Grotto Foundation Native Language Revitalization Initiative

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Grotto FoundationNative Language Revitalization
Initiative

• Long history of giving to Native communities
  since 1964
• 200115 year commitment to Minnesotas Indigenous
  languagesDakota Ojibwe
• Research-basedties to academic achievement,
  community development
• Community wisdom
• Prioritize best practices in language
  revitalization
• Immersion
• Master/Apprentice
• Teacher Education

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Native American Language Loss

• Languages across the world are in crisis
• Language loss among North American indigenous
  people is especially acute
• 210 Native American languages are still spoken
• 135 of these are spoken only by adults, making
  them moribund
• 1/3 have fewer than 100 speakers
• Native American language usage is declining
  rapidly
• Dr. Janine Pease, 2003

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• Indigenous Languages are valid world languages
• Indigenous language loss is a human rights
  issueresulting from colonization
• Contemporary relevance
• Technical relevance
• Scientific Relevance
• Medicinal Relevance

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Attributes of Threatened Languages

• Obsolescent Language
• Speakers terminate in the adult population
• Language not taught to children at home
• Number of speakers declining rapidly
• Population is bilingual English always
  preferred
• Language is inflexible no longer adapts
• No literacy in Native language
• Joshua Bauman

• Declining Language
• Proportionately more older speakers
• Younger speakers not fluent
• Number of speakers decreasing over time
• Population is bilingual mostly English preferred
• Language conforms to English
• Population illiterate in Native language

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Attributes of Healthy Languages

• Enduring Language
• Speakers of all ages most bilingual
• Speaking population constant over time
• English exclusively used in some situations
• Language adapts to changing culture
• Little or no Native language literacy

• Flourishing Language
• Speakers of all ages some monolingual
• Speaking population increases
• Used in all communicative situations
• Language adapts to changing culture
• Increasing Native literacy

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Voices from Indian Country on Indigenous language
loss

• The loss of any language comes at enormous
  cost...The most serious language declines have
  occurred among Indigenous communities in the
  Americas, Africa, Australia and Southeast Asia.
  Because they are Indigenous, there are no
  language reinforcements available elsewhere, no
  other motherland, where children can return to
  hear the heritage language spoken or see it
  written. For Indigenous people, when a language
  is lost, it almost certainly cannot be retrieved
  as a mother tongue.
• -Teresa McCarty, Dine Education and Scholar, U of
  Arizona 1996

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Voices from Indian Country on Indigenous language
loss

• Each language is a unique tool for analyzing and
  synthesizing the world, incorporating the
  knowledge and values of a speech communityThus,
  to lose such a tool is to forget a way of
  constructing reality, to blot out a perspective
  evolved over many generations.
• James Crawford, Linguist 1994

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School Aged
American Indian Children

• Minnesota
• 55,000 population
• 11 tribal communities
• 50 on/off reservation
• Similar educational disparities poor academic
  achievement and graduation rates

• Nationally (OIE)
• Public Schools, majority, 92
• Private Tribal Schools
• Graduation Rates--decline 64 in 1995 to 50 in
  2000
• Out of School Youth, 50
• No Child Left Behind, Federal Law
• Schools in lowest 25 percentile
• Conditions of Poverty 15 - 51.

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Compelling Reasons for Native American Language
Revitalization

• State of emergencyLanguages in crisis
• Native language learning positively impacts
  educational achievement among children, youth,
  adults
• Language learning strengthens tribal families and
  communities, communications and relations
• Tribal language and culture learning positive
  correlate with tribal college student retention
• Brings Native worldview to the participants,
  world
• ReconciliationCounters centuries old injury and
  subjugation of Native peoples, their cultures and
  languages

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Kohanga Reo o Waitara, Te Wharekura, Te Wananga
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Affirmative Maori Education

• In 1982, the first Language Nests - Kohanga Reo
• In 2003, 704 Kohanga Reo serving 13,000 Maori
  Preschool Children
• Te Wharekura, the Maori K-13 Language Immersion
  Schools
• Wharekura pass rate from level 13 is 75 in 2002,
  compared to 15 twenty-five years ago 80 2004.

