Local Alutiiq Speakers Express Concerns About SB130 (fwd link)

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Local Alutiiq Speakers Express Concerns About SB130
	 	 	
Jennifer Canfield/KMXT
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           A senate bill that would establish an "advisory council for
the preservation, restoration and revitalization of Alaska Native
languages," has received a lot of attention from language enthusiasts.
Gary Holton is a professor of linguistics at the Alaska Native
Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. On the language
center's blog, Holton says SB130 could be the most important
legislation for language learners since 1972 when a series of laws
were passed that established mandatory bilingual education in schools
where Native languages were spoken. The hope is that the advisory
council would give effective representation for Native languages at
the state level, which would be a monumental event for many elders who
still remember being beaten in school for speaking their first
language.

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