Ms. GeorGene Nelson, Director of the Klamath Tribes language program, has been working with NILI and Russell Hugo of the University of Washington’s Language Center to digitize a large collection of audio tapes from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Read more about the project at the Klamath Language Newsletter.

We are grateful to announce this year’s Keynote Speaker at the NILI Summer Institute 2022 Tuxámshish Revitalization Learning Series (TRaiLS) online. Me’-lash-ne/Loren Bommelyn will be honoring us with his insights and perspectives from 40 plus years of language work. For a more complete bio about his outstanding decades of work in Me’-lash-ne’s own words, please continue reading below. Keynote Speaker: Loren Me’-lash-ne Bommelyn Talk Title: “The Heart and Soul of Language Work”… Read More

Save the Date! More information coming soon

Yakama Elder Tuxámshish, Dr. Virginia Beavert receives award! Tuxámshish Virginia Beavert, advocate for language revitalization, speaker of her language Ichishkíin receives the Ken Hale Memorial Lecture distinction from the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) in November 2021, weeks before celebrating her 100th birthday! This award, in memory of Linguist Ken Hale who advocated and made a way for language revitalization across the United States, recognizes the exemplary and inspirational work Virginia… Read More

Komemma Cultural Protection Association donates new Kalapuya dictionary to NILI! After years of efforts, the Kalapuya Dictionary, compiled by day-sri Paul Stephen McCartney, Sr. (1940-2021) was completed and printed in the fall of 2021. McCartney worked closely with the Komemma Kalapuya families to breathe life into this sleeping Oregon language. Komemma Kalapuya elder, Esther Stutzman, founder of the Komemma Cultural Protection Association, stopped by NILI with her daughter Shannin Stutzman to donate… Read More

NILI receives an NEH Cares award to bring educational offerings online!      Due to COVID 19, NILI’s 2020 Summer Institute (SI) for Indigenous language teachers and learners at the University of Oregon was not held in its regular, face-to-face format, ending the 22-year run of an educational program designed to boost language revitalization. SI typically hosts 50+ participants from around the nation and staffs 12-15 university and tribal faculty. Instead, NILI… Read More

Nov. 4, 2019 Eugene, Oregon — The National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages announces the second of two workshops to foster advanced archive-based linguistics research for language revitalization. The workshop will be hosted by the Northwest Indian Language Institute at the University of Oregon from July 13 to 17, 2020. The field of archive-based linguistic research for revitalization has grown significantly. With four iterations between 2011 and 2017, and… Read More

Registration for our online Spring class – Enriching Language Communities – is now open. The dates for this class run March 8-June 3 (that last week in end of May early June being mostly wrap up). This class focuses on creating a change in your language community, home, or in your classroom to help create a language movement or better support and inspire learners. Last year when we piloted the course, one… Read More

The UNESCO Crossings Institute and UO journalism student Scott Greenstone, just published the first week of February an interesting radio podcast on language revitalization. In it he weaves together several stories, including NILI’s work, the story of one undergraduate Native student at UO – Anna Hoffer – who takes Ichishkíin classes talking about identity, an Alaska effort in using theater for language revitalization, and Jaeci Hall’s raising her daughter in Tututni. The program is… Read More

The application for financial aid for Summer Institute 2016 is now posted here. The deadline for scholarship applications is April 1, 2016.