by duly certified teachers.
Additional schools still offered language classes for elective credit.
There were also some after-school programs as well as community
programs which are not reflected in the numbers below.
Standard Certification
Cherokee Nation is the only Tribe to have developed a college
preparatory track for standard certification and has the only immersion
program for Native American Languages in the entire state.
Alternatively Certified Instructors since 2013
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRIBE Number
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cheyenne-Arapaho 3
Choctaw 10
Chickasaw 1
Comanche 1
Creek 2
Osage 2
Pawnee 1
Potawatomi 1
Sac and Fox 2
Seminole 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 26
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other languages utilizing adjunct instructors:
Kiowa, Otoe (World Language Credit)
Total NAL Students from 1991 to present:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Years Number
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991-1992 22
1992-1993 19
1993-1994 273
1994-1995 312
1995-1996 879
1996-1997 955
1997-1998 472
1998-1099 313
1999-2000 1,115
2000-2001 508
2001-2002 439
2002-2003 659
2003-2004 807
2004-2005 720
2005-2006 790
2006-2007 1,007
2007-2008 1,130
2008-2009 1,136
2009-2010 1,073
2010-2011 1,053
2011-2012 1,355
2012-2013 1,174
2013-2014 929
2014-2015 950
2015-2016 1,249
2016-2017 992
2017-2018 964
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope this information is helpful. If you would like additional
information, please feel free to contact me.
Warmest regards,
______
Prepared Statement of Monica Macaulay, President/Kristine Hildebrandt,
Vice President, Endangered Language Fund (ELF)
Dear Committee Members:
We submit this statement on behalf of the Endangered Language Fund
(ELF). ELF is a 501(c)3 founded in 1996 with the goal of supporting
endangered language preservation and documentation projects. Our main
mechanism for supporting work on endangered languages has been funding
grants to individuals, tribes, and museums. One of our grant programs
funds languages world-wide (including in the U.S.) and the other is
restricted to a subset of tribes in the U.S. We have funded a wide
range of projects in this country, from the development of indigenous
radio programs in South Dakota, to recording the last firstlanguage
speakers of Ponca in Oklahoma, to the establishment of orthographies
and literacy materials to be used by endangered language teaching
programs throughout the country.
We recognize the inseparable link between language and cultural
identity. Towards this recognition, our funding organization has had
many positive impacts, but it can only effect so much change on its
own, given the small size of our grants. We also recognize the critical
role that the federal government has played, and must continue to play,
in providing resources and empowering tribes to protect and to
revitalize their native languages. In this statement, we echo comments
made in the testimonies by the panelists at the hearing on Wednesday,
August 22, 2018.
We strongly endorse the recommendations of the panelists,
including: funding education programs, particularly those that include
immersion and intergenerational participation; empowering tribal
communities to train and make use of native language experts; and,
promoting/creating legislation at the federal level to develop
curriculum materials on-site, which brings into the fold lower-capacity
tribes that have not yet had the chance to receive support for language
promotion.
We are grateful for the opportunity to make this statement to you
on behalf of our organization.
______
Prepared Statement of Dr. Neyooxet Greymorning, Professor, Departments
of Anthropology and Native American Studies, University of Montana
To members of the Senate Hearing on Revitalization of U.S.
Languages,
By way of introduction, Nenee'eesi'inoo Neyooxet Greymorning and my
involvement with language revitalization runs back some 25 years, when
in 1993, I established the first language immersion preschool on the
Wind River reservation, and also convinced Disney studios to release
their copyright on the Bambi movie so it could be translated into
Arapaho.and distributed on the reservation. I further convinced Disney
studios to not use their talent but to use Arapaho children and adults
for the speaking parts; which was an historical first. By this point
I'm sure you have heard the standard testimonies of how deeply
connected our languages are to our cultures and identities as the
Native Peoples of America so I will spare you that. What I will instead
state is that we as a people did not ask for our languages to be in the
state that they currently are in, which is on the brink of
disappearing. We were pushed to this point by concerted efforts of the
US government. A statistic you may not be aware of is in the Northwest
four state region of the United States (Washington, Oregon, Idaho and
Montana), from the late 1880s to the late 1930s, a fifty year time
span, the United States government spent 250 million dollars, funneled
through boarding schools, in an effort to ``Kill the Indian. `` (see
comment on Richard Pratt at http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/teach/
kill-indian-and-save-man-capt-richard-h-pratt-education-native-
americans, and cultural genocide at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Cultural_genocide). These were clear acts of ethnocide (see
``Understanding Cultural and Language Ethnocide. at https://
www.culturalsurvival.org/news/understanding-culture-and-language-
ethnocide-native-perspective). To put ethnocide in perspective, it is
like a cobalt bomb, the idea of which was to destroy human life with
minimal damage to the infrastructure of cities; buildings, roadways,
bridges etc.. Ethnocide similarly leaves the physical structure of
Native people's bodies intact, while, as Captain Richard Henry Pratt
put it, killing that which is Indian; in this case the culture and
language of Native American peoples. Another piece that may be new
information stems from the following. Having returned from Australia on
the 10th of August and Vancouver Island on the 18th of August, where I
ran intensive Native language teacher workshops in ASLA (Accelerated
Second Language Acquisition) see http://www.umt.edu/nsilc/, the
governments in these two countries have understood the impact they have
had upon Aboriginal languages and have established significant funding
and resources to try to stabilize and revitalize, or rejuvenate as I
prefer to call it, Aboriginal and First Nations languages and cultures.
Other countries are also following suit with such efforts, and by so
doing may become acknowledged leaders in this area of Human Rights. In
a final closing note, if the US had succeeded in killing all Indian
languages by the 1940s then there would not have been any Code talkers
to effectively use several different Indian languages that changed the
course of the war to the United States' advantage. There is a debt owed
Native languages, for the contribution and aid in winning a war, that
has yet to be paid. The question left is, will the United States follow
the lead of other countries who have established legislation and
funding to safeguard Native languages and cultures, or idly stand by
and continue to watch efforts that the government put in motion 130
years ago through boarding schools designed to decimate Native
languages and cultures?
______
Prepared Statement of Ivy Doak, Ph.D., Denton, TX; Former Executive
Secretary, Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the
Americas (2008-2017)
To the Members of the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs:
Language maintenance and revitalization are essential to the tribes
whose languages remain in use by first language (L1) speakers or are
well-documented enough to be restored to common use. The languages
provide a point of shared identity and pride, enabling youth to move
beyond the crippling effects of subjugation that befell their elders.
The Coeur d'Alene (Salish) tribe invited Jesuit missionaries to
their homeland following a vision, perhaps affected by practical
insight, by Circling Raven, a direct ancestor of the current tribal
chairman, Ernest Stensgar. The missionaries arrived in 1865. By 1926,
when linguist Gladys Reichard arrived on the reservation, she worked
with one of the few remaining monolingual speakers of the language
(Dorothy Nicodemus) and two bilingual speakers (Tom Miyal and Julia
Antelope) to document its unique sounds and syntactic structures. In
sixty-one years, use of the language had dwindled significantly.
Today, eighty years since Reichard (1938) published her description
of the language, users of the Coeur d'Alene language have managed to
keep it in the public mind and are working to promote its continued use
in all aspects of daily life. While early efforts by the tribe were
independent of government assistance, governmental support has enhanced
their efforts in language preservation and its reintroduction to use by
tribal members. Independent efforts by tribal members and their allies
to preserve the language resulted in a dictionary and lesson books and
tapes (Nicodemus 1975a, 1975b). An enterprising school teacher, Reva
Hess, introduced the language as an elective in the local high school
curriculum; many enrollees began learning the language from elders
brought into the classroom for the students to interview personally.
Tribal members exposed to the language at home and by these and other
early efforts at language maintenance outside the home were inspired to
continue their study. Support from the Administration for Native
Americans has allowed tribal members to collect and archive an enormous
corpus of words, sentences, and stories by interviewing bilingual
elders. One of Hess's high school students, Audra Vincent, a
granddaughter of an L1 speaker, now runs the tribe's Language Program,
and has been involved in at least two research projects funded by the
National Science Foundation that have resulted in an online catalog of
historical language data (see Bischoff et al., 2009). Pride of
ownership in the language has inspired tribal members to revitalize
other areas of tribal history, from food collection and preparation to
canoe building and racing.
Native languages like Coeur d'Alene that have been maintained or
revitalized with assistance from governmental funding through the
Administration for Native Americans, the National Science Foundation,
and the National Endowment for the Humanities provide a meaningful
identity to the peoples who share the knowledge of those languages. For
those who study languages and the human mind, maintained and
revitalized native languages provide an incredible wealth of data on
language structure, use, and change relevant to all people.
References
Bischoff, Shannon, Ivy Doak, Audra Vincent, Amy Fountain, and John
Ivens. 2009. Coeur d'Alene Online Language Resource Center. http://
lasrv01.ipfw.edu/COLRC/reichard.php
Nicodemus, Lawrence. 1975a. Snchitsu'umshtsn: The Coeur d'Alene
language. Spokane: University Press. In two volumes: I The grammar and
Coeur d'Alene-English dictionary; II English-Coeur d'Alene dictionary.
Nicodemus, Lawrence. 1975b. Snchitsu'umshtsn: The Coeur d'Alene
language. A modern course. Coeur d'Alene Tribe.
Reichard, Gladys. 1938. Coeur d'Alene. In Handbook of American
Indian Languages 3, ed. Franz Boas. New York: J. J. Augustin.
______
Prepared Statement of John D. Barbry, Director of Development &
Programing, Education Program, Language & Culture Revitalization
Program, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana
Heni (greetings) Senators:
The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe has no fluent speakers and is working to
expand their Tunica language education efforts into a sustainable
program that will develop more speakers and instructors for survival of
the language. Like in so many American Indian communities, the effects
of expansionism and assimilation have resulted in the dormancy of the
Tunica language. Although there are no fluent Tunica speakers, there
are currently 50 speakers with proficiency ranging from mostly beginner
to two at intermediate level. The two intermediate speakers, who serve
as instructors, learned Tunica as a second language with reinforcement
of oral traditions passed down through their family. While they have a
higher level of proficiency, they rely heavily on documented linguistic
studies of the Tunica language. More support and sustained work is
needed to grow the base of speakers.
For more than a century, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana has
witnessed its traditional language and culture slip deeper into distant
slumber. Tunica language revitalization is the crucial link to
preserving Tunica-Biloxi culture. Dr. Wesley Leonard describes the
Miami Tribe's language reclamation efforts as a way to achieve a level
of ``cultural fluency,'' in which ``proficiency in the language may
ensue but in which proficiency is not the immediate target.'' In the
same manner, continued use of the Tunica language would be a natural
way to preserve cultural knowledge and a way of expressing it through
the language.
Project success relies on programming that promotes Tunica language
proficiency and usage through ongoing weekly language classes, cultural
life-ways workshops, language camps, and outreach events. More
development of linguistic texts, manuals, curricula, and pedagogical
materials is needed to support and sustain language training.
Development and maintenance of a language web site, along with online
games and mobile apps will help reinforce learning and retain
participants.
In her 1978 essay, linguist Mary Haas observed that the''Tunica, as
their numbers dwindled, found it increasingly difficult to keep up the
use of their language. Instead of adapting it to the needs of modern
times (by borrowing if necessary), they simply adopted French. The
Tunica people needed to speak French and English to handle their
business in the local non-Indian community of post-18th century
Louisiana.'' Haas noted that Sesostrie Youchigant, her Tunica informant
from 1933-39, ``had the additional burden of attempting to recall a
language he had not spoken for twenty years.'' Prior to his mother's
death in 1915, he preferred to speak French to her although she always
spoke Tunica to him.''
The decline in the Tunica language coincided with the decrease in
tribal population from the late 19th into the early 20th century. Haas
stated that the decline in the language started two to three
generations before her work with Youchigant in 1933. Noted
anthropologist, John R. Swanton estimated a population of 50 Tunica in
the Marksville community around 1908 that still spoke Tunica fluently.
Beginning in the 1920's individuals and families began to leave the
Marksville area in search of work. Half, possibly more, of the village
left since the total village population in 1933 and 1938 was estimated
at around 30.
