According to Ryan Wilson, board member of the National Indian Education Association, trying to keep the language alive is “a race against the clock, and we’re in the 59th minute of the last hour.” However, it is important that they try to prevent them from becoming dormant languages because for many tribes language is “a cultural glue” that holds a community together, linking generations and preserving a heritage and values (Cohen).
Map of Native Americans in the United States
In addition, Ellen Lutz, executive director of Cultural Survival added that “language seems to be a healing force for Native American communities.” The preservation of Native American languages is important for all of us, like David Braun of National Geographic declared in the article “Preserving Native America’s Vanishing Languages”, The loss of any language is a loss for us all. We lose part of the human genius, and with the disappearance of a language also goes a lot of spiritual concepts, art, and so on.
Today, UNESCO documents only 139 Native American languages in the United States. Records also show that more than 70 of these languages could fall silent in the next 5 years unless action is taken immediately encouraging the younger generation to learn these endangered languages and pass them down to the following generations.
Native American Tribal gathering
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Hopes for the Future