Native American Language Resource Center Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8729 To establish a Native American language resource center. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 5, 2020 Ms. HAALAND (for herself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. MOORE, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. CASE, Mr. KILMER, Mr. YOUNG, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. COOK, Mr. LUJA´N, and Mr. PRICE of North Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To establish a Native American language resource center. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American Lan- 4 guage Resource Center Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 6 The purposes of this Act are to create a national re- 7 source center to further the policies set forth in the Native 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8729 IH American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.) and, 1 through such national resource center, to— 2 (1) preserve, protect, and promote the rights 3 and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, 4 and develop Native American languages (as defined 5 in section 103 of the Native American Languages 6 Act (25 U.S.C. 2902)); 7 (2) allow the United States to fulfill its trust 8 responsibility to Native American communities and 9 address the effects of past discrimination against 10 Native American language speakers; 11 (3) support revitalization of Native American 12 languages; 13 (4) encourage and support the use of Native 14 American languages as a medium of instruction, in- 15 cluding use as a medium of education in schools op- 16 erated by Tribes, States, the Federal Government, 17 and Native American language educational organiza- 18 tions; 19 (5) encourage and support the use and develop- 20 ment of Native American languages as the medium 21 of instruction for a wide variety of age levels and 22 academic content areas; 23 (6) encourage and support elementary schools, 24 secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8729 IH cation to include Native American languages in the 1 curriculum in the same manner as other world lan- 2 guages, including through cooperative agreements 3 and distance education, and to grant proficiency in 4 Native American languages the same full academic 5 credit as proficiency in other world languages; 6 (7) encourage and support the development of 7 appropriate teacher preparation programming for 8 the teaching of, and through, Native American lan- 9 guages, including appropriate alternative pathways 10 to teacher certification; 11 (8) provide a resource base to provide informa- 12 tion to Federal, Tribal, State, and local governments 13 and Native American educational organizations to 14 allow the spread of best practices in the use, prac- 15 tice, and development of Native American languages 16 in Native American communities, including use in 17 educational institutions; 18 (9) provide a resource base for the use of tech- 19 nology in intensive community-, land-, and archive- 20 based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 21 programs in supporting the retention, use, develop- 22 ment, and teaching of Native American languages by 23 government and private entities; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8729 IH (10) provide a developmental base from which 1 interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 2 Native American entities might develop fully func- 3 tioning Native American language medium education 4 systems that include associated preschool, elemen- 5 tary school, secondary school, and adult education 6 programs conducted through the medium of Native 7 American languages; 8 (11) provide a means to further collaboration 9 among formal government, institutional, and com- 10 munity-based Native American language programs, 11 resources, and research efforts with additional access 12 to international best practices in indigenous lan- 13 guage revitalization; and 14 (12) develop a support center system for Native 15 American language participants to gather and share 16 helpful information and experiences. 17 SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER. 18 Section 603 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 19 U.S.C. 1123) is amended— 20 (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 21 subsections (c) and (d), respectively; 22 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol- 23 lowing: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8729 IH ‘‘(b) NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CEN- 1 TER AUTHORIZED.— 2 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized 3 to make a grant to, or enter into a contract with, 4 an eligible entity for the purpose of— 5 ‘‘(A) establishing, strengthening, and oper- 6 ating a Native American language resource and 7 training center as described in paragraph (2); 8 and 9 ‘‘(B) staffing the center with individuals 10 who have high-level fluency in American Indian, 11 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages 12 and are experienced with Native American lan- 13 guage education in the preschool, elementary 14 school, secondary school, adult education, and 15 higher education programs. 16 ‘‘(2) PURPOSES OF CENTER.