Native American/Indigenous Languages & Dartmouth's Language Requirement
The following guidance is offered to assist students interested in the study of a Native American/Indigenous language, including for the purpose of satisfying Dartmouth's language requirement. Students should contact the Chair of Native American & Indigenous Studies to explore language study options beyond the ones below. We strongly encourage all students to begin this process during their first year at Dartmouth.
(A) For Native American/Indigenous students who have been raised speaking their heritage language (i.e., students who are effectively bilingual), the Department of Linguistics will provide the appropriate assessment of their language proficiency for purposes of the college's language requirement.
(B) Native American/Indigenous students who are at the beginner or intermediate levels of their heritage language should be referred to NAIS faculty to discuss their options. These options may include transferring to another university or college (including a tribal college) to enroll in their college-level Indigenous language course(s)[see below] or participating in community-based language instruction programs (including on-line programs) under the supervision of Native American/Indigenous language instructors. In either scenario, the objective would be to gain proficiency in the heritage language, as assessed by the respective Native American/Indigenous language instructor(s) to be comparable to language study at Dartmouth. Students will submit a proposed plan of language instruction to the Chair of NAIS for review and approval by NAIS faculty before beginning their program of language instruction. Please note that Dartmouth policy does not allow transfer credits to be used to satisfy the language requirement.
Students may not enroll in independent study projects while in residence at Dartmouth as a means of meeting the language requirement. The wide variations in supervision and challenges in assessing language proficiency pose serious and perhaps insurmountable problems in ensuring that students are engaged in appropriate and productive language instruction.
For a sampling of universities and colleges offering study in Indigenous languages, please see the following:
Ojibwe Language Program (University of Minnesota)
https://cla.umn.edu/ais/undergraduate/language-programs/ojibwe-language-program
Dakota Language Teaching (University of Minnesota)
Navajo Language Program, Dine College https://www.dinecollege.edu/academics/b-a-navajo-language/
University of New Mexico https://navajo.unm.edu/courses/
Hawaiian Language, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language
https://manoa.hawaii.edu/catalog/schools-colleges/hawaiian/kawaihuelani/
Cherokee/Choctaw/Creek/Kiowa/Potawatomi Language Courses
University of Oklahoma
https://www.ou.edu/cas/nas/native-american-language-program