Colonization, capitalism, and Christianity have each lead to a decline in fluency among Indigenous languages since contact in 1492. Each policy and law created and enforced by the government reflected an intention of removing the spirit of Indigenous peoples to the land, and therefore the languages. To an Indigenous academics’ soul, this research required many pauses of reflection, prayer and ceremony. This informed the approach and purpose of collaborative research with community members to discuss the spirit of the language, and propose community-based solutions to language revitalization and acquisition, wherein ceremony and healing is a priority. 

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These are each as examined in three separate but inherently interwoven imperialist ideologies: Colonization, disconnecting Indigenous people from their languages and culture through forced removal, assimilation, enfranchisement, slaughter and slavery; Capitalism, enforcing diaspora of Indigenous peoples for the exploitation of their lived-upon lands while continentally damaging ecologies and many species for profit; and Christianity, which denounced the existence of Indigenous Peoples as peoples because they were not Christian, while also delivering state-funded residential schooling. The decline in fluency among all Indigenous languages is a result of the growing separation of Indigenous peoples to their lands through colonization; the degradation of ecologies and entire species as a result of capitalism; and the dominance of religious imperialism through Christianity. Together, these each led to a diffraction in the connection between Indigenous Peoples and the languages of the lands, and all living Creation it speaks about.

We examine each as inter-related causes of the disconnection between Indigenous peoples and their language.