A look at the Arapahoe Language Project at CU Boulder, Dot-Org and December’s Nature Almanac

Across the United States, hundreds of Indigenous languages have gone dormant with many others currently endangered. At the University of Colorado Boulder, Professor Andrew Cowell is leading a decades-long effort to revitalize the Arapahoe language.

This effort, known as the Arapahoe language project, started as a documentation project. Cowell and his team would record songs, stories and conversations from Arapahoe elders. Then, slowly the data collection allowed for the creation of a dictionary, a written form for the language, and the creation of words for our evolving media: Facebook, Valentine’s Day, Twitter, and others.

Once these materials were created, it was time to develop a curriculum to teach Arapahoe to the younger generations. This curriculum is still being developed.

Look at the materials here: https://verbs.colorado.edu/ArapahoLanguageProject/index.html

This story aired on the Morning Magazine, KGNU’s weekday morning show featuring in-depth discussions on local news issues. It was followed by December’s Nature Almanac and Dot-Org, our biweekly spotlight of local nonprofits. Click here to listen to other episodes of the Morning Magazine.