Preserving Tribal Languages Roundtable (language)

Executive Director of White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education to Discuss Successes and Challenges of Preserving Tribal Languages at Sitting Bull College’s Lakhotiyapi Summer Institute

William Mendoza, executive director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, will participate in Sitting Bull College’s seventh annual Lakhotiyapi (Lakota language) Summer Institute and will convene a roundtable of tribal leaders, students, educators, higher education officials and others to discuss successes and challenges in language preservation. The roundtable will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 14, in the Science and Technology Center on campus. Mendoza will hear about the tribal education department’s efforts to leverage tribal, local and federal resources to preserve the Lakota language.

 The reoccurring concern that Mendoza and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have heard during numerous tribal consultations with leaders in the American Indian and Alaska Native education communities was the importance of language preservation. According to feedback from these sessions, tribal communities believe that it is a fundamental right of people everywhere to be able to speak their native tongue, and there should be no difference for Native people.

 Administration officials and Secretary Duncan have engaged directly with tribal officials on a range of educational issues important to Indian Country. Today, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell issued a Secretarial Order that calls for the restructuring of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The BIE will become a provider of education services and resources to tribal communities operating the schools rather than being a school operator itself, and all BIE-funded schools will become tribally operated. The move will help ensure that American Indian and Alaska Native children are prepared for college and careers, while also giving them more access to language and history classes that honor their heritage. The new organizational changes also will give tribal communities a stronger voice in policy decisions that will affect their students’ educational future. In addition, President Obama’s Opportunity for All: My Brother’s Keeper Blueprint for Action report was released recently, outlining a set of initial recommendations and a blueprint for action to expand opportunities for boys and young men of color and help all young people succeed, including Native boys and young men.  

 WHO:

William Mendoza, executive director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education

Tribal leaders, students, educators and college officials

WHAT:

Community roundtable on the successes and challenges of language preservation

WHERE:

Sitting Bull College

Science and Technology Center

9299 Highway 24

Fort Yates, N.D.

WHEN:

10 a.m. CT, June 14, 2014

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I support the revitalization of native languages as well the full recognition on all levels in each area they are from. to be reintroduced if necessary in all traditional areas or areas of native populations. i presently speak my fathers language of Hupa a De:ne language of northern California. i am one of a hand full of natives of my age group in my area who took the time to learn the Hupa language from the Elders. i am presently teaching my self my mothers language of Mattole from written sources and comparison to my fathers language of Hupa as there are no speakers of Mattole to learn directly from. i have worked with a number of languages and understand a number of other native languages as well. i am a motivational speaker and language teacher on methods to both learn and teach native languages. I also teach several languages related to these languages as there may be no speakers for them and i can read with fluency a number of languages, I am not a Linguist which makes some Linguist's become surprised at my ability to read these languages with such high accuracy, as it comes natural to me, and I did receive some limited input from several prominent Linguists on the written systems that I read. I am a traditionalist of my fathers people the Hupa or Na:tenoxwe: and have been given the honor of doing prayers at our most sacred dance of the white deerskin. i had many teachers over the years and most of them have passed. I have worked with an Indian doctor of my fathers people, who long since has passed but who has given me much guidance in the ways of the people and the importance of language to the survival of native people. I also have a two credentials in the University system, one in Political Science and one in Native American Studies. I graduated in 2006 from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California with an overall GPA of 3.01 and much higher in my Political Science major. I did not have to give up any of my traditional ways to earn these degrees, in fact i wrote most of my papers on Tribal Sovereignty and on Natural Resources areas. I support Traditionalism and Educational paths for native people. i also feel that it is important to become speakers of your native tongues while doing this. I can be contacted by email or by my home phone of 530-629-3522 if someone so desires.
— Gordon Bussell