Fund Native languages!

Indian languages should be preservedFrom the public resources spent on museums, historical sites and school curriculum to the care with which a great-grandmother passes down a treasured family Bible, we feel a link to our past.

A federal initiative aimed at preserving American Indian languages marks another worthwhile investment in our heritage.

The program that legislation would set up would cost in the neighborhood of $8 million, Ryan Wilson, president of the National Indian Education Association, said in a recent story by Zach Franz, of the Tribune.

The money would fund grants for establishment of immersion schools, where Indian students would start learning Native languages at an early age, when children’s brains are most receptive to language training.