Dr. Wesley Y. Leonard

Miami Tribe of Oklahoma

Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies

University of California, Riverside

Monday, March 7, 2022 

Reflections on Reclamation

Language reclamation is a decolonial approach to Indigenous language
revitalization, one that identifies and responds to the core causes of
community language shift, and that at all stages is embedded in
community needs, wellbeing, and goals. Within a language reclamation
framework, Indigenous community definitions of “language” – which are
often very different from definitions used in language sciences – become
the baseline for planning, doing, and assessing language work. In this
lecture, I reflect upon my lived experiences as a Miami linguist long
engaged in language reclamation, both in my community and also in
academic fields such as Indigenous Studies and Linguistics, to consider
how Indigenous language work in a variety of spaces can operate within a
reclamation frame.