Indigenous Language Research Guide

This section is for past and ongoing Indigenous Revitalization projects and efforts. This includes projects centered on specific Indigenous languages, regional or local Ianguages, or Indigenous languages as a whole.

• Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

“The Alaska Native Language Center was established by state legislation in 1972 as a center for research and documentation of the twenty Native languages of Alaska. It is internationally known and recognized as the major center in the United States for the study of Interior and Northern Alaska Native languages. The mission of the Alaska Native Language Center and Program is to cultivate and promote Alaska’s twenty Native languages.”

• American Indian Language Development Institute, University of Arizona

The American Indian Language Development Institute's (AILDI) mission is to provide critical training to strengthen efforts to revitalize and promote the use of Indigenous languages across generations.  This is accomplished by engaging educators, schools, Indigenous communities and policy makers nationally and internationally through outreach, transformative teaching, purposeful research and collaborative partnerships.

• Cherokee Nation Language Department

The Cherokee Nation Language Department is committed to preserving and perpetuating the Cherokee language through day to day spoken use and by generating more proficient second-language Cherokee speakers.  The Language Department includes the Cherokee translation office; community and online language classes; the Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program, Cherokee Immersion School and language technology. 

• Endangered Language Fund (ELF)

ELF is a 501(c)3 founded in 1996 with the goal of supporting endangered language preservation and documentation projects. Our main mechanism for supporting work on endangered languages has been funding grants to individuals, tribes, and museums.

• Indigenous Languages Decade

“For the organization of the International Decade, UNESCO established a Global task Force for Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages on 22 March 2021. As an international governance mechanism, the Global Task Force ensures the equitable participation of all stakeholders in the International Decade, and provides guidance on the preparation, planning, implementation and monitoring of activities, in line with the objectives of the Global Action Plan of the IDIL2022-2032.”

• Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language, Hawai’inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawai’i

The mission of Kawaihuelani is to revitalize the Hawaiian language and culture through quality Hawaiian education. This is achieved through the creation and availability of faculty, resources, curricula, and materials that will promote the use of Hawaiian across the curriculum. Hawaiian is a viable and vibrant means of communication for a wide range of places and spaces, at UH Mānoa and in the community, including various forms of media and technology, such as the theater, radio, print, television, and internet.

• The National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages, Miami University

"National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages (National BoL) exists as a series of developing training modules that attempt to address the needs of tribal communities who are engaged in archives-based language revitalization. National BoL participants, called Community Researchers (CRs), typically come from communities who have either lost their speakers or are in need of access to language archives in order to advance their community driven efforts to recover their languages. The main purpose of National BoL is to support community interest in accessing archival materials and to develop capacity around the use of digitized copies of such materials for revitalization efforts."

• The National Museum of Natural History’s Recovering Voices Project

"Recovering Voices (RV) is a collaborative program of the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Asian Pacific American Center that partners with communities around the world to revitalize and sustain endangered languages and knowledge. Through interdisciplinary research, community collaboration and public outreach, we strive to develop effective responses to language and knowledge loss."

• Northwest Indian Language Institute, University of Oregon

"NILI supports and strengthens language preservation and revitalization efforts.  With tribal, academic and community partners, NILI establishes collaborative, on-going projects which meet the specific needs and desires of each language community. Integral to NILI are teacher training, curriculum development, language documentation and appropriate uses in technology. NILI provides outreach services on issues of language endangerment and advocates for language revitalization issues."

• Te Whare o Rongomaurikura (The Centre for Language Revitalisation), Auckland University of Technology

"Te Whare o Rongomaurikura, the Centre for Language Revitalisation, is located within Te Ipukarea Research Institute at AUT. The Centre is dedicated to upholding Te Ipukarea's commitment to the revitalisation of te reo Māori (the Māori language) as well as supporting Indigenous and endangered language revitalisation more generally."

• Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project

"Through the joint collaborative efforts of members of The Assonet Band of Wampanoag, The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah and the Herring Pond Band of Wampanoag, our mission is to return language fluency to the Wampanoag Nation as a principal means of expression."