The Language Warrior's Manifesto: How to Keep Our Languages Alive No Matter the Odds

by Anton Treuer

White folks need healing. They are the primary beneficiaries of the systems of oppression operating in the world today. It hurts more to be a victim of oppression than a beneficiary, but oppression dehumanizes everyone.

Most of the white folk in America forget that their ancestors fled religious oppression and came here so they could worship and speak as they chose, not so they could impose what they brought here on everyone else.

I keep Mary Roberts’s teaching close: take everything you learn and teach it to at least four other people. If you know one word, teach it to four others. If you learn a ceremony, don’t just do the ceremony; take the time to teach it to at least four others. We should endeavor to make ourselves replaceable many times over.

Be here for the people seven generations from now—when nobody knows your names.