List of Native American languages acquired by children
Last updated
This is a list of Native American languages acquired by children, thus this list contains the most healthy Native American languages within the confines of the United States. Still, only two can boast more than 20,000 speakers (Navajo and Cherokee).
Arapaho - In 2008, it was reported that a school had been opened to teach the language to children.[1] Currently, the language may be acquired by children, for a population estimate as recent as 2007 lists an increase to 1,000 speakers and notes that the language is in use in schools, bilingual education efforts begun on Wind River Reservation in the 1980s and the Arapaho Language Lodge, a successful immersion program, was established in 1993.[2] "The Arapaho Project" is an effort made by the Arapaho people to promote and restore their traditional language and culture.[3]
Cherokee - Oklahoma Cherokee language immersion school student writing in the Cherokee syllabary.The Cherokee language taught to preschoolers as a first language, at New Kituwah Academy The Cherokee Nation instigated a 10-year language preservation plan that involved growing new fluent speakers of the Cherokee language from childhood on up through school immersion programs, as well as a collaborative community effort to continue to use the language at home.[4] This plan was part of an ambitious goal that in 50 years, 80 percent or more of the Cherokee people will be fluent in the language.[5] The Cherokee Preservation Foundation has invested $4.5 million into opening schools, training teachers, and developing curricula for language education, as well as initiating community gatherings where the language can be actively used. They have accomplished: "Curriculum development, teaching materials and teacher training for a total immersion program for children, beginning when they are preschoolers, that enables them to learn Cherokee as their first language. The participating children and their parents learn to speak and read together. The Tribe operates the Kituwah Academy."[5] Formed in 2006, the Kituwah Preservation & Education Program (KPEP) on the Qualla Boundary focuses on language immersion programs for children from birth to fifth grade, developing cultural resources for the general public and community language programs to foster the Cherokee language among adults.[6] There is also a Cherokee language immersion school in Tahlequah, Oklahoma that educates students from pre-school through eighth grade.[7] Several universities offer Cherokee as a second language, including the University of Oklahoma, Northeastern State University, and Western Carolina University. Western Carolina University (WCU) has partnered with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to promote and restore the language through the school's Cherokee Studies program, which offers classes in and about the language and culture of the Cherokee Indians.[8] WCU and the EBCI have initiated a ten-year language revitalization plan, consisting of: (1) a continuation of the improvement and expansion of the EBCI Atse Kituwah Cherokee Language Immersion School, (2) continued development of Cherokee language learning resources, and (3) building of Western Carolina University programs to offer a more comprehensive language training curriculum.[8]
Chickasaw - There were purportedly children learning Chickasaw as a first language in 2006, though this is perhaps not the case.[9]
Choctaw - The School of the Choctaw Language offers classes to any interested persons.[10] Like Chickasaw, Choctaw was reportedly acquired by children in Oklahoma as recently as 2006.[9]
Crow - R. Graczyk claims in his A Grammar of Crow (2007) that "[u]nlike many other native languages of North America in general, and the northern plain in particular, the Crow language still exhibits considerable vitality: there are fluent speakers of all ages, and at least some children are still acquiring Crow as their first language." Many of the younger population who do not speak Crow are able to understand it. Almost all of those who do speak Crow are also bilingual in English.[11] Graczyk cites the reservation community as the reason for both the high level of bilingual Crow-English speakers and the continued use and prevalence of the Crow language. Daily contact with non-American Indians on the reservation for over one hundred years has led to high usage of English. Traditional culture within the community, however, has preserved the language via religious ceremonies and the traditional clan system. Currently, most speakers of Crow are 30 and older but a few younger speakers are learning it. There are increased efforts for children to learn Crow as their first language and many do on the Crow Reservation of Montana, particularly through a Crow language immersion school that was sponsored in 2012.[12] Development for the language includes a Crow language dictionary and portions of the Bible published from 1980-2007. The current literacy rate is around 1-5% for first language speakers and 75-100% for second language learners.[13] Teens are immersed in Crow at the Apsaalooke language camp sponsored by the Crow Nation.[14]
Dakota - The language is taught to children through The Wicoie Nadagikendan Early Childhood Urban Immersion Program. In 1998, the Alliance of Early Childhood Professionals began the "Taking the Lead" leadership project to raise money for language preservation.[15]
Gros Ventre - As of 2012, the White Clay Immersion School at Fort Belknap College was teaching the language to 26 students, up from 11 students in 2006.[16]
Hopi - Hopi and Navajo both are supported by bi-lingual education programs in Arizona.[17]
Lakota - There is a Lakota language program online available for children to use.[18] There is also a Lakota Language Program with classes for children at Red Cloud Indian School.[19]
Mohawk - A Mohawk language immersion school was established in 1998.[21] Mohawk parents, concerned with the lack of culture-based education in public and parochial schools, founded the Akwesasne Freedom School in 1979. Six years later, the school implemented a Mohawk language immersion curriculum based on a traditional cycle of fifteen seasonal ceremonies, and on the Mohawk Thanksgiving Address, or Ohén:ton Karihwatékwen, “The words before all else.” Every morning, teachers and students gather in the hallway to recite the Thanksgiving Address in Mohawk.[22]
Navajo - The Navajo Nation operates Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'ólta', a Navajo language immersion school for grades K-8 in Fort Defiance, Arizona. Located on the Arizona-New Mexico border in the southeastern quarter of the Navajo Reservation, the school strives to revitalize Navajo among children of the Window Rock Unified School District. Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'ólta' has thirteen Navajo language teachers who instruct only in the Navajo language, and no English, while five English language teachers instruct in the English language. Kindergarten and first grade are taught completely in the Navajo language, while English is incorporated into the program during third grade, when it is used for about 10% of instruction.[30]
Ojibwe - The Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion School teaches all classes in Ojibwe only.[31]
