Native American language education as policy-in-practice: An interpretative policy analysis of the Native American Languages Act of 1990/1992

This research is an interpretive policy analysis of the development and impacts of landmark federal legislation in support of Native American languages: the 1990/1992 Native American Languages Act (NALA). Overturning more than two centuries of federal Indian policy, NALA established the federal role in preserving and protecting Native American languages. Indigenous languages in the United States are currently experiencing unprecedented language shift. This shift is largely the result of past language education policy for Native Americans which included repressive policies intended to eradicate Native American languages. NALA as it supports and protects Native languages is a reversal of these past policies. Although some argue that NALA has come too late and is largely ineffectual (funding has been limited and most Native American languages are already in serious decline), others link NALA to the twin goals of enhanced tribal sovereignty and academic achievement.;This is the first in-depth study that examines the development, implementation and impact of this policy initiative. Through an ethnographically informed policy analysis of NALA framed by policy-in-practice theory and safety-zone theory, this study examines NALA from its beginnings as a grassroots movement in the mid- to late 1980s to the current day as it is administered by the Administration of Native Americans (ANA). This study explores NALA's impact on the larger Native language revitalization movement. It is also contributes to understanding how Native languages fit into the current and prominent English-only language ideologies and policy in the United States.