Ever-present, but unexpected: Native American English Learners

Last month the US celebrated Native American Heritage as it has done since 1990. While the title of the proclamation has been tweaked over time, recent embodiments have used ‘Native American’ as an umbrella term to describe various Indigenous tribes and communities, not just American Indians. Underneath this umbrella, however, stand an array of diverse cultures, languages, and experiences worth understanding in their own right and called by their rightful name, be it Native American, Alaska Native, First Americans, Native Hawaiians, American Indians, First Nations, or Pacific Islanders, to name a few. At present there are 574 federally recognized tribes, 66 state recognized tribes, and an innumerable amount of tribal communities still not officially recognized across the country, each with their own language and truth to be shared with the world.

Certainly, one month is not enough time to sufficiently explore the breadth and depth of Native people. Indeed, 14 states and more than 130 cities have adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day in place of, or in addition to, Columbus Day as an additional celebration. These annual dedications to the heritage and contributions of Native communities in the US provides a platform for those with Indigenous backgrounds to share their culture and history with society writ-large. And while each has a unique history that is often overlooked and misunderstood, these diverse communities are united by an underappreciated reality that many Indigenous children experience in the education system: their classification as English learners (ELs).

Nationally, 8 percent of American Indian and Alaska Natives, and 15 percent of Pacific Islander students are ELs. A closer look at the data reveals that while American Indian and Alaska Natives, as well as Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander EL populations are distributed more sporadically across the US, they can be found in high concentrations in certain states and local education agencies (LEAs). For example, in Montana 80 percent of their ELs are Native American, and only 25 LEAs across the US account for 53 percent of ELs who are Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander. Among these LEAs, the Hawaii Department of Education enrolls the highest number of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander ELs at 10,244 students, roughly 29 percent of their EL population, and in Dubuque Community School District in Iowa, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander students represent the highest share at 53.6 percent of all ELs.

These students don’t fit into the conventional EL profile, that is, students who are adding English to another language spoken at home, and therefore can be harder to identify. Unlike other ELs, Native American ELs, such as those in Montana, do not necessarily speak their heritage language, but also haven’t necessarily developed their academic English skills enough to support content learning. As with other ELs whose language is influenced by the immigrant background of their parents, Native American ELs have had their English acquisition framed by parents/grandparents, family members, or guardians who may have been ELs themselves. This present-day phenomenon is rooted in Native people’s historical experience with English acquisition where, for over 100 years, discriminatory education practices and federal assimilation policies intended to strip Native communities of their language and culture.

Until 1978 when the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed by Congress, it was all-too-common to remove Native children from their homes and communities, and put them up for adoption or foster care with predominantly white families. Many children were also forced to attend boarding schools aimed at ‘civilizing’ native populations by forcing them to assimilate to the ‘American’ way of life. During this time, the official policy in educating Native American children in the US was to discourage the use of their home language, and withhold them from grade-level monolingual classrooms until they reached certain levels of English proficiency—a reality not too dissimilar from what ELs with an immigrant background experience today. Until the ICWA was passed, however, Native American parents did not have the legal right to object to their children’s placement in off-reservation schools.

Though we now know that supporting the development of students’ home language can help their acquisition of a second language, these often politically driven instruction decisions have had cross-generational effects as Native students were continuously denied the support they needed to allow them to fully acquire Standard English. The long-term neglect of education for Native people has led to the predominant use of non-standard English among Native communities, a pervasive reality that has been brought to light by Native educators, administrators, and organizations. Unfortunately, bridging EL services specifically designed for this population are virtually non-existent. Given the continual devaluation of native language and culture, and the lack of restorative investment in Native education, it should not come as a surprise that 99 percent of Native American languages spoken today are at risk of extinction.

All hope is not lost though as efforts to reinvigorate Native language education have sprouted across the country. The Native American and Alaska Native Children in School (NAM) program, for example, which incentivizes developing and enhancing capacity to provide effective instruction and support to Native American ELs, awarded roughly $2.2 million to seven grantees in 2018. The following year, Congress reauthorized the Esther Martinez Native American Languages program, which is specifically geared towards immersion programs that strengthen American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages.

In the classroom, Kaiapuni schools—a Hawaiian language immersion program in K-12—deliver instruction exclusively in the Hawaiian language with English introduced as its own subject in grade 5. These schools, which were launched in 1987 nearly 100 years after the Hawaiian language was banned, now span a network of 23 public schools (including six charters). On the academic side, the University of New Mexico recently launched the Lobo Language Acquisition Lab, a new research lab focused on how children acquire languages such as Spanish and other underrepresented Indigenous languages such as Navajo.

This year marked the 30th anniversary of the Native American Languages Act (NALA), the landmark legislation which formally overhauled federal policies that suppressed the use of Native American languages, and reaffirmed the right of Native American children to develop and be educated in their Native language. To commemorate the event, Senators from New Mexico and Alaska introduced the Durbin Feeling Native American Languages Act of 2020. This new bi-partisan Native American language bill directs the president to review federal compliance with NALA and improve inter-agency coordination between agencies responsible for preserving Native American languages. In its current form, the act would require the Health and Human Services Secretary to survey Native language use and language revitalization programs every five years. These surveys are intended to function as ‘health checks’ that will allow Native communities and Congress to funnel federal resources to any unmet program needs identified through the survey.

This bi-partisan support for Native language development, especially during such a politically polarized climate, is a positive step forward in filling the void left behind by the historical oppression, and subjugation of Native people, culture, and languages.

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