Language, Power & Resistance | Indigenous languages

Since language, knowledge and culture are associated with each other, losing an indigenous language may result in many negative consequences for its speakers as well as the world.

According to the United Nations, preserving indigenous languages such as Tlingit is a highly valued. The language itself, is the verbal translation of not only emotions, experiences, and observations, but also the translation of entire cultures. Languages, forms of communication by a specific groups, are vanishing all over the world due to lack of speakers or supression of dominant languages.

Inuit in Alaska cutting pukaangajuq, which is Inuit for the best snow for igloos

Ever since the many colonizations taking place in the 18th Century, indigenous languages have collapsed and been replaced with more dominant languages such as English, Spanish and French. As many of these languages are dying, important knowledge can be potentially lost as the language vanishes, an example are the scientific advances of indigenous languages. Languages such as Tlingit have more precise ways of describing botanicals, animals, etc. to which languages such as English have nothing as descriptive and precise to describe it. Many of these languages do not only have better ways of describing things but often have more namings for things with slight variation. Inuit for example, which is spoken by mostly Eskimos in the Northern areas have a whopping twentyways of describing snow. Varying from the word aniu to describe packed snow to upsik for wind-beaten snow.

Indigenous languages often have more (precise) ways of describing the natural world around us since these languages have existed for a very long time, full of discovery and observation. This also applies to the culture which is tied to the language. Of this languages is taken away, traditions and ways of life which pair up with the language will vanish. "the death of a language such as Tlingit means more than the loss of another obscure, incomprehensible  tongue. It marks the loss of an entire culture" Time Magazine. Therefore it is crucial to preserve indigenous languages in order to preserve its history and culture with it as well, which greatly expands our understanding of the world.