I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2271 

To establish a Native American language resource center in furtherance 

of the policy set forth in the Native American Languages Act. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 26, 2021 

Mr. YOUNG (for himself, Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. GALLEGO, 

Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. KAHELE, Mr. KILMER, Mrs. CAROLYN B. 

MALONEY of New York, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mr. 

PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. SABLAN, and Mr. CLEAVER) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 

Labor 

A BILL 

To establish a Native American language resource center 

in furtherance of the policy set forth in the Native American Languages Act. 

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 of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 

7 The purposes of this Act are to further the policies 

8 set forth in the Native American Languages Act (25 


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1 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.) by creating a national resource center 

2 and, through such national resource center and actions, 

3 to— 

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

5 and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, 

6 and develop Native American languages (as defined 

7 in section 103 of the Native American Languages 

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

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

10 responsibility to Native American communities and 

11 address the effects of past discrimination against 

12 Native American language speakers; 

13 (3) support revitalization of Native American 

14 languages; 

15 (4) encourage and support the use of Native 

16 American languages as a medium of instruction, in17 cluding use as a medium of education in schools op18 erated by Tribes, States, territories, the Federal 

19 Government, and Native American language edu20 cational organizations; 

21 (5) encourage and support the use and develop22 ment of Native American languages as the medium 

23 of instruction for a wide variety of age levels and 

24 academic content areas; 


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1 (6) support metrics aligned with the Native 

2 American language of instruction, including assess3 ments, qualifications, and processes based on well4 demonstrated best practices in Native American lan5 guage medium education; 

6 (7) identify— 

7 (A) barriers to Native American language 

8 education and learning within Federal laws; and 

9 (B) actions needed for alignment with the 

10 Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 

11 2901 et seq.); 

12 (8) encourage and support elementary schools, 

13 secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu14 cation to include Native American languages in the 

15 curriculum in the same manner as other world lan16 guages, including through cooperative agreements 

17 and distance education, and to grant proficiency in 

18 Native American languages the same full academic 

19 credit as proficiency in other world languages; 

20 (9) encourage and support the development of 

21 appropriate teacher preparation programming for 

22 the teaching of, and through, Native American lan23 guages, including appropriate alternative pathways 

24 to teacher certification; 


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1 (10) provide a resource base to provide infor2 mation to Federal, Tribal, State, territory, and local 

3 governments and Native American educational orga4 nizations to allow the spread of best practices in the 

5 use, practice, and development of Native American 

6 languages in Native American communities, includ7 ing use in educational institutions; 

8 (11) provide a resource base for the use of tech9 nology in intensive community-, land-, and archive10 based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 

11 programs in supporting the retention, use, develop12 ment, and teaching of Native American languages by 

13 government and private entities; 

14 (12) provide a developmental base from which 

15 interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 

16 Native American entities might develop fully func17 tioning Native American language medium education 

18 systems that include associated preschool, elemen19 tary school, secondary school, and adult education 

20 programs conducted through the medium of Native 

21 American languages; 

22 (13) provide a means to further collaboration 

23 among formal government, institutional, and com24 munity-based Native American language programs, 

25 resources, and research efforts with additional access 


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1 to international best practices in indigenous lan2 guage revitalization; and 

3 (14) develop a support center system for Native 

4 American language participants to gather and share 

5 helpful information and experiences. 

6 SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER. 

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

8 U.S.C. 1123) is amended— 

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

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

11 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol12 lowing: 

13 ‘‘(b) NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CEN14 TER AUTHORIZED.— 

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

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

17 an eligible entity for the purpose of— 

18 ‘‘(A) establishing, strengthening, and oper19 ating a Native American language resource and 

20 training center as described in paragraph (2); 

21 and 

22 ‘‘(B) staffing the center with individuals 

23 who have high-level fluency in American Indian, 

24 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages 

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1 guage education in preschool, elementary 

2 school, secondary school, adult education, and 

3 higher education programs. 

