Alaska Native languages at crucial juncture, biennial report says

University of Alaska Southeast students in Professor X̱’unei Lance Twitchell’s Alaska Native Studies class.

The classroom is a microcosm of the change Twitchell and other members of the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council called for statewide: An Alaska committed to increasing the number of Alaska Native language speakers and promoting common use of the languages. “We wanted to make sure that at least we would challenge people to not just receive it and move on. However, there hasn’t been any real action on it,” Twitchell said.

A decade has passed since the last legislation to support Alaska Native languages became law. In 2014, the state updated a 1998 law that recognized Alaska Native Languages aswould expand and rename the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council, as well as add three previously unrecognized Alaska Native languages to the list of official state languages.

“I think to ask Alaska as an entity to see itself as something more than just whiteness is a big ask,” he said. “But I think it has to happen, if you’re going to have the diversity that should be here, and the plurality that should be here.” Many of them are in the classroom, where a few of the students have their laptops open to reveal another 15 online learners, several from areas where in-person Lingit lessons are not available. Next year a fourth year of Lingit study will be available, a marker that enough students have progressed to the point where they need one. Some of his students are taking the advanced class for the fourth or fifth time.

Ayaruq Language Revitalization

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