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Native American Language Diversity

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Scholars estimate that throughout the world as many as one to two endangered languages are lost to extinction on a bi-weekly basis. K. David Harrison states:
“When a community loses its language, they really lose their history. They lose their connection to the past. They lose all the wisdom and knowledge that has been accumulated through the centuries about how to live in a sustainable manner on this planet” (“Native American Languages: Loss and Revitalization” 2).
Human diversity is in no small part measured by the languages that we – as a species – speak. Our world is quickly shrinking in regards to linguistic and cultural diversity. And this has been then case since the 1950’s; when the number of differing languages spoken around the around began its steady decline. However, in the Americas, language preservation has been fighting a losing battle since Europeans …show more content…

This lead to students primarily speaking English; only using their native language at home or with extended family. Some Native Americans went as far as to outright refuse to teach their children their native language, in an attempt to protect them from similar hardships (Dick and McCarty). General Richard C. Pratt was the founder of the Native American boarding school system and was somewhat famously – or should I say infamously? – quoted as saying that his schools would, “kill the Indian to save the man” (Haynes 2). Navajo was one of the languages that was most heavily affected by the Native American boarding school system. Impressionable speakers of Navajo – more specifically children – were susceptible to the social, psychological, and linguistic effects of the boarding school system. Many students who experienced the boarding school system internalized the idea that their native language was “second best” or was in some way lesser than English (Dick and

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