First cohort completes new nsyilxcən degree at UBCO: ‘our language is very strong'

Diné College, the first tribally-controlled accredited college, provides over 1,300 students with opportunities to learn cultural traditions and the Navajo language, alongside traditional academic subjects. The school helps preserve the Navajo language, arts, skills, and customs by teaching it to younger generations. Learning Navajo traditions and language helps students make stronger connections with elders and they find the Indigenous philosophies that the school was founded on useful for overcoming obstacles, like finding ways to continue their education during the coronavirus pandemic.

Tribal colleges like Tohono O’odham Community College provide an accessible route for indigenous students to pursue higher education, with tuition waivers available for students from federally-recognized tribes. Tohono O’odham’s enrollment has grown from about 700 in 2019 to more than 1,200 last year, but funding for tribal colleges is in jeopardy due to proposed federal budget cuts.

Nonprofits, schools, and individuals are working to revitalize the Lakota language by making it more accessible in a variety of ways, including classes, dictionaries, podcasts, and passing on knowledge from elders.

A graduate student from British Columbia, the Arctic Energy Alliance, and the elders of the Inuvialuit people may seem a strange team, but together they are tackling the dual concerns of climate change and the loss of indigenous language in Canada. By inventing new terms and words in the Inuvialuit language to describe renewable energy technologies, they are increasing awareness about sustainable development while helping preserve the culture and heritage of this unique population.

The Mvskoke 4-H Ocmulgee Club, in collaboration with Oklahoma State University and MCN Food Distribution, teaches Muscogee (Creek) Nation students hands-on pecan tree planting and food sovereignty skills rooted in Mvskoke cultural tradition.

Cal Poly Humboldt's Native American Studies Department created an Indigenous food sovereignty research lab through a student-led, community-driven process that now supports Indigenous students' cultural connections, advances traditional ecological knowledge research, and demonstrates how Indigenous knowledge can be valued in higher education.

Colleges like Oregon State University (OSU), are re-indigenizing the campus landscape to create a welcoming, healing space and stop the further erasure of Indigenous culture and presence on college campuses. OSU created an ethnobotanical garden, full of Native plants and crops, as well as an Indigenous center for students and staff to gather on campus. These gardens and Indigenous spaces help to show the community how Native plants can sustain people and OSU plans to continue improving its cultural offerings by installing Native signage around campus and holding Indigenous cultural burnings.

The Experiential, Project-based, Indigenous and Community (EPIC) program was designed to strengthen connections with Indigenous students and boost attendance at a high school in Oliver, B.C. The new program is offered to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students at Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Syilx/Okanagan territory. Through different activities students are encouraged to connect to Syilx culture and traditions.

Waadookodaading is an Ojibwe immersion school that meets state and federal academic standards but does so entirely in the indigenous language by connecting children to their cultural heritage. The school goes through 8th grade and uses the forest as its classrooms where traditional ceremonies and practices are used to teach lessons. For example, students learn math while harvesting maple sap and wild rice and biology through practicing sustainable fishing and hunting. Community elders play an important role in passing on their knowledge to students and the 100 graduates provide hope for the language’s future

Tribal members are being paid to learn the Cherokee language through the Master Apprentice Program. The $16 million effort to maintain a tie to the culture through language is being funded from the tribe’s casino revenues. Participation has increased since the inception of the initiative six years ago.