Tunica history and culture cannot be accurately reflected if the
language is no longer spoken. Durk Gorter, writing on linguistic
diversity, stated ``when a language dies so does a medium through which
a culture is transmitted.'' Commenting on loss of a language by a group
of people, French linguist Claude Hagege says, ``What we lose is
essentially an enormous cultural heritage, the way of expressing the
relationship with nature, with the world, between themselves in the
framework of their families, their kin people. It's also the way they
express their humor, their love, their life.'' Youchigant, the last
known fluent speaker of the Tunica language, passed away in 1948 and
took with him what few Tunica-Biloxi recall of their ancestors'
intonations. Fortunately, Haas recorded Youchigant on wax cylinders
which are archived in the Survey of California and Other Indian
Languages at University of California, Berkeley.
The Ethnologue, an organization that compiles a global database of
languages, categorizes the Tunica language at 9 (dormant) on EGIDS or
its ``Language Cloud'' scale. This rating denotes a dying language
where generally the only fluent users are older than child-bearing age,
so it is too late to restore natural integration transmission through
the home. The Ethnologue suggests that a mechanism outside the home
would need to be developed. Ethnologue editor Paul Lewis argues that if
people begin to think of their language as useless, they see their
identity as such as well, which leads to social disruption, depression,
suicide, and drug use. And as parents no longer transmit language to
their children, the connection between children and grandparents is
broken and traditional values are lost. In February 2017, Ethnologue
changed the designation of the Tunica language from dormant to
``Reawakening.''
Today, the Tunica-Biloxi community has shown negative social trends
among its youth (age 6-17) population in the service area with
disproportionately high truancy and dropout rates. The Tribal
unemployment rate exceeds 7.2 percent which is higher than the state
rate of 6.3 percent according to the U. S. Department of Labor
Statistics. In years 2012-13 the graduation rate was 67 percent in
Rapides Parish and 68.5 percent in Avoyelles Parish where the Tunica-
Biloxi reservation is located. As a result, the dropout rate for
Tunica-Biloxi students exceeds 33 percent. The Avoyelles Parish
absentee rate was 8.9 percent or 22.5 percent higher than the state
average at 6.9 percent. Truancy in Avoyelles is 37.5 percent or 35.7
percent higher than the state. In addition, over 12 percent of Tunica-
Biloxi students face disciplinary actions such as in-school and out-of-
school suspensions. The 2013 American Indian Population and Labor Force
Report stated that 24.7 percent of family incomes in Louisiana are
below the poverty level.
In 2010, Tunica-Biloxi Councilmember Brenda Lintinger approached
Dr. Judith Maxwell of the Tulane University linguistics department for
help with the Tunica language project. Dr. Maxwell assembled a team of
linguists including Raina Heaton, Mary Kate Kelly, Patricia Anderson,
and Craig Alcantara. Tunica language instructors, Donna Pierite and
Elisabeth Mora, have participated actively in the project work group
contributing knowledge of their family's oral tradition in language and
cultural heritage.
Working with documents left by non-Tunica researchers, the
collaboration has produced an orthographic system, Tunica language
classes and lessons, children's books (with Tunica narration on audio
CDs), Tunica songs and stories, a textbook with accompanying workbook,
and an annual Tunica language summer camp. Tulane researchers gathered
Tunica materials from extensive work done by John R. Swanton, Albert S.
Gatschet and Mary Haas between 1886 and 1953. The group mostly works
with materials from Haas, who worked with Youchigant from 1933-39 and
with very thorough documentation published a grammar in 1941 followed
by a book of Tunica stories (Tunica Texts) in 1950 and a Tunica-English
dictionary in 1953, as well as Gatschet and Swanton. With these and
other basic materials, the Tulane team reconstructed the phonological
and syntactic structure of the language and is in the process of
preparing introductory language materials. The group is updating the
Haas' Tunica grammar, Haas' Tunica Dictionary, and other source
materials making more accessible in the development of curricula
content for training. In an initial project, Tulane transliterated and
reconfigured texts from Haas' published narratives related by Sesostrie
Youchigant, the last known fluent speaker of Tunica. The first volume
of stories adapted for children was illustrated by a tribal artist and
published in May 2011. This work has laid a foundation for classes,
workshops and summer language camps since 2012. The most recent
language camp, held in June 2015, hosted 43 tribal children.
The Language & Culture Revitalization Program (LCRP) was created by
the Tunica-Biloxi Council in 2014 to establish a structural support for
language and culture education, as well as a noticeable presence of the
language on the reservation and throughout the extended community. LCRP
currently has four full-time staff members: two Language & Cultural
Lifeways Instructors, a Program Assistant and a Director of Development
& Programing. LCRP coordinates programs at the Tunica-Biloxi Cultural &
Educational Resource Center (CERC), a 40,000 square-foot building that
houses a museum exhibit hall, conservation and restoration laboratory,
gift shop, library, auditorium, classrooms, distance learning center,
meeting rooms and tribal government offices on the reservation.
Programs include weekly language classes, live and recorded WebEx
sessions, summer language camps, early literacy story time events, and
cultural workshops.
The ongoing work of LCRP is producing an enduring repository of
training materials that will be more accessible and available to tribal
members. These materials will support training through classes,
workshops, cultural events, or informal learning groups. Although
quantity and quality of coordinated training offerings are impacted by
funding levels, the tribal government, tribal members, and cultural
traditionalists in the community will continue to support language
preservation. As Tunica language learners progress in becoming
proficient and fluent in their native tongue, new generations of Tunica
teachers will be born. As the language is re-awakened, it will again be
a more visible and audible part of Tunica-Biloxi cultural identity.
Hita (take care)
______
Prepared Statement of Lisa Maria Dewitt-Narino
Honorable Chairman Hoeven,
I have been learning the Tlingit Language off and on in my life,
but only recently felt that my fear in sharing what I know is not
enough to stay dormant in promoting indigenous languages. The call to
revitalize our mother tongues of Alaska is a mission that needs any and
all support.
There are many told and untold calamitous stories of how our
indigenous languages came to the brink of extinction. Each language has
their own story, their own hurt, their own silence, and more
importantly their own power. Ketchikan is a familiar ear to all three
of these languages Ling!t, Xaad K!l, and Sm'algyax. Ketchikan continues
to make efforts in restoring our language use--such as Ketchikan High
School offering Xaad K!l classes, brown bag lunch sessions for our
adults, evening classes for families, distance classes, use of language
in dance groups, etc. What we are doing is great and sparks hope for
indigenous language use, but it is not enough.
Please remember, Alaska's indigenous languages is much more than a
practical tool-each one has a home land, has a culture, has a people,
and has history. Our culture and our language depend on one another. It
gives us a strong connection to our ancestors and their way of thinking
and looking at the world. Tlingit for example, you hear `gunalcheesh',
most know this to mean `thank you'. However, in Tlingit the breakdown
of that word can mean, ``Without you it would not be possible''.
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Russell Begaye, President, Navajo Nation
Dear Chairman Hoeven and Vice Chairman Udall,
Thank you for the opportunity to share the Navajo Nation's support
for the reauthorization of the Esther Martinez Native American
Languages Preservation Act (S. 254) sponsored by Vice Chairman Udall.
As President of the Navajo Nation, I represent over 350,00 enrolled
members. of which nearly 180.000 of our citizens live within the
boundaries of the Nation. With such a large number of enrolled members,
our children's education is a priority to promote lifelong learning. to
ensure they are successful and that we retain our Navajo culture and
language.
Navajo culture and language preservation is a top priority for the
Navajo Nation because Dine Bizaad (Navajo language) retains our
heritage legacy and individuality as Native people. As you are aware.
our language has also played a vital historical role for the United
States during World War Il when the Navajo Code Talkers were utilized
to communicate with an unbreakable wartime code helping the Allied
Forces to win the war.
Today, nearly 68 percent of our Navajo citizens speak Dine Bizaad
(Navajo language), which has drastically decreased from 80 percent in
1980. Language preservation funding like Ester Martinez has provided
resources for programs across Indian Country to help our youth learn
their Native languages to preserve our rich traditions and unique
ClLiture. On Navajo Nation. the Window Rock Unified School District in
northeastern Arizona and the Central Consolidated School District in
northwestern New Mexico. operate exemplary Navajo language emersion
schools: Tseehootsooi Dine Bi'olta' and Eva B. Stokely Elementary.
These language emersion public schools and programs provide
cultural environments that give Navajo students the opportunity to
compete in Navajo spelling bees. science fairs. pow wow dancing,
singing, weaving, and traditional teachings. With Navajo language and
culture as the backbone of the learning environment, results show that
these students are scoring above their non-immersion peers on
standardized tests.
For these reasons. we strongly advocate that the Esther Martinez
Native American Languages Preservation Act be reauthorized at the
proposed $13 million levels for each fiscal years 2019 through 2023 to
continue to provide funding for Native language preservation and
immersion programs for the benefit of our children's educational
development and success.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
______
Prepared Statement of Margaret Speas, Professor Emerita of Linguistics,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
When I began working with Navajo language scholars and activists in
the mid 1980s, the extent of language attrition was just beginning to
be measured, but it was clear that very few children were learning the
Navajo language at home. This fact, which was part of the cumulative
damage done to Navajo families by years of educational policy intended
to wipe out their language, led me to be quite pessimistic about the
likelihood of maintaining and revitalizing the language. However, due
to the efforts of committed Navajo educators, families and scholars,
impressive progress has been made, and in particular we can see what
sorts of programs do the most to benefit Native American communities.
Research done since the passage of the Native American Languages
Act of 1990 converges on two important conclusions:
1. Being bilingual gives a child a distinct cognitive advantage
over monolingual children, in nearly every area of cognition
for which studies have been conducted.
While in Europe, India and China, over half of the population
knows more than one language, 75 percent of Americans are
monolingual. Bilingual children have been found to score better
on tests of cognitive skills such as attention, task switching
and complexity processing.
2. Native American children who are educated in Native Language
immersion schools perform better on standardized tests
(including English language arts tests) and have significantly
higher graduation rates than Native American children who
attend English-only schools.
http://www.res.org.uk/details/mediabrief/10503980/BILINGUAL-
CHILDREN-DO-BETTER-IN-TESTS-US-evidence-that-speaking-two-languages-
in.html
Marian, V. and A. Shook. 2012. 'The Cognitive Benefits of Being
Bilingual'. Cerebrum. Sept/Oct. 2012.
Blom, E. T. Boerma, E. Bosma, L. Comips and E. Everaert. 2017.
'Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children in Different
Sociolinguistic Contexts.' Frontiers in Psychology. 8:552.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/11/29/497943749/6-potential-
brain-benefits-of-bilingual-education
Pearson, B. Z. 2008. Raising a Bilingual Child. New York: Random
House.
Bialystok, E. 2007. 'Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism: How
Linguistic Experience Leads to Cognitive Change.' The International
Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism Vol. 10, No. 3.
Klug, Kelsey. 2012. 'Native American Language Act: Twenty years
later, has it made a difference?' Cultural Survival
______
Prepared Statement of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages (ACTFL)
I. Introduction
Chairman Hoeven, Ranking Member Udall, and Members of the
Committee,
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
is pleased to provide testimony regarding the critical importance of
revitalizing the use of Native American languages for instruction and
promoting other means for increasing the number of speakers and users
of these languages.
Over the years, ACTFL has committed to this effort by completing a
number of projects in Indian Country in support of the rejuvenation of
Native American languages through workshops and curriculum projects.
The emphasis of these initiatives has been on building capacity among
instructors, administrators, and tribal education agencies around:
Using and understanding ACTFL Proficiency Levels (Novice,
Intermediate, Advanced);
Facilitating instructors' self-assessment of their own level
of proficiency in Interpersonal, Interpretive, and
Presentational Communication;
Designing language learning experiences to guide learners to
higher levels of proficiency;
Implementing effective strategies and immersion techniques
for language learning; and
Integrating growth in the language into the existing
culture-focused topics and content of language curricula,
including assisting in finding ways to measure proficiency
levels in the languages.
To this last point, we have conducted Oral Proficiency Workshops
for two Mohawk Tribes (Canada and New York), the Cherokee Nation, the
Squamish Nation, and the Seneca Tribe. This past spring, we also worked
in a gratis capacity with the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma as part
of their language preservation efforts to help them write a grant
establishing an online language course and language teacher training
program.
Since 2013, ACTFL has provided professional development and
technical assistance to:
Alaska Native Heritage Center (Anchorage): 2013 workshop on
developing and assessing language performance
The Aleut Foundation: 2014 consultation with Saint Paul
Island language programs on developing proficiency with
effective instructional strategies
Eastern Shawnee: 2016 workshops on developing language
proficiency to higher levels in learners and instructors
Myamia Language Project (Miami University of Ohio): 2016
workshops on proficiency, unit design, and curriculum planning
Native Hawaiian Programs (independent schools in Honolulu):
2017--18 assistance on curriculum planning and unit design for
programs teaching Hawaiian language
The Six Nations School (Six Nations of the Grand River First
Nation reserve in Ontario, Canada): several workshops, book
studies, consultation, and review on curriculum/units
II. Recent National Actions To Support Language Education and U.S.
Capacity
Two important developments in the past 18 months have helped to
build awareness and capacity for language learning in the United
States, including the learning and preservation of Native American
languages.
