Native American Language Program Gets Funded for Another Year
The Oklahoma Breath of Life — Silent No More program recently
received a $90,000 grant from the National Science Foundation
(NSF) to hold another weeklong workshop next year. The first
workshop was held last summer at the University of Oklahoma’s
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. It was designed to
give participants the tools to help revitalize endangered Native
American languages. National Geographic’s Enduring Voices
Project lists Oklahoma as a language hotspot—an area with many
languages near extinction. “Oklahoma boasts the highest density
of indigenous languages in the United States,” says the
project’s website. “This hotspot includes languages originally
spoken in the region, as well as those of tribes from farther
east that were forcibly relocated onto reservations here.” Jim
Hopper, director of the Otoe-Missouria Youth Leadership
Department, attended the Breath of Life workshop held last year
because he fears tribal youth are fa