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Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

First Page

5

Abstract

How have Native American languages, like the languages of other indigenous peoples around the world, arrived at this crisis stage? Is this simply the result of the passage of time, in an environment in which non-Native American society's sheer numbers, and its ever-present English-language media, including the "cultural nerve gas of television, inevitably swamp Native American languages and lead to their replacement by English? Or has this situation resulted from more deliberate action on the part of the dominant society, acting through its laws and other mechanisms of government power? We should also ask, given that so many Native American languages are threatened with extinction today, what can and should be done about this situation? In particular, what role can and should the government of the United States play in stabilizing, preserving, and even revitalizing Native American languages? In this article, I would like to share some thoughts on the answers to these questions. First, in Part I, I discuss the history of the U.S. government's policy toward Native American languages, to see how the laws of the past contributed to the threats posed to Native American languages in the present. Situating the current issue of language preservation in this historical context promotes not only an understanding of how the present situation arose, but also suggests a responsibility on the part of the U.S. government to make a meaningful effort to remedy the devastating contemporary effects of its past policy toward Native American languages - a policy that the government itself has disavowed. After this examination of the law of the past, Part II moves on to consider the law of the present, to see how current U.S. law addresses Native American languages, most notably through the Native American Languages Acts of 1990, 1992, and 2006. Finally, Part III discusses the responsibility of the U.S. government to take on a greater role in fostering the preservation, stabilization, and revitalization of Native American languages.

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