"Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council"

Another provision of the bill would expand the council to seven voting members from the current five.

“Education was a vehicle of oppression and genocide and assimilation,” X’unei Lance Twitchell said. “Our goal is to transform it into a vehicle of opportunity and equity and healing.”

A Tlingit language scholar said the word “preservation” should be taken out of the council’s name because it is trying to revitalize languages, not just preserve them. 

Elders are teaching the Tlingit language to young children in places called “language nests.” They’re finding that a home-like environment is more effective than a typical classroom setting.

As a child, Alice Fitka was punished for speaking her Yup’ik language in school. Since then, she’s spent decades teaching it in the Western Alaska village of Tuntutuliak.

Gov. Walker’s order directs the state to use traditional place names on state signs and to promote indigenous languages in public education.

A report by the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council said the state should make it policy to promote Alaska Native language schools wherever possible.

Ketchikan independent Rep. Dan Ortiz, introduced House Concurrent Resolution 19, which calls for Gov. Bill Walker to “issue an administrative order recognizing a ‘linguistic emergency'” for Alaska Native languages.