Preserving Alaska Native Languages: The state of Indigenous languages in Alaska.

• Author: Perry, Richard
• Position: ALSKA NATIVE

Alaska Native people have faced social and cultural harm that includes epidemics, dislocations, language loss, boarding schools, and more. For decades, communities in every region of Alaska have held culture camps to preserve and restore their cultural heritage and language. The need for these opportunities has grown greater as Elders, who are community experts in language and customary practices, have passed away.

Language is a core foundation for Indigenous cultural identity and heritage, so the loss of Indigenous Elders has been extremely troubling, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The damage to Indigenous communities and language revitalization efforts has been devastating. In Kodiak, for example, from 2020 to early 2022, half of the first-language speakers of Kodiak Alutiiq passed away, leaving no speakers of the northern Kodiak dialect and approximately seventeen speakers of the southern dialect.

Additionally, the limited ability to meet face to face has affected language and cultural activities, especially for Elders who are less able to take part in Internet-based communication. Fortunately, this has become less of a problem thanks to COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

With all of these factors, it is a crucial time to preserve and revitalize languages that are endangered or in dormancy.

Defining Priorities

According to the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council (ANLPAC) 2022 Report to the Governor and Legislature, Alaska is home to more than twenty-three Indigenous languages.

Today, no Alaska Native languages are considered "safe" or merely "vulnerable" as defined by the council.

"We tweaked the definitions in a few spots," says Roy Mitchell, staff research analyst for ANLPAC. "We had labeled what was previously listed as extinct to dormant, meaning there are no conversational speakers left. The shift at the council is really pushing to not buy into negative labels. We've been using dormant for a few years now, rather than say there are no speakers left [or extinct]."

Mitchell is a linguistic anthropologist specializing in Inupiaq and a PhD candidate at the University of California Berkeley. He has been a student of Alaska Native languages since 1976, supporting Alaska Native languages in many regions throughout Alaska.

Mitchell explains that many non-Native people, including policy makers and teachers, may operate in ignorance of Alaska Native language loss or that in the past Alaska Native students were forbidden to speak their languages. The history of language suppression and loss is still felt with...