[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 989 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 989

To establish a Native American language resource center in furtherance 
     of the policy set forth in the Native American Languages Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 25, 2021

 Mr. Schatz (for himself and Ms. Smith) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish a Native American language resource center in furtherance 
     of the policy set forth in the Native American Languages Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Native American Language Resource 
Center Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are to further the policies set forth in 
the Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.) by creating 
a national resource center and, through such national resource center 
and actions, to--
            (1) preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom 
        of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native 
        American languages (as defined in section 103 of the Native 
        American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 2902));
            (2) allow the United States to fulfill its trust 
        responsibility to Native American communities and address the 
        effects of past discrimination against Native American language 
        speakers;
            (3) support revitalization of Native American languages;
            (4) encourage and support the use of Native American 
        languages as a medium of instruction, including use as a medium 
        of education in schools operated by Tribes, States, 
        territories, the Federal Government, and Native American 
        language educational organizations;
            (5) encourage and support the use and development of Native 
        American languages as the medium of instruction for a wide 
        variety of age levels and academic content areas;
            (6) support metrics aligned with the Native American 
        language of instruction, including assessments, qualifications, 
        and processes based on well-demonstrated best practices in 
        Native American language medium education;
            (7) identify--
                    (A) barriers to Native American language education 
                and learning within Federal laws; and
                    (B) actions needed for alignment with the Native 
                American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.);
            (8) encourage and support elementary schools, secondary 
        schools, and institutions of higher education to include Native 
        American languages in the curriculum in the same manner as 
        other world languages, including through cooperative agreements 
        and distance education, and to grant proficiency in Native 
        American languages the same full academic credit as proficiency 
        in other world languages;
            (9) encourage and support the development of appropriate 
        teacher preparation programming for the teaching of, and 
        through, Native American languages, including appropriate 
        alternative pathways to teacher certification;
            (10) provide a resource base to provide information to 
        Federal, Tribal, State, territory, and local governments and 
        Native American educational organizations to allow the spread 
        of best practices in the use, practice, and development of 
        Native American languages in Native American communities, 
        including use in educational institutions;
            (11) provide a resource base for the use of technology in 
        intensive community-, land-, and archive-based programs, as 
        well as hybrid and collaborative programs in supporting the 
        retention, use, development, and teaching of Native American 
        languages by government and private entities;
            (12) provide a developmental base from which interested 
        Tribal colleges and universities and other Native American 
        entities might develop fully functioning Native American 
        language medium education systems that include associated 
        preschool, elementary school, secondary school, and adult 
        education programs conducted through the medium of Native 
        American languages;
            (13) provide a means to further collaboration among formal 
        government, institutional, and community-based Native American 
        language programs, resources, and research efforts with 
        additional access to international best practices in indigenous 
        language revitalization; and
            (14) develop a support center system for Native American 
        language participants to gather and share helpful information 
        and experiences.

SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER.

