Programs to preserve American Indian languages were funded by the Legislature, reports the Bemidji Pioneer.

A piece of the Legacy Act appropriates $150,000 to the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council for a working group on Dakota and Ojibwe language revitalization and preservation. And the Legislature added $1.25 million — $550,000 in 2010 and $700,000 in 2011 — for grants to preserve the Dakota and Ojibwe languages and to foster educational programs in those languages, especially in the early grades.

The language working group will be led by the 11 tribes who make up the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, said Olson, as well as some legislative and gubernatorial appointees.

It will “make recommendations related to a number of elements in the legislation,” said Sen. Mary Olson, DFL-Bemidji. “The first thing is really assessing what’s already out there, as far as what the tribes are doing. … One of the goals is to inventory what the tribes are already doing. Another goal is to be making recommendations about what the state Department of Education could and should be doing to facilitate speakers, with a focus on children learning to speak.”