In December of 2014, a bipartisan group comprising members from
both chambers of Congress, Senate and House of Representatives, wrote a
letter to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) requesting
that a study be conducted to answer the following questions:
How does language learning influence economic growth,
cultural diplomacy, the productivity of future generations and
the fulfillment of all Americans?
What actions should the nation take to ensure excellence in
all languages as well as international education and research,
including how we may more effectively use current resources to
advance language learning?
AAAS formed a language commission made up of representatives from
the AAAS membership as well as stakeholders representing national
security, scholarly research, business, and the language education
field. This Commission on Language Learning met during 2015--16 to
gather data, collect testimony, and discuss opportunities for improving
the U.S. capacity in non-English languages.
The resulting study, entitled America's Languages: Investing in
Language Education for the 21st Century, sets forth a national strategy
to improve access to as many languages as possible for individuals from
every region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background. By placing value
on language education as a persistent national need, similar to
education in math or English, the report makes the case that a useful
level of proficiency should be within every student's reach.
As part of this study, the Commission was also tasked with
identifying factors that can led specifically to the revitalization and
development of Native American languages. According to America's
Languages, ``Native American languages are distinct in political status
and history, and are the object of school- and community-based
reclamation and retention efforts aligned with the Native American
Languages Act (NALA) of 1990.'' \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Commission on Language
Learning, "America's Languages: Investing in Language Education for the
21st Century," 2017, https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/
publications/researchpapersmonographs/language/Commission-on-Language-
Learning_Americas-Languages.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The report also indicates that over the past 20 years, researchers
have:
``discovered that instruction in indigenous languages yields a
variety of benefits for Native American children. It has been
linked to improvements in academic achievement, retention
rates, and school attendance; local and national achievement
test scores; well-being, self-esteem, and self-efficacy; and
resiliency to addiction and the prevention of risky
behaviors.'' \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Ibid.
The report proposes five key recommendations for improving the
state of U.S. language education as well as features examples of model
language programs and profiles of people who have advanced their
careers because of their communicative abilities in more than one
language.
The five recommendations in America's Languages include:
1. Increasing the number of language teachers at all levels of
education so that every child in every state has the
opportunity to learn a language in addition to English.
Currently, 43 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia face
language teacher shortages. \3\ This is a critical issue for
the future of our field and has prompted ACTFL to begin
developing a program that encourages high school students to
consider entering the language teaching profession. In this
category, we also face the challenge created by individual
states employing different methods of teacher credentialing; in
turn, we plan to work with states to increase the number among
them offering reciprocity in teacher certificates. We also plan
to encourage maximizing the use of technology to deliver
language programs-not as a replacement for teachers but as a
means for enhancing student opportunities by implementing
hybrid programs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ U.S. Department of Education, ``Teacher Shortage Areas,
Nationwide Listing, 1990-1991 through 2017-2018,'' May 2017, https://
www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/pol/
teacheshortageareasreport2017.pdf.
2. Supplementing language instruction across the education
system through public-private partnerships among schools,
government, philanthropies, business, and local community
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
members.
When Congress made the initial request, it was not with the
intent that the report make large financial demands of the
government, therefore this recommendation was made to encourage
innovative use of community resources to leverage support for
language programs in our schools and universities. We need to
involve business leaders to invest in creating a multilingual
citizenry and those efforts begin in local communities.
3. Supporting heritage languages already spoken in the United
States and helping to ensure that these languages persist from
one generation to the next.
We know from U.S. Census Bureau data that heritage speakers
who come to the United States generally lose their native
language abilities almost completely by the third generation.
Our country needs to view these heritage languages as an asset
to building our nation's language capacity and to offer courses
for these students to continue to build their native language
competence. An important element of this recommendation is also
to build awareness among our heritage speakers that being fully
proficient in two languages is an asset to their career
advancement.
4. Providing targeted support and programming for Native
American languages as defined in the Native American Languages
Act.
As mentioned above, while there has been legislation and some
funding to provide for the reclamation of Native American
languages, the persistent danger of losing these languages
remains. This report calls for supporting the use of Native
American languages as the medium for instruction as seen in
programs such as dual language immersion. It also calls for
expanding the study of these languages beyond the tribal school
areas and into other schools as well.
5. Promoting opportunities for students to learn languages in
other countries by experiencing other cultures and immersing
themselves in multilingual environments.
A very small percentage of U.S. students participate in study
abroad programs. In addition to increasing awareness, we need
to significantly improve the opportunities for international
experiences offered to students. Too frequently student loan
recipients are prohibited from studying abroad because they are
required to pursue employment during the summer and other
academic breaks. We need to remove the barriers that students
encounter in pursuing study abroad opportunities as well as
international internships, where they can increase their job
skills and their language skills simultaneously.
Immediately on the heels of the release of America's Languages,
ACTFL launched a national campaign, Lead with Languages, to build
public awareness--particularly among parents and students, as well as
among heritage speakers and their families--about the important
benefits of learning another language. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ ACTFL, Lead with Languages, LeadWithLanguages.org, (accessed
August 22, 2018).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
With approximately 20 percent of U.S. K-12 students and 7.5 percent
of university students enrolled in language courses, we have a long way
to go. We are hoping that this campaign, along with the implementation
of the recommendations of the AAAS report, will promote a movement in
the United States to create a new generation of young people proficient
in languages beyond just English.
III. Conclusion
Our national capacity for languages in addition to English is
important to the economic and diplomatic future of our country, as the
AAAS report points out, but we also know how important it is for our
students: Gaining the cognitive, academic, and social benefits of
learning another language sets them on a path to personal and
professional growth and success.
ACTFL is proud to support efforts to revitalize, maintain, and
develop Native American languages.
______
Prepared Statement of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe
Introduction
On behalf of the youth of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, I
respectfully submit the following written testimony in response to the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearing titled ``Examining
Efforts to Maintain and Revitalize Native Languages for Future
Generations.'' The Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe is located in Hollister,
North Carolina, and has over 4,000 enrolled citizens. One of the
ancestral languages of the Haliwa-Saponi is Tutelo-Saponi, which we are
currently working to awaken from its dormancy within our tribal
community.
Current State
Revitalizing Native languages should be one of the highest
priorities we have in this country. In countless Native communities
across the country, languages are in danger of being lost forever due
to lack of youth involvement or interest, lack of programs, or lack of
funding for programs and initiatives that will promote, document, and
preserve Native languages.
Under the work of Haliwa-Saponi scholar and Historic Legacy Project
Coordinator, Dr. Marvin Richardson, Tribal Youth Services Coordinator
Sharon Harris Berrun, and several other community members, the Haliwa-
Saponi community has seen the Tutelo-Saponi language come into use more
and more over the years. As a result of the increased use of our
language, there has been an enhanced sense of self-worth and pride in
our community among those that are embracing language revitalization.
There has been a renewed interest in other citizens of our tribal
community as well. This has been a tremendous opportunity to strengthen
community ties and has deepened our collective connection to who we are
as Indigenous people.
Recommendations
Tribal and community leaders of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe
recognize that youth language learning is key to ensuring the
continuation of our Native tongue. Consistently finding new and
creative ways to engage and keep our youth involved is one tactic that
will help preserve not just our language, but countless other languages
that are subject to being lost. It is also critical that more resources
be allocated to increase capacity and support around Native language
preservation and teaching. The following list outlines brief
recommendations for supporting tribes' language revitalization and
preservation efforts.
1. Invest in diverse tribal programs and services that teach,
or at minimum incorporate Native languages throughout their
curricula.
2. Support initiatives that make it possible for Native
students to fulfill their public schools' language requirements
by studying their own indigenous languages, either in school or
in the community. School systems should work hand-in-hand with
tribes to establish and maintain mutually acceptable standards
of indigenous language proficiency.
3. Increase local tribal capacity for language preservation by
investing in scholars from the community who wish to learn and
teach Indigenous languages. This includes, but is not limited
to allocating funding for language teachers and researchers, as
well as the establishment of apprenticeships to ensure
intergenerational transference of language and cultural
knowledge.
4. Support the increase of broadband access in rural or remote
tribal communities so that language learning can be digitized,
made more accessible, and shared virtually to expand reach.
Below are testimonies from Haliwa-Saponi youth who have taken
initiative and demonstrated commitment to learning the language by
taking advantage of one of more community programs that offer Tutelo
language instruction.
``Learning my language means very much to me. It means carrying on
the flame instead of letting it die out. I want to learn the language
so that I can teach my children and hopefully, they will teach their
children. I recognize the importance of continuing traditions, and I
want to make sure that I do my part in ensuring that that happens.''--
Cheyenne Daniel
``Learning my language means everything to me, the language is what
makes a tribe or nation stand out in society. It is so easy in this day
and time to not care about it, because you don't hear a lot of people
speaking it [in the Hollister community]. But, I believe that is going
to change as time goes on because people like myself are realizing
every day that the language is just as important as the dances, songs,
and history of our people. As a result of this language revival that is
happening in Native communities, you have people bringing the language
back by incorporating it into our schools, different kinds of music,
plays, and everyday situations. I hope it continues because now is the
time, more than ever for us to re embrace our language and let the
world know that we are still here and we will not be defeated.''--Jamie
Silver
``I am so excited to be learning our language. It brings so much
joy to my heart to see that our language is not dead, but being
reawakened. If we do not do everything we can to continue learning, it
will not be possible for the next generations to truly know who they
are and exactly where they come from. I appreciate all of the hard work
that is being put into revitalizing our language and I cannot express
how grateful I am.'' Zianne Richardson, elected Haliwa-Saponi Tribal
Princess 2018-2019.
Conclusion
Thank you for your time and we hope that you all will consider the
aforementioned recommendations and recognize the power that you all
have in influencing the preservation and progression of Native
languages across the United States and its territories. The Haliwa-
Saponi Indian Tribe looks forward to working with you to sustain these
efforts.
______
Prepared Statement of Nancy Barnes, Juneau, AK
Nancy Barnes d' waayu, laxsheeg dpdegu. Tsimshian ada Alutiiq nu.
Juneau dil wil dzogu. Wilaayu sm'algyax.
My name is Nancy Barnes, I am of the Eagle moiety. I am Tsimshian
and Alutiiq and a sm'algyax learner--the language of the Tsimshian.
There are very few sm'algyax language learners today. When the Russians
and Americans came to Alaska, my ancestors were whipped for speaking
their indigenous languages. The next generation--my mother and father's
generation--were not taught their languages because our grandparents
did not want them to go through what they had to endure.
I live in Juneau, Alaska. I am an active member of the Juneau
Sm'algyax Learners Group, along with my 19 year old niece I have
raised.
We are indeed at a critical point for our Alaska indigenous
languages, and all indigenous languages in the United States of
America.
We started a Tsimshian talking circle in Juneau in 2003. A group of
us would gather at my home, using a talking dictionary and other
materials by sm'algyax teacher Donna May Roberts and her late husband
Tony Roberts. Donna May came to Juneau in 2002 and taught a week long
TPR class--the total physical response method. This was the beginning
of our language learning journey. That week-long session was the
catalyst for many of us to go on this amazing journey. Not only do we
learn our language, we also sing our Tsimshian songs.
Donna May told us a story which her grandmother told her. She said:
My grandmother said there is a word in sm'algyax called
magwa'ala. It means deep winter--the time when food is scarce
and it is difficult to get anything to survive. She cautioned
us that our languages are in a state of magwa'ala now. No
matter how much we prepare for this type of winter, it may not
be enough to survive. At the end, she came close to us and in a
whisper said, ``I challenge you. Our language is in a state of
magwa'ala now. What will you do?''
We were so taken with her words, and sense of urgency.
Today, a group of us practice language every Saturday. Sm'algyax
teacher Terri Burr with 92 year old elder John Reece has been teaching
us via google hangout.
There are only six fluent speakers in Sm'algyax in Alaska. However,
there are amazing efforts by the Haayk Foundation and others in
Metlakatla; David A. Boxley, Terri Burr in Ketchikan, Marcella Asicksik
in Anchorage, and Dr. Mique'l Dangeli and others in British Columbia.
