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 Amer-
ican Languages Act. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American Lan-
guage Resource Center Act of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are to further the policies 
set forth in the Native American Languages Act (25 
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U.S.C. 2901 et seq.) by creating a national resource center 
and, through such national resource center and actions, 
to— 
(1) preserve, protect, and promote the rights 
and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, 
and develop Native American languages (as defined 
in section 103 of the Native American Languages 
Act (25 U.S.C. 2902)); 
(2) allow the United States to fulfill its trust 
responsibility to Native American communities and 
address the effects of past discrimination against 
Native American language speakers; 
(3) support revitalization of Native American 
languages; 
(4) encourage and support the use of Native 
American languages as a medium of instruction, in-
cluding use as a medium of education in schools op-
erated by Tribes, States, territories, the Federal 
Government, and Native American language edu-
cational organizations; 
(5) encourage and support the use and develop-
ment of Native American languages as the medium 
of instruction for a wide variety of age levels and 
academic content areas; 
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(6) support metrics aligned with the Native 
American language of instruction, including assess-
ments, qualifications, and processes based on well- 
demonstrated best practices in Native American lan-
guage medium education; 
(7) identify— 
(A) barriers to Native American language 
education and learning within Federal laws; and 
(B) actions needed for alignment with the 
Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 
2901 et seq.); 
(8) encourage and support elementary schools, 
secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu-
cation to include Native American languages in the 
curriculum in the same manner as other world lan-
guages, including through cooperative agreements 
and distance education, and to grant proficiency in 
Native American languages the same full academic 
credit as proficiency in other world languages; 
(9) encourage and support the development of 
appropriate teacher preparation programming for 
the teaching of, and through, Native American lan-
guages, including appropriate alternative pathways 
to teacher certification; 
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(10) provide a resource base to provide infor-
mation to Federal, Tribal, State, territory, and local 
governments and Native American educational orga-
nizations to allow the spread of best practices in the 
use, practice, and development of Native American 
languages in Native American communities, includ-
ing use in educational institutions; 
(11) provide a resource base for the use of tech-
nology in intensive community-, land-, and archive- 
based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 
programs in supporting the retention, use, develop-
ment, and teaching of Native American languages by 
government and private entities; 
(12) provide a developmental base from which 
interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 
Native American entities might develop fully func-
tioning Native American language medium education 
systems that include associated preschool, elemen-
tary school, secondary school, and adult education 
programs conducted through the medium of Native 
American languages; 
(13) provide a means to further collaboration 
among formal government, institutional, and com-
munity-based Native American language programs, 
resources, and research efforts with additional access 
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to international best practices in indigenous lan-
guage revitalization; and 
(14) develop a support center system for Native 
American language participants to gather and share 
helpful information and experiences. 
SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER. 
Section 603 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 1123) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 
subsections (c) and (d), respectively; 
(2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(b) NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CEN-
TER AUTHORIZED.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized 
to make a grant to, or enter into a contract with, 
an eligible entity for the purpose of— 
‘‘(A) establishing, strengthening, and oper-
ating a Native American language resource and 
training center as described in paragraph (2); 
and 
‘‘(B) staffing the center with individuals 
who have high-level fluency in American Indian, 
Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages 
and are experienced with Native American lan-
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guage 
education 
in 
preschool, 
elementary 
school, secondary school, adult education, and 
higher education programs. 
