Honoring Indigenous Resilience at the Idaho Museum of Natural History

The IMNH will host Dr. Elizabeth Redd, January 22, 2025 at 6 p.m. at Frazier Hall, for a presentation of “Many Voices Raised Together! Native Linguistic Diversity, Disruption and Resilience.” Dr. Redd is the Director of American Indian Studies and assistant professor of anthropology at ISU. 

A reception with light refreshments will follow the presentation and film in the lobby of Frazier Hall. To ensure that we can provide the best experience for all our guests, we kindly request your RSVP by January 17. Your response is incredibly important as it helps us make accurate arrangements for the food orders. RSVP at the event website.

Dr. Redd’s presentation emphasizes the linguistic diversity that once flourished across North America and discusses how colonization and westward expansion disrupted these languages, challenging both culture and identity. This exploration of Native linguistic resilience highlights how language revitalization efforts are empowering Native communities today, offering evidence of cultural survival and adaptation that is integral to the natural history narrative.

Language is often seen as a mere tool of communication. Language, though, is so much more, encoding lifeways, values, ecological knowledge, kinship patterns, and intergenerational persistence. From the oral tradition to hymns written on the Trail of Tears, from the attempted erasure of languages in the 19th and 20th Century policies and representation in media and education to the current revitalization practices across Native lands and even the varieties of English spoken within Native communities, language has been and is evidence of Native resilience. 

This presentation explores the diversity of languages existing in North America prior to European colonization, the impacts of that contact and Westward expansion on Native languages and speakers, and the many ways Native nations and communities are reclaiming their languages and exhibiting linguistic resilience. The accompanying film, “Language is Life” from the PBS series Native America, extends this exploration, presenting Native voices actively engaged in the revitalization of their languages and cultural practices.

This event is made possible by the Mary and Melvin Jackson endowment. 

The IMNH has served Idaho since 1934. To learn more or to sign up for classes please visit isu.edu/imnh or call (208) 282-3168.