Woman and Girl on Grass

Walter McClintock Lantern Slide (undated)

C C License

Yale Collection of Western Americana

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

U.S. Census Bureau data for 2006 listed Montana's population at 944,632, with the percentage of the state's population who are American Indian or Alaska Native comprising 6.4%. This relatively small 6.4% is responsible for endowing the state with a large and remarkable lingual diversity, a diversity which is even more amazing when one considers the small size of the overall population. Sadly, this diversity is becoming increasingly endangered, though some steps are being taken to reverse the trend towards obscurity and eventual oblivion. One of those reversals is the establishment of language immersion schools on some reservations.

Language immersion is a method of teaching a second language (L2), also known as the target language. Rather than being the subject of study, the L2 becomes a tool for conveying all the other subjects taught. Students are immersed in the L2 (speaking it almost exclusively) while they learn Math, Social Studies, and other content courses.

Language preservationists have opened immersion schools on some reservations in Montana.

1. One immersion school is the Cuts Wood School for Grades K-8 Blackfeet students in Browning, Montana.
2. In Arlee, Montana, the Snqwiiqwo is an immersion school preserving the Salish language of the Flathead Reservation. (Links to a streaming video file -- high-speed Internet recommended.)
3. The Gros Ventre language is being rescued from extinction at the White Clay Language Immersion School on the Fort Belknap Reservation in northcentral Montana. (Links to a streaming video file -- high-speed Internet recommended.)