Description

The Initiative on Native American Intellectual Leadership primarily supports a fellowship program for Indigenous knowledge makers and knowledge holders administered by First Nations Development Institute. However, monies were also allocated to support other projects that advance the broad goals of the Initiative. Such projects will support intellectual leaders in Native communities, help Indigenous organizations working in the knowledge sector, and develop research tools and resources that Native leaders and organizations may use in their work.
Knowledge work in Indian Country today takes many forms and addresses diverse subject matter, ranging from traditional foodways to religious systems to constitutional law. Two broad areas of endeavor, though, are the focus of consistent attention across many Indigenous communities: language preservation and revitalization, and the maintenance and development of artistic traditions.
Indigenous languages have been the object of direct and indirect assault almost since the arrival of European settlers in North America: scores of languages have been lost since contact; of the 200 or so that remain, most have few if any native speakers. Language, though, is the scaffolding that upholds religious beliefs, social and ritual relationships, and history for many tribes: the loss of language can be tantamount to the death of communal identity.
For this reason, many tribes have sought to preserve and even resurrect their languages. Documentation, master-apprentice programs, and immersion schools are among the strategies they have employed. The last of these—immersion schools and programs—are among the most effective where viable. But a welter of conflicting Federal laws and policies militates against tribes launching such programs within the context of K-12 educational institutions. The National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and Programs proposes to develop a guide for communities seeking to navigate the regulatory thicket and advocate effectively for immersion programs for their tribes.
The National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and Programs represents 19 immersion programs in 18 states, including the Hawaiian language school ‘Aha Pūnana Leo, which will act as fiscal sponsor for this grant.
Leslie Harper (Ojibwe) is the president of the Coalition who taught at and led an Ojibwe language school on Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota for eight years. She reports that she and her colleagues field questions regularly from Native communities seeking to launch immersion programs that have been stymied by the contradictions of Federal law and policy and the opposition of the US Department of Education. Harper points out that the 1990 Native American Languages Act gives Indigenous communities the right to use their languages to teach their children in schools, but that it has been undermined by subsequent law, policy, practice, and misunderstanding.
With support from the Luce Foundation, Harper, advised by her Coalition colleagues, University of Hawaii-Hilo professor William Wilson and University of Montana professor Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet), will prepare a “plain English” guide to Federal law governing instruction in Indigenous languages. The guide will be disseminated via the Coalition’s website, a webinar, and conferences attended by Coalition leaders. Additionally, Harper and her colleagues will develop a plan for an institute for Native language instruction that can serve as a more permanent resource center for communities seeking to establish educational programs.
The Luce Foundation’s grant would compensate Harper for her research and drafting work, pay for travel to working meetings of the project team, purchase equipment and materials, and prepare the guide for web publication. A modest sum would reimburse ‘Aha Pūnana Leo for grant management services.
This would be the Luce Foundation’s first grant to ‘Aha Pūnana Leo or to the National Coalition.