ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the acquisitional challenges faced by children and adults learning (or relearning) an endangered Indigenous language. We show first how a history of assimilation in North America has impacted acquisition and created an overall situation of language shift. As part of this history, we consider the various educational approaches that have influenced the minority language situation today. We then turn to contemporary cases of language revitalization, examining particular programs, practices, and policies for supporting Indigenous language acquisition both within and outside of schools. We conclude by recognizing the complexity of minority-language acquisition and revitalization and the likelihood that most such efforts may remain minority efforts, where, rather than bringing an entire community to fluency, a more realistic goal is for each generation of activists to make sure that the next generation will also contain an equal or greater number of language speakers, learners, and activists.
