II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4510 

To establish a Native American language resource center. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 6, 2020 

Mr. SCHATZ (for himself and Mr. UDALL) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs 

A BILL 

To establish a Native American language resource center. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American Lan5 guage Resource Center Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 

7 The purposes of this Act are to create a national re8 source center to further the policies set forth in the Native 

9 American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.) and, 

10 through such national resource center, to— 

11 (1) preserve, protect, and promote the rights 

12 and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, 


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1 and develop Native American languages (as defined 

2 in section 103 of the Native American Languages 

3 Act (25 U.S.C. 2902)); 

4 (2) allow the United States to fulfill its trust 

5 responsibility to Native American communities and 

6 address the effects of past discrimination against 

7 Native American language speakers; 

8 (3) support revitalization of Native American 

9 languages; 

10 (4) encourage and support the use of Native 

11 American languages as a medium of instruction, in12 cluding use as a medium of education in schools op13 erated by Tribes, States, the Federal Government, 

14 and Native American language educational organiza15 tions; 

16 (5) encourage and support the use and develop17 ment of Native American languages as the medium 

18 of instruction for a wide variety of age levels and 

19 academic content areas; 

20 (6) encourage and support elementary schools, 

21 secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu22 cation to include Native American languages in the 

23 curriculum in the same manner as other world lan24 guages, including through cooperative agreements 

25 and distance education, and to grant proficiency in 


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1 Native American languages the same full academic 

2 credit as proficiency in other world languages; 

3 (7) encourage and support the development of 

4 appropriate teacher preparation programming for 

5 the teaching of, and through, Native American lan6 guages, including appropriate alternative pathways 

7 to teacher certification; 

8 (8) provide a resource base to provide informa9 tion to Federal, Tribal, State, and local governments 

10 and Native American educational organizations to 

11 allow the spread of best practices in the use, prac12 tice, and development of Native American languages 

13 in Native American communities, including use in 

14 educational institutions; 

15 (9) provide a resource base for the use of tech16 nology in intensive community-, land-, and archive17 based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 

18 programs in supporting the retention, use, develop19 ment, and teaching of Native American languages by 

20 government and private entities; 

21 (10) provide a developmental base from which 

22 interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 

23 Native American entities might develop fully func24 tioning Native American language medium education 

25 systems that include associated preschool, elemenVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:19 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4510.IS S4510

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1 tary school, secondary school, and adult education 

2 programs conducted through the medium of Native 

3 American languages; 

4 (11) provide a means to further collaboration 

5 among formal government, institutional, and com6 munity-based Native American language programs, 

7 resources, and research efforts with additional access 

8 to international best practices in indigenous lan9 guage revitalization; and 

10 (12) develop a support center system for Native 

11 American language participants to gather and share 

12 helpful information and experiences. 

13 SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER. 

14 Section 603 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 

15 U.S.C. 1123) is amended— 

16 (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 

17 subsections (c) and (d), respectively; 

18 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(b) NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CEN21 TER AUTHORIZED.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized 

23 to make a grant to, or enter into a contract with, 

24 an eligible entity for the purpose of— 


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1 ‘‘(A) establishing, strengthening, and oper2 ating a Native American language resource and 

3 training center as described in paragraph (2); 

4 and 

5 ‘‘(B) staffing the center with individuals 

6 who have high-level fluency in American Indian, 

7 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages 

8 and are experienced with Native American lan9 guage education in the preschool, elementary 

10 school, secondary school, adult education, and 

11 higher education programs. 

12 ‘‘(2) PURPOSES OF CENTER.—The Native 

13 American language resource center established under 

14 paragraph (1) shall serve as a resource to— 

15 ‘‘(A) improve the capacity to teach and 

16 learn Native American languages and further 

17 Native American language acquisition; 

18 ‘‘(B) preserve, protect, and promote the 

19 rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, 

20 practice, and develop Native American lan21 guages; 

22 ‘‘(C) allow the United States to fulfill its 

23 trust responsibility to Native American commu24 nities and address the effects of past discrimiVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:19 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4510.IS S4510

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1 nation against Native American language 

2 speakers; 

