THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT

Language is the voice of a people and a culture.
Without language, peoples and their cultures cease to grow and start to fade away.

A Vision at the Beginning

The Language Conservancy was founded in 2005 by a concerned group of indigenous educators and language activists in reaction to the severe decline of indigenous language speakers in the United States.  Working closely with partner organizations, we have utilized best practice methods, resources, and models to create world-class indigenous language-learning materials and resources.   Our vision is to share these tools with indigenous language communities worldwide.  Our hope is to restore indigenous languages to a place of pride within these communities.

Our Efforts Today

Today, The Language Conservancy supports Lakota and over 50 other indigenous languages. We work hard to increase funding for and provide technical assistance to each language community we serve.

TLC stands among the world’s leading voices in the movement for language revitalization. We provide a sequence of focused solutions to meet the needs of language communities, and we work to inform the broader public in order to raise awareness of language loss locally and abroad.

Looking Forward to Tomorrow

Worldwide, languages face the crisis of loss and extinction as never before. The wave of collapses that began in North America and Australia continues to accelerate and spread to other places. The Language Conservancy continues to utilize best-practice approaches: the methods and models we persistently refine to address the particular needs of each unique language.

The number of speakers produced as a result of a revitalization program best measures its effectiveness. That’s why we work hard, day by day, week by week, month by month to help create new speakers within the populations we support.

Over the long term, we strive to increase our support within communities as well as build networks of proficient speakers capable of spreading the language to future generations. Now and in the future, our vision is to create strong epicenters of indigenous languages.

Our Vision

The Language Conservancy’s vision is to save the maximum number of endangered indigenous languages in the world, to become the global provider of language revitalization support, to become a beacon of hope to thousands of language communities, and to inspire worldwide action.

Our Mission

We believe that all languages have an inherent right to exist – that they are valued and irreplaceable facets of a people’s culture and of humanity’s linguistic heritage. The Language Conservancy (TLC) is dedicated to rescuing the world’s endangered languages, restoring them to stability and health, and safeguarding them for future generations. The Language Conservancy helps prevent the extinction of languages by raising funds, increasing the international public awareness of the language-loss crisis, creating language tools to preserve the culture, and providing support to organizations and communities engaged in revitalizing their languages.

Our Goal

The Language Conservancy (TLC) revitalizes endangered indigenous languages by providing a new major source of grants and technical support to indigenous communities and organizations, while also pursuing a systematic public education and fundraising campaign among the general population – exposing the nation to this silent crisis. It achieves this by fulfilling its fundraising goals which provide a sustainable source of language revitalization programming support.

Land Acknowledgement Statement

The Language Conservancy wishes to acknowledge and honor the Indigenous communities native to this region, we acknowledge that our main office in Bloomington, Indiana, was built on Indigenous homelands and resources. We recognize the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Shawnee people as past, present, and future caretakers of this land, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. The Language Conservancy works towards building better relationships with Native American communities through language revitalization, partnerships, historical recognitions, and community service. We ask you to join us in acknowledging the Indigenous communities here and wherever we work, their Elders both past and present, as well as future generations.

LANGUAGE IS HEALING

Language is the lifeblood of culture and the core of identity. When Indigenous communities maintain or learn their languages, it positively impacts their wellbeing.

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