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

5 American language resource center established under 

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

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

8 learn Native American languages and further 

9 Native American language acquisition; 

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

11 rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, 

12 practice, and develop Native American lan13 guages; 

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

15 trust responsibility to Native American commu16 nities and address the effects of past discrimi17 nation against Native American language 

18 speakers; 

19 ‘‘(D) support revitalization of Native 

20 American languages; 

21 ‘‘(E) encourage and support the use of Na22 tive American languages as a medium of in23 struction, including use as a medium of edu24 cation in schools operated by Tribes, States, the 


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1 Federal Government, and Native American lan2 guage educational organizations; 

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

4 development of Native American languages as 

5 the medium of instruction for a wide variety of 

6 age levels and academic content areas; 

7 ‘‘(G) support metrics aligned with the Na8 tive American language of instruction, including 

9 assessments, qualifications, and processes based 

10 on well-demonstrated best practices in Native 

11 American language medium education; 

12 ‘‘(H) identify barriers to Native American 

13 language education and learning within Federal 

14 laws and actions needed for alignment with the 

15 Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 

16 2901); 

17 ‘‘(I) encourage and support elementary 

18 schools, secondary schools, and institutions of 

19 higher education to include Native American 

20 languages in the curriculum in the same man21 ner as other world languages, including through 

22 cooperative agreements and distance education, 

23 and to grant proficiency in Native American 

24 languages the same full academic credit as pro25 ficiency in other world languages; 


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1 ‘‘(J) encourage and support the develop2 ment of appropriate teacher preparation pro3 gramming for the teaching of, and through, Na4 tive American languages, including appropriate 

5 alternative pathways to teacher certification; 

6 ‘‘(K) provide a resource base to provide in7 formation to Federal, Tribal, State, and local 

8 governments and Native American educational 

9 organizations to allow the spread of best prac10 tices in the use, practice, and development of 

11 Native American languages in Native American 

12 communities, including use in educational insti13 tutions; 

14 ‘‘(L) provide a resource base for the use of 

15 technology in intensive community-, land-, and 

16 archive-based programs, as well as hybrid and 

17 collaborative programs in supporting the reten18 tion, use, development, and teaching of Native 

19 American languages by government and private 

20 entities; 

21 ‘‘(M) support the acquisition of distance 

22 learning technologies and training for parents, 

23 students, teachers, and learning support staff, 

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1 get Native American languages, the develop2 ment of distance learning curricula appropriate 

3 for preschool, elementary school, secondary 

4 school, adult education, and postsecondary edu5 cation, the pedagogical training for teachers, 

6 and other efforts necessary to continue Native 

7 American language acquisition through distance 

8 learning; 

9 ‘‘(N) provide a developmental base from 

10 which interested Tribal colleges and universities 

11 and other Native American entities might de12 velop fully functioning Native American lan13 guage medium education systems that include 

14 associated preschool, elementary school, sec15 ondary school, and adult education programs 

16 conducted through the medium of Native Amer17 ican languages; 

18 ‘‘(O) provide a means to further collabora19 tion among formal government, institutional, 

20 and community-based Native American lan21 guage programs, resources, and research efforts 

22 with additional access to international best 

23 practices in indigenous language revitalization; 

24 ‘‘(P) develop a support center system for 

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1 er and share helpful information and experi2 ences; and 

3 ‘‘(Q) 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 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) an entity within an institution of 

22 higher education with dedicated responsi23 bility for Native American language and 

24 culture education; 


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1 ‘‘(iii) a consortium of such institu2 tions; or 

3 ‘‘(iv) a consortium of such institutions 

4 and other entities with unique responsibil5 ities for Native American languages. 

6 ‘‘(B) NATIVE AMERICAN; NATIVE AMER7 ICAN LANGUAGE.—The terms ‘Native Amer8 ican’ and ‘Native American language’ have the 

9 meanings given those terms in section 103 of 

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

11 2902). 

12 ‘‘(4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

13 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

14 this subsection, $3,000,000 for each fiscal year.’’; 

15 and 

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

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

18 striking ‘‘subsection (a)’’ and inserting ‘‘this sec19 tion’’. 

Æ 


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