Sponsoring Attendant for AILDI Symposium

Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, Anchorage AK

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This is a small request to support the travel of an indigenous scholar, language teacher and speaker of the endangered Gwich'in language, Edward Alexander of Fort Yukon, to participate in the American Indian Language Development Institute's (AILDI) 30th Annual Symposium Celebration Workshop, June 29-July 2, 2009. Mr. Alexander's participation was suggested by the Arctic Social Sciences and Documenting Endangered Languages Program Directors as an excellent step toward facilitating Mr. Alexander's interests in and efforts toward documenting the Gwich'in language. The conference will assist Mr. Alexander in developing a program for the Gwich'in language in the Yukon Flats and Northeastern regions of Alaska, as well as Canada. The conference will expose Mr. Alexander to other indigenous scholars working with their endangered languages, documentation practices and tools, as well as educational program that he can bring back and apply to the villages in his region.