Navigating Change in Indigenous Community Language Revitalization at a Land Grant Institution

Land acknowledgement is a beginning. The restorative and reciprocal actions taken as a result of land acknowledgement are essential. Land grant institutions in the United States—a term many American Indians find problematic—have a particular obligation for institutional reflection and transformation. One example of such an effort in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University lies in its role as lead institution to the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Languages Partnership funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Based on its initial success focused on less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), the second cycle of the grant (2019–2025) included a portion focused on Indigenous languages guided by an iterative Indigenous-led approach that resulted in multiple community projects and activities aimed at institutional transformation. In addition to funding for on-campus Indigenous projects, subawards funded the expansion of an existing website, and nineteen community language and culture subawards were granted across four US states and Canada. Overall, 43% of the Indigenous side of the grant has gone to community subaward activities. Now, in the last year of this grant iteration, this article provides an overview of the project process and positionalities, a recounting of the grant’s successes, as well as a meditation on the strengths and hurdles encountered. Given the timing of the project (during the COVID-19 pandemic), coupled with the natural challenges of working with a multitude of partners, a goal throughout this article is to emphasize lessons learned.