How a University and a Tribe Are Teaming Up to Revive a Lost Language

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.

The siglaug, is an Inupiaq word for ice cellar. It is also how the Inupiaq people are preserving a part of their culture. The siglaug, opened after the Farm Bill was passed, which allowed for the opening of a food processing center. Prior to that, elders staying at the local hospital ward could only eat federally approved foods like spaghetti. “Since 2015, the sigluaq has provided a facility for Harris and others to process donated meat, fish, and fowl according to government regulations so they can be served to elders in the long-term care.”

A New Mexico network of native schools, called the NACA-Inspired Schools Network, addresses the failure of traditional schooling to incorporate native culture into lessons by designing a culturally relevant curriculum for students. Beyond cultural education, the network also requires students to take at least two Advanced Placement courses and apply to at least 10 colleges to help level the playing field for native students in New Mexico.

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.

In 1968 Cal State founded the first Chicano studies program, which focused on the history of Mexicans and their relationship to the U.S. Since then, several universities followed suit. The program was also made possible through the activism of 15,000 students, who walked out of class in the historic East L.A. walkouts demanding a better education. While there are critics, educators believe these type of programs are beneficial to Hispanic students. “Now they have tools to understand the microaggressions they’ve experienced or the economic struggles in this society, and that they’re not the only ones.”

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.

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.

The first eight graduates of a new program run by the University of British Columbia Okanagan, the En’owkin Centre, and the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology received their bachelor's of nsyilxcən language fluency degrees. The program is one of the ways the syilx Nation is revitalizing their language, which is critically endangered. Students spend their first two years learning from fluent speakers in the community and the second two years working on a capstone project that includes an internship.

Defining and maintaining indigenous identity is an ongoing process for tribes who want to ensure a strong future. Various enrollment policies have worked for different tribes, from lineal descent to blood quantum requirements. Tribal leaders are trying to strike a balance between shrinking populations in some cases and the fear of sudden increases in enrollment, which could put “a strain on already scarce resources."

The Nisaika Kum’tuks and Tsawalk learning centers provide alternative schooling options for Indigenous students to learn more about their culture and languages. The centers teach a total of 100 students from 23 different nations, many of whom come from single-family homes that are experiencing economic hardship or have been part of the foster care system. While the schools have recently shut down to be consolidated with the local school system, efforts are underway to create a new learning center that continues the mission of combining traditional knowledge and culture with academia.