—The Native 17 American language resource center established under 18 paragraph (1) shall serve as a resource to— 19 ‘‘(A) improve the capacity to teach and 20 learn Native American languages and further 21 Native American language acquisition; 22 ‘‘(B) preserve, protect, and promote the 23 rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8729 IH practice, and develop Native American lan- 1 guages; 2 ‘‘(C) allow the United States to fulfill its 3 trust responsibility to Native American commu- 4 nities and address the effects of past discrimi- 5 nation against Native American language 6 speakers; 7 ‘‘(D) support revitalization of Native 8 American languages; 9 ‘‘(E) encourage and support the use of Na- 10 tive American languages as a medium of in- 11 struction, including use as a medium of edu- 12 cation in schools operated by Tribes, States, the 13 Federal Government, and Native American lan- 14 guage educational organizations; 15 ‘‘(F) encourage and support the use and 16 development of Native American languages as 17 the medium of instruction for a wide variety of 18 age levels and academic content areas; 19 ‘‘(G) encourage and support elementary 20 schools, secondary schools, and institutions of 21 higher education to include Native American 22 languages in the curriculum in the same man- 23 ner as other world languages, including through 24 cooperative agreements and distance education, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 8729 IH and to grant proficiency in Native American 1 languages the same full academic credit as pro- 2 ficiency in other world languages; 3 ‘‘(H) encourage and support the develop- 4 ment of appropriate teacher preparation pro- 5 gramming for the teaching of, and through, Na- 6 tive American languages, including appropriate 7 alternative pathways to teacher certification; 8 ‘‘(I) provide a resource base to provide in- 9 formation to Federal, Tribal, State, and local 10 governments and Native American educational 11 organizations to allow the spread of best prac- 12 tices in the use, practice, and development of 13 Native American languages in Native American 14 communities, including use in educational insti- 15 tutions; 16 ‘‘(J) provide a resource base for the use of 17 technology in intensive community-, land-, and 18 archive-based programs, as well as hybrid and 19 collaborative programs in supporting the reten- 20 tion, use, development, and teaching of Native 21 American languages by government and private 22 entities; 23 ‘‘(K) support the acquisition of distance 24 learning technologies and training for parents, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 8729 IH students, teachers, and learning support staff, 1 including the compilation and curation of dig- 2 ital libraries and other online resources in tar- 3 get Native American languages, the develop- 4 ment of distance learning curricula appropriate 5 for preschool, elementary school, secondary 6 school, adult education, and postsecondary edu- 7 cation, the pedagogical training for teachers, 8 and other efforts necessary to continue Native 9 American language acquisition among American 10 Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian 11 communities through distance learning; 12 ‘‘(L) provide a developmental base from 13 which interested Tribal colleges and universities 14 and other Native American entities might de- 15 velop fully functioning Native American lan- 16 guage medium education systems that include 17 associated preschool, elementary school, sec- 18 ondary school, and adult education programs 19 conducted through the medium of Native Amer- 20 ican languages; 21 ‘‘(M) provide a means to further collabora- 22 tion among formal government, institutional, 23 and community-based Native American lan- 24 guage programs, resources, and research efforts 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 8729 IH with additional access to international best 1 practices in indigenous language revitalization; 2 ‘‘(N) develop a support center system for 3 Native American language participants to gath- 4 er and share helpful information and experi- 5 ences; and 6 ‘‘(O) address any of the purposes of for- 7 eign language centers included under this sec- 8 tion if, in doing so, the Native American lan- 9 guage resource and training center— 10 ‘‘(i) does so as a subsidiary activity; 11 ‘‘(ii) focuses benefits on Native Amer- 12 icans living in Native American commu- 13 nities, or closely tied to such communities; 14 and 15 ‘‘(iii) ensures that one of the out- 16 comes being strengthened through this 17 subparagraph is the use of one or more 18 Native American languages in a Native 19 American community. 20 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 21 ‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi- 22 ble entity’ means— 23 ‘‘(i) an institution of higher education; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 8729 IH ‘‘(ii) a consortium of such institutions; 1 or 2 ‘‘(iii) a consortium of such institutions 3 and other entities with unique responsibil- 4 ities for Native American languages. 5 ‘‘(B) NATIVE AMERICAN; NATIVE AMER- 6 ICAN LANGUAGE.—The terms ‘Native Amer- 7 ican’ and ‘Native American language’ have the 8 meanings given those terms in section 103 of 9 the Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 10 2902).’’; and 11 (3) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of 12 subsection (c), as redesignated by paragraph (1), by 13 striking ‘‘subsection (a)’’ and inserting ‘‘this sec- 14 tion’’. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS