Native Language

Features

• Education Grants to Strengthen Tribal Colleges

  Marjane Ambler

  Eight tribal colleges received grant awards in 1999 from the Department of Education under the new tribal college section of Title III.

• Tribal Colleges Score Legislative Triumph

  Marjane Ambler

  With the support of the White House, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) won a significant victory in Congress in November. House and Senate conference committee members gave the tribal colleges a $4 million increase over last year’s funding for a total of $35.3 million.

• To Save Our Languages, We Must Change Our Teaching Methods

  Richard Littlebear

  The speakers of American Indian languages are breaking camp and journeying on to camps in the spirit world. Unless we start saving our languages immediately, we will lose them.

• Bird Teaches Math and Science with Cultural Foundation

  Lester Johnson

  Leo Bird combines a wide breath of knowledge with strong teaching methods and serves as a positive role model for students of the Browning School System in Montana.

• Rekindling the Anishnabe Language Fires at Bay Mills

  Jennifer Dale

  Anishnaabemowin–speaking the Anishnabe tongue–is a skill many Anishnabeg have lost. But the language fires were never entirely extinguished, and now Bay Mills Community College fans the flames with its Nishnaabemowin Language Instructors’ Institute.

• Using Blackfoot Language to Rediscover Who We Are

  Duane Mistaken Chief

  A joint effort between Red Crow Community College and the education faculty at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, is aimed at addressing the problem of “pan-Indian” curriculum.

• UTTC Celebrates 30th Anniversary: Former fort now serves tribes and students

  Dorreen Yellow Bird

  In 1999, United Tribes Technical College celebrated its 30-year anniversary and is one of the oldest tribal colleges in the nation.

• Learning Lodge Institute: Montana colleges empower cultures to save languages

  Paul Boyer

  Educators from seven Montana tribal colleges and community activists are collaborating to rebuild language fluency within their reservations.

Editor's Essay

• Honoring Native Languages, Defeating the Shame

  Marjane Ambler

  E lohe mai ia makou, I ka ÿolelo kupa o ka ÿaina…. (Hear us as we speak the Native language of the land.) Na makou,

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Profile

• McDonald Fulfills Dream, Against All Odds

  Tino White

  It was an emotional time, a time to reflect on what had happened in the past 40 plus years for this Spirit Lake tribal member. George McDonald walked away from the ravages of alcohol to accomplish something no one dreamed he would do. He graduated from college.

Resource Guide

• 11-3 Spring 2000 “Native Language” Resource Guide

  Jon Reyhner

  According to Michael Krauss of the Alaska Native Language Center, there are 210 different indigenous languages still spoken by American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States and Canada out of the over 300 spoken before the arrival of Columbus.

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Research

• Warriors in Education: Persistence among American Indian doctoral recipients

  Florence McGeshick Garcia

  A qualitative study of the shared characteristics of 12 “warriors in education” and their journeys toward their doctorate degrees.