User:Mlegood/Piegan Blackfeet

1. Revitalization Efforts

National Financial support

The Blackfeet tribe is a federally acknowledged Native American tribe that receives grants from the U.S. Government

The WaterSMART and Energy Efficiency grant: helps to support water reclamation projects, water conservation, renewable energy, and water-related crisis prevention

The Vocational Rehabilitation Services Projects for American Indians with Disabilities: help disabled Native Americans who live on or near a Reservation and teaches them to be self-sufficient and gain employment

The Community Mental Health Services helps children and families by providing programs that combine community-based services and at-home services

Administration for Native Americans provides grants to help with community-based projects, such as language preservation programs and social and economic development

2. Piegan Institute

Founded in 1987 by Darell Kipp, The Piegan Institute is a non-profit institution located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation that has community-based programs. The Institute is revitalizing the Blackfoot language by using research and promotion. Within the Institute are the Blackfoot Language School Immersion Programs, which focus on educating kids from kindergarten to grade eight. The Institute founded three schools: The Moccasin Flat school named after the community it is located in, the Lost Child school which is named after a story in Blackfeet oral traditions, and the Cuts Wood school which was named after a Blackfeet boy who was raised by his sister

3. Language Literacy 

The Piegan Institute offers many programs to help with language literacy, such as homeschool kits, a Blackfeet Head start kit, story board game, and vocabulary flash cards These are offered so that students can continue to learn and practice at home.

The Blackfoot alphabet was designed by Donald G. Frantz with help from several native Blackfoot speakers and he created The Blackfoot Grammar which shows the overall language structure These are offered so that students can continue to learn and practice at home.

There are also other books and dictionaries, such as:

The Concise Grammar of Blackfoot, which contains noun and verb formations, numbers, and adjectives

A Grammar of Blackfoot, which describes Blackfoot articulatory phonetics, morpho-phonology, and morphology

The Blackfoot Dictionary of Stems, Roots and Affixes, which has an English-Blackfoot wordlist. This Dictionary is believed to be the most complete dictionary of Blackfoot today

4. Vitality of the Language

Intergenerational Language Transmission

This factor evaluates if a language is being passed down from one generation to another The Blackfoot language would be considered definitely endangered, which is a three on a scale from one-five, when assessed using this factor because the language is not being taught as a first language to children in the home and is mostly used by the parental generation and older generations

Availability of Materials for Language Education and Literacy

This factor evaluates the materials available to the Blackfoot people .The Blackfoot Language would get a grade of four on a scale from one – five because they have written materials that exist, and at school, children are developing literacy in the language. They have a written language with ten consonants and three vowels. School and programs for children and adults have been created to teach Blackfoot literacy

Proportion of Speakers Within the Total Population

This factor assesses the number of speakers in relation to the total population of a group  The Blackfoot people are severely endangered (a grade of two on a one-five scale) because a minority speak the language. 5,565 people claimed to be able to speak the language in a census administered in 2016, but that number was found to be closer to 1,000, and all the people were over the age of 50