LIVING LANGUAGE

2022 brought a trifecta of important news for UCLA’s Native American community. In addition to the announcement of both the University of California’s Native American Opportunity Plan and UCLA’s Native American and Pacific Islander Bruins Rising Initiative, UCLA’s American Indian studies interdepartmental program was approved to become a full-fledged academic department.

“This has been a longtime goal. My only anxiety is that there’s not exactly a playbook for how you transfer from being a program to a department,” says Paul Kroskrity, who has chaired the program off and on for nearly 30 years and is currently the interim chair. “I’m ready to devote whatever it

“When I first started, very few students were interested in Native American languages, but now I’m seeing so many take an important interest in this urgent research, with many devoted to the possibility of working on their own heritage languages,” he says. “I’m happy to do anything I can for communities to keep the parts of their culture that are embodied in language alive.”

And, of course, this will call on all the varied talents, resources and potential Kroskrity sees at UCLA.

“The American Indian studies program has assembled an incredible faculty, probably the finest in the nation collectively, with remarkably gifted students,” he says. “This is going to be a wonderful first year of departmentalization, but it’s just going to be one of many.”