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| It is estimated that nearly 80% of the indigenous languages of North American are moribund, that is, they are not being taught on the reservations. Elaborate oral literatures are disappearing as older generations pass on and young people become assimilated into western industrial society through the pressures of cultural, political and economic colonization and homogenization. The store houses of ethno knowledge on the healing properties of natural resources, harmonious ways of living with the natural world and time-tested sustainable land management practices are threatened. |
The Cultural Conservancy protects and restores indigenous cultural traditions through all of our programs and services, especially through: |
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| The loss of language and culture is facilitated through cultural assimilation in schools and other institutions that do not teach traditional ways to younger people. In addition, for many tribes, there are no organized cultural preservation programs due in part to the paucity of materials. As elders pass on, without a systematic program of cultural preservation, the life body of cultural material is lost. The economic pressure on tribes leads to habituat destructive development. Indigenous people have been forced to forfeit most of their aboriginal lands to the federal government through treaties and the Indian Claims Commission proceedings and subsequent legal and political maneuvers during which the government settled land claims acknowledging a fraction of the lands confiscated from the tribes and paying a fraction of their true worth to the claimants. This loss cut deeply into the foundation of indigenous sustenance and identity. |
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