I respectfully urge our elected officials to work together with our
indigenous organizations to initiate and strengthen, as appropriate,
legislative and policy measures that prioritize the survival and
continued use of Alaska Native languages. If any members of the
Committee on Indian Affairs (or their staff) would like to watch our
Saturday language learning gatherings, we'd be happy to arrange it via
google hangout. Please feel free to email or call me if I can provide
further information.
T'oyaxsut Nuusum.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of the National Council for Languages and
International Studies
The National Council for Languages and International Studies
(NCLIS) is honored to submit this testimony for the written record to
the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, for the Oversight
Hearing on ``Examining Efforts to Maintain and Revitalize Native
Languages for Future Generations.'' Comprising more than 125
professional associations, research institutes, and companies in
languages, NCLIS provides this testimony in order to highlight the
fundamental relationship between biliteracy and bilingualism at the
individual level, on the one hand, and the cultural, linguistic, and
human capital gained by communities when that biliteracy and
bilingualism is fostered and encouraged. In the context of our Native
American, Alaska Native, and Hawai'ian Languages, the Native American
Languages Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-107), the Esther Martinez Native
American Languages Preservation Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-384), and 6133
of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-95) represent
initial and long overdue steps to reverse the deliberate erasure of the
linguistic identity of more than 5.2 million Native Americans, Alaska
Natives, and Hawai'ians.
The Commission on Language Learning of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, in responding to a bicameral and bipartisan request from
the Congress, commissioned several white papers detailing the impact of
languages on the national interest as of 2015. Of these, ``Language and
Productivity for All Americans'' summarizes more than 25 years of
research on the impact of bilingualism and biliteracy for the
individual. Drawing on research in cognitive sciences, neuroscience,
psychology, labor economics, education, and other fields, the authors
make clear that the bilingual individual in America enjoys lifelong
cognitive, educational, and employment benefits, regardless of the
language.
For the community, developing this at the individual level requires
resources beyond simple willpower and persistence. While communities
across the country, from Hilo to Bethel, Alaska to Santa Clarita, New
Mexico, to Mashpee, Massachusetts, and many more, have taken the fate
of their languages into their own hands, the resources available
relative to task of revitalization are meager. Moreover, the Every
Student Succeeds Act reinforces artificial barriers to the transmission
and growth of Native American, Alaska Native, and Hawai'ian Languages,
in particular with respect to requirements for standardized testing and
teacher qualification, which are inappropriate for these languages.
The Congress should reauthorize the Esther Martinez Act, and should
fund it fully; additional investments need to occur in Title VI of ESSA
and in the Native American Languages Act. Finally, Congress must
address the inherent conflict between Title I of ESSA and the Native
American Languages Act, to allow standardized assessments in the
languages of Native American, Alaska Native, and Hawai'ian schools.
Sources:
Kroll, J., and Dussiais, P. 2015. ``Language and Productivity for
All Americans.'' Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/KrollDussias_April%205.pdf, last
accessed.
______
Prepared Statement of Dr. Jolene Bowman, President, National Indian
Education Association (NIEA)
Dear Chairman Hoeven:
On behalf of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), I
respectfully submit the following written comments in response to the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs' oversight hearing titled
``Examining Efforts to Maintain and Revitalize Native Languages for
Future Generations.'' NIEA is the nation's largest and most inclusive
organization advocating for comprehensive culture-based educational
opportunities for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native
Hawaiians.
Federal Trust Responsibility
Congress has a federal trust responsibility for the education of
Native students. Established through treaties, federal law, and U.S.
Supreme Court decisions, the federal government's trust responsibility
to tribes includes the obligation to provide parity in access and equal
resources to all American Indian and Alaska Native students, regardless
of where they attend school. Resources and funding to preserve and
revitalize Native languages are a critical part of the federal trust
responsibility, an obligation shared between the Congress and the
Administration for federally-recognized tribes.
Native Languages And Culture-Based Education
Native languages are at the heart of Native identity, interwoven
into ceremony, tradition, and history of tribes and Native communities.
When Native languages are integrated into and celebrated in the
classroom, Native students are more likely to be engaged and succeed.
Language preservation and revitalization programs are critical to
ensuring that Native students have equitable access to culturally
relevant educational opportunities.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization, 74 Native languages are on track to disappear
within the next decade, and only 20 Native languages will be spoken by
2050 without immediate action. Tribes and Native communities are
innovating to develop unique schools that pass Native languages to
future generations through a rigorous academic program. However,
resources and funding for such programs remain a challenge for many
communities. Congress should strengthen and expand resources to support
Native language revitalization, maintenance, and preservation to ensure
equity in education for Native students.
Recommendations
Native languages and culturally responsive education are critical
to student achievement and success in Native communities. NIEA submits
the following recommendations to strengthen and expand federal
resources and funding that support the preservation and revitalization
of Native languages across the country.
Reauthorize the Esther Martinez Native American Language
Preservation Act--Passed in the Senate as S. 254, the Esther
Martinez Native American Preservation Act reauthorizes 2006
legislation that funds language immersion and restoration
programs for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native
Hawaiian students. Funding provided under this Act has
supported the development of tribal curricula, language
assessments, and immersion programs to support and revive
Native languages in schools across the country. Though this
legislation passed the Senate on November 29, 2017, a House
companion bill has remained in the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce since February with little movement. NIEA
recommends that congressional leaders work to pass this
critical legislation before the November 6 elections.
Support Assessments in the Native Language of Instruction--
Assessments are critical to understanding students' learning,
growth and achievement. However, state and federal agencies
have struggled to construct testing mechanisms that
appropriately assess students in the Native language of
instruction due to the number of unique Native languages and
lack of technical expertise in state and federal agencies and
outside of tribal communities. Tribes must have the flexibility
to assess student learning and growth and ensure that Native
students have access to excellent education opportunities.
Consistent with the federal trust responsibility, deference on
Native language assessments should be provided to tribes that
operate Native immersion schools across the country.
Expand Pathways for Native Language Teacher Recruitment and
Retention, including Native Teacher Preparation Programs--
Despite tribal innovation and development, schools and
immersion programs continue to face an ongoing shortage of
culturally responsive educators that are fluent in Native
languages. Federal support to address teacher shortages in
Native communities through legislation such as the Native
Educator Support and Training Act (S. 458) is critical to
ensuring that Native students have access to highly-qualified
teachers. However, immersion schools and programs require
educators with specialized knowledge and fluency in Native
languages. Some tribal communities have addressed shortages by
creating teacher training and professional development programs
that recruit fluent language speakers or train educators to
speak Native languages. In order to revitalize Native
languages, tribes must be able to certify teachers to ensure
that Native students in immersion schools have access to
equitable opportunities.
Replicate and Expand Native Language Schools--Schools that
teach students through the medium of language immersion are
critical to revitalizing Native languages for future
generations. Through language immersion, Native students build
academic and cognitive skills for future success in a positive
learning environment where they can thrive. Due to limited
funding and resources, some tribes and Native communities lack
the resources to replicate and expand successful models for
language immersion and revitalization. Tribes and Native
communities must have access to the tools necessary to exercise
sovereignty in education through high-quality Native language
schools and programs.
Increase Appropriations for Native Language Preservation and
Revitalization--Tribes must have access to the resources and
funding necessary to exercise tribal sovereignty to support
Native language immersion schools and provide Native students
access to excellent culture-based education options. Federal
grants through the Administration for Native Americans (ANA)
and the Department of Education (Department), provide financial
support for tribes to support Native students through language
immersion. NIEA recommends that Congress increase
appropriations for Native language preservation programs at ANA
to $14 million and National Activities, including Native
language programs, at the Department to $10 million in FY 2019.
Conclusion
Schools and programs that teach Native languages have the potential
to ensure that Native students thrive. Tribes and tribal organizations
must have access to the tools and resources to build and strengthen
programs that revitalize Native languages for generations to come. NIEA
looks forward to working with you to ensure equity in education for the
only students that the Federal Government has a direct responsibility
to educate--Native students.
Thank you for considering these comments for the record.
______
Prepared Statement of Norvin Richards, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
To whom it may concern:
I have been involved in projects intended to help with maintenance
and revival of indigenous languages of this country since 1999, when I
began working with the Wampanoag people of eastern Massachusetts on
their language revival program (a program which was started, and is
still headed, by Jessie Littledoe Baird, who is scheduled to speak to
you today). My department now has a Master's program intended
specifically for members of indigenous communities who seek linguistic
training that will be useful for them in working to ensure the survival
of their languages.
This kind of work represents our best hope, I think, of rescuing
the languages of this country from a currently ongoing wave of mass
linguistic extinction. Most of the world's languages are endangered; at
least half of them are expected to die in this century. All of the
indigenous languages of this country are among the endangered majority;
very few of them, for example, are being learned by children in the
home.
Members of the communities affected by language endangerment can
explain to you more eloquently than I can what the survival of their
language means to them, and I hope you will have a chance today to hear
them do so. One refrain I often hear, as I work with these communities,
is that by making it possible for young people to study their ancestral
languages in schools, we allow them to see their languages and
cultures, not as outdated relics to be discussed briefly in the early
chapters of history books, but as living traditions in which they can
participate themselves, maintaining their vitality into the foreseeable
future. For young Native Americans, who must grapple with the many
social and political problems that their communities face, that's a
very powerful message, sometimes a life-saving one.
______
Prepared Statement of Paul V. Kroskrity, Professor of Anthropology;
Professor and Chair, American Indian Studies, UCLA
I write to you as someone with a career long interest in the study,
documentation and revitalization of Native American Languages. This
academic year (2018-2019) will be my 40th year at UCLA where I have
continuously researched, advised, and worked with students and Native
American communities on issues of language documentation and
revitalization. The actual beginning of my research with Native
American Languages goes back another six years to when I was a graduate
student in Anthropology at Indiana University and doing dissertation
research on Tewa, as spoken on First Mesa of the Hopi Reservation, NE
Arizona (aka Arizona Tewa, aka Village of Tewa). I am still working
with that community 46 years later and developing a practical
dictionary with them that will both preserve linguistic knowledge of
the culture and the immediate environment but also provide a basis for
Tewa language instruction. It is a fascinating community with great
pride in its language. Like many Pueblo groups, the ancestors of the
Tewa were living along the Rio Grande River at the time of Spanish
invasion and colonization. They resisted Spanish oppression and
participated in two Pueblo Revolts in 1680 and 1696. After the second
Revolt, they left the area and moved, at the invitation of Hopis, to
their lands in what is today Northern Arizona. Unlike nearly 100 other
groups who also left their homelands in the wake of these revolts, the
Tewa are the only one of these groups that continued to speak their
heritage language--even under conditions that normally produce
linguistic assimilation. My 1993 book, Language, History, and Identity,
tells their story and helps us to understand how intertwined language
and cultural identity are for this group and for just about all Native
American groups. While the Village of Tewa has endured contact with
Spanish and Hopi, contact with English has greatly undermined its use
in Tewa homes where televisions broadcast only in English. No one in
this community wants to remove English, they merely want to make sure
that Tewa continues to have a place in community affairs, village and
family life, and in connections to the pride of maintaining their
heritage language.
As a scholar and mentor to many students of language
revitalization, I know that the statements about the importance of
Native American languages that were included in the original Native
American Languages Act of 1990. Maintaining languages is very important
for cultural continuity, the mental health and well-being of Indian
youth, and for enabling Native American students to develop a positive
cultural identity. Researchers have proven this time and time again.
Maintaining these heritage languages does not compete with English. All
Tewa youth know they need English proficiency to navigate their social
worlds. But only the Tewa language allows them to also fully
participate in their own culture, too.
In addition to long-term work with the Tewa over decades and also
in addition to advising some 20 additional tribes about documentation
and revitalization, I have also worked for a very long time with the
Western Mono communities of North Fork and Auberry in Central
California. This work has resulted in a practical dictionary of that
language which my UCLA team along with more than 12 Mono people. The
tribe now posts an on-line version of that dictionary for tribal
members to use [http://northforkrancheria-nsn.gov/home/
showdocument?id=29]. In another collaborative project, I worked with
elder Rosalie Bethel to produce a CD-ROM (Taitaduhaan: Western Mono
Ways of Speaking) that contains story-telling performances and a prayer
which displays how one of the last highly fluent speakers uses her
language to convey culturally important narratives. Many Western Mono
use these materials in adult-ed courses and in grammar school lesson
plans designed to introduce aspects of the language but many more
materials are needed. As my Mono co-author Rosalie Bethel would say,
``We need the language to know who we are.''