3 ‘‘(D) support revitalization of Native 

4 American languages; 

5 ‘‘(E) encourage and support the use of Na6 tive American languages as a medium of in7 struction, including use as a medium of edu8 cation in schools operated by Tribes, States, the 

9 Federal Government, and Native American lan10 guage educational organizations; 

11 ‘‘(F) encourage and support the use and 

12 development of Native American languages as 

13 the medium of instruction for a wide variety of 

14 age levels and academic content areas; 

15 ‘‘(G) encourage and support elementary 

16 schools, secondary schools, and institutions of 

17 higher education to include Native American 

18 languages in the curriculum in the same man19 ner as other world languages, including through 

20 cooperative agreements and distance education, 

21 and to grant proficiency in Native American 

22 languages the same full academic credit as pro23 ficiency in other world languages; 

24 ‘‘(H) encourage and support the develop25 ment of appropriate teacher preparation proVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:19 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4510.IS S4510

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1 gramming for the teaching of, and through, Na2 tive American languages, including appropriate 

3 alternative pathways to teacher certification; 

4 ‘‘(I) provide a resource base to provide in5 formation to Federal, Tribal, State, and local 

6 governments and Native American educational 

7 organizations to allow the spread of best prac8 tices in the use, practice, and development of 

9 Native American languages in Native American 

10 communities, including use in educational insti11 tutions; 

12 ‘‘(J) provide a resource base for the use of 

13 technology in intensive community-, land-, and 

14 archive-based programs, as well as hybrid and 

15 collaborative programs in supporting the reten16 tion, use, development, and teaching of Native 

17 American languages by government and private 

18 entities; 

19 ‘‘(K) support the acquisition of distance 

20 learning technologies and training for parents, 

21 students, teachers, and learning support staff, 

22 including the compilation and curation of dig23 ital libraries and other online resources in tar24 get Native American languages, the develop25 ment of distance learning curricula appropriate 


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1 for preschool, elementary school, secondary 

2 school, adult education, and postsecondary edu3 cation, the pedagogical training for teachers, 

4 and other efforts necessary to continue Native 

5 American language acquisition among American 

6 Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian 

7 communities through distance learning; 

8 ‘‘(L) provide a developmental base from 

9 which interested Tribal colleges and universities 

10 and other Native American entities might de11 velop fully functioning Native American lan12 guage medium education systems that include 

13 associated preschool, elementary school, sec14 ondary school, and adult education programs 

15 conducted through the medium of Native Amer16 ican languages; 

17 ‘‘(M) provide a means to further collabora18 tion among formal government, institutional, 

19 and community-based Native American lan20 guage programs, resources, and research efforts 

21 with additional access to international best 

22 practices in indigenous language revitalization; 

23 ‘‘(N) develop a support center system for 

24 Native American language participants to gathVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:19 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4510.IS S4510

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1 er and share helpful information and experi2 ences; and 

3 ‘‘(O) address any of the purposes of for4 eign language centers included under this sec5 tion if, in doing so, the Native American lan6 guage resource and training center— 

7 ‘‘(i) does so as a subsidiary activity; 

8 ‘‘(ii) focuses benefits on Native Amer9 icans living in Native American commu10 nities, or closely tied to such communities; 

11 and 

12 ‘‘(iii) ensures that one of the out13 comes being strengthened through this 

14 subparagraph is the use of one or more 

15 Native American languages in a Native 

16 American community. 

17 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

18 ‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi19 ble entity’ means— 

20 ‘‘(i) an institution of higher education; 

21 ‘‘(ii) a consortium of such institutions; 

22 or 

23 ‘‘(iii) a consortium of such institutions 

24 and other entities with unique responsibil25 ities for Native American languages. 


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1 ‘‘(B) NATIVE AMERICAN; NATIVE AMER2 ICAN LANGUAGE.—The terms ‘Native Amer3 ican’ and ‘Native American language’ have the 

4 meanings given those terms in section 103 of 

5 the Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 

6 2902).’’; and 

7 (3) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of 

8 subsection (c), as redesignated by paragraph (1), by 

9 striking ‘‘subsection (a)’’ and inserting ‘‘this sec10 tion’’. 

Æ 


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