‘‘(2) PURPOSES
OF
CENTER.—The Native 
American language resource center established under 
paragraph (1) shall serve as a resource to— 
‘‘(A) improve the capacity to teach and 
learn Native American languages and further 
Native American language acquisition; 
‘‘(B) preserve, protect, and promote the 
rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, 
practice, and develop Native American lan-
guages; 
‘‘(C) allow the United States to fulfill its 
trust responsibility to Native American commu-
nities and address the effects of past discrimi-
nation against Native American language 
speakers; 
‘‘(D) support revitalization of Native 
American languages; 
‘‘(E) encourage and support the use of Na-
tive American languages as a medium of in-
struction, including use as a medium of edu-
cation in schools operated by Tribes, States, the 
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Federal Government, and Native American lan-
guage educational organizations; 
‘‘(F) encourage and support the use and 
development of Native American languages as 
the medium of instruction for a wide variety of 
age levels and academic content areas; 
‘‘(G) support metrics aligned with the Na-
tive American language of instruction, including 
assessments, qualifications, and processes based 
on well-demonstrated best practices in Native 
American language medium education; 
‘‘(H) identify barriers to Native American 
language education and learning within Federal 
laws and actions needed for alignment with the 
Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 
2901); 
‘‘(I) encourage and support elementary 
schools, secondary schools, and institutions of 
higher education to include Native American 
languages in the curriculum in the same man-
ner as other world languages, including through 
cooperative agreements and distance education, 
and to grant proficiency in Native American 
languages the same full academic credit as pro-
ficiency in other world languages; 
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‘‘(J) encourage and support the develop-
ment of appropriate teacher preparation pro-
gramming for the teaching of, and through, Na-
tive American languages, including appropriate 
alternative pathways to teacher certification; 
‘‘(K) provide a resource base to provide in-
formation to Federal, Tribal, State, and local 
governments and Native American educational 
organizations to allow the spread of best prac-
tices in the use, practice, and development of 
Native American languages in Native American 
communities, including use in educational insti-
tutions; 
‘‘(L) provide a resource base for the use of 
technology in intensive community-, land-, and 
archive-based programs, as well as hybrid and 
collaborative programs in supporting the reten-
tion, use, development, and teaching of Native 
American languages by government and private 
entities; 
‘‘(M) support the acquisition of distance 
learning technologies and training for parents, 
students, teachers, and learning support staff, 
including the compilation and curation of dig-
ital libraries and other online resources in tar-
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get Native American languages, the develop-
ment of distance learning curricula appropriate 
for preschool, elementary school, secondary 
school, adult education, and postsecondary edu-
cation, the pedagogical training for teachers, 
and other efforts necessary to continue Native 
American language acquisition through distance 
learning; 
‘‘(N) provide a developmental base from 
which interested Tribal colleges and universities 
and other Native American entities might de-
velop fully functioning Native American lan-
guage medium education systems that include 
associated preschool, elementary school, sec-
ondary school, and adult education programs 
conducted through the medium of Native Amer-
ican languages; 
‘‘(O) provide a means to further collabora-
tion among formal government, institutional, 
and community-based Native American lan-
guage programs, resources, and research efforts 
with additional access to international best 
practices in indigenous language revitalization; 
‘‘(P) develop a support center system for 
Native American language participants to gath-
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er and share helpful information and experi-
ences; and 
‘‘(Q) address any of the purposes of for-
eign language centers included under this sec-
tion if, in doing so, the Native American lan-
guage resource center— 
‘‘(i) does so as a subsidiary activity; 
‘‘(ii) focuses benefits on Native Amer-
icans living in Native American commu-
nities, or closely tied to such communities; 
and 
‘‘(iii) ensures that one of the out-
comes being strengthened through this 
subparagraph is the use of one or more 
Native American languages in a Native 
American community. 
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi-
ble entity’ means— 
‘‘(i) an institution of higher education; 
‘‘(ii) an entity within an institution of 
higher education with dedicated responsi-
bility for Native American language and 
culture education; 
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‘‘(iii) a consortium of such institu-
tions; or 
‘‘(iv) a consortium of such institutions 
and other entities with unique responsibil-
ities for Native American languages. 
‘‘(B) NATIVE
AMERICAN; NATIVE
AMER-
ICAN
LANGUAGE.—The terms ‘Native Amer-
ican’ and ‘Native American language’ have the 
meanings given those terms in section 103 of 
the Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 
2902). 
‘‘(4) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.— 
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 
this subsection, $3,000,000 for each fiscal year.’’; 
and 
(3) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of 
subsection (c), as redesignated by paragraph (1), by 
striking ‘‘subsection (a)’’ and inserting ‘‘this sec-
tion’’. 
Æ 
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