Native American Language Revival and Revitalization @ Fresno State Library

Indigenous Language Revitalization in the Americas Focusing on the Americas – home to 40 to 50 million Indigenous people – this book explores the history and current state of Indigenous language revitalization across this vast region. Complementary chapters on the USA and Canada, and Latin America and the Caribbean, offer a panoramic view while tracing nuanced trajectories of "top down" (official) and "bottom up" (grass roots) language planning and policy initiatives.

When Dream Bear Sings: Native Literatures of the Southern Plains Rich and rare poetry, songs, and storytelling from the Southern Plains. When Dream Bear Sings is a multidisciplinary, diversified, multicultural anthology that includes English translations accompanied by analytic and interpretive text outlines by leading scholars of eight major language groups of the Southern Plains: Iroquoian, Uto-Aztecan, Caddoan, Siouan, Algonquian, Kiowa-Tanoan, Athabaskan, and Tonkawa.

mat hekid o ju (When it Rains) When it was first released in 1982, When It Rains was one of the earliest published literary works in the O’odham language. It was called simply ha-cegitodag, literally ‘thoughts,’ because there was not a word for poetry. Speakers from across generations share poems that showcase the aesthetic of the written word and aimed to spread interest in reading and writing in O’odham.

Akulmiut Neqait / Fish and Food of the Akulmiut For centuries, the Akulmiut people—a Yup’ik group—have been sustained by the annual movements of whitefish. This bilingual book details the lives of the Akulmiut living in the lake country west of Bethel, Alaska, in the villages of Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk, and Atmautluak.

The Dall Sheep Dinner Guest : Inupiaq Narratives of Northwest Alaska The rich storytelling tradition of the Inupiaq Eskimos of Alaska is showcased in this collection of over eighty stories. Meticulously compiled from six villages in Northwest Alaska between 1966 and 1987, the stories are presented as part of a living tradition, complete with biographies, photos, and introductory remarks by Native storytellers. Each story provides insight into Inupiaq worldview, human-animal relationships, and the organization of family life.

Music of the Sioux and the Navajo This 1949 album was recorded by American ethnomusicologist Willard Rhodes (1901—1992). Selections include music and dances from the Dakota Sioux and Navajo.

We Still Live Here A Mashpee Wampanoag named Jessie Little Doe Baird leads her community on a quest to revive their tribe's lost language.

Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley’s rural property with his friends. The jury’s subsequent acquittal of Stanley captured international attention, raising questions about racism embedded within Canada’s legal system and propelling Colten’s family to national and international stages in their pursuit of justice.

Inuuvunga = I am Inuk, I am alive Hockey, hip hop, hunting and midnight Ski-Doo rides. Welcome to Inukjuak. It's the final year of high school for eight teens at Innalik school in this remote town in northern Quebec. Through an initiative of the National Film Board, these eight students have been selected to document this pivotal year of their lives. To teach them some basics, the NFB has dispatched filmmakers Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin. The result of their collaboration is Inuuvunga, a vibrant and utterly contemporary view of life in Canada's North

Tongues of heaven With 96% of the world’s population speaking only 4% of the world’s languages, what does it mean to speak your mother tongue in this age of language homogenization? Set in Taiwan and Hawai'i, territories where Austronesian languages are spoken, the experimental feature documentary TONGUES OF HEAVEN focuses on the questions, desires, and challenges of young indigenous peoples to learn the languages of their forebears — languages that are endangered or facing extinction

Hawaiian Chants, Hula and Love Dance songs Recorded in Hawaii by Jacob Feuerring with Tom Hiona, this album presents traditional Hawaiian songs and dances.

Ute Reference Grammar Ute is a Uto-Aztecan language of the northernmost (Numic) branch, currently spoken on three reservations in western Colorado and eastern Utah. Like many other native languages of Northern America, Ute is severely endangered. This book is part of the effort toward its preservation.

Sharing our knowledge : the Tlingit and their coastal neighbors Sharing Our Knowledge brings together Native elders, tradition bearers, educators, cultural activists, anthropologists, linguists, historians, and museum professionals to explore the culture, history, and language of the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska and their coastal neighbors. These interdisciplinary, collaborative essays present Tlingit culture not as an object of study but rather as a living heritage that continues to inspire and guide the lives of communities and individuals throughout southeast Alaska and northwest British Columbia.

