Seven Potential LSA Actions in Honor of IDIL

This document emerged from a series of proposals, events, and discussions over several years, including: a proposal submitted in August of 2021 by the LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and Their Preservation (CELP) requesting that the LSA waive both membership and conference fees for Indigenous community members during the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL), and an Executive Committee response to it dated February, 2022; the CELP-sponsored “Symposium on the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, 2022-2032,” which was held at the 2023 Annual Meeting; meetings of and conversation with the leaders of CELP and Natives for Linguistics (N4L); and a meeting in April 2023 convened by Tony Woodbury, LSA President, that included leaders from CELP, N4L, the LSA Program Committee, the LSA Centennial Committee, and the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas.
 
This list of Potential LSA Actions in Honor of IDIL is offered with the approval of the Executive Committee, to help move these conversations forward by listing concrete potential actions that LSA could take. The items on this list are offered as points of consideration and conversation. While LSA is ready and able to act on these seven potential actions, whether they are implemented will depend on whether a broad consensus emerges that they truly would be useful and meaningful. Perhaps after further conversation, some of these items will be revised, some removed, others added, or perhaps an entirely different set of actions will emerge.
 
This set of actions was announced during the 2024 Annual Meeting as part of the celebration of the LSA Centennial as a way to honor the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages. The actions are an acknowledgment by LSA of the complex and sometimes highly problematic history of linguists’ interactions with Native American and other Indigenous peoples, while also making a clear and meaningful commitment to working toward right and durable relationships moving into the future.
 

  1. Offer free membership and meeting registration to interested Indigenous peoples of the Americas.1
  2. Set up a board-designated fund to support Indigenous scholarship. Announce this fund throughout the Annual Meeting and offer a QR code to make it easy for people to donate. The fund could be used to provide travel grants to help offset the costs associated with presenting at the Annual Meeting.
  3. Provide on-going resources for N4L and CELP that they can plan for, control, and use to support their activities. This would include space on the Annual Meeting program and a modest baseline annual budget.2
  4. Forego official LSA land acknowledgments unless and until an organizationally feasible process of working collaboratively with tribes to develop appropriate land acknowledgments is identified.
  5. Commit to developing an official statement regarding UNESCO’s disregard of Indigenous languages in their practices around conferences and field offices.
  6. Commit to continuing the conversation about acknowledging historical harms and improving relationships between Linguistics and Indigenous peoples, communities, and nations across the decade.
  7. Commit to LSA holding an annual workshop on best practices research in Indigenous communities, including but not limited to: community-based research, returning data, responsible and ethical research conduct, opening libraries and archives, and acknowledgment of community goals and differences.  
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[1] For example, individuals who are enrolled in state or federally recognized tribes in the United States, aboriginal peoples of Canada, and people who are recognized as Indigenous people in their communities in Latin America. 
[2] The LSA Executive Committee and Secretariat are currently working with the leaders of all LSA committees, including CELP and N4L, to identify committees’ needs and to develop a plan to better respond to those needs. The new resources for CELP and N4L would be part of that larger effort, with additional features in recognition of the unique status of these two groups.