Forty five tribal communities will work towards bolstering their Native languages, thanks to a  $7 million boon from the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development announced today by Assistant Interior Secretary Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community).

The Living Languages Grant Program provides tribes and tribal organizations with funding to document and revitalize their Native languages.

For more than 150 years, federal Indian boarding schools operated in the US with an objective of eliminating Native languages, contributing to a loss of fluent speakers today.

Grant proposals were rated on the extent to which funding would document, preserve or revitalize a Native language; the degree to which the language addressed by a proposal risks extinction; the likelihood that the instruction to be funded would revitalize the language by preventing intergenerational disruption; and the number of students or percentage of Tribal members the proposal would benefit.

The competitive grant process ranked applicants based on: the extent to which funding would document, preserve or revitalize a Native language; the degree to which the language addressed by a proposal risks extinction; the likelihood that the instruction to be funded would revitalize the language by preventing intergenerational disruption; and the number of students or percentage of tribal members the proposal would benefit.

The grantees and funding amounts are:

• Artic Slope Community Foundation, Inc.: $172,026
• Bois Forte Band of Chippewa: $86,241
• Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska: $200,000
• Chickaloon Native Village: $166,300
• Chickasaw Nation: $199,997
• Chippewa Cree Tribe: $180,100
• Comanche Nation: $192,121
• Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians: $161,150
• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation: $82,396
• Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians: $59,290
• Delaware Nation: $198,996
• Diné College: $60,189
• Forest County Potawatomi Community: $155,718
• Fort Belknap Community Economic Development Corporation: $199,680
• Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe: $121,299
• Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria: $199,686
• Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Inc.: $200,000
• Lummi Nation: $200,000
• Manzanita Band of Diegueno Mission Indians: $129,337
• Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe: $199,901
• Modoc Nation: $199,854
• Mohegan Tribe of Indians CT: $85,064
• Muscogee (Creek) Nation: $69,789
• Nez Perce Tribe: $159,958
• North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California: $192,371
• Northern Arapaho Tribe: $169,649
• Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation: $60,000
• Omaha Tribe of Nebraska: $200,000
• Pala Band of Mission Indians: $192,461
• Puyallup Tribe of Indians: $139,931
• Quapaw Nation: $72,000
• Rosebud Economic Development Corporation: $168,793
• Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan: $193,998
• San Carlos Apache Tribal Council: $184,344
• Santee Sioux Nation: $157,956
• Santo Domingo Pueblo (Kewa Pueblo): $123,795
• Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians: $106,554
• Spirit Lake Tribe: $170,297
• Tribal Government of Saint Paul Island: $172,328
• Turtle Mountain Community College: $200,000
• Ute Mountain Ute Tribe: $200,000
• Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California: $138,230
• Wichita and Affiliated Tribes: $198,364
• Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska: $81,134
• Wiyot Tribe: $198,704