Sounds of Tohi : Cherokee Health and Well-Being in Southern Appalachia. This project is the result of almost two decades of work by medical anthropologist Lisa J. Lefler and Cherokee Elder and traditionalist Thomas N. Belt. It is a "dialogue" of their interest and application of traditional indigenous knowledge and the importance of place for two people from cultures and histories that intersect in the mountains of southern Appalachia. They have worked to decolonize thinking about health, well-being, and environmental issues through the language and experiences of people whose identity is inextricably linked to the mountains and landscape of western North Carolina.

Okanagan Grouse Woman: Upper Nicola Narratives In this book of Native American language research and oral traditions, linguist John Lyon collects Salish stories as told by culture-bearer Lottie Lindley, one of the last Okanagan elders whose formative years of language learning were unbroken by the colonizing influence of English. Speaking in the Upper Nicola dialect of Okanagan, a Southern Interior Salish language, Lindley tells the stories that recount and reflect Salish culture, history, and historical consciousness (including names of locales won in battle with other interior peoples), coming-of-age rituals and marriage rites, and tales that attest the self-understanding of the Salish people within their own history.

The Gift of Knowledge / Ttnuwit Atawish Nch'inch'imamí Author Virginia Beavert grew up in a traditional, Indian-speaking household. Both her parents and her maternal grandmother were shamans, and her childhood was populated by people who spoke tribal dialects and languages: Nez Perce, Umatilla, Klikatat, and Yakima Ichishkíin. Beavert narrates highlights from her own life and presents cultural teachings, oral history, and stories (many in bilingual Ishishkíin-English format) about family life, religion, ceremonies, food gathering, and other aspects of traditional culture.

We Are Our Language For many communities around the world, the revitalization or at least the preservation of an indigenous language is a pressing concern. Understanding the issue involves far more than compiling simple usage statistics or documenting the grammar of a tongue--it requires examining the social practices and philosophies that affect indigenous language survival. In presenting the case of Kaska, an endangered language in an Athapascan community in the Yukon, Barbra Meek asserts that language revitalization requires more than just linguistic rehabilitation; it demands a social transformation. The process must mend rips and tears in the social fabric of the language community that result from an enduring colonial history focused on termination.

Language and literacy teaching for indigenous education: A bilingual approach Language and Literacy Teaching for Indigenous Education: A Bilingual Approach presents a proposal for the inclusion of indigenous languages in the classroom. Based on extensive research and field work by the authors in communities in the United States and Mexico, the book explores ways in which the cultural and linguistic resources of indigenous communities can enrich the language and literacy program.

Bowwow powwow = bagosenjige-niimi'idim Historian Brenda Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) tells the story of Windy Girl’s trip to the powwow alongside a “a companion retelling” in Ojibwe by Gordon Jourdain (Lac La Croix First Nation), who teaches at the Misaabekong Ojibwe Language Immersion program in Duluth, Minnesota. Students can also visit YouTube (https://youtu.be/luXF84pESNE?si=b9Xb1meofEPWAUBI) to hear the story read in Ojibwe with English subtitles (or vice versa). Dr. Child is also known for scholarship such as Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (1998), a history of Native American boarding schools through children’s letters home to their families.

Nipêhon = I wait The simple story of a child, mother and grandmother harvesting Yarrow. Every block of text, from cover to acknowledgements, are written in three forms: romanized Cree, Cree syllabics (a writing system of nine glyph shapes used for many native languages since the 19th century), and English.

The Language Warrior's Manifesto Anton Treuer (White Earth/Leech Lake Ojibwe), Professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, writes, “Our languages live. And although many of our own people do not speak their languages, through no fault of their own, the keys to accessing and understanding indigenous thought are our natural instruments of human speech - indigenous languages.”

Black Bear, Red Fox: Colours in Cree A brightly-illustrated board book for young children written in Cree and English.

Notable native people: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present Adrienne Keene (Cherokee), a professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, offers accessible biographies of notable natives past and present, alongside primers on Indigenous issues. Keene includes a biography of Jessie Little Doe Baird, a native linguist known for her efforts to revive the Wampanoag (Wôpanâak) language.

Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (AICLS) is a Native-run & led organization devoted to implementing and supporting the revitalization of indigenous California languages. One of their programs, the Master Apprentice Language Learning Program (MAP), pairs elder fluent speakers team with younger adult apprentices to foster deep language learning. They also offer mini-grants and community programming. To learn about and support AICLS, visit http://aicls.org/

How to Keep your Language Alive Recommended by the AICLS to support their language preservation and reclamation efforts. This book outlines the Master Apprentice Program that originated with the indigenous languages of California. This one-on-one approach ensures that new speakers will take the place of those who are fluent in the world's endangered languages.

We all play = Kimêtawânaw Julie Flett’s book is “a marvelous celebration of the interconnectedness of all creatures, and includes some Cree phrases. It is based on the Cree teaching of wahkohtowin, interconnectedness and play, and includes as well the English and Cree names of the animals in the book.” (publisher)

Cahuilla Dictionary / Hans Jakob Seiler and Kojiro Hioki Compiled by Drs. Seiler and Hioki, this dictionary is representative of the important contributions of non-native linguistics scholars who compiled dictionaries, texts, and grammars over many years. Today, we recognize that some scholars failed to adequately credit the native speakers whose languages they documented, while still playing an important role in documenting their languages for native communities. According to the Malki Museum, “The future of the Cahuilla language is now in the hands of the Cahuilla people themselves, who, armed with the excellent data which Seiler’s and Hioki’s scholarship provides, can now begin the serious task of revitalizing their ancestral language by incorporating it into their daily lives and the lives of their children.”

Flutes of Fire - Essays on California indian Languages Dr. Leanne Hinton is an Emerita Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley. She is one of the founders of Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (AICLS), now a Native-run and led organization focused on the revitalization of indigenous California languages. She works with indigenous groups on language maintenance and reclamation.

Dictionary of Mesa Grande Diegueno / Ted Couro and Christina Hutcheson This volume is a dictionary of the Ipai language, also known as 'Iipay or Northern Diegueño. It is the Native American language spoken by the Kumeyaay people of central San Diego County, California. The dictionary is presented in a practical orthography devoid of special symbols, fully capable of representing the sounds of the language. Although no specialized knowledge is required for its use, making the dictionary suitable for both the layman and the scholar, it conforms at the same time to sound principles of linguistic scholarship. The authors have included 'Iipay to English and English to 'Iipay translations to hundreds of words.

Pitseolak. Pictures of my life An illustrated book of edited interviews with the artist, Pitseolak Ashoona

This Place 150 Years Retold Graphic novel anthology exploring the last 150 years through the eyes of indigenous creators.

Ispík kákí péyakoyak = When we were alone This bilingual book in English and Cree teaches young readers of indigenous childrens’ experiences in residential schools, where they endured unimaginable hardships and were prohibited from speaking indigenous languages. Cree-Métis illustrator Julie Flett uses color to convey the schools’ cruelty and the survival of rich cultures and languages through these systemic efforts to eradicate them.

Boarding School Seasons American Indian Families, 1900-1940 Historian Brenda Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) draws on the letters home of hundreds of Native American Children at the Haskell and Flandreau Boarding Schools in the early 20th century. The letters tell the story of schools' efforts to suppress native languages and cultures in order to disrupt children's ties to their families and communities.

Wikchamni Dictionary “What started in 1969 with a request by Cecile Silva that I write down her history and language for her and her sisters Mary Friedrichs, Virginia Aguilar and Susie Metcalf became a project that has spanned fifty years.” Dr. Geoffrey Gamble, Fresno State Linguistics, wrote this introduction in 2019 when the dictionary was brought online in collaboration with the Fresno State Library. The dictionary includes audio examples of words, sentences and longer streams of speech. Dictionaries depict the work of linguists with native informants to develop orthographies, syllabaries, grammars, and systems to describe and preserve languages. More recently, there has been additional recognition of native speakers' vital roles in the preservation and scholarship of their languages.

Marie's Dictionary This short documentary tells the story of Marie Wilcox, the last fluent speaker of the Wikchumni language.

Connect with the Library Librarians sam hidde tripp (hiddetripp@csufresno.edu) and Sarah McDaniel (sarahmcdaniel@csufresno.edu) compiled this page and an accompanying physical exhibit (2nd floor, Diversity Lounge, November 2023) in honor of Native American Heritage Month. Please contact us to make suggestions for revisions or additions to this page, We wish to thank Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver, Director of the American Indian Studies program, and particularly welcome input from other members of Native American community.