[lg policy] Current status of Native American languages?

[Teresa McCarty]

Dear Hal,

Perhaps my 2013 book, Language Planning and Policy in Native America: History, Theory, Praxis will be helpful (Multilingual Matters). Mary Hermes, Megan Bang, and Ananda Marin have a 2012 article in Harvard Educational Review on "Designing Indigenous Language Revitalization." Leanne Hinton's (2013) Bringing Our Languages Home: Language Revitalization for Families, presents accounts of family language policy by Native Americans and others. Terrence Wiley et al.'s (2014) Handbook of Heritage, Community, and Native American Languages in the United States: Research, Policy, and Educational Practice (Routledge/CAL) has a section on Native American languages.

Others who are doing leading work in the field of Native American LPP: Ofelia Zepeda (director of the American Indian Language Development Institute at the University of Arizona), Inée Slaughter (director of the Indigenous Language Institute in Santa Fe, NM), Richard Littlebear (Northern Cheyenne), Sheilah Nicholas (works especially with Hopi), Tiffany Lee (Navajo and NM Pueblo communities), Jeston Morris (Navajo), Mary Eunice Romero-Little (Cochiti Pueblo), Christine Sims (Acoma Pueblo), Florian Tom Johnson (Navajo), Leisy Wyman (AK and Far North), Walkie Charles (Yup'ik), Natalie Diaz (Mojave), Noelani Iokepa-Guerrero (HI), William "Pila" Wilson (HI), David Beaulieu (White Earth Chippewa and others), Kauanoe Kamana (HI), Namaka Rawlins (HI), K. Laiana Wong (HI), Noelani Goodyear-Ka'opua (HI), Daryl Baldwin (Miami), Wesley Leonard (Miami), Louellyn White (Mohawk), jessie little doe baird (Wampanoag), Jon Reyhner (coordinator of the Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium Advisory Board, based at Northern Arizona University) -- these are just a few, and most of these scholar-activists are working locally and nationally (as are those mentioned in the paragraph above). There's a LOT of Native American LPP work going on!

There are also some important new policy initiatives, including Alaska's recent recognition of Alaska Native languages as co-official, an Alaska bill to support Indigenous-language public charter schools, a similar initiative by the Montana state legislature, and initiatives at the federal level to include provisions for Indigenous-language immersion and Indigenous-language assessment in the pending ESEA reauthorization. And of course there is the continuing importance of the Native American Languages Act; a 20-year retrospective (which includes an article by William Wilson on the Hawaiian boycott of NCLB-mandated English-only testing) appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of American Indian Education.

I've left out many people and much current work; this is just a starter list. Googling any of the above will lead to valuable information on legislation, policy, and pedagogy related to Native American languages. And perhaps others on this listserv will chime in with additional information.

I hope this is helpful!

Teresa L. McCarty, Ph.D.
GF Kneller Chair in Education and Anthropology
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
University of California-Los Angeles
Teresa.McCarty at ucla.edu; Teresa.McCarty at asu.edu


________________________________
From: lgpolicy-list-bounces+teresa.mccarty=asu.edu at groups.sas.upenn.edu [lgpolicy-list-bounces+teresa.mccarty=asu.edu at groups.sas.upenn.edu] on behalf of Harold Schiffman [haroldfs at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2015 9:48 AM
To: lp
Subject: [lg policy] Current status of Native American languages?

All:  I have been asked recently by a colleague who is not a linguist what the
status of legislation and policy towards Native American languages is.  In
particular he would like to see a book (or article) that summarizes the situation
so since I'm pretty ignorant of what exists, I'm asking all of you to make some
suggestions.

Thanks,

HS
--
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com<mailto:haroldfs at gmail.com>
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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