On this edition of Your Call, we're discussing how COVID is affecting Native communities and putting Native languages at risk. Fewer than 120 Native American languages remain. In 2020, there were only 230 native Dakota and Lakota speakers on the Standing Rock Reservation. Their average age is 70.
Elders and those who are fluent Native language speakers are being prioritized for vaccinations, but many say we are running out of time. What’s being done to preserve and revitalize these languages?
Guests:
Dr. Neyooxet Greymorning, political anthropologist, professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Native American Studies at the University of Montana, developer of the Accelerated Second Language Acquisition, and editor of Being Indigenous: Perspectives on Activism, Culture, Language and Identity
Nola Taken Alive, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal council member who recently lost her parents to COVID
Web Resources:
The New York Times, Jodi Archambault: How Covid-19 Threatens Native Languages
The New York Times, Jack Healy: Tribal Elders Are Dying From the Pandemic, Causing a Cultural Crisis for American Indians
Star Tribune, Chris Serres: ‘Our people are scared.’ As deaths mount, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe charts its own path to fighting COVID
High Country News, Rebecca Nagle: The U.S. has spent more money erasing Native languages than saving them
New Republic, Nick Martin: Protecting Native Elders in a Pandemic
Panel discussion focused on the impact of COVID-19 on First Nations on February 26th at 10am PST
