As I got older I came to the conclusion that everyone was as messed up as I thought my people were and I began to embrace Mohawk again. Language is an identity marker. It helps us identify ourselves as members of a group. The ironic thing is that so many people dwell on the idea of majority languages as the most important, but majority language can change in a generation. It could suddenly be decided that it isn't economically viable to speak English.
Humans are very pragmatic when it comes to language.
240 hours of instruction Native language instruction has existed institutionally only since the late sixties. Prior to that all education of native peoples was controlled by the churches in Canada and the ideal was not preservation of the culture but assimilation into the dominant culture. Today it is recognized that native language instruction is central to building cultural identity and self-worth among native peoples. Language identifies you much more than skin color, clothing or anything like that. North Americans have a real problem with languages.