A bilingual education teacher from Alaska discusses the problem of Native language loss, his efforts to achieve literacy in his native Cheyenne language, and the important role bilingual education teachers have in language preservation. Strategies for language preservation include creating literature in Native languages and encouraging Native…

A discussion of the crisis in preservation of North American Indian languages looks at a variety of general and specific issues. First, it examines briefly current efforts by international organizations for maintenance of endangered languages worldwide. The discussion then turns to North American Indian languages, and particularly to three issues:…

This paper addresses the impact of language loss on culture and the need for developing effective strategies for language restoration. Culture is expressed through language; when language is lost, those things that represent a way of life, a way of valuing, and human reality are also lost. However, if you talk to members of a particular culture…

The essays in this volume cover a range of sociopolitical aspects of Indian language planning (i.e., the politics of dialect, the role of the linguist, and the historical foundations of contemporary language problems), problems faced by the actual experiences of Indian language renewal efforts, and the relationship of Indian language renewal and…

Examines federally funded bilingual education programs for American Indians and Alaska Natives from a language planning perspective. It is argued that federal programs represent an exoglossic (externally orientated) policy that can contribute to language loss. Indigenous communities need to develop endoglossic (community-orientated) policies that…

After describing the principles of culturally compatible education, the characteristics of Native American and mainstream narrative discourse are compared, and teaching the structure, content, and style of mainstream narratives is advocated. A program designed to facilitate Native American elementary school children's abilities to comprehend and…

As part of a symposium on issues related to diversity and American education reform in the context of Goal 3 of the National Education Goals, this paper addresses public attitudes about languages that are different from official or national languages. It is noted that the use of a native language as the medium of instruction to rebuild historical…

Five papers presented at two academic seminars are collected in this document which deals with the survival of American Indian tribes, focusing on language maintenance, tribal government, and intergovernmental relations. Robert Dumont and David Kaudy note the remarkable way in which the written English word has been incorporated into the core of…

Federal and state bilingual education legislation since 1923 has not enhanced the education of Pueblo Indian children in New Mexico. Lacking public school control, Pueblo Indians have resisted the establishment of bilingual education programs for their children. Bilingual-bicultural program development must be preceded by giving Pueblos community…