Miami University’s Myaamia Center receives grant to support National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages

Miami University’s Myaamia Center has received a grant from the Mellon Foundation in support of its National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages. The grant, in the amount of $2.1 million, will support the Institute in its work of empowering and assisting indigenous individuals to revive their languages through access to archival documentation, training, and technology.

According to an article on Miami University’s website, Daryl Baldwin, who serves as the executive director of the Myaamia Center and the co-director of the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages, was quoted as saying of the grant funding, Archives play a critical role in a growing number of revitalization efforts today. The amount of capacity building needed to fully utilize archival materials is both labor intensive and expensive, but necessary if we are to move our efforts forward. Support from Mellon Foundation will significantly increase the capacity of the National Breath of Life apprenticeship program and training needed for many of the tribal communities we work with. This growth is very timely.”

Last year, the Myaamia Center, which is an initiative of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma to help preserve the language and culture of the Myaamia people, received the 2024 International Guardians of Culture and Lifeways Language Program - Institutional Excellence Award from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries & Museums. It also has previously been awarded a grant from the Mellon Foundation in 2021 in support of the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages, a testament to the meaningful work being done through the Center and the Institute.

This new grant from the Mellon Foundation will support the expansion of the National Breath of Life programming offered by the Myaamia Center. 

One way this will happen is through doubling the capacity of the Community Archivist Apprenticeship Program. The apprenticeship program was first piloted in 2021 thanks to funding from the initial Mellon Foundation grant, and will double the number of participants it can accommodate thanks to funding from the newest grant. The Community Archivist Apprenticeship Program is for individuals who have already completed training through National Breath of Life. 

According to the webpage for the apprenticeship program, “The apprenticeship program provides mentoring to Community Archivists in the use of their ILDA archive, dictionary, and apps to directly support language revitalization needs within community educational programming,” and is “is not only intended to provide support and guidance to Community Archivists but also to facilitate the advancement of data processing and program implementation as part of a larger community-directed capacity building effort.”

Another initiative that will be undertaken thanks to the grant funding is the launch of a new fellowship program that will take language learning and digitizing a step further. Fellows will be able to use a personalized portal that will allow them to provide outreach and language education to their communities.

Third, the grant will provide the funding necessary to make technology upgrades and hire an entire staff for a technology team. Developers and full-time archivists will be hired to improve functionality of the Indigenous Languages Digital Archive and of the community education portals.

These programming additions and enhancements will be made in the early part of 2025.

For more information about Miami University, visit the school’s website.