ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a departure from that center, providing a narrative that is more expansive and complex. It describes efforts to revitalize Indigenous languages around the world and instructional practices used to develop children’s writing in those languages, with the theoretical and philosophical bases for the approaches and recommendations for future directions that the specific effort might take. The book explores the ways in which young, English-dominant writers select from their unique internal linguistic representations to communicate ideas in Cherokee and how they engage in translanguaging practices to fit their communicative needs. It explains the school, in a multipurpose building in Kiad, Panama, where Ngabere is taught in a relaxed atmosphere and focuses on the importance that oral traditions continue to play in many Indigenous communities, where language efforts to maintain and re-strengthen Native languages have increased over the past two decades.
