This paper discusses the contribution of school-based mother-tongue literacy to the maintenance and renewal of endangered languages, with Navajo as the case in point. Although Navajo claims the most speakers among U.S. indigenous languages, the absolute number and relative proportion of Navajo speakers have declined drastically in the last 30…

Data from three well-documented American Indian language immersion programs (teaching Navajo, Hawaiian, and Keres) and from an ongoing large comparative study of language shift/retention in six Indian school-community sites suggest that immersion schooling can serve the dual roles of promoting students' school success and revitalizing endangered…

This paper describes the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI), which can serve as a model for connecting school, community, and university resources to strengthen indigenous languages. Since 1978, AILDI has held annual summer institutes that team community-based native speakers of indigenous languages with academic linguists and…