While on Oah’u, I was fortunate to hear the Hawaiian language spoken frequently–on the radio, at events such as the graduation for students attending Kamehameha Schools, at book launches, and at ceremonies. Native language recovery is an important topic for Native peoples. The American Indian Experience has a number of resources that will help you become acquainted with this topic.

Volume 1 of the Praeger Handbook on Contemporary Issues in Native America includes a great survey chapter, “Back from the (Nearly) Dead: Reviving Indigenous Languages Across North America.” Read this article to find a list of relevant resources, issues, and examples of Native language recovery efforts. See also the entry for “Languages” in Frederick E. Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians, scroll down and click on the language map of Native America.

Specific Native languages are also featured in Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians; read the following entries for “Algonquian Languages,” “Cherokee Language,” “Cree Language,” “English Language and Indians,” “Iroquoian Languages,” “Lakota Language,” “Navajo Language,” “Ojibwa Language,” “Pueblo Languages,” “Salishan Languages,” and “Sign Language.”

For additional information and resources, see also lesson 8.1, “Native Language Recovery,” in the book Native Americans Today: Resources and Activities for Educators, Grades 4-8.

To find out about legislation regarding Native language, read the short entry in Encyclopedia of American Indian Civil Rights about the Native American Languages Act of 1990. To read the full text of the law, click here; for further amendments, visit the following pages found at Eric.ed.gov and Senate.gov.