The sentiment in Omaha, Nebraska, last month, was one of reciprocity.
The Gate-City of the West hosted the 2026 American Indian Higher Education Consortium’s fourth annual Tribal College Native Languages Summit, enabling teachers and advocates from across Turtle Island to share and learn from one another.
Under the theme “From the Elder’s Voice to the Young at Heart: Living Our Language into the Future,” the event sought to foster a dialogue around key issues facing Tribal Colleges and Universities language programs. Attendees were treated to 17 presentations from a diverse collection of speakers, covering issues from building a curriculum, to working with archives, to protecting Native nations’ intellectual sovereignty.
The presenters showcased some of the ways communities are working to preserve, revitalize, and even normalize the use of the traditional languages of America’s first citizens. This is not to say that the presenters were all in agreement. Opinions varied on topics including the order in which components of language acquisition should be taught, as well what role the use of technology, including generative artificial intelligence, should play in language perpetuation.
The conference also corrected some misconceptions, including the pronunciation of the nation whose ancestral land we gathered upon. As tribal member Rudi Mitchell shared in his opening remarks, his people should be addressed as the “Oh-mah-ha” and not the Americanized “Oh-muh-ha.”
As a seasoned College of Menominee Nation faculty member, I’ve long known that I should think of myself as what Menominee elder and teacher John Teller Sr. refers to as “a conduit of language and culture.” As such, I attended the conference to fortify my own efforts as a language ally, and I soon found my notebook filled with truisms that confirmed my belief in the necessity of language accusation.
Navajo tribal member Jolyana Begay-Kroupa shared that “Language loss is about losing a worldview. It’s about losing a connection to our ancestors who have sustained us for centuries.”
“Education becomes powerful when it reflects the students that it serves,” Begay-Kroupa added.
Aaniiih and Nakoda language teacher Michael Turcotte shared some of Life’s Language Lodge’s success on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, saying, “There’s no harder work in Indian Country than language work.”
“The creator gave us these languages,” said Lani Moran-Samqua, an archiving assistant at Nebraska Indian Community College. “He hears it and he says, that’s my Omaha people. Our language is what makes us us.”
Oglala Lakota College’s Lakota Studies chair, Alex Fire Thunder, shared some powerful points about the imposition of English. He discussed the boarding schools’ efforts to erase culture, as well as how the introduction of radios and televisions into tribal homes helped to hasten the shift away from traditional language usage. Yet, Fire Thunder asserted the path forward must be linguistically specific.
“An elder said we don’t need to ‘update,’ we need to ‘transform’ how we teach the language. Words are powerful, even in English, and we need to recognize that,” Fire Thunder said.
He also noted that many reductive voices come from those not working in the field, wryly stating, “A lot of arguments about Native languages happen in English.”
American Indian College Fund Transfer and Program Admissions Administrator Nicolette Weston affirmed the role of TCUs in language work.
“Tribal colleges are becoming a place in our communities to learn your culture, to learn your language,” she said.
Ho-Chunk tribal members Jessi and Samson Falcon discussed their work for Hoocak Waazijja Haci Language Division and Curriculum in Black River Falls, encouraging partnerships and collaborations. The husband-and-wife team shared that their daughter was raised as a Ho-Chunk first language speaker, eventually learning to speak English with a Ho-Chunk dialect.
CMN’s registrar and adjunct Menominee language teacher, Richard Oshkeshequoam attended the summit alongside me, and the Falcons’ points are the ones that most resonated with him.
“Jessi Falcon shared resources about how she approached proficiency and language acquisition to teach the Ho-Chunk language in her area schools,” Oshkeshequoam said. “The classes were designed for the high school students to gain credit for an undergraduate degree, but she stressed the current efforts in implementing her courses in the local universities. It’s inspiring to hear about what other nations are doing.”
Considering the messages of gratitude shared by conference attendees throughout the submit, Oshkeshequoam’s words reflected those of the collective, as the 2026 TCU Native Languages Summit was a gathering embodying linguistic reciprocity.
Ryan Winn, Ph.D., teaches communications, English, history and theater at the College of Menominee Nation. Visit www.menominee.edu for more information about the school.
