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| BINGAMAN, DOMENICI, WILSON INTRODUCE BILL TO PRESERVE NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES OF THE SOUTHWEST |
July 15, 2003 |
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| WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, and Rep. Heather Wilson today introduced legislation in the US Senate and House designed to ensure that Native American languages are preserved for generations to come.
Their "Southwest Native American Language Revitalization Act of 2003" would create a center at the University of New Mexico, working in consortium with the Linguistic Institute for Native Americans, whose aim it would be to encourage the teaching of languages native to the Southwest. The center would be part of the Native American Studies Department at UNM.
“For years many schools in the West did their best to eradicate languages used by tribes and pueblos. Punishments were carried out on those students who spoke their native tongue. Thankfully, in more recent years, we have come to see the importance of preserving Native American languages,” Bingaman said. “Our bill would make preserving the languages of tribes and pueblos of the Southwest, in particular, a priority.”
“Language can be just as artistic as the pots, rugs or jewelry produced by America`s native peoples. This bill would create a demonstration program to ensure that such native tongues do not disappear," Domenici said. "Native languages contribute to overall linguistic and cultural richness of our society. We only need to look to our own Code Talkers in New Mexico to understand just one of the benefits of keeping native languages alive.”
It is vital that we prevent the Native American languages particular to the Southwest from dying out,” said Representative Wilson, who met with members of the Jicarilla Apache Pueblo last month. “Society would lose a valuable and beautiful source of heritage and history were these languages not preserved.”
Specifically, the legislation would provide federal funds to:
Train Native American language mentors, and assist in the development of training programs for Native American language speakers and teachers through onsite training and university or college courses, summer training institutes; regional seminars on Native American language issues;
Conduct community education and outreach;
Examine the effects of federal, state and local education policies on the long-term survival of Native American languages;
Assess the impact of culturally-responsive curricula on Native American languages;
Establish endowments to further study and preserve Native American languages.
The intent of the "Southwest Native American Language Revitalization Act of 2003" is to encourage the development of Native American language survival as an innovative means of addressing the effects of past discrimination against Native American language speakers.
The Senators are working with Senators Daniel Inouye (HI) and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO), the top Democrat and Republican, respectively, to incorporate their legislation into the larger Native American Languages Act Amendments Act of 2003 (S. 575). Representative Wilson is carrying the House bill that corresponds to S.575. |
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