New York seeks to add Indigenous language classes amid 'historic year' for bilingual education

State education leaders want more students learning multiple languages. That push includes Indigenous languages, too.

“Our ancestors weren't allowed to speak their language,” said Timothy Williams, a recent graduate of the Silver Creek Central School District.

In Silver Creek — located 40 miles south of Buffalo along Lake Erie — about 12% of students are Native American. Williams is one of them.

His diploma came with a “seal of biliteracy.” That distinction is awarded to students who can communicate at a high level in at least one other language than English.

His second language? Seneca.

“Now that I have the opportunity to try and grow and foster the learning, and be a part of this process,” he said, “it’s just a small piece to the puzzle.”

The number of schools that award the seal in New York has been growing since the program began about a decade ago. According to state data, out of more than 1,200 high schools in New York state, about 500 offer the biliteracy seal.

In Monroe County that includes schools in the Brockport, Churchville-Chili, Gates-Chili, Fairport, Greece, Hilton, Penfield, Rochester, Rush-Henrietta, Victor, Webster and West Irondequoit districts.

There are currently just 12 public school districts with Indigenous language programs. Those are in Western New York, Onondaga County, the North Country and on Long Island.

Williams spoke Monday in a recorded statement to the Board of Regents, which governs the state education department. He and more than 10,600 other 2024 graduates earned the biliteracy seal — a "historic year," according to the state.

Helena Kottman, in the Hudson Valley region, also earned the seal. She said learning five world languages has expanded her ability to connect more deeply with others.

“To learn someone else's language is to enter that person's world, their way of thinking and acting and talking,” Kottman said. "When I speak with my mother in Japanese, her native language, I feel a privilege to know her in a way that, for instance, my father, who speaks Japanese but not fluently, can never fully know.”

And there are other benefits.

“We discover different parts of ourselves by speaking different languages,” Kottman said. “In developing modes of communication, we develop unanticipated strengths and abilities in learning a new language, we dissolve barriers between people.”

While students like Williams and Kottman have been able to connect to their family’s first languages, Vice Chancellor Lester Young said some students may never get the opportunity.

"There are those of us who will never know what their native language was for lots of reasons,” Young said. “And as I sit here and I'm listening, I'm wondering, what would it be like, right, if young people at a very early age had this opportunity, and how might that impact their lives as they go forward?”

Regent Shino Tanikawa said the growing number of students learning multiple languages showed a shift away from an assimilation mindset that immigrants have encountered for generations in the U.S.

"As a former English language learner, there was a stigma associated with speaking languages other than English” she said, “and I think a program like this is really important in breaking down that stigma.”

But Regent Frances Wills says those attitudes persist.

“Right now in our society we have, unfortunately, a trend toward a lack of understanding about the value of human communication through a variety of languages and cultures,” Wills said.

Part of Williams’ education included spending time with elders who spoke Seneca fluently.

"We got to cook with them. We got to eat with them. And we got to share time with them,” Williams said. “Spending time with them was and is a privilege.”

A privilege because so few first language speakers of Seneca are left. And that goes for most Indigenous languages in North America.

That is a direct result of genocide and the brutal assimilation of children in American Indian boarding schools that were part of U.S. government policy.

“Historically, time and time again, our people have persevered,” Williams said. “And this time will be no different.”