Tribal language revitalization efforts receive boost with funding

Passamaquoddy language revitalization efforts are being boosted through a recent federal grant, work by a nonprofit now based at Sipayik and the launching of a new language center at the former Lobster Crate restaurant on Route 190 in Perry.

"There's been a real shift in realization of how important our language is to our people," says Brianna Smith, who is the director of the Speaking Place nonprofit. "Everybody can benefit with our language."

Of the $3.23 million that the Passamaquoddy tribal government at Sipayik recently was awarded for language and cultural revitalization efforts, Rena Newell, the community project development specialist, states, "This is about bringing the language back into our kitchens, our classrooms and our ceremonies. Our elders have given us everything we need to carry this forward. This grant gives us the means to do it."

Tribal Chief Pos Bassett says, "I am humbled to be a part of something that is worth more to our people than monetary items and that we put our language and culture back at the top of what we value as Passamaquoddy."

The awards include a five-year $2,282,085 grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Indian Education to expand language immersion, intergenerational learning and culturally grounded STEM education for tribal youth and families, along with $949,588 grant from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) for a language immersion effort to restore daily fluency and cultural continuity.

Under the DOE's grant, over the next five years the tribe will launch a community-wide initiative designed to strengthen cultural identity and academic success. The project will establish a daily Passamaquoddy language nest for toddlers and preschool-age children in partnership with the Sipayik Elementary School, create family-based learning opportunities that connect parents, elders and youth through language, storytelling and cultural instruction, and expand culturally rooted STEM learning that integrates traditional knowledge and land stewardship.

The three-year award from ANA will be used to deepen community immersion, train new language instructors and reintroduce the Passamaquoddy language into homes, classrooms and community spaces across the Sipayik reservation and the wider Wabanaki nations.

The Passamaquoddy Language and Cultural Revitalization Initiative builds upon more than a decade of linguistic and cultural work supported by ANA, including the creation of the Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary, a public digital language portal and the recording of more than 18,000 audio entries with fluent elders. The new initiative will shift the focus from documentation to daily use, establishing a community-led immersion model that will engage children, parents and elders through language nests, family learning, seasonal camps and teacher training.

By 2028, the tribe aims to certify at least three new immersion instructors, produce 10 culturally rooted learning resources and ensure that a new generation of speakers grows up hearing and using Passamaquoddy as part of everyday life.

The new Language and Culture Center building, which the tribe purchased this spring, will be used for classes and cultural gatherings and will house offices for the program. Kendra Sockabasin will be the director of the center, with Sandra Bassett and Natalie Love working as assistants. Renovation work is being done, and classes may begin by late summer.

Through the DOE grant, an annual allocation of over $200,000 will be given over the next five years to the Sipayik Elementary School for language and culture programming. Also the daycare at Sipayik will be reopened and will hold language immersion classes for the children there.

Both grants were prepared with assistance from Tribal Grant Writing LLC. The Passamaquoddy Tribe's proposal for the DOE grant received one of the highest overall scores in the 2025 national competition. Federal peer reviewers praised the tribe's compelling case for need, its robust and replicable design and its culturally grounded, community-driven approach to strengthen language, identity and educational success.

Language carries tribe's world view

While Speaking Place is a separate entity from the tribal government, Smith says they hope to collaborate with the tribe on language plans. The organization, which had been based in Rockland but is now at Sipayik, just marked its first year as an all-Indigenous nonprofit. It was founded in 2010 by Ben Levine and Julia Schulz to promote language revitalization work in Wabanaki territory.

As part of its mission, during the past year Speaking Place has been sharing language lessons on social media and holding weekly Zoom meetings to open up a space where people can speak with each other in the language and those who are learning it can listen. Last fall a three-day English fast immersion gathering was held, and another will be held this coming fall. The nonprofit is developing a conversational language resource pocketbook that will include audio and that people can keep handy to help with conversations. Speaking Place also has been collaborating on language teaching with Wabanaki organizations, the Maine Department of Education and MIT.

Smith notes that the language is deeply rooted in the tribe's teachings and values, including living with the land. "So much more than words live in our language. Our language carries our whole world view, our teachings, our humor, the way our ancestors lived and were able to steward these lands." They took care "of this place for an unimaginable time," she notes.

"Our concepts and values in the ways of seeing the world don't translate into English." She observes that the English language uses nouns for things one can use or own. "Our language is verb based. Everything is living." The Passamaquoddy language views a storm or a tree as a process. There is no word for rain but there are many words for raining and to describe how it is raining. Words are descriptive and explain connections or relationships. "The voice of the land is in our language," the Passamaquoddy say.

Smith says, "Our language is deeply tied to our identity and sense of belonging, and it impacts the health of our community as well. Revitalizing our language is an act of healing." She adds, "We want the language spoken in our homes and at our gatherings so we can pass it on. Everybody can benefit from what we can share."

Having language become part of everyday life

Smith's grandmother, Margaret Apt, has been teaching language immersion classes and in a 2017 interview spoke about teaching the language through speaking it. "When I was a kid, that's how I learned it, but the whole reservation spoke it. There weren't any classes. But English has overtaken now, so we need a concerted effort."

As for why families stopped speaking the language in the home, Smith says that parents who were fluent speakers feared their children might be punished, as they had been, for speaking the language or might be less likely to be successful.

As for the number of fluent speakers today, a survey conducted around 2015 indicated that the number was under 7% of the tribal population of 3,400, with most of the fluent speakers being over age 70. Smith notes that more than 15 of those speakers have passed on since then. "It's declining fast," she says of the loss of fluency.

Television, computers and electronic devices, all in English, have a large influence on children, but there have been numerous efforts to engage with both children and adults for learning the Passamaquoddy language.

"We're trying to make our language fit into English, and it doesn't. We need to stop thinking in English," Smith says. It's a process of decolonization, both for learning the language and for how one views the world.

Smith notes that language immersion programs are important because research shows one has to spend 30% of one's time hearing and engaging with a language to become fluent. The oral language "is learned through living. Immersion creates a space where the language becomes part of everyday life." People learn a language through context and repetition, she says. Learning it in a school's classroom, though, can result in just translating the language through a colonial lens. Learning through immersion "can create speakers, not just learners. The language is not just remembered but is lived. We want it in our everyday lives."