This concern is not an isolated incident and many tribes have similar issues. These issues are not limited to the U.S. Please see a brief excerpt from the UNESCO Declaration on the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) here:
24. Proclaims the period 2022–2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous
Languages, to draw attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the
urgent need to preserve, revitalize and promote indigenous languages and to take
urgent steps at the national and international levels, and invites the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to serve as the lead agency for the
International Decade, in collaboration with the Department of Economic and Social
Affairs of the Secretariat, and other relevant agencies, within existing resources;
Fortunately, our CPE policy work takes account of these non-formal linguistic communities who self-identify. Of course external recognition makes sense as long as such recognition can be localized in the case of indigenous language communities and can be provided by experts as contemplated by the Final Report. The examples in the draft presented by Jared on the last CPE call are helpful. We may or may not see applications from these communities in the 2026 round but the guidelines we are implementing now are likely to stay in place for a very long time.
Anne
Anne Aikman-Scalese
GNSO Councilor
NomCom Non-Voting 2022-2026