I hope you are aware that most Native American languages are not
prospering. Partially in response to U.S. policies that were needlessly
oppressive and provided little room for possible bilingual adaptations,
language shift to English is more the rule than the exception. Like
small languages throughout the world, experts like myself will
justifiably predict that without additional sustained support more than
50 percent of the existing languages will cease to be spoken at all.
This would compound a disaster into a catastrophe since only half of
the Native American Languages that were spoken in the 19th C. are alive
today. These numbers help me make a case for the gravity of the current
situation.
But more important is the human cost of not maintaining,
documenting, revitalizing. Native groups associate their language with
healing, religion, spirituality, morality, proper world view, and
cultural identity. Given the historical abuse of US policy, it would be
more than fitting to provide as much funding and support as possible.
Failure to do so will surely have an impact on future generations. For
those of you who are not speakers of a threatened language, I ask you
what would the world be like if no one spoke your language anymore.
Also for those of you who make comparison to the linguistic situation
of immigrant groups who lose their heritage languages to a national
language, please remember that there is no other place that Native
Americans can go to, like contemporary European, African, or Asian
countries, where they can find a place where their language is still
spoken. Native American languages are from here-they preexisted the
U.S. and our policies should do much more than symbolically honor them
and their continuing importance not just to their own communities but
to us all. We are indeed all richer for these languages to be known and
used.
______
Prepared Statement of Paula Sam, Enrolled Member, Northern Paiute
(Gidutikad Band) of the Fort Bidwell Reservation
My name is Paula Sam. I am submitting this testimony as an enrolled
member of the Northern Paiute (Gidutikad Band) of the Fort Bidwell
Reservation in Northern California.
I grew up in Fort Bidwell as a child, as my mother was enrolled
here. My father was also Paiute, enrolled with the Agai Panina Ticutta
Paiute of Summit Lake Nevada.
I grew up with the Northern Paiute language as a child, as my
parents always spoke the language daily. So, I grew up understanding
the Paiute Language. Although of different bands, the dialect was
similar.
When I turned 18 years old, I was sent away to Los Angeles on the
relocation program. I left the reservation at that time and worked at
various jobs since 1968 through 2011. I finally retired from my job
after 25 years with Southern California Edison Utility Company, located
in California.
The drive to visit my mom was a long one, approximately 13 hours.
So I did not get to see her too often.
My major problem is that I still understand the Paiute language I
grew up with, but I am unable to speak the language. At this time, I am
68 years old. We have only two elders from our reservation that
actually speak our Paiute language, one who is 83 years old and the
other is 85 plus years. After they are no longer here, the language
will probably be forgotten.
This is my reason for writing this letter to encourage the Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs to stress how important it is to preserve
tribal languages. Please present this information and let them know of
this huge dilemma.
For me it was survival for me to leave the reservation at that
time, I paid that cost as I lost a lot of culture, language, and
history when making the decision to leave the reservation.
Thank you for your attention on this important matter of
revitalizing tribal languages.
______
Prepared Statement of Raina Heaton, Ph.D,, Linguistics, Assistant
Professor of Native American Studies; Assistant Curator of Native
American Languages, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History,
University of Oklahoma
I am Dr. Raina Heaton, an Assistant Professor of Native American
Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and the curator of the Native
American Languages collection at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of
Natural History. I am a professional linguist who works with Native
American communities to document, describe, and revitalize their
languages.
I am submitting testimony in support of providing funding and other
resources to help strengthen Native American languages. Recent data
from the Catalogue of Endangered Languages demonstrates that ALL of the
indigenous languages of North America are endangered (i.e. none of them
are ``safe''), and the proportion of critically and severely endangered
languages in North America (102/207, or 49.3 percent) greatly exceeds
the ratio world-wide (806/3411, or 23.6 percent). Mainly due to Indian
removal policies, Oklahoma has the greatest concentration of indigenous
languages still being spoken anywhere in the United States. Many of
these languages have only a handful of speakers left, which led
Oklahoma to be designated a ``hotspot'' for language endangerment on a
global scale:https://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/langhotspots/hotspots/
SOK/index.html.
Tribes are doing everything they can to record and pass on the
knowledge of these elders before it is too late, but language
revitalization is a long road (e.g. Maori language revitalization,
often touted as a successful model, started ca. 1982 and continues to
this day), and it takes continuous funding and support to build
successful programs. While ANA grants and other such programs provide
vital support for language revitalization, this type of short-term
funding leaves tribes that are unable to self-fund these programs after
they are started without anywhere to turn. Evidence shows that
effective language revitalization programs can be quite costly:
Cherokee Nation for example not only runs immersion schools, but also
had to create teacher training certification programs to support those
schools. Okura (2017) surveyed different language nests and found that
on average they require at least $10,000 annually to run, and that is
for a fairly small number of students per nest. The First Peoples'
Cultural Council provides grants for Master-Apprentice pairs which are
approximately $15,000 for every 300 hours of instruction. While this
information is heartening in that $10,000 a year is not a huge amount
of money, it is the security in having those funds available year after
year that is necessary, and the lack of which is a leading cause of
programs having to shut down.
Support can also take the form of forums where language
revitalization practitioners can get together and share strategies.
Institutes and conferences do exist and are incredibly beneficial, but
it would also be beneficial to make available small recurrent grants
for local conferences and training (e.g. the Dhegiha language group
that meets annually). This is something I have heard requested many
times here in Oklahoma.
Finally, as an archiving professional at a public institution, one
of the main services we provide to tribes is digitization and
preservation of their materials. It is abundantly clear that there are
more recordings and materials that need to be digitized and preserved
than we are able to handle (or that we are allowed to use state funds
to process, if the tribes do not want to make those recordings publicly
available), and most tribes do not have archives capable of this
either. Please continue to support those tribal archive grants that
exist, and consider strategic initiatives to digitize the materials in
people's basements and attics before it is too late. Consider that
tying preservation to access (e.g. as in the NEH Humanities Collections
and Reference Resources solicitation) in this particular context of
Native people who have had their intellectual property rights abused
may well cause the disappearance of the resources we are trying to
protect.
______
Joint Prepared Statement of Douglas H. Whalen, Chair/Board of
Directors, Endangered Language Fund; Margaret P. Moss, Incoming
Director, First Nations House of Learning, University of British
Columbia; and Daryl Baldwin, Director, Myaamia Center, Miami University
(Ohio)
Dear Senators,
We strongly support the maintenance and revitalization of Native
languages in the United States. We would like to point out that such
efforts have direct health benefits, as detailed in our published
article (Whalen, D. H., Moss, M. P., & Baldwin, D. (2016). Healing
through language: Positive physical health effects of indigenous
language use [version 1; referees: awaiting peer review].
F1000Research, 5(852). doi:10.12688/f1000research.8656.1). The benefits
are wide-ranging, including reduction in diabetes, suicide, and
smoking, as well as improvements in general well-being and educational
outcomes. Such improvements are essential for Native Americans, who
have some of the worst health outcomes in the country, and language
programs are an efficient way of improving those outcomes.
Please support the maintenance and revitalization of Native
languages by continuing current efforts and providing for increased
support in the future.
______
Prepared Statement of Terri Burr, Ahl'lidaaw Language Facilitator,
Tsimshian Education Department
I am Tsimshian from Alaska and work for Ketchikan Indian Community
as a Tsimshian Language Facilitator. I have been learning and teaching
our Shm'algyack language for nine years. Because our people suffer from
historic trauma, it is extremely difficult to restore language use. Our
people require time to manage feelings and values after two hundred
years of interference from Anglo influence. The few fluent speaking
Elders who are left are not professionally trained instructors. Our
population is left to rediscover ways of learning that respect who we
are as Native Americans. There is great value in all Native American
languages. We are making measurable progress. This work has to be
conducted carefully. It will take time to do it right. Please continue
to support all revitalizations efforts nationwide. Do what you can to
remove any competitive models in funding. In these final efforts, we
should not have to compete against one another. All tribes need each
other and need to be working together, not competing against each other
for federal funding. Please ensure funding goes only to IRS's and not
``for-profit'' businesses.
Sha aam dza waan
(May Everyone Speak well of your Name),
______
Prepared Statement of Sandra Kowalski, Director of Indigenous Programs,
Office of Rural, Community and Native Education, University of Alaska
Fairbanks
Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and Honorable Members of the
Committee thank you for the opportunity to provide written testimony
following the hearing on ``Examining Efforts to Maintain and Revitalize
Native Languages for Future Generations'' held on August 22, 2018. As I
am certain you have been learning from recent testimony, there is a
great deal of positive synergy in the work of revitalizing Indigenous
languages. Recent developments in Alaska have been pivotal, and I would
like to share those with you.
I am the Director of Indigenous Programs at the Office of Rural,
Community and Native Education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I
am Inupiaq, and I learned my language in the 1980s through the Alaska
Native Language Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I became
a teacher, and later a school administrator in Kotzebue and Fairbanks.
My most important work during my career was language revitalization
work done through my tribe, the Native Village of Kotzebue. I am one of
a group of community members that started Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat, an
Inupiaq language immersion school for preschool through early
elementary in Qikiqtagruk (Kotzebue) in 1998. Next week, I travel to my
home community to help celebrate the twentieth year for Nikaitchuat
I?isagviat. People from across Alaska are expected to attend, including
Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, as my home community celebrates
twenty years of effort and commitment to our young children and
community.
Before I share about recent efforts, it is important to understand
the vast challenges Alaska Native language revitalization efforts face.
There are twenty distinct and formally recognized Alaska Native
languages that are in various states of decline. Decades of colonialism
and recent globalization have created chasms between older first
language speakers and younger generations. Western societal pressures
resulting from this colonialism and globalization continue to
contribute to the low success rates of Alaska Native students in the K-
12 and university settings.
Despite these challenges, however, Alaska is witnessing a
renaissance. Alaskan Native individuals whose first language is English
have, through immersion programs, master-apprentice partnerships, and
some working individually, become proficient in their own Alaska Native
language. These second language speakers' stories have inspired
interest and demand for opportunities for other Alaska Natives to learn
to speak their own language at home and throughout the community.
There have also been several significant and broadly impacting
milestones that support this resurgence. In January 2018, the Alaska
Native Language Preservation & Advisory Council (ANLPAC) presented its
biennial report to the Governor of Alaska, the Alaska State
Legislature, and the people of Alaska. Key themes in this 2018 Report
included self-determination of Alaska Native peoples shaping the future
survival of their own languages and cultural justice in reclaiming
their traditional and cultural forms of practice--themes that resonate
with Alaskans throughout the state.
The report also called for state-level, elected officials to
declare a linguistic emergency for Alaska's Native languages.
Indigenous languages in Alaska are predicted to become extinct or
dormant by the end of this century without aggressive intervention.
In March 2018, the Alaska Legislature passed a resolution based on
recommendations from the 2018 ANLPAC Biennial Report. The resolution
urged the Governor of Alaska to issue an administrative order
recognizing a linguistic emergency. It also called for the legislature,
state agencies and Alaska Native groups to work actively to ensure the
survival and use of all twenty of Alaska's Indigenous languages.
In response to the ANLPAC recommendations, the surge in public
interest, and to support key efforts already underway throughout
Alaska, the Office of Rural Community and Native Education at the
University of Alaska Fairbanks hosted the Alaska Native Language
Revitalization Institute (ANLRI) in May 2018. Approximately 150
language learners and instructors, elders and first-language speakers
attended. In hosting this institute, UAF partnered with faculty from Ha
Haka `Ula O Ke'elikolani College of Hawaiian Language. Language
revitalization experts William Pila Wilson, Keiki Kawai'ae'a, and Larry
Kimura presented and collaborated with ten Indigenous language teams
including Yup'ik, Inupiaq, Tlingit, Haida, Gwich'in, Dena'ina, Ahtna,
Sugpiaq/Alutiiq, Deg Xinag, and Denaakk'e.
Language teams at the ANLRI developed strategies and initiatives to
further their own language's revitalization efforts, from dictionary
development and documentation to planning for immersion schools for
youth learning and master-apprenticeships to support adult learning.
One realization of ANLRI participants was the need for an Indigenous
teacher education and preparation program for Alaska Natives who return
to teach everything from Kindergarten to AP Chemistry. A pathway is
needed so that our Alaska Native communities have, for example, a
biology teacher who speaks Yup'ik as she teaches about the local
ecosystem and is able to ground scientific concepts in the local
context. When communities own both the language and the education,
Alaskan communities will thrive.
