tandfonline.com – Revitalizing Indigenous languages, cultures, and histories in Montana, across the United States and around the globe

Abstract

Many educators have sung the praises of Indian Education for All, Montana’s constitutional mandate, and heard the successes of Montana’s Indigenous language revitalization efforts which reverberate around the globe. Teaching Indigenous languages is especially, challenging since there are limited numbers of fluent speakers and scarce resources resulting from harsh education and language policies imposed by the US federal government throughout the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. Tribal members in Montana spearheaded a unique licensure process for Indigenous language instructors to revitalize and maintain their languages. Language revitalization as a culturally responsive pedagogy strategy is enacted through Class 7 certification, as it is known. It took years of work to assure that the authority rests with the tribal nations, where it should be, to decide who should be a language/culture teacher. By embracing culturally responsive pedagogy, a dramatic change to education in Montana to truly promote the espoused democratic ideals of justice and equity has resulted. This multi-pronged approach has absorbed the revitalization of Indigenous languages; all 11 Indigenous languages in Montana, are critically endangered. One of the most successful efforts at Indigenous language/cultural revitalization has resulted from the establishment of Indigenous language immersion schools. The creation of immersion programs within public schools in Montana has resulted in a critical need to provide much needed professional development to Indigenous language instructors.