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. 

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 


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

2 through such national resource center, to— 

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

4 and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, 

5 and develop Native American languages (as defined 

6 in section 103 of the Native American Languages 

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

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

9 responsibility to Native American communities and 

10 address the effects of past discrimination against 

11 Native American language speakers; 

12 (3) support revitalization of Native American 

13 languages; 

14 (4) encourage and support the use of Native 

15 American languages as a medium of instruction, in16 cluding use as a medium of education in schools op17 erated by Tribes, States, the Federal Government, 

18 and Native American language educational organiza19 tions; 

20 (5) encourage and support the use and develop21 ment of Native American languages as the medium 

22 of instruction for a wide variety of age levels and 

23 academic content areas; 

24 (6) encourage and support elementary schools, 

25 secondary schools, and institutions of higher eduVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Nov 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8729.IH H8729

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1 cation to include Native American languages in the 

2 curriculum in the same manner as other world lan3 guages, including through cooperative agreements 

4 and distance education, and to grant proficiency in 

5 Native American languages the same full academic 

6 credit as proficiency in other world languages; 

7 (7) encourage and support the development of 

8 appropriate teacher preparation programming for 

9 the teaching of, and through, Native American lan10 guages, including appropriate alternative pathways 

11 to teacher certification; 

12 (8) provide a resource base to provide informa13 tion to Federal, Tribal, State, and local governments 

14 and Native American educational organizations to 

15 allow the spread of best practices in the use, prac16 tice, and development of Native American languages 

17 in Native American communities, including use in 

18 educational institutions; 

19 (9) provide a resource base for the use of tech20 nology in intensive community-, land-, and archive21 based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 

22 programs in supporting the retention, use, develop23 ment, and teaching of Native American languages by 

24 government and private entities; 


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1 (10) provide a developmental base from which 

2 interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 

3 Native American entities might develop fully func4 tioning Native American language medium education 

5 systems that include associated preschool, elemen6 tary school, secondary school, and adult education 

7 programs conducted through the medium of Native 

8 American languages; 

9 (11) provide a means to further collaboration 

10 among formal government, institutional, and com11 munity-based Native American language programs, 

12 resources, and research efforts with additional access 

13 to international best practices in indigenous lan14 guage revitalization; and 

15 (12) develop a support center system for Native 

16 American language participants to gather and share 

17 helpful information and experiences. 

18 SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER. 

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

20 U.S.C. 1123) is amended— 

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

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

23 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol24 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(b) NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CEN2 TER AUTHORIZED.— 

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

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

5 an eligible entity for the purpose of— 

6 ‘‘(A) establishing, strengthening, and oper7 ating a Native American language resource and 

8 training center as described in paragraph (2); 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(B) staffing the center with individuals 

11 who have high-level fluency in American Indian, 

12 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages 

13 and are experienced with Native American lan14 guage education in the preschool, elementary 

15 school, secondary school, adult education, and 

16 higher education programs. 

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

18 American language resource center established under 

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

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

21 learn Native American languages and further 

22 Native American language acquisition; 

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

24 rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, 


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1 practice, and develop Native American lan2 guages; 

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

4 trust responsibility to Native American commu5 nities and address the effects of past discrimi6 nation against Native American language 

7 speakers; 

8 ‘‘(D) support revitalization of Native 

9 American languages; 

10 ‘‘(E) encourage and support the use of Na11 tive American languages as a medium of in12 struction, including use as a medium of edu13 cation in schools operated by Tribes, States, the 

14 Federal Government, and Native American lan15 guage educational organizations; 

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

17 development of Native American languages as 

18 the medium of instruction for a wide variety of 

19 age levels and academic content areas; 

20 ‘‘(G) encourage and support elementary 

21 schools, secondary schools, and institutions of 

22 higher education to include Native American 

23 languages in the curriculum in the same man24 ner as other world languages, including through 

25 cooperative agreements and distance education, 


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1 and to grant proficiency in Native American 

2 languages the same full academic credit as pro3 ficiency in other world languages; 

4 ‘‘(H) encourage and support the develop5 ment of appropriate teacher preparation pro6 gramming for the teaching of, and through, Na7 tive American languages, including appropriate 

8 alternative pathways to teacher certification; 

9 ‘‘(I) provide a resource base to provide in10 formation to Federal, Tribal, State, and local 

11 governments and Native American educational 

12 organizations to allow the spread of best prac13 tices in the use, practice, and development of 

14 Native American languages in Native American 

15 communities, including use in educational insti16 tutions; 

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

18 technology in intensive community-, land-, and 

19 archive-based programs, as well as hybrid and 

20 collaborative programs in supporting the reten21 tion, use, development, and teaching of Native 

22 American languages by government and private 

23 entities; 

24 ‘‘(K) support the acquisition of distance 

25 learning technologies and training for parents, 


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1 students, teachers, and learning support staff, 

2 including the compilation and curation of dig3 ital libraries and other online resources in tar4 get Native American languages, the develop5 ment of distance learning curricula appropriate 

6 for preschool, elementary school, secondary 

7 school, adult education, and postsecondary edu8 cation, the pedagogical training for teachers, 

9 and other efforts necessary to continue Native 

10 American language acquisition among American 

11 Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian 

12 communities through distance learning; 

13 ‘‘(L) provide a developmental base from 

14 which interested Tribal colleges and universities 

15 and other Native American entities might de16 velop fully functioning Native American lan17 guage medium education systems that include 

18 associated preschool, elementary school, sec19 ondary school, and adult education programs 

20 conducted through the medium of Native Amer21 ican languages; 

22 ‘‘(M) provide a means to further collabora23 tion among formal government, institutional, 

24 and community-based Native American lan25 guage programs, resources, and research efforts 


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1 with additional access to international best 

2 practices in indigenous language revitalization; 

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

4 Native American language participants to gath5 er and share helpful information and experi6 ences; and 

7 ‘‘(O) address any of the purposes of for8 eign language centers included under this sec9 tion if, in doing so, the Native American lan10 guage resource and training center— 

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

12 ‘‘(ii) focuses benefits on Native Amer13 icans living in Native American commu14 nities, or closely tied to such communities; 

15 and 

16 ‘‘(iii) ensures that one of the out17 comes being strengthened through this 

18 subparagraph is the use of one or more 

19 Native American languages in a Native 

20 American community. 

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

22 ‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi23 ble entity’ means— 

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


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

2 or 

3 ‘‘(iii) 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).’’; and 

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

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

14 striking ‘‘subsection (a)’’ and inserting ‘‘this sec15 tion’’. 

Æ 


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