Revitalizing Indigenous American Languages

Co-Director Daryl Baldwin, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma Chief Douglas Lankford and Staff Trainer Jerome Viles working with Nisenan participants at National Breath of Life Archival Institute Module 2 at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. 2019. Photo Credit: Karen L. Baldwin

The Myaamia Center at Miami University is the result of a unique 50-year relationship between a sovereign Native American tribe and a public university. It now serves as the research and educational development arm of the Miami Tribe’s language and culture revitalization efforts. The center’s financial stability and leadership in these areas has also allowed it to take a national role in language revitalization by hosting and providing support for the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages (National BoL). National BoL works with endangered language communities to build capacity around methods in archives-based research for community-directed revitalization efforts. The NEH has played an important role in supporting the ongoing developments of the Myaamia Center and National BoL’s technical and archival infrastructure.

Oneida Tribe participants working in their language archives at National Anthropological Archives during National Breath of Life Archival Institute Module 1, Suitland, MA. 2015. Photo Credit: Karen L. Baldwin

A Northern Paiute participant working with his Numa language archives during National Breath of Life Archival Institute Module 2 at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. 2019. Photo Credit: Karen L. Baldwin

A 2012 NEH grant supported the development of the Indigenous Languages Digital Archive (ILDA). ILDA is an innovative software suite connecting analyzed archival language data directly to high-resolution copies of original language manuscript sources. By sharing its data with a talking dictionary and other language learning tools, the ILDA Archive provides a critical link between archival data and community-based educational programs. ILDA is currently being piloted among nearly a dozen tribal communities through National BoL.

A Haida Language participant viewing an archived photo during National Breath of Life Archival Institute Module 1 at National Anthropological Archives, Suitland, MA. 2017. Photo Credit: Karen L. Baldwin

In 2019, NEH supported the development of a web-based platform called aacimwahkionkonci, Stories from the Land, that will allow scholars and tribal members to interpret and learn from thousands of property deeds, which document how real estate left Miami Tribe ownership through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As an educational tool, the aacimwahkionkonci project will allow tribal members and current landowners access to this rich history and re-establish the connection between people, places, and the narratives that describe their interactions over time.

Participants and staff of the Module 2 Workshop for National Breath of Life Archival Institute held at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. 2019. Photo Credit: Karen L. Baldwin

And through grants made in 2018 and 2021, the NEH has supported the continued advancement of the National BoL program. By developing the Native American Philology Model, a series of educational modules designed for language activists, National BoL has created training pathways for tribal communities that foster the skills necessary for carrying out the long-term process of archive-based research for revitalization. In the coming years, the Myaamia Center and National Breath of Life will be launching a number of new initiatives with continued support from NEH. These include a new National BoL apprentice program, a wide range of self-paced training opportunities, and the development of a new web-based resource portal for tribal community archivists. All of these are critical for supporting the growing field of indigenous language revitalization.