In this article we present a knowledge management platform called Kim un (which means knowledge in Mapuzugun) as a technological web resource for teaching and learning Mapuzugun language. We discuss how we can generate a richness in multicultural education and diminish the otherness between different cultural groups in a society of XXI century…

According to Long (2014), genuine task-based pedagogy is centered around the real-world activities that learners need to complete using the target language. We are developing the OurStories mobile application to support learners and instructors of minority languages in the development of personally relevant, task-based learning resources. The…

Linguistic relativity, the idea that language affects the way that people think, and that people who speak different languages think differently, has implications for mathematics education because people use different languages to teach, learn and practice mathematics. This paper reviews research on linguistic relativity and number, looking at…

This research focuses on the design of resources for both reappraising the knowledge of a native language for those who speak or have notions of Nahuatl, and getting familiar with terms for those who do not speak this language. An audio-lexicon Spanish-Nahuatl, ALEN, was developed taking advantage of new technologies, especially mobile devices and…

In this keynote address, the author talks about Indigenous peoples who are presently in a dynamic circumstance of constant change that they are facing courageously with creative collaboration and syncretism. In the address, the author speaks "of" an Indigenous consciousness and he speaks "with" an Indigenous consciousness so that Indigenous…

In this testimony, Patricia Whitefoot talks on behalf of the National Indian Education Association with regard to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization and addressing the needs of diverse students. Native education has made significant strides since NIEA's founding. Native education, however, still faces enormous challenges,…

In this testimony, Patricia Whitefoot talks on behalf of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) with regard to President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request. She describes how Native education still faces enormous challenges, including severe underfunding. Far too many students and schools continue to experience abject failure. NIEA…

The importance of Native languages to Native Americans and the effort needed to maintain them are discussed in this keynote address at the ninth Native American Language Issues Institute. It is noted that the current cultural transition has demeaned Native languages and cultures and that strategies must be devised by Native Americans to counter…

This paper describes the use of Keresan Pueblo Indian Sign Language (KPISL) in one small, Keresan-speaking pueblo in central New Mexico, where 15 out of 650 tribal members have severe to profound hearing loss (twice the national average). KPISL did not originate for the same purposes as the Plains Indian Sign Language, (PISL) which was developed…

In this testimony, Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert talks on behalf of the National Indian Education Association with regard to the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and challenges facing BIE schools in improving student achievement. Founded in 1969, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) is the largest organization in the nation dedicated…

Efforts by Canada Natives to put their languages into standard written formats and to use Native languages with their children are discussed in this review of the Stoney Indian Language Project. The Stoney community is centered at Morley, Alberta (Canada), and the population of the three bands--Bear's Paw, Chiniki, and Goodstoney--is nearly 2,700.…

The Cree and Cherokee syllabary systems were designed by gifted amateurs, such as Sequoyah, who received no funding or significant institutional support. Although he had influential kinsmen in his matrilineage, his project encountered active, widespread opposition from his contemporaries prior to its validation in 1821. Sequoyah found it necessary…

The contributions of Peter Stephen DuPonceau and John Pickering to American linguistics in the early nineteenth century are reviewed and discussed. Despite their probable status as amateurs in the study of American Indian languages and their very limited fieldwork, they made some significant contributions to the general field of language studies…

Sociolinguistic data regarding code selection and nonverbal modes of learning are examined in the gesture communication system of the (Oglala and Brule) Sioux. Sign language is viewed as an extra-linguistic mode of communication currently in use in Indian classrooms. It is one alternative to literacy as a means of communication; however, this is…

After the Comanche Indians split from the Shoshoni-Comanche in the early eighteenth century, the Comanche language underwent several subtle changes in the use and position of directional suffixes. The use of two directional suffixes (-kin, meaning "motion toward" and -kwan, meaning "motion away") illustrates these changes. In…