American Rescue Plan Award Recipients

In September 2021, the Administration for Native Americans awarded approximately $20 million in grant funding to 210 recipients of the Native Language Preservation and Maintenance Emergency grant though the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP). This ARP funding supports federally and state recognized Tribes and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community organizations as they seek to ensure the survival and continuing vitality of Native American languages.

ANA has taken a giant leap in language preservation by awarding ARP funding to some of the most hard-hit Indigenous communities. With the impact of COVID-19, many of these communities lost first-language speaking elders and with the additional funding provided by ANA, these languages can be saved and protected.

  • ARP Grant Recipient Award List Here you'll find a complete list of ANA's American Rescue Plan Award Recipients.
  • ARP Grant Recipient Resources Hub Explore the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Grant Recipient Training and Technical Assistance Resource Hub. This page provides ARP Grant Recipients with tailored ARP funding training and technical assistance resources all in one place to assist each recipient with managing their ARP grant and implementing their native language project.
  • ARP Language Map Dashboard  
  • Check out ANA’s interactive ARP Language Map Dashboard to explore the more than 120 native languages that are being actively preserved and strengthened by the ARP grant projects funded by ANA. 

ARP Language Dashboard

ARP Language Dashboard Map

The 210 ARP grants awarded by ANA in 2021 support the strength and vitality of an immense variety of languages spoken by Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. These grants are currently ensuring the preservation of over 120 unique languages which belong to 17 linguistic families and which encompass an even greater number of regional varieties and dialects. This dashboard provides a convenient and interactive means of exploring the diversity of languages supported by these projects and acts as a springboard for learning more about the language and culture of each grant recipient.

Click directly on the interactive map above to explore the more than 120 native languages that are being actively preserved and strengthened by the ARP grant projects funded by ANA. 

 


 

Award Recipients Profile Highlights

Check out profiles of four ARP grant recipients below, one hailing from each of ANA’s four geographic regions (Eastern, Pacific, Alaska and Western). ANA is proud to highlight these projects that were made possible by ARP grant funding. 

Chief Harry Wallace

Chief Harry Wallace Video

 

Name: The Poospatuck Cultural Foundation, Inc.

Project Title: Unkechaug/Algonquian Language Revitalization Project

Language: Unkechaug/Algonquian Language

Location: Long Island, New York

Checkout ANA’s ARP Grant Recipient Profile Video of Unkechaug Nation Chief Harry Wallace, who oversees the Algonquian Language Revitalization Project currently implemented by the Poospatuck Cultural Foundation, Inc. In this video, Unkechaug Nation Chief Harry Wallace discusses the importance of preserving and teaching his tribes’ native language. Leveraging this ARP native language preservation funding, the Poospatuck Cultural Foundation is spearheading native language education programming on behalf of the Unkechaug Nation, a New York state-recognized tribe. The project will develop a flexible multiuse curriculum for teaching Unkechaug in the classroom and at home along with training 11 new local language instructors over a three-year period. This effort will increase and improve learning opportunities for both youth and adults and will be a significant contribution to the Cultural Foundation’s larger goal of helping all Nation members attain conversational proficiency in Unkechaug.

 

Guam-for-ANA

Name: CHamoru Language Commission

Project Title: A Sustainable Framework for Teaching and Learning CHamoru Nina’fitmen i Fina’nå’gue yan Ineyak i Fino’CHamoru

Language: CHamoru Language

Location: Guam

ANA ARP Guam poadcast image

ANA ARP Guam Poadcast

 