The UAF Office of Rural, Community and Native Education oversees
the College of Rural and Community Development which provides academic
and vocational education across nearly two-thirds of the state of
Alaska, including 160 Alaska Native and rural communities. The College
of Rural and Community Development is a network of rural campuses and
learning centers that are the critical link between the University of
Alaska Fairbanks and the communities that UAF serves, providing place-
based education that prepares graduates to fill jobs within home
communities. To this end, the UAF Office of Rural, Community and Native
Education supports the development of teacher preparation pathways
grounded in Indigenous language, knowledge, and values.
UAF will begin to develop a teacher preparation program that
provides teachers who are fluent in their own Alaska Native language
and teach culturally relevant concepts, working with Alaska Native
language and culture teaching experts, and partnering with the Ha Haka
`Ula O Ke'elikolani College of Hawaiian Language. Additionally, in
collaboration with the UAF School of Education, the UAF Alaska Native
Language Program, and the Rural Alaska Honors Institute (a program
within the College of Rural and Community Development) is developing a
summer college preparation and learning opportunity for high school
students interested in attending UAF to learn their Alaska Native
language through while preparing to become a teacher.
Any effort to have an impact across all twenty Alaskan Native
languages must include an effort to support Alaska's diversity in
Native languages and their unique needs. Support to build a
comprehensive language revitalization center that pulls together elders
and experts in the field, community language advocates, learners, and
teachers would bolster and maintain the work being done across the
state. As we learned this past May during the Alaska Native Language
Revitalization Institute, partnerships such as the one we have with the
Ha Haka `Ula O Ke'elikolani College of Hawaiian Language are key to
this work. Partnerships for work across all tribes and communities
would provide resources and leverage for language revitalization.
______
Prepared Statement of William H. Wilson, Ph.D.
My Background
My name is Dr. William H. Wilson. My Ph.D. is in Linguistics. I am
the founding full professor of what is now the Hawai'i State Hawaiian
Language College, Ka Haka `Ula O Ke`elikolani College of Hawaiian
Language (KHUOK) located within the University of Hawai`i at Hilo (UH
Hilo) on the most rural of the Hawaiian Islands, Hawai`i. Although we
began over forty years ago with a small set of Hawaiian language
classes in the Foreign Languages Department of UH Hilo, we have grown
to become the sole college in the United States operated and
administered primarily through a Native American language. Our array of
undergraduate and graduate courses in and through Hawaiian is the most
developed program in a Native American language in the United States.
Besides undergraduate certificates and the baccalaureate degree taught
through Hawaiian, we have a graduate level teaching certificate taught
through Hawaiian, two masters, and the doctorate taught through
Hawaiian. In addition we have outreach degree opportunities taught
through English for speakers of other indigenous languages, including
the doctorate.
I am also a founding board member of the non-profit `Aha Punana
Leo, Inc., the oldest Native American language nest organization in the
United States. The `Aha Punana Leo has been the key factor in the
revitalization of Hawaiian among children and the movement of Hawaiian
language medium education into public and charter school education
through to grade 12 and indeed the growth of university Hawaiian
language classes to point of developing a full college operated and
administered primarily through Hawaiian. The `Aha Punana Leo operates
twelve language nests in the state of Hawai`i, provides distance
education in Hawaiian and provides facilities for follow-up charter/
public school Hawaiian language medium sites. Our small group of
founders began the organization in 1983.
Closely associated with the above two responsibilities is my
position as a founder of the preschool to grade 12 (P-12) total
Hawaiian language medium demonstration laboratory school of KHUOK,
called Ke Kula `O Nawahiokalani`opu`u (Nawahi). Nawahi is the largest
Native American language medium/immersion school in the United States
with 531 students enrolled and over 70 in Punana Leo early education
programing colocated with them. Nawahi is recognized in Hawai`i state
law as the laboratory school of KHUOK and demonstrates operation using
different models of administration including charter, off-campus stream
of a standard public school, satellite campuses in small communities,
and public-private school partnering.
In recent years I have become the Linguist advisor for the
Coalition of Native American Language Schools (the Coalition), a mutual
help-oriented confederation of schools and programs taught through a
variety of Native American languages in seventeen states. The National
Coalition is loosely organized with the basic requirement for
participation the establishment of a program or school taught
primarily, that is over 50 percent, and preferably totally, through a
Native American language. The Coalition grew out of the large number of
visitors to the Consortium of the `Aha Punana Leo, Nawahi, and KHUOK
all located close together in Hilo.
My wife, Dr. Kauanoe Kamana, and myself, both second language
speakers of Hawaiian, raised our own two children speaking only
Hawaiian in the home at a time when only elders born before 1920 spoke
Hawaiian in our community. When our children were born in the early
1980s, no other children in our community were being raised totally
through Hawaiian. Our children became the core of the first tiny group
of students in the Punana Leo O Hilo and then what eventually became
Nawahi. Both graduated from Nawahi and enrolled in an English medium
university program--one in Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
and the other at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo. Both graduated and
went on to successful careers and continue to use Hawaiian as the
language of family communication with us and each other as well as with
other Hawaiian speakers. They are part of a considerable number of
Hawaiian speaking graduates moving the language forward.
Although holding a degree in linguistics, I see myself as primarily
a language teacher and language revitalization program developer. I
have taught at all levels of Hawaiian language medium education,
including the preschool, elementary, intermediate, high school,
undergraduate, masters, teacher education, and doctoral levels. I have
taught graduate students from American Indian, Alaska Native and
Pacific Islander communities as well as Native Hawaiians.
Main Points Of This Testimony
Given below are some key points relative to the benefits and needs
of Native American language medium education. In the ESSA Act, Sec.
6005 ``Report on Native American Language Medium Education'' Congress
required that the US Department of Education prepare a detailed report
on Native American language medium education. The report was to be
completed within 18 months of passage of the Act and then sent to
Congress. The deadline for this report is long overdue as ESSA was
signed on December 10, 2015. I would be happy to contribute more
detailed information to such a report and urge the Senate Indian
Affairs Committee to assure that ESSA Sec. 6005 is carried out.
Positive Academic Outcomes
Education delivered through the medium of indigenous languages as
provided for under NALA produces academic outcomes superior to that of
mainstream English medium education for Native students. Those positive
academic outcomes are best seen in the high school graduation and
college going rates of students who have attended schooling primarily
through a Native American language. Reports of this sort of success can
be found throughout the Native communities where this model of
schooling has been established long enough to have students reach the
age of high school graduation.
The most positive results are being produced when the Native
American language is used the most. Optimal programming and
demonstrated best practice has all instruction through the indigenous
language with English taught as a course. Ideally such best practice
continues through to the end of high school. At present, however,
Hawai`i is the sole state where Native American language medium
education continues through high school with Nawahi being an example of
a full preschool to grade 12 site. The highest grades reached elsewhere
have been in intermediate school in a few states such as Alaska,
Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Most programs are still confined to elementary
school Support is needed nationally to assist in expansion into
intermediate school and high school.
The full preschool to grade 12 model used at Nawahi is based on the
most successful models used for very small European languages such as
Sami and Faroese. Using this model Nawahi has never had a drop out
since its first class which graduated in 1999. Nawahi has had a college
going rate immediately out of high school of 85 percent for a student
body at over 95 percent Native Hawaiian ancestry and approximately 70
percent eligible for free and reduced lunch. Crucially important for
language revitalization, a full preschool to grade 12 program produces
the highest levels of Native American language proficiency.
Positive English Outcomes
International research has shown immersion to provide students with
English outcomes equal to, or better than, those of peers in English
medium schools upon high school graduation. Furthermore, speakers of
small languages in a community learn the largest language used in the
community through interaction with the larger community. With
globalization and the spread of English through mass media, the
Internet and travel, even education through small national languages
such as Danish and Finish with English taught as a course produces
English language results by high school graduation that allow
enrollment in American universities on par with American students
graduating from English medium high schools.
Nawahi has demonstrated now for two decades that positive English
results are produced when a Native American language is used as the
sole language of education and indeed school operations through to
grade 12. The home languages of Nawahi students include Hawaiian for
approximately 33 percent and Hawai`i Creole English for the majority of
the remaining students, but all Nawahi students have access to the
media through standard English on a level much higher than that
available to high performing English learners in Denmark and Finland.
Similar and even higher access to standard English is typical of
contemporary Native American communities.
At Nawahi English is taught on a European model where it is first
taught as a course in grade 5 and remains solely a course through to
grade 12. By high school students use their skills in English to
research papers for other subjects using that information to write
papers in Hawaiian on social science, science, etc. Fears of mainstream
educators that Nawahi students would not learn oral and written English
have been proven unfounded. Indeed, a former Nawahi student works at
Oxford University in England.
Effect Of High Multilingualism On Brain Development
In recent years the positive effect of high bilingualism and
biliteracy on cognitive development has become more widely known. It is
extremely difficult to produce the level of bilingualism necessary to
gain that cognitive advantage through standard second language
programing in an English medium school. However, high use of the
indigenous language as the medium of education as in the Native
American language medium model used at Nawahi assures such high levels
of bilingualism and the resulting cognitive advantages. Those cognitive
advantages affect academic outcomes in a wide variety of academic
fields and also make learning additional languages easier for students
enrolled in schools taught primarily through a native American
language. At Nawahi all lower elementary school students also study
Latin, a language important in developing international scientific
vocabulary, and all upper elementary and intermediate school students
study Chinese, an important language for business in a globalized
world.
Placing the Native American language is the position of being the
primary language of the school also affirms Native sovereignty and
cultural continuation in the Native homeland accordance with NALA.
Social And Community Outcomes
Native American language and cultural revitalization as produced in
Native American language medium education is having highly beneficial
impacts on what have been some of the most difficult problems in Native
communities. Reductions in suicide rates, drug and alcohol dependencies
and youth delinquency are occurring in Native communities in
conjunction with the development of Native American language medium
schools and programs. The reason for this is that theses schools
demonstrate through their very use of Native American languages, values
and cultural practices as primary in their operations that Native
identity, are not only important, but can be the foundation upon which
positive young lives can be built for the future. This lived message
contrasts with historical practices where Native peoples, languages,
values, and cultures where forcibly denigrated in boarding schools and
other repressive actions.
That Native American languages, cultures and values are inferior
continues as an implicit message in mainstream education taught through
a non-Native American language English, with teacher qualifications,
materials and assessments that all emerge from a non-Native American
context. Typically in such mainstream English medium education the
majority of administrators and teachers are imported from elsewhere and
not only lack a deep understanding of the traditional language and
culture of the community, but even lack understanding of daily
contemporary Native life in the community.
By way of contrast, the most successful Native American language
medium education programs are initiated, developed and largely lead by
local Native community language revitalization non-profit organizations
working in conjunction with local BIE, public, charter or private
schools. Teachers are from the local community or affiliated
communities with a related language and culture. This sort of structure
used in Native American language medium education turns the historic
mainstream messaging of Native identity as inferior upside down and
demonstrates the value of Native American identity for contemporary
life.
Developing Teachers For Native American Language Schooling
Teachers are the most important resource for any school or program.
For Native American language medium education this means teachers fully
proficient and literate in the Native American language medium of
education. Proficiency in the language of instruction is more important
than a teaching certificate or a degree in a particular content area.
Illustrative of this is the successes of home schooling, where a
considerable number of mainstream community parents who have had a
minimal background in different academic fields and no teaching
certificate have prepared their children academically for enrolling in
college. Those homeschooling parents, however, are quite proficient in
spoken and written English used to homeschool their children with
materials written in English.
Sec. 104 (2) of NALA allows for exceptions to teacher certification
requirements in cases of teachers who teach in Native American
languages, as in Native American language medium education. However,
this provision has not been widely applied for Native American language
medium schools. The lack of teachers has hindered the establishment and
growth of Native American language medium schools. Attention is needed
at the federal Department of Education to Sec. 104 (2) to support
Native American language medium education expansion to serve more
Native American students.
It is not uncommon for foreign language immersion programs in the
United States to import from foreign countries teachers highly
proficient and literate in the foreign language of instruction. This is
not an option for Native American language medium schools. A number of
Native American language schools began with teachers who were
individuals born and raised in the school's Native American language
during an earlier period when that language was widely spoken in the
community. However, such individuals are no longer available in most
communities and will become increasingly rare as time progresses. In
order to assure teachers for Native American language medium schools
there is a severe need for programs that produce high levels of
proficiency among young adults aged 18 through 30.
