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One major issue that has been of recent interest among Native American Studies is the idea of preserving and (if possible) revitalizing native languages, potentially saving them from extinction. The destruction of native languages is a direct result of genocidal policies by the U.S. to destroy native cultures. Of the roughly 300 languages that existed in the U.S. pre-contact, over half have gone extinct. For many others, there are only a few speakers left. Across the globe almost half of the world's languages have only 10,000 speakers left.
This section on Native American languages will focus on the 8 native languages spoken in New Mexico. These languages include:
NOTE: Wikipedia will be included as a resource for most languages, as Linguists have done a good job at cleaning up and expanding articles on indigenous and endangered languages.
NOTE: Native American languages frequently cross state borders. As a result, some of the resources included in this libguide will be from other states, even if the language is spoken in New Mexico. If a resource is not centered in New Mexico, the state name will be included in parenthesis after the link.
Native Tongues: Colonialism and Race from Encounter to the Reservation
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