Native Americans knew more than 300 languages
North America was the land where many spoken languages were circulating before colonization. In fact, there were more than 300, with as many as 500 spoken all over the continent. Even so, many of these languages completely disappeared because of assimilation policies by the government.
In 1868, President Ulysses S. Grant said that “in the difference of language nowadays lies two-thirds of our trouble…their barbarous dialect should be completely blotted out and the English language substituted.”
Starting with the 1800s, Native Americans were continuously displaced from their communities and moved onto reserves. Children were sent to Indian boarding schools and educated in English. But in 1972, when Congress passed the Indian Education Act, the Native American tribes were allowed to teach their own languages.
As the U.S. Census Bureau showed, as of 2013, there were more than 169 Native languages that were spoken in the United States. The wide majority of them had few speakers. In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Language Act, which offers support for Native American language revitalization.
9 Responses
Good one!
This is deeply disturbing. Many of us don’t think to reeducate ourselves. Our history that is taught in school is all lies. I am Iriquois, from the northern NY state into Canada’s Quebec providence. My great great great grandmother was full blooded Iriquois, Seneca. I am proud of that and I respect all the tribes.
My maternal grandmother was a Onondaga Iroquois. I learned a lot of my Indian heritage from my grandfather. I am proud to be part of this history. Thank you for this history lesson.
It was very interesting would enjoy reading more about this as my mother was native American
What’s interesting to me, where did the ‘native’ Americans come from. If we complete a more intense historical search, the ‘native’ American came from Filipino islands which really complicate the ‘American’ claim. When tracing historical facts, we should not stop searching when we get the results we’re looking for. History requires accuracy to the historical beginning. When a complete line of heritage is gone because a ‘wacko’ kills them all, that doesn’t change historical facts!
I would think the term “native” applies to the indigenous people living here when the first Europeans came to these shores.
The truly “native” people going all the way back would all be from Mesopotamia!
Short paragraphs but loaded with precise facts .Very inspiring and informative.
Looking forward to more information .History taught never much of any facts of actual history,facts marred in time.
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Keep up the great writing.