Such programs need to be taught through the language and explicitly
point out areas of linguistic structural differences between English
and the target Native American language. They also need to include the
minimum number of hours recommended by the U.S. Foreign Service
Institute to reach S-3 General Proficiency in a language significantly
distinct from English. That minimum number of 1,100 hours and more for
Native American languages with more challenging structures is more than
the standard number of hours in a foreign language required for a
foreign language B.A. The only way to reach that number of hours in a
university or college setting is to use the target language as the
medium of instruction not only for teaching the language and culture,
but also for other subjects--that is extending the Native American
Language Medium education into tertiary education. The number of hours
needed to reach such proficiency can be reduced if a high school Native
American medium education program provides matriculation into such a
college level program. The only place where both of these options are
occurring is at the Hawai`i state Hawaiian language college, KHUOK, in
Hilo. KHUOK has been working with a number of colleges interested in
replicating its model.
While tribal colleges and universities are potential sites to
replicate the KHUOK model, there are other possible models for reaching
the recommended S-3 General Proficiency to become a Native American
language medium teacher. The adult Mohawk immersion program developed
by Brian Maracle and his team is producing exemplary results using a
two year program that focuses solely on developing Mohawk language
proficiency. The program is very carefully designed using insights from
the linguistic analysis of Mohawk and is producing young adults who can
teach in Mohawk language medium schools and also raise their own
children as first language Mohawk speakers.
Another model being developed is the training of adult teachers
along with the development of a Native American language medium school.
That is young adults aspiring to become teachers and staff work with
elders in the classroom in operating classes using the language in that
environment while being given formal lessons in the linguistic
structure of the language by experts within the organization operating
the school. This model requires on-site expertise in both the
linguistic structure of the language and actual high proficiency in the
language. Typically those teaching the after hours classes are
extraordinary young adults who pursued the language both through formal
linguistic analysis and extensive time with the remaining fluent elder
speakers. Such individuals need to be cultivated for the various
languages for which Native American language medium programs are being
developed. KHUOK provides some of the individuals with that sort of
potential with training through its Ph.D. program in language
revitalization.
Federal support for innovative methods of developing highly
proficient speakers of Native American languages to serve as teachers
is a crucial need that should be addressed.
Assessment
Assessment is a major issue for Native American language medium
schools. Planned programs have been blocked from initiation by
administrators fearful of the effect of such programs on state academic
assessments through English. Programs have been moved away from best
practices toward mainstream models and dominant use of English through
the same fears. Because programs have to start in the early elementary
years, the assessments required in the early elementary years are the
ones currently having the greatest detrimental affect on the
development of high quality Native American language medium schools and
programs.
It is inequitable to assess students and teachers in Native
American language medium schools through the same assessments used in
mainstream English medium schools. I urge that Congress pass provisions
that exempt individual grades of Native American Language Schools and
Programs from federal requirements for state and other assessments when
those grades are taught at 75 percent or higher through one or more
Native American languages and when such programs follow a model that
has a history of producing high school graduation and college
enrollment rates equal to or higher than the state average for Native
Americans as defined in ESSA.
NALA itself makes provisions for the use of Native American
languages for all purposes (e.g., assessments) in publically supported
education by Native American language speaking students (NALA Sec.
105). After passage of NALA in 1990, the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act incorporated NALA compliant provisions including
provisions relating to assessment, with the current continuation of
those provisions including ESSA Sec. 3124 (3) and Sec. 3127 in addition
to standard civil rights provisions with ESSA. These provisions have
never been fully carried out relative to schools taught through Native
American languages.
A stance that mainstream student and teacher assessments are
inappropriate for schools taught through Native American languages and
cultures in accordance with NALA is a not a rejection of assessments
that predict the sorts of positive academic and social outcomes
described earlier above. Since the early 2000s a number of members of
the National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and Programs
have been administrating internal ``Curriculum Based Assessments''
(CBM) relative to mathematics and reading achievement using their own
specific languages and dialects of those languages. Some have also
administrated assessments of English reading development within the
context of such best practices. Those assessments were developed as
part of a project with Dr. William Demmert (Tlingit), a founder of the
National Indian Education Association, and the Northwest Educational
Laboratory to assure the validity and reliability of those CBM
assessments. Nawahi is one such member of the Coalition that has nearly
two decades of CBM assessment results that can be aligned with its
exemplary high school graduation and college attendance rates.
Parents of students at Nawahi have a history of boycotting state
assessments that are not designed for the unique situation of total
Native American language medium education. Attached is an article on
those boycotts. Those boycotts resulted in public listing of Nawahi as
one of the lowest performing schools in the state in spite of its much
higher rate of high school graduation and college attendance that that
of the overall state average. Most recently the state of Hawaii has
created a Hawaiian language assessment up to grade 4 through Hawaiian
based on the Common Core as used for the English medium schools in the
state. This has been a very costly enterprise and one for which there
remain several additional issues pertinent to Native American language
medium programs as a whole.
Among distinctive barriers to producing a Native American language
version of an state English medium assessment are: 1) the existence of
different dialects of the Native American language used in different
schools; 2) lack of a means to differentiate scoring and supports based
on whether the Native American language is used in the home or not
(parallel to the issue of EL students in English medium schools); 3)
alignment with English medium assessments to assure fair scoring when
the very nature of the language requires the measurement of different
skills; 4) a requirement for parallel use of computers for assessment
when Native American language medium schools and programs have little
opportunity to use computers in teaching due to minimal amounts of
computerized instructional materials in those languages and dialects;
5) lack of an equivalent volume of teaching resources in the Native
American language making any comparison between student groups in
mainstream English medium and Native American language medium education
unequal in terms of educational support, and 6) lack of in-service
training of teachers in Native American language medium education
strategies equivalent to what is made available by districts and states
to English medium teachers, again an area where inequality of support
makes comparisons inappropriate.
A final factor relative to producing Native American language
medium versions of state assessments is cost. To make an equivalent
assessment to an English assessment in a single dialect of a single
Native American language is prohibitively expensive. The state of
Hawaii spent several million dollars on a Hawaiian set of grade 1 to
grade 4 Common Core equivalent assessments as a priority over producing
teaching materials through Hawaiian and providing support in the
development of teachers. This was done under circumstances where the
state department of education feared loss of federal funds due to
parent refusals to participate in the mainstream assessment. Its choice
to develop assessments in a single dialect of Hawaiian and require that
same assessment regardless of dialect and even for English speaking
children who had only recently entered the program has created
additional problems. The state of Hawai`i still has to deal with issues
relative to the higher grades and earlier issues describe relative to
determining equivalencies between English and Hawaiian medium
assessments.
The CBM assessments used in some schools of the National Coalition
of Native American Language Schools and Programs are consistent with
NALA and the ESSA and are better aligned with the distinctive goals and
outcomes of Native American language medium education. Requiring
something along the nature of internally developed economical CBM
assessments as best practice while otherwise exempting Native American
language medium programs from state testing would be a practical
solution to overcoming the assessment barrier.
Cooperation Across Languages And Political Boundaries
The National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and
Programs represents an effort on a national basis to provide mutual
assistance. There are other more localized efforts between schools
using different dialects of the same language on different reservations
and sometimes in different states with those efforts often folding into
the National Coalition. On a biannual basis KHUOK and Nawahi hold a
field study conference that brings members of the Coalition, Native
American educators and tribal leaders, interested linguists and
indigenous peoples from outside the United States. The National
Coalition has held meetings after this conference and then maintains
support through electronic means and a facebook page.
The University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) and KHUOK have worked
closely together now for a number of years to serve the growth of
Native American language revitalization. Alaska and Hawai`i are also
the only states that have recognized their languages as official, with
Alaska's 20 distinctive languages as official especially impressive.
The Native Alaska Language Center at UAF established in 1972 has the
most developed reference resources, e.g., dictionaries, grammars,
texts, for the indigenous languages of any state. UAF has unique
experience in serving highly isolated rural communities of Native
Americans, while KHUOK has distinctive experience in full development
of Native American language medium education and curriculum materials
to a high level. At present Alaska is the state with the most languages
represented in immersion programs, while Hawai`i has the largest number
of students enrolled in Native American language medium/immersion.
Other tertiary and adult proficiency efforts that have worked
especially closely with KHUOK include Dine College on Navajo, Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma, Mohawk adult immersion and Wadookodaading Ojibwe
Language Immersion School of Wisconsin and the Lakota Language
Initiative of Thunder Valley and Red Cloud School of Pine Ridge South
Dakota.
Support for increased cooperation among programs is needed. Most
Native American language medium schools are on isolated reservations
with little access to information on best practices. They also need
access to bringing in national experts to talk to their administrators
and school boards regarding these programs and the federal laws that
exist in support of them.
Attached to this testimony are a number of articles that can
provide further information on points made above. *
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* The information referred to has been retained in the Committee
files.
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______
Prepared Statement of Tim Thornes, Ph.D., Associate Professor of
Linguistics, Department of English, Boise State University
Dear Committee,
I am submitting this brief testimony to serve as part of the
pending oversight hearing on ``Examining Efforts to Maintain and
Revitalize Native Languages for Future Generations.'' I am certain that
by now you have received ample testimony regarding the value of these
languages to the heritage language communities, the individuals of
those communities, and to the world at large, as well as a range of
stories of success as a reward for the tremendous commitments and
sacrifices of time and money dedicated to the cause.
I would like to suggest, briefly, that whether or not every effort
bears fruit, the effort itself may, for many communities and
individuals, be fruit enough to satisfy the hunger many feel in the
face of a decline in fluent elder speakers and connection to heritage.
That is to say, there is an often uncounted value in the hope that
accompanies the efforts applied toward being an instrument in the
preservation of one's heritage language.
As a linguist with nearly a quarter century of experience working
with Native communities on such efforts, I have witnessed the joy
shared by people engaged in the process of language revival. When I at
first began this work, I did not question the expectations I had for
what success in language revitalization meant--a new generation of
fluent speakers eventually using the language with their own children
at home and in a whole range of contexts in their communities. I admit
that, back then, I sometimes felt discouraged and cynical about the
lack of what I'd assumed everyone considered ``true'' progress toward
those goals.
Eventually, however, I began to see that perhaps the greatest value
was in the effort itself and how the process provided for and supported
the well-being of elder speakers and young learners alike, through
joint participation in something all valued highly. In one community we
formed a group that included community members of all ages. The group
developed a very process/effort-based mission ``to hear and speak the
language for future generations so that the youth never forget where
they come from.'' The mission didn't privilege one skill level over
another--one served the mission even by hearing the language, whether
one spoke it or not. Soon enough, however, efforts to use the language
began to sprout--to bear fruit.
I hope that by my testimony, the committee, in its examination of
efforts to maintain and revitalize Native languages for future
generations, considers the value of the efforts themselves in helping
to strengthen Native families and communities by supporting the
identities and the health of Native youth for the future of all.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Timothy Montler, Distinguished Research Professor
of linguistics, Department of Technical Communication, University of
North Texas
Dear members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs:
I have been working with various Native American tribes and
languages since 1977. I have authored or co-authored several large
dictionaries and grammars of various Native American languages. I have
recorded and translated hundreds of hours of native tales, history,
legends, and songs.
Since 1992, I have worked closely with the Klallam tribes of
Washington state. Working with members of the tribes--both native
speaking elders and young language teachers, we have developed a
writing system for the language, a complete grammar and dictionary--
published by the University of Washington Press, a collection of
traditional stories and oral history, videos, and a large amount of
other language teaching and learning materials. Some of the material
can be seen at http://klallam.montler.net.
The Klallam community has been very enthusiastic about the
revitalization of their language. The revitalization of the language
has meant the revitalization of hope and excitement in a personal/
ethnic identity that has for generations suffered humiliation and
prejudice.
Since 1999 the Klallam language has been taught in the Port
Angeles, Washington high school. The language is taught at three levels
by a tribal member who has both state and tribal teaching certificates.
It is now accepted by Washington universities as fulfilling the
`'foreign'' language requirement.
Since the institution of the high school Klallam language courses,
standardized test scores for Native American students at Port Angeles
High have increased dramatically. According to the school
superintendent, they have increased faster than those of the general
student population. As revitalization of the language has progressed,
pride and feelings of self-worth have increased, crime-rates, suicide
rates have decreased while college entrance rates have increased. Jamie
Valadez, the Port Angles High Klallam language teacher has already
testified to congress on this (https://youtu.be/xuzcrWISwjQ?t=4454).
Language revitalization is valuable, not just for the tribes and tribal
members, it is good for society at large.
