Living Languages Grant Program (LLGP)

Indian Affairs Awards $5.7 Million in Living Languages Grants

The Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development today announced it has awarded $5.723 million in total Living Languages Grant Program funding to 20 American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Tribal Organizations. Read the Press Release issued on December 21, 2023.

Congratulations to the 2024 Living Language Grant Awardees
Living Language Awardee	Description	Award Amount
Shawnee Tribe	The language program will develop curricula for intermediate and advanced level learners as well as a specialized Early Childhood Development curriculum. This program will train 6 Master Teachers and 12 apprentices, implementing 6 Shawnee Language Nests along with one Early Childhood Development Immersion Program.	$280,200.00
Cherokee Nation	The Cherokee Immersion Teacher Institute (CITI) program will provide professional development and extended training for current Cherokee language teachers. The Cherokee reservation is so large, encompassing 14 counties, that they have not had language teachers at most the schools. The overwhelming gap is the lack of teachers. This program will implement the CITI to train teachers in the Cherokee language.	$300,000.00
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin	The Red Cliff Ojibwe Language Immersion Teacher Training project will educate trainees by building necessary teaching skills for interacting with community members of all ages, from pre-K children to elders. This program would be mainly used for training to focus on language proficiency in K-5 teachers.	$300,000.00
Reno-Sparks Indian Colony	The Community Dual Language 50:50 Immersion Programming is an all-inclusive community approach to language that would allow intensive Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe language and traditional instruction for ages birth to 65+. Language immersion will be taught through many aspects including implementing language education into traditions and cultural events.	$300,000.00
Metlakatla Indian Community	The Metlakatla Indian Community Sm’algyax Revitalization Program (Wap Lip Algyag’m) will provide trainees education through the B.C.’s Master-Apprentice Language Program. They currently have one native speaker left in their area. The trainees will then educate the tribe on the language through events, classes and cultural traditions.	$299,900.00
Tribal Government of St. Paul Island	The Advancing Fluency Via Song and Story program will provide for fluent speakers to create dialogue lessons by deconstructing songs and stories for community wide exposure and education.	$277,500.00
Sitting Bull College	The “Iyapi Kin Ni Un – The Language is Alive” project will develop Thematic Curriculum Units and aligned Family and Community Language and Culture Learning Guides. These lessons and guides will span from Montessori preschools through all ages. This program will also create a Wahohpi Community Resource Website.	$299,928.00
Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes Alaska	The Xaad Kíl Reawakening Plan proposes to address an urgent need with only one fluent speaker remaining in the entire state of Alaska. Development and delivery methods for the program include multimedia and digital application technology along with participation in the Xaad Kíl CDA Pathway/Apprenticeship Program.	$265,920.00
Bundled Arrows Inc	The Tuscarora Community Language Project: Extending the Rafters (Project) focuses on training 7 adult language instructors, developing an adult immersion language program, bringing 7 adult learners to an advanced level of fluency. Extending the Rafters, will facilitate accreditation to provide up to 12 college credit hours to students by the National College Credit Recommendation Service (NCCRS).	$288,098.00
The Kalispel Indian Community of The Kalispel Reservation	The Kalispel Language Acquisition Program (KLAP) proposes to develop a 30-lesson interdisciplinary curriculum grounded in native plants and animals, in accordance with seasonal rounds, braiding, language acquisition with indigenous knowledge and practices. Community members will be encouraged to use the language at home, during community gatherings, and at cultural events.	$298,552.00
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indian	The "Living Languages: A Collaborative Approach to Intergenerational Language Immersion in miluk, hanis, and sha’yuusht’a u quuiich," program proposes language immersion through integration of language nests and language proficiency across CTCLUSI Departments and Schools and entwining language usage within various tribal events. Geographical barriers are transcended through virtual platforms, emphasizing oral tradition, storytelling, and cultural teachings.	$299,900.00
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe	The Lakota Language Immersion Program proposes to train educators to implement 90:10 immersion programming to children enrolled in early childhood education tribal programs. The program provides scheduling techniques and language activities for parents to foster a home-based 50:50 immersion. Online language learning resources offered by the Lakota Language Consortium will be available for distance learning.	$296,273.00
Sac & Fox Nation	The language program Tatakwi will double the number of participants in the current language immersion program, implement adult community language classes that participants can receive certification in, create a community class instructor program so that people of our community can fulfill teaching roles, establish a family-based language class with a focus on children five years of age and younger accompanied with a parent or legal guardian.	$300,000.00
Wichita and Affiliated Tribes	The language program will create two full-time positions dedicated to language learning and instruction, a monthly Community Language and Culture Dinner: kirikiri:sa:hir hikeecak (We’re going to talk Wichita) and resource creation - from a Level 1 Wichita Language Workbook to household item labels written in Wichita, posters and flyers - posted on social media and given out at all partnering programs to promote participation. The posters will include QR codes that link to sounds of the Wichita language.	$299,279.00
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma	The Kickapoo Tribe proposes to provide a Master-Apprentice, Teacher Training, Film Video, Podcast, and Master-Apprentice-Community components. This program will involve training ten fluent speakers in the initial year, increasing to 40-plus students.	$300,000.00
San Carlos Apache Tribal Council	The San Carlos Apache Tribe Language Preservation Program proposes to develop a curriculum for seasonal harvesting and cultural foraging expeditions providing Apache language immersion classes by fluent Apache language speakers. Tribal member families will be selected to participate in traveling groups and learn each seasons foraging curriculum.	$219,647.00
Igiugig Village	The Bristol Bay Indigenous Languages Revitalization program proposes to increase the language proficiency of language apprentices and training in immersion teaching techniques that will gain job skills, provide in-person immersion classes in schools using the holistic cultural curriculum and provide in person weeklong intensive immersion classes annually for students and language teachers in Bristol Bay. This program will also allow the Igiugig to complete a Cultural Heritage Strategic plan with Language Revitalization as the driving component.	$299,999.00
Lummi Nation	The Lummi Nation proposes to invest in job training for language teachers and modernize over 1000 hours of first generation speaker recordings as language resources to digital files. This program will also assist in creating conservation policies and developing intellectual property policies.	$296,000.00
Modoc Nation	The Modoc Nation Revitalization Language Program will focus on developing a strategic plan for language in the Modoc Nation, to train 3 speakers/educators and implement an online platform for onsite and distant learning for language program users. This program will also allow for the ability to hold a minimum of monthly classes with at least 3 teachers conducting classes.	$299,807.00
Quechan Indian Tribe	The Quechan (Kwatsáan) integrated learning through immersion program will train immerging instructors, record all lessons for future educational reference, provide a four-day language and culture immersion by fluent speakers to the Tribal Council, community and staff each year. This program will also provide collaboration with community volunteers, BIA grant staff, a linguist, consultants, tribal programs and city programs.	$201,997.00

Eligibility Information

Eligible applicants are Indian Tribes and Tribal Organizations, as defined in Section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) (25 U.S.C. 5304), including Tribal Consortia. While only federally recognized Tribes or Tribal Organizations may apply for LLGP grants, grantees may select or retain for-profit or non-profit Tribal Organizations to perform a grant’s scope of work for grant funding to support Tribal programs to document Native languages or build Tribal capacity to create or expand language preservation programs. Schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and BIE programs targeting students enrolled in those institutions are ineligible for LLGP financial support.