    Section 603 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1123) is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as subsections 
        (c) and (d), respectively;
            (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the following:
    ``(b) Native American Language Resource Center Authorized.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary is authorized to make a 
        grant to, or enter into a contract with, an eligible entity for 
        the purpose of--
                    ``(A) establishing, strengthening, and operating a 
                Native American language resource and training center 
                as described in paragraph (2); and
                    ``(B) staffing the center with individuals who have 
                high-level fluency in American Indian, Alaska Native, 
                and Native Hawaiian languages and are experienced with 
                Native American language education in preschool, 
                elementary school, secondary school, adult education, 
                and higher education programs.
            ``(2) Purposes of center.--The Native American language 
        resource center established under paragraph (1) shall serve as 
        a resource to--
                    ``(A) improve the capacity to teach and learn 
                Native American languages and further Native American 
                language acquisition;
                    ``(B) preserve, protect, and promote the rights and 
                freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and 
                develop Native American languages;
                    ``(C) allow the United States to fulfill its trust 
                responsibility to Native American communities and 
                address the effects of past discrimination against 
                Native American language speakers;
                    ``(D) support revitalization of Native American 
                languages;
                    ``(E) encourage and support the use of Native 
                American languages as a medium of instruction, 
                including use as a medium of education in schools 
                operated by Tribes, States, the Federal Government, and 
                Native American language educational organizations;
                    ``(F) encourage and support the use and development 
                of Native American languages as the medium of 
                instruction for a wide variety of age levels and 
                academic content areas;
                    ``(G) support metrics aligned with the Native 
                American language of instruction, including 
                assessments, qualifications, and processes based on 
                well-demonstrated best practices in Native American 
                language medium education;
                    ``(H) identify barriers to Native American language 
                education and learning within Federal laws and actions 
                needed for alignment with the Native American Languages 
                Act (25 U.S.C. 2901);
                    ``(I) encourage and support elementary schools, 
                secondary schools, and institutions of higher education 
                to include Native American languages in the curriculum 
                in the same manner as other world languages, including 
                through cooperative agreements and distance education, 
                and to grant proficiency in Native American languages 
                the same full academic credit as proficiency in other 
                world languages;
                    ``(J) encourage and support the development of 
                appropriate teacher preparation programming for the 
                teaching of, and through, Native American languages, 
                including appropriate alternative pathways to teacher 
                certification;
                    ``(K) provide a resource base to provide 
                information to Federal, Tribal, State, and local 
                governments and Native American educational 
                organizations to allow the spread of best practices in 
                the use, practice, and development of Native American 
                languages in Native American communities, including use 
                in educational institutions;
                    ``(L) provide a resource base for the use of 
                technology in intensive community-, land-, and archive-
                based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 
                programs in supporting the retention, use, development, 
                and teaching of Native American languages by government 
                and private entities;
                    ``(M) support the acquisition of distance learning 
                technologies and training for parents, students, 
                teachers, and learning support staff, including the 
                compilation and curation of digital libraries and other 
                online resources in target Native American languages, 
                the development of distance learning curricula 
                appropriate for preschool, elementary school, secondary 
                school, adult education, and postsecondary education, 
                the pedagogical training for teachers, and other 
                efforts necessary to continue Native American language 
                acquisition through distance learning;
                    ``(N) provide a developmental base from which 
                interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 
                Native American entities might develop fully 
                functioning Native American language medium education 
                systems that include associated preschool, elementary 
                school, secondary school, and adult education programs 
                conducted through the medium of Native American 
                languages;
                    ``(O) provide a means to further collaboration 
                among formal government, institutional, and community-
                based Native American language programs, resources, and 
                research efforts with additional access to 
                international best practices in indigenous language 
                revitalization;
                    ``(P) develop a support center system for Native 
                American language participants to gather and share 
                helpful information and experiences; and
                    ``(Q) address any of the purposes of foreign 
                language centers included under this section if, in 
                doing so, the Native American language resource 
                center--
                            ``(i) does so as a subsidiary activity;
                            ``(ii) focuses benefits on Native Americans 
                        living in Native American communities, or 
                        closely tied to such communities; and
                            ``(iii) ensures that one of the outcomes 
                        being strengthened through this subparagraph is 
                        the use of one or more Native American 
                        languages in a Native American community.
            ``(3) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                    ``(A) Eligible entity.--The term `eligible entity' 
                means--
                            ``(i) an institution of higher education;
                            ``(ii) an entity within an institution of 
                        higher education with dedicated responsibility 
                        for Native American language and culture 
                        education;
                            ``(iii) a consortium of such institutions; 
                        or
                            ``(iv) a consortium of such institutions 
                        and other entities with unique responsibilities 
                        for Native American languages.
                    ``(B) Native american; native american language.--
                The terms `Native American' and `Native American 
                language' have the meanings given those terms in 
                section 103 of the Native American Languages Act (25 
                U.S.C. 2902).
            ``(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There are 
        authorized to be appropriated to carry out this subsection, 
        $3,000,000 for each fiscal year.''; and
            (3) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of subsection 
        (c), as redesignated by paragraph (1), by striking ``subsection 
        (a)'' and inserting ``this section''.
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