A Sustainable Framework for Teaching and Learning CHamoru Nina'fitmen i Fina'nå'gue yan Ineyak i Fino' CHamoru will create a sustainable framework for teaching and learning fluency and proficiency in CHamoru at home and at school. The CHamoru language is in tragic decline due to English-only American colonial practices implemented in the last century, scarce resources, limited coordination by educational institutions to address language loss comprehensively, the inconsistent implementation of legal mandates established to ensure CHamoru language continuity, and, finally, the loss of numerous first language CHamoru speakers due to COVID-19. Critically endangered, the CHamoru language, the last three U.S. Censuses conducted in Guam found that the use of CHamoru language shows continuous decline with fluent CHamoru speakers making up 26 % of the population of Guam in 1990 (34,598 CHamoru speakers, 133,152 total population) decreasing to 20% in 2000 (30,708 CHamoru speakers, 154,805 total population) to 16 % in 2010. By selecting four cohorts of 15 CHamoru teachers to become certified in immersion techniques and language arts pedagogy, having 60 families of students enrolled at the Chief Hurao Academy, the GDOE Immersion Program and CHamoru after-school programs, and supplying all, or approximately 150, CHamoru language teachers with standardized, age-appropriate and performance based curriculum guides, this project will enable a system of resources and guides to facilitate teaching and learning CHamoru in school and at home. Ultimately, the project seeks to build capacity, engage the language with an intergenerational approach, and develop a sustainable curriculum to transform classroom practice.

 

Name: Learning Point Alaska, Inc

Project Title: Yupik Interactive Lessons with Science Phenomena

Language:  Yup’ik language

Location: Anchorage, Alaska

ANA podcast image

 

Their first ever ANA grant, the Yupik Interactive Lessons with Science Phenomena project will preserve the Yup’ik Coastal Dialect by creating an interactive Yup’ik science website with activities and games, that can be used for classroom instruction by schools in the Alaska Native village of Hooper Bay. While 1,250 tribal members currently live in the village and the Coastal Dialect is used in Hooper Bay, there are only approximately a few hundred fluent speakers who consist primarily of adults over the age of 40. By developing an interactive science activity website with a Yup’ik language translator, text-to-speech capability, the project will use the science curriculum to build interactive activities and games and create a sentence builder including a subset of post bases and endings in both Yup’ik and English.  Learning Point Alaska, Inc. will also map all the grammar, linguistics, and orthography rules to create this online interactive science class. This free interactive website will be intended for use by youth in the schools and the community wanting to build upon more knowledge of the Yup’ik language.

 

Nunakuyarmiut-Tribe-AK

Name: Nunakauyarmiut Tribe

Project Title: Emergency Language Project

Language:  Yup’ik language

Location: Toksook Bay, Alaska

 

Their first ever ANA grant, the Nunakauyarmiut Tribe Language Project will preserve knowledge of the Yup’ik language as well as traditional stories and place names for the Nunakauyarmiut Tribe of Yup’ik Eskimo at Toksook Bay. While 582 tribal members currently live in the village, there are only approximately 20 fluent Yup’ik speakers in the community and Yup’ik language instruction is limited to children at the K — 3 level. By hosting a series of public storytelling sessions with village elders, the project will produce recordings, transcriptions, and translations of stories describing Yup’ik history and culture which will be made easily accessible to community members wishing to study the language and culture. These resources will be intended for use by both children and adults wanting to build upon more elementary knowledge of Yup’ik and to avoid disruptions to language instruction in schools, such as those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the production of these materials, knowledge of the Yup’ik language and culture will be preserved and community members of all ages will be increasingly engaged with spoken Yup’ik.

 

The Bishop Paiute Tribe (002)

Name: Bishop Paiute Tribe

Project Title: Outreach and Education Program - Creating a Stronger Voice with Our Native Language

Language: Paiute and Shoshone language

Location: Bishop California

 

The Bishop Paiute Tribe will increase local use of the Paiute and Shoshone languages and develop a new language outreach and preservation plan through programs at the Owens Valley Paiute Shoshone Cultural Center. Although the Cultural Center has been a communal space for gathering, honoring, and promoting the Paiute and Shoshone cultures, recent losses of more than 40 cultural bearers and 15 Paiute and Shoshone speakers during the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the Center’s need for language preservation initiatives. The Cultural Center will therefore add a space for digital language learning resources and archives and hire a Language Advocate who will develop a long-term Language Plan grounded in community research. These efforts will engage tribal community members of all ages with the Paiute and Shoshone languages and promote public outreach and partnerships with the general public. This project will lay the foundation for long-term language preservation and promotion programs which will continue to meet the needs and interests of the community while ensuring the survival of the tribal languages.