Support for Federal Native American Language Education Funding and Policy

WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1969 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special education needs of American Indian and Alaska Native people; and

WHEREAS, NIEA, as the largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Native people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique political relationship with Indian nations and tribes, the federal government has established education program resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives residing both on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, the historical policy of the United States was to eliminate the use and development of indigenous (Native American) languages as the language of the schools serving Native America; and

WHEREAS, the policy of prohibiting the use of Native Languages (American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian) as the language of the school has resulted in reducing over 300 original Native American languages, spoken at initial European contact, to a present 175 languages presently used by Native peoples in the United States (with only 20 still spoken by children); and

WHEREAS, many of the Native American languages are predicted to become extinct by the 21st century unless current trends are reversed (International Journal of the Sociology of Language #132, 1998); and

WHEREAS, the federal government has appropriated $2,000,000 annually since 1992 to assist Native American tribes and communities with strengthening their languages and to reverse the damage done to Native language usage among children and adults (an amount equal to less than $1.00 per person of Native American descent); and

WHEREAS, bilingual education, second language development and foreign language classes have provided important enrichment opportunities for students to use Native languages in the formal school setting, but are not designed to reverse the problem of extinction of Native languages generally; and

WHEREAS, the most successful programs to reverse language loss have been through schools taught and administered entirely through Native American languages with strong family and community involvement and that operate outside institutional barriers found in the standard systems of the public and Bureau oflndian Affairs (BIA) schools; and

WHEREAS, the schools conducting strong Native language and cultural programs have found that their students do as well or better (academically, socially, linguistically, and culturally) than their peers in regular public or BIA schools; and

WHEREAS, adequate levels of federal funding and formal federal policy support for such language and cultural programs are needed, and would be consistent with the Presidential Executive Order on Indian Education dated August 6, 1998.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE NATIONAL INDIAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION calls upon the United States Congress to establish, as priority areas, specific funding and policy support for Native American language development in three areas:

  1.  Public schools that serve Native American students desiring a school context that promotes Native language development as a first, second, or bilingual curriculum approach to schooling in partnership with Native American communities served by the school;

  2.  BIA schools promoting Native language development as a first, second, or bilingual language curriculum approach to schooling;and

  3. Tribal or Native community-based programs taught and administered through Native American languages offering a curriculum that promotes Native American languages as the primary language of communication;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT THE NATIONAL INDIAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION will send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States and to the members of the United States Congress.

SUBMITTED BY: Dr. William G. Demmert Jr. (Tlingit/Oglala), Bellingham, WA.

CERTIFICATION

I do hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was duly considered and passed by the NlEA membership assembled at its annual convention in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at which a quorum was present during the meeting held October 17-20, 1999.

Steven Peters