I could speak at great length about the inherent beauty and
complexity of Klallam and the other Native American languages I have
studied. Indeed, I do so in my undergraduate and graduate classes. Our
understanding of these languages contributes to our unraveling the
mysteries of the nature of human language itself.
The work on the Klallam language has been supported by grants from
the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, and from the Administration for Native Americans. These
funds all come from the wise generosity of the American people. These
efforts preserve a precious and endangered part of our common American
heritage.
When I first visited the Klallam community in 1978, there were over
100 native speakers. The last speaker of Klallam as a first language
passed away in 2013. The urgency of the preservation and revitalization
of Native American languages is critical.
______
Prepared Statement of Tyler A. Whitaker, Linguist, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe
of Louisiana, Language & Culture Revitalization Program (LCRP),
Cultural & Educational Resources Center (CERC) Library
Dear Committee on Indian Affairs,
I have been working with the Tunica-Biloxi tribe on their Language
and Culture revitalization project for four years. I volunteered every
summer while I was in graduate school, and now I work for the tribe
full-time.
We work tirelessly to enrich our students' lives. We have created
books, games, after-school language lessons, and an annual summer camp
dedicating to teaching Tunica language.
Our efforts extend beyond language. We cultivate a sense of pride
and community. We inspire an appreciation of culture and history, and
encourage them to succeed. We show the world that the Tunica-Biloxi
culture is alive and thriving.
Instruction does not end in the classroom. We empower our students
to do their own research-to communicate with their elders and learn
about their history and contribute to their community. Our students
taken the language to communicate at home, at school, and in sports and
after-school activities. Students have used what they learn to win
achievements, scholarships, apply to colleges, and pass along to their
own children.
Number of speakers and level of fluency are not the only measures
of success. Our program provides students with a space for enrichment
and empowerment. It is something children and parents rely on. We will
continue to spread our work to reach as many community members as
possible. I hope many other communities will have the same opportunity
as well.
Tikahch! Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Todd Gettleman, Kealakekua, HI
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to express my support for Native language
revitalization efforts. I worked Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation for 20 years
with, where we successfully implemented a Patwin language
revitalization program and have been able to produce conversationally
fluent Patwin speakers by high school. I am currently working on a
language revitalization project with the Konkow Maidu Cultural
Preservation Association. I am honored to be able to work on these
types of projects, which are important to maintaining and supporting
cultural diversity in this country.
______
*The final report of the Commission on Language Learning, entitled
``America's Languages: Investing in Language Education for the 21st
Century'' has been retained in the Committee files and can be found at
http://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/publications/
researchpapersmonographs/language/Commission-on-language-learning--
americas-languages.pdf
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Tom Udall to
Dr. Christine Sims
Question 1. Your hearing testimony described the growing efforts to
implement language programs and provide technical assistance with the
support, resources, and academic knowledge of institutions of higher
education, such as the Institute you co-founded at the University of
New Mexico. However, universities are not eligible for direct grants
for language revitalization like the Esther Martinez grants. How can we
leverage resources from institutions of higher education such as the
University of New Mexico? What barriers exist that prevent more of
these University-Tribal partnerships from benefitting Indian Country?
Answer. Federal funding sources can help mitigate and increase the
capacity of Native tribal language and education efforts through
engaged tribal partnerships with IHEs who have the capacity and
experienced faculty expertise in Native language maintenance and
revitalization issues. These latter qualifications are key to effective
partnering and engagement with tribes. At the present time, many
federal grant and discretionary fund regulations related to Native
language preservation and program implementation in schools do not
explicitly identify qualifying Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs)
as potential applicants. In some instances they may be considered as
tribal partners, but it is usually more the norm for Tribal colleges
and organizations with tribal representation to be listed as qualifying
partners concerning language program planning and implementation
initiatives. An expansion of regulatory requirements that includes
qualifying IHEs needs to be considered for the following reasons.
At the University of New Mexico (UNM) the most valuable resource we
have is the high number of Native American faculty representing
enrolled members of tribes indigenous to the New Mexico and the
southwest. In the UNM College of Education, out of 110 faculty, we have
ten Native faculty who teach within different graduate programs and
departments including teacher education, bilingual education, health
sciences, Native American studies, early childhood education and
educational psychology. Within the COE Department of Language, Literacy
and Sociocultural Studies, where the American Indian Language Policy
Research and Teacher Training Center (AILPRTTC) is housed, we have both
faculty and graduate student assistants who are from New Mexico tribes
and speakers of their Native languages. Across the board, Native
American faculty represent a broad range of expertise at UNM in a
variety of fields and disciplines including Indian law, linguistics,
anthropology, medicine, and other fields. The Native American teaching
resources at UNM represent one of the highest concentrations of Native
faculty in a southwest IHE classified as a Carnegie Foundation Doctoral
University and ranked among the Top 100 Research Institutions by the
National Science Foundation (2014). As well, there is a growing pool of
Native doctoral graduate students who are being trained as researchers
and the next generation of educational leadership for Native
communities.
As mentioned in the previous example, the growing number of Native
faculty in IHEs such as UNM, with expertise in educational research, K-
12 teaching backgrounds and field experience working with tribes,
coupled with first hand knowledge and experiences with Native
languages, should be considered assets to be sought after in federal
regulations and governing mechanisms of federal professional
development and other Native language related support grants. This is
especially important in light of federal laws affecting Native students
such as ESSA, federal funded programs such as ANA language preservation
grants under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, American
Indian/Alaska Native Head Start programs, and other Native student
focused programs in the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bureau of
Indian Education. Moreover, as federally funded programs move
increasingly towards support for Native language programs and
initiatives in school settings, local tribes, schools and districts may
or may not have the local capacity to establish or maintain support for
teacher training, Native language-specific curriculum development, or
building the internal leadership and workforce capacity of tribes in
order to sustain such efforts. This should be a key consideration for
including qualified IHEs who have the capacity to support Native
language initiatives and professional development.
Lastly, for Native Language teacher training centers such as the
AILPRTTC to continue providing support to local tribal efforts in
language and education, major infusions of funding will be necessary
for support staff and graduate assistants who assist faculty in this
work. The challenge that many university faculty face is that in
addition to their teaching responsibilities, they must often seek
outside funding sources in order to support the work they do in
partnership with tribal communities and/or to seek scholarship funds
that will support Native language teachers' training. In New Mexico,
future partnerships with tribes and school districts will be especially
critical in order to address the current paucity of Native language and
Native bilingual teachers, as referenced in the recent court ruling
regarding Yazzie/Martinez Case (Yazzie, et al. v. State of New Mexico,
et al.), as well as the growing need for Native language curriculum
development and material resources as language efforts expand.
Question 2. Can you expand on the relationship that your Institute
and the University of New Mexico have, and how that relationship
assists Tribes in language revitalization? What is the nature of your
relationship with tribes? How does that relationship assist tribes in
language revitalization?
Answer. The American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher
Training Center has worked over a number of years in close partnership
with New Mexico tribes, tribal leadership, and tribal community members
in the work of Native language preservation and revitalization. We
regularly maintain our connections with the broader tribal community by
making ourselves present and actively participating in tribal education
summits, community education forums, and numerous venues where we can
learn more about pressing issues and challenges facing tribes in their
language preservation efforts. We maintain updated listserves that
includes tribal leaders, language teachers and other community members
for purposes of inviting their participation in our workshops and
training institutes, public language and education forum information
that comes through the university and our academic networks, summits we
organize, and other collaborations involving on-the-ground on-site
training and technical assistance requests.
We are guided in our work with tribes by maintaining a policy of
acknowledging and recognizing fundamentally, the autonomy and
sovereignty of tribes in making decisions and choices about their own
languages and cultures. As an academic institution, we view our role as
being a source of support and service to tribes in language
revitalization efforts rather than utilizing a ``top down'' approach
and we do not pursue any form of academic research about specific
Native languages without the express sanction and approvals of local
tribal leaders and their communities.
Lastly, we maintain a close working relationship with the New
Mexico Tribal Language Consortium, a recently formed non-profit
organization that is inclusive of different Native language programs in
the state. Tribal language teachers, language program directors, tribal
leaders and other community members are some of the key people who have
formed this advocacy organization. We meet with this organization on a
quarterly basis, gathering their input about language teacher and
program needs, guidance on our Center's training and technical
assistance activities, as well as sharing and collaboratively working
on native language policy issues that we can advocate for and help
support.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Tom Udall to
Hon. Jeanie Hovland
Ensuring Federal Support at All Phases of Language Revitalization
Question 1. The Commissioner of the ANA is responsible for
overseeing the administration and processing of language revitalization
grants, and as such, plays a vital role in Native language
revitalization efforts throughout Indian Country. The importance of
access to these programs for all Tribes is of great concern to the
Committee. In your hearing testimony, you stated that, since your
confirmation, you have visited multiple Tribes in their communities to
ascertain their needs and to properly understand your role as
Commissioner.
Recognizing that different Tribes have different needs when it
comes to language preservation and revitalization, what are you doing
to ensure that your grant programs are tailored to fit the needs of
Indian Country?
Answer. As the Commissioner, I intend to visit as many tribes in
their communities as practicable to share information about ANA and our
funding opportunities. I am hopeful these visits will allow communities
to articulate their individual needs, allowing ANA to make better
informed decisions when planning outreach and developing Funding
Opportunity Announcements. Further, I hope these visits will serve to
increase interest in ANA programs, and perhaps encourage smaller or
lower capacity tribes to apply for ANA funding.
ANA provides discretionary grant funding in support of grassroots,
community-based projects that address the current social and economic
conditions in Native American communities, including language
preservation and revitalization. ANA supports locally determined
projects that achieve community goals through specific, measurable
outcomes. Native Languages Preservation and Maintenance (P&M) is ANA's
largest language program. P&M funding is flexible and can be used to
meet the language preservation and revitalization needs of a community
by supporting curriculum development, language instruction, teacher
training and certification, language restoration programs, and
preservation and documentation of native languages.
ANA also supports immersion projects under the Esther Martinez
Immersion (EMI) program. EMI is designed to preserve Native American
languages through Native American language nests and language survival
schools. The EMI program focuses support on projects that are based in
teaching and building capacity for language immersion instruction.
Lastly, ANA provides training workshops for Project Planning and
Development, as well as technical assistance to applicants in four
different regions. This is made possible through our training and
technical assistance centers, which provide additional outreach and
support to native communities. ANA regularly invites federal and
academic representatives to partner with us at our Native American
Language Summit, which is open to the public. We also invite our
partners to present to grantees at our annual grantee meetings and to
the broader public via webinars.
Leveraging Federal and Academic Resources to Support Native Languages
Question 2. Federal resources including, but not limited to, the
Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Smithsonian
Institute play a vital role in the research and archival processes that
have assisted in language revitalization. Past Commissioners have made
efforts to create strong partnerships with these institutions, which
are vital for Tribes to access archives of old documents and recording.
How do you intend to facilitate relationships with these and other
federal partners, and what steps have you already taken to work with
them?
Answer. I am making it a priority to partner with other federal
agencies and academic institutions to support native languages.
Specifically, our Native Language Workgroup will reach out to other
federal and academic resources and create an action plan as a part of
the a proposed revision to the Native Language Memorandum of Agreement
with the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Education and the
White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education.
In addition, ANA plans to create a list of national and regional
repositories to house materials, such as dictionaries, sample
curriculum, videos, etc. created by our grantees. We will distribute
the list as a resource for tribes and organizations to share their
federally funded projects. The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum
of the American Indian has offered to serve as a national repository,
but final plans are not yet in place for the transfer of materials to
their holdings.
ANA is partnering with the following federal colleagues to develop
materials and present at relevant meetings:
Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald, Program Director of the Documenting
Endangered Languages Program at the National Science
Foundation, is invited to present at the 2018 Native Languages
Summit in Oklahoma August 27-28, 2018.
Dr. Mary Linn, Curator of Cultural and Linguistic
Revitalization at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and
Cultural Heritage, will participate in the Native Language
Community Coordination semiannual grantee meeting in September
2018.
Dr. Clifford Murphy, Folk & Traditional Arts Director in
Multidisciplinary Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts,
is developing a resource guide on federal support for culture
and traditional arts. He is also partnering with ANA on an
upcoming Native language conference in 2019.
Dr. Mary Downs, Senior Program Office in the Division of
Preservation and Access at the National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH), manages the funding for the First Nations
Development Institute Native Language Immersion Initiative. The
NEH is also interested in partnering with ANA to strengthen
outreach to potential applicants and diversifying grant
reviewers and improving training for reviewers.
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