Two new Native American language institutes will get off the ground in June 2014, running concurrently with the Lakota Summer Institute at Sitting Bull College.  Like LSI, both are focused on teacher training for second-language education with new textbooks for their respective languages, and on advanced language study for teachers and non-teachers alike.

The Crow Summer Institute will take place June 2-13.  The Mandan–Hidatsa–Arikara (MHA) Summer Institute will take place June 2- 6.  It will be an extension summer session of Fort Berthold Community College in Fort Berthold, ND.  MHASI will move permanently to FBCC in 2015.

Each of these Nations has begun their own coordinated language revitalization effort, inspired by the Lakota model. Crow language teachers came to LSI in 2013 for an introduction to Total Physical Response teaching methods, applied to their new Level 1 textbook. They will be returning for continued study of Total Physical Response and also Crow Phonology.

The MHA Nation aims to revitalize three languages, all of which are highly endangered. While Hidatsa has several speakers still living, while Mandan is down to just one living speaker, and Arikara has none. The MHA Nation Education Department will introduce a Level 1 textbook and phonology course for each language at their Institute.

These tribes are working with  LLC’s sister organization, the Language Conservancy,  to establish best practices for language revitalization, which includes setting up the kind of community-building teacher training institutes that LSI has become known for.

It is still not to late to register for LSI — the deadline has been extended to May 30.