Hundreds of Native language advocates convened on Capitol Hill this past May, asking Congress to approve a minimum of $10 million in additional federal support for the Esther Martinez Act, which funds Native American language immersion schools, master-apprentice programs, and other revitalization projects.

Mining and other extractive industries are among the most destructive activities on the planet, especially for indigenous and farming communities. The minerals, metals, fuel, and timber that extractive industries seek are very profitable, so resisting them requires hard work.

Although mining companies are powerful, they are also vulnerable. There are ways to stop them. It may take years, but the results are worth it. At stake is the cultural survival and well-being of your community, your environment, and your ability to make a living — now and for years to come.

Elders from Cultural Survival’s partner program, Hinono'eitiino'oowu, “Arapaho Language Lodge," attended last week’s Santa Fe International Film Festival to attend the screening and panel discussion for Voices of the Heart, featuring the language immersion school on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.  Click

The Sauk language Kimachipena immersion school took another step toward realization last month, when Cultural Survival staff participated in training to help implement a $300,000 grant from the federal Administration for Native Americans. The grant, which Cultural Survival helped the Sac and Fox Nation submit, will support a master-apprentice program in which three teachers will learn the Sauk language from the last five elderly speakers. After three years of work, the teachers should be fluent enough to teach children in the immersion school, which is scheduled to open in 2012.

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Cultural Survival's Native Language Revitalization Campaign recently traveled to Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Washington, D.C., to promote its partners' and advisors’ work to revitalize critically endangered Native languages (those with small speaker populations ranging from 5 to 150) and to expand CS’ outreach in Indian Country.  Nearly 500 new language advocates have been added to the campaign’s network of partners in the past month.