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Protecting
Native American
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Ellen Inga Hætta, past Director of Education at the Saami Parliament
in Norway, provides these perspectives of the importance of strengthening
indigenous languages. Many confirm her claims.
M.
Kraus says: "as many as half of the estimated 6,000 languages spoken
on earth are "moribund"; that is, they are spoken only by adults who
no longer teach them to the next generation. An additional 40 percent may
soon be threatened because the number of children learning them is declining
measurably. In other words, 90 percent of existing languages today are likely
to die or become seriously embattled within the next century." Krauss classifies 155 of
the US indigenous languages as moribund. Increasingly, young Native Americans
grow up speaking only English, learning at best a few words of their ancestral
tongue.
Proposed Remedy
We propose the
Who-Am-I? educational program. It makes youth want
to use their native language - because it makes sense. It helps them get
friends in other places. Teachers use it as it helps them realize their
curriculum objectives.
"Canku Ota" and Kidlink hereby invite all US indigenous people to join the program in their language.
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