The Cree and Cherokee syllabary systems were designed by gifted amateurs, such as Sequoyah, who received no funding or significant institutional support. Although he had influential kinsmen in his matrilineage, his project encountered active, widespread opposition from his contemporaries prior to its validation in 1821. Sequoyah found it necessary…

This lesson book of the Karuk language, for elementary school students, teaches the Karuk "unifon" alphabet and some pronunciation. The lesson book includes exercises to familiarize children with animals and their Karuk names. The exercises also encourage children to learn Karuk names for colors and parts of the body. There is a legend,…

In many schools throughout the United States, teachers are baffled by the child who does not know enough English to participate in the classroom, who "just sits there." In some localities the language he hears and speaks at home is an American Indian tongue; in others it is Spanish or Italian or Polish. The Choctaw Bilingual Education…

This is a preliminary research-oriented bibliography on the Hopi language. All known items, through mid-1976, are included, with an annotation for each item sketching its nature and/or possible value. (Author/RM)

Recognition of the American Indian language and its contributions to the English language are presented. For example, skunk, raccoon, moose, Chicago, and moccasin are all Indian words. (FF)

The question of what is humanity and how it is expressed has endless and dynamic answers. My paper is an attempt to construct and explain the answer based on the insights Indigenous humanity expressed in the continent called North America. The four fundamental insights are organised around the concept of creation as ecology, the insights of…

This report presents information about the educational, home, and community experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) fourth- and eighth-grade students that was collected during the National Indian Education Study (NIES) of 2007. AI/AN students represent about 1 percent of the student population in the United States. Approximately…

The ecological vocabulary of the Bella Coola Indians contains more loanwords than native forms. Borrowings are highly selective, mainly from the Wakashan. This is explained by cultural affinity. (CK)

As was this author's usual habit at the university in Nebraska where she was teaching, she picked up a copy of the campus newspaper to read during her office hours. She was dismayed at a story entitled "Lakota May Appear on Sheridan County Polls." It read, in part: "Sheridan County's polls may have to add an unexpected language to…

In considering literacy, we take a step back to ask: literacy in which language? And what is the purpose and measure of achievement? Although not in disagreement with the Bialostok and Whitman article in this issue, we place English literacy as a part of the continuing drive to colonize and assimilate indigenous peoples. Local indigenous control…

Language decline in many immigrant and ethnic communities is always a persistent problem in America. To prevent Native tribal languages from becoming obliterated, several organizations have been founded to document and teach Indigenous languages, a number of tribes have crafted ambitious language policies, and Congress approved the Native American…

Written to fulfill the requirements for a University of Minnesota College of Education off-campus Indian education course for public school teachers, this Native American curriculum unit for middle and high school reflects the calendar achievements of the Maya Indians. The calendar is discussed in terms of its base number 20 (vigesimal system),…

Over 1300 publications are cited in this bibliography on the American Indians of Oregon. The citations represent the Oregon State Library collection of materials on Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Although the emphasis is on Indians of Oregon, materials about the Indians of California, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and British Columbia are cited…

American Indian narrative uses a rhetorical conception of narrative action, following one of two basic types of recurrent formal pattern of lines and verses and sets of verses, in pairs and fours or threes and fives, using pauses and/or syntactic particles to define the patterning, varying between different languages. (MH)