DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
As part of this year’s White House Tribal Nations Summit, the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the Interior launched a new interagency initiative to preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native languages. The agencies, joined by five entities, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to further the Native American Languages Act of 1990 by establishing new goals and programs that support preservation and protection of Native languages spoken by federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, Native Hawaiians, and other Native American groups in the U.S. This MOA also affirms holding an annual National Summit on Native Languages (which was held this year on November 18 and 19).
The MOA features specific interagency goals, including, but not limited to, identifying statutory or regulatory barriers that impede federal implementation of Native language activities; identifying research that explores educational attainment and Native language retention and/or revitalization; simplifying the process to integrate Native language instruction and other cultural activities into educational settings, such as libraries, museums, cultural and historic preservation programs, and in the arts; and strengthening Tribal consultations on the issue of Native languages.
The Native Language Workgroup, comprised of senior officials from the three primary agencies, will be chaired by the executive director of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities (based at Education), the commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans (based at Health and Human Services), and the director of the Bureau of Indian Education (based at Interior).