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Decades of government policies aimed at forcibly assimilating Native Americans, guided by the notion of “kill the Indian and save the man,” included generations of Indigenous children ripped away from their families and placed in boarding schools, where speaking their language was forbidden.
The cumulative result was the severe diminishment and, at times, complete loss of Indigenous languages across North America.
That legacy set the backdrop for the formation of the Northwest Indian Language Institute in Oregon in 1997. Twenty-five years later, the institute’s work remains as urgent and important as ever.
“We often ask ourselves, ‘How do we address the pain that people have and the shame that they have about language?’” Director Robert Elliott said recently from the organization’s headquarters in Eugene.
Ichishkíin language teachers from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and Yakama Nation founded the institute in response to tribal communities’ interest in honoring and maintaining their languages. Inspired by the American Indian Language Development Institute, the founders worked with the University of Oregon to start their institute, dedicated to supporting and strengthening language revitalization through tribal, academic and community partnerships.
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