Pathways and Barriers to Indian Language Literacy‐building on the Northern Ute Reservation

Abstract

This article reviews recent efforts on the Northern Ute Indian reservation (northeastern Utah) to introduce a written form of the Tribe's ancestral language and to promote tribal interest in ancestral language literacy. Tribal members have been the architects of these initiatives and tribal concerns about impending decline in ancestral language fluency have motivated them. Even under these circumstances, resistance to ancestral language literacy remains strong. This article examines factors contributing to that resistance, and then describes steps taken by tribal language educators to respond to and diffuse those concerns.