II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 989 

To establish a Native American language resource center in furtherance 

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

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 25, 2021 

Mr. SCHATZ (for himself and Ms. SMITH) 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 

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 

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


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1 and, through such national resource center and actions, 

2 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, territories, the Federal 

18 Government, and Native American language edu19 cational organizations; 

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) support metrics aligned with the Native 

25 American language of instruction, including assessVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:13 Apr 18, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S989.IS S989

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1 ments, qualifications, and processes based on well2 demonstrated best practices in Native American lan3 guage medium education; 

4 (7) identify— 

5 (A) barriers to Native American language 

6 education and learning within Federal laws; and 

7 (B) actions needed for alignment with the 

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

9 2901 et seq.); 

10 (8) encourage and support elementary schools, 

11 secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu12 cation to include Native American languages in the 

13 curriculum in the same manner as other world lan14 guages, including through cooperative agreements 

15 and distance education, and to grant proficiency in 

16 Native American languages the same full academic 

17 credit as proficiency in other world languages; 

18 (9) encourage and support the development of 

19 appropriate teacher preparation programming for 

20 the teaching of, and through, Native American lan21 guages, including appropriate alternative pathways 

22 to teacher certification; 

23 (10) provide a resource base to provide infor24 mation to Federal, Tribal, State, territory, and local 

25 governments and Native American educational orgaVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:13 Apr 18, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S989.IS S989

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1 nizations to allow the spread of best practices in the 

2 use, practice, and development of Native American 

3 languages in Native American communities, includ4 ing use in educational institutions; 

5 (11) provide a resource base for the use of tech6 nology in intensive community-, land-, and archive7 based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 

8 programs in supporting the retention, use, develop9 ment, and teaching of Native American languages by 

10 government and private entities; 

11 (12) provide a developmental base from which 

12 interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 

13 Native American entities might develop fully func14 tioning Native American language medium education 

15 systems that include associated preschool, elemen16 tary school, secondary school, and adult education 

17 programs conducted through the medium of Native 

18 American languages; 

19 (13) provide a means to further collaboration 

20 among formal government, institutional, and com21 munity-based Native American language programs, 

22 resources, and research efforts with additional access 

23 to international best practices in indigenous lan24 guage revitalization; and 


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1 (14) develop a support center system for Native 

2 American language participants to gather and share 

3 helpful information and experiences. 

4 SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER. 

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

6 U.S.C. 1123) is amended— 

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

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

9 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol10 lowing: 

11 ‘‘(b) NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CEN12 TER AUTHORIZED.— 

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

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

15 an eligible entity for the purpose of— 

16 ‘‘(A) establishing, strengthening, and oper17 ating a Native American language resource and 

18 training center as described in paragraph (2); 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(B) staffing the center with individuals 

21 who have high-level fluency in American Indian, 

22 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages 

23 and are experienced with Native American lan24 guage education in preschool, elementary 


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1 school, secondary school, adult education, and 

2 higher education programs. 

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

4 American language resource center established under 

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

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

7 learn Native American languages and further 

8 Native American language acquisition; 

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

10 rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, 

11 practice, and develop Native American lan12 guages; 

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

14 trust responsibility to Native American commu15 nities and address the effects of past discrimi16 nation against Native American language 

17 speakers; 

18 ‘‘(D) support revitalization of Native 

19 American languages; 

20 ‘‘(E) encourage and support the use of Na21 tive American languages as a medium of in22 struction, including use as a medium of edu23 cation in schools operated by Tribes, States, the 

24 Federal Government, and Native American lan25 guage educational organizations; 


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

2 development of Native American languages as 

3 the medium of instruction for a wide variety of 

4 age levels and academic content areas; 

5 ‘‘(G) support metrics aligned with the Na6 tive American language of instruction, including 

7 assessments, qualifications, and processes based 

8 on well-demonstrated best practices in Native 

9 American language medium education; 

10 ‘‘(H) identify barriers to Native American 

11 language education and learning within Federal 

12 laws and actions needed for alignment with the 

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

14 2901); 

15 ‘‘(I) 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 ‘‘(J) encourage and support the develop25 ment of appropriate teacher preparation proVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:13 Apr 18, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S989.IS S989

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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 ‘‘(K) 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 ‘‘(L) 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 ‘‘(M) 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 through distance 

6 learning; 

7 ‘‘(N) provide a developmental base from 

8 which interested Tribal colleges and universities 

9 and other Native American entities might de10 velop fully functioning Native American lan11 guage medium education systems that include 

12 associated preschool, elementary school, sec13 ondary school, and adult education programs 

14 conducted through the medium of Native Amer15 ican languages; 

16 ‘‘(O) provide a means to further collabora17 tion among formal government, institutional, 

18 and community-based Native American lan19 guage programs, resources, and research efforts 

20 with additional access to international best 

21 practices in indigenous language revitalization; 

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

23 Native American language participants to gath24 er and share helpful information and experi25 ences; and 


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1 ‘‘(Q) address any of the purposes of for2 eign language centers included under this sec3 tion if, in doing so, the Native American lan4 guage resource center— 

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

6 ‘‘(ii) focuses benefits on Native Amer7 icans living in Native American commu8 nities, or closely tied to such communities; 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(iii) ensures that one of the out11 comes being strengthened through this 

12 subparagraph is the use of one or more 

13 Native American languages in a Native 

14 American community. 

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

16 ‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi17 ble entity’ means— 

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

19 ‘‘(ii) an entity within an institution of 

20 higher education with dedicated responsi21 bility for Native American language and 

22 culture education; 

23 ‘‘(iii) a consortium of such institu24 tions; or 


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1 ‘‘(iv) a consortium of such institutions 

2 and other entities with unique responsibil3 ities for Native American languages. 

4 ‘‘(B) NATIVE AMERICAN; NATIVE AMER5 ICAN LANGUAGE.—The terms ‘Native Amer6 ican’ and ‘Native American language’ have the 

7 meanings given those terms in section 103 of 

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

9 2902). 

10 ‘‘(4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

11 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

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

13 and 

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

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

16 striking ‘‘subsection (a)’’ and inserting ‘‘this sec17 tion’’. 

Æ 


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