• Wananga-Tribal colleges and universities.
• 15 years ago Maori represented 1 in higher
  education.
• Today, Maori represent 16 with a 65 success rate

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Revitalization of an Endangered Language

• Revitalization is distinct from language
  instruction of a healthy language.
• Language always exists in a cultural context and
  so revitalization must occur within that context.
• Revitalization is NOT an individual process. It
  IS a focus on the family, community and tribe.
• USING THE LANGUAGESPEAKING

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Native Language Revitalization

• An act of self-determination
• A grassroots movement
• Restoration of traditional knowledge with
  contemporary value
• Restoration of family and social systems
• Promising effects on academic achievement,
• cultural identity, and community wellness
• An act of healing and reconciliation

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Native Ways of Knowing Learning

• Science and math contained in language
• Botany, astronomy plants,medicines,engineering
• Oral literature, history
• Natures role models
• Lessons by analogy
• Ceremonies Spirituality
• Tribal Arts, dances, and musicSongs!
• Naming traditions
• Kinship roles

• Storytelling
• Sacred historic places
• Learning by doing observation, discovery, travel
• Peer teaching
• Apprenticeships and Mentoring
• Grandparents Teachings
• Intergenerational Family groups
• Governance and community relations

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Grotto Foundation NLRI Vision

• Intergenerational language fluency.
• Native language will be heard and spoken
  throughout Minnesotas indigenous communities
  the language lives through song, conversation,
  storytelling, prayer, oral and written teachings,
  and history.

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NLRI Mission Outcomes

• The mission of NLRI is to restore Minnesotas
  indigenous languages as living languages within
  Native families and communities.
• Two primary outcomes
• Language fluency
• Positive language environments

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• Four approaches are the most critical to a
  continuum of community-based language
  revitalization.
• Immersion
• Master /Apprentice
• Teacher Education
• Policy/Advocacy

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Language education of majority languages can and
do rely on instructional methods that focus on
individual proficiency developmentbecause the
community context of language use is presumed to
be in existence. Language proficiency can be
taught in the classroom with the assumption that
the practice of the language will be nurtured and
supported in an active language community. This
of course, is not the case for Indigenous
languages. The language community is either
endangered or largely non-existent . . .
(Dr. Cecilia Martinez, Grotto Evaluation)
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A fundamental element of language revitalization
is the support, and in some cases re-creation, of
a community active language setting. This makes
language revitalization an infinitely more
complex process than what is typically understood
as language instruction. It requires new models
of language proficiency that incorporate
community development. (Dr. Cecilia Martinez,
Grotto Evaluation)
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Classroom based language instruction can never be
the sole source of serious language
revitalization . . . language revitalization must
also have strong components in the broader
community and in the home. Leanne Hinton, Creator
of of Master/Apprentice Model of Language
Acquisition
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NLRI Observations

• New era of Indian /non-Indian relations
• Requires visionaries innovators
• Confronts mainstream education model
• New orientation toward language education
• Challenges Native communities to reprioritize
  issues
• Community readiness capacity issues

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• Positive shift toward language as a priority
  within tribal communities
• Good progress is being made in developing
  language proficiencies
• Fluency rates should not be the sole standard for
  determining success
• NLRI Grantees are pursuing cutting edge
  activities within their own tribal communities
• Native language acquisition has a positive impact
  on academic achievement attendance
• Funding is scarce-requires education advocacy

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NLRI Other Lessons Learned

• Starting points
• Affirmative Indigenous Education
• Dreams need practitioners
• Politically mobilized
• Language is the essence

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Implications for Indian Country

• New paradigms-indigenous pedagogy
• Effective models-accelerated learning across the
  life span
• Many Nations, many languages
• Nurturing the seeds in tribal community
• Sustaining the movement

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An Empowered World View

• Wood piercing steel.
• The world is fortunate for our children.
• We want our children to be fiercely Maori.
• Barna, Maori Educator

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• You have to plant the seeds of the trees that
  may never shade you, but will shade your
  grandchildren.
• (Bentham Ohia, Maori Educator