The Living Languages Grants are awarded by the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development and range in value from $200,000 to $300,000 per year for three years.
The program targets Tribes whose languages are at risk of disappearing due to declining native-speaker population. The degradation of Native language is a result of more than a century of oppression and forced assimilation driven by federal Indian Boarding Schools that forbade Native children from speaking the language of their peoples.
“Living Languages Grant Program funding supports Tribal communities in restoring and revitalizing their traditional languages, thereby preserving the essence of their cultural identities and sovereignty,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland in a statement. “Investing in Native language revitalization is just one part of our all-of-government approach to addressing the harms caused by federal policies of the past, such as Federal Indian Boarding School which actively worked to suppress Native languages and cultures.”
The Living Languages Grant Program’s focus for fiscal year 2024 is on Native language immersion projects that support a cohesive Tribal community-approach through collaborative instruction based on current language immersion models. This year’s funding is intended for projects that provide an “all-of-community” language program with measurable outcomes that will be achieved within three years.
The award recipients and amounts are:
- Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, Oklahoma: $300,000
- Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, McLoud, Oklahoma: $300,000
- Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Bayfield, Wisconsin: $300,000
- Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Reno, Nevada: $300,000
- Sac & Fox Nation, Stroud, Oklahoma: $300,000
- Igiugig Village, Igiugig, Alaska: $299,999
- Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, North Dakota: $299,928
- Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, Coos Co., Oregon: $299,900
- Metlakatla Indian Community, Metlakatla, Alaska: $299,900
- Modoc Nation, Miami, Oklahoma: $299,807
- Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Anadarko, Oklahoma: $299,279
- Kalispel Indian Community, Cusick, Washington: $298,552
- Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule, South Dakota: $296,273
- Lummi Tribe, Bellingham, Washington: $296,000
- Bundled Arrows Inc., Niagara Falls, New York: $288,098
- Shawnee Tribe, Miami, Oklahoma: $280,200
- Tribal Government of St. Paul Island, St. Paul Island, Alaska: $277,500
- Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, Juneau, Alaska: $265,920
- San Carlos Apache Tribal Council, San Carlos, Arizona: $219,647
- Quechan Tribe, Yuma, Arizona: $201,997