Shoshoni - There is strong interest in revitalization but efforts to preserve the language are scattered with little coordination. Literacy is increasing, with a Shoshoni dictionary and Bible portions translated in 1986.[32] As of 2012, Idaho State University offers elementary, intermediate, and conversational Shoshoni,[33] with open-source Shosoni audio available online to complement classroom instruction, as part of its long-standing Shoshoni Language Project.[34][35] Shoshoni classes are also taught as a part of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe's Language and Culture Preservation Program.[36] On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, elders have been active in digital language archiving, and Shoshoni is taught using Dr. Steven Greymorning's Accelerated Second Language Acquisition techniques.[37] A summer program called, Shoshone/Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program (SYLAP), held at the University of Utah's Center for American Indian Languages since 2009 has been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition program.[38][39][40] Shoshoni youth serve as interns, assisting with digitization of Shoshoni language recordings and documentation from the Wick R. Miller collection, so that the materials can be made available for tribal members.[38] The program released the first Shoshone language video game in August 2013.[41] In July 2012, Blackfoot High School in Southeastern Idaho announced it would offer Shoshoni language classes. A Shoshoni charter school has also been proposed for Fort Hall, with a decision expected in September 2012.[42]
Tohono O'odham - In 2000 there were estimated to be approximately 9,750 speakers in the United States and Mexico combined, although there may be more due to under-reporting. It is the 10th most-spoken indigenous language in the United States, the 3rd most-spoken indigenous language in Arizona after Apache and Navajo. It is the 3rd most-spoken language in Pinal County and the 4th most-spoken language in Pima County. Approximately 8% of O'odham speakers in the US speak English "not well" or "not at all", according to results of the 2000 Census. Approximately 13% of O'odham speakers in the US were between the ages of 5 and 17, and among the younger O'odham speakers, approximately 4% were reported as speaking English "not well" or "not at all".
Zuni - Unlike most indigenous languages in the US, Zuni is still spoken by a significant number of children and, thus, is comparatively less threatened with language endangerment. Edmund Ladd reported in 1994 that Zuni is still the main language of communication in the pueblo and is used in the home (Newman 1996).
Related Research Articles
The Arapaho are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
Shoshoni, also written as Shoshoni-Gosiute and Shoshone is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in the Western United States by the Shoshone people. Shoshoni is primarily spoken in the Great Basin, in areas of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho.
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
The Wind River Indian Reservation, in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, is shared by two Native American tribes, the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho. Roughly 60 mi (97 km) east to west by 50 mi (80 km) north to south, the Indian reservation is located in the Wind River Basin, and includes portions of the Wind River Range, Owl Creek Mountains, and Absaroka Range.
The Native American Music Awards are an awards program presented annually by Elbel Productions, Inc., The Native American Music Awards Inc., and The Native American Music Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in 1998, which recognizes outstanding musical achievement in styles associated with Native Americans, predominantly in the United States and Canada. While Native American performers in a variety of genres are also recognized, nominees do have to be Native American or at least one member in a group or band from a State for Federally recognized tribe. The awards were created in 1998 to offer Native American musicians greater recognition from the American music industry and to create opportunities for international exposure and recognition.
The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is an art museum in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Eiteljorg houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Western American paintings and sculptures collected by businessman and philanthropist Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997). The museum houses one of the finest collections of Native contemporary art in the world.
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic Santa Fe Federal Building, a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Federal Building. The museum houses the National Collection of Contemporary Indian Art, with more than 7,000 items.
Eastern Shoshone are Shoshone who primarily live in Wyoming and in the northeast corner of the Great Basin where Utah, Idaho and Wyoming meet and are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They lived in the Rocky Mountains during the 1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition and adopted Plains horse culture in contrast to Western Shoshone that maintained a Great Basin culture.
The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (NWCA) is an organization of Native American writers, most notable for its literary awards, presented annually to Native American writers in three categories: First Book of Poetry, First Book of Prose, and Lifetime Achievement. The awards are voted upon by Native American writers, making it one of the few literary awards presented to Native Americans by Native Americans.
Native American politics remain divided over different issues such as assimilation, education, healthcare, and economic factors that affect reservations. As a multitude of nations living within the United States, the Native American peoples face conflicting opinions within their tribes, essentially those living on federally approved reservations. Interactions with the federal government and the overall American culture surrounding them influence day-to-day tribal life. Native American culture as a whole rests between the divide of the traditionalists and those who wish to trade the old ways for improved conditions.
Cherokee Preservation Foundation is an independent nonprofit foundation established in 2000 as part of the Tribal-State Compact amendment between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and the State of North Carolina. The Foundation is funded by the EBCI from gaming revenues generated by the Tribe; it is not associated with any for-profit gaming entity and is a separately functioning organization independent of the Tribal government. It works to improve the quality of life of the EBCI and strengthen the western North Carolina region by balancing Cherokee ways with the pursuit of new opportunities. The Foundation focuses on cultural preservation, economic development, job creation, and environmental preservation and is an engine for rural community development on the Qualla Boundary and the surrounding Haywood, Jackson, Clay, Macon, Graham, Swain and Cherokee counties.
The New Kituwah Academy, also known as the Atse Kituwah Academy, is a private bilingual Cherokee- and English-language immersion school for Cherokee students in kindergarten through sixth grade, located in Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Yellow Hill community of the Qualla Boundary. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and operated by the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program (KPEP).
Myrtle Driver Johnson is a native speaker of the Cherokee language. As of July 2019 she was one of 211 remaining Cherokee speakers in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
