New domains for indigenous language acquisition and use in the USA and Canada

In the postmodern global era, the emergent technological revolution is crystallizing new media cultures across widely divergent localized communities. Indigenous cultures are no exception to this transformation. Rapidly evolving technological advances have made local production and global distribution and communication (all in our Indigenous languages) possible on a scale not imagined 20 years ago. In the USA and Canada, Indigenous peoples are a part of the digital divide, as socioeconomic status limits access to these promising tools. Nonetheless, communities across this region are using technology in new and innovative ways to communicate, create resources, document, and learn from each other, linking isolated communities to a broader revitalization movement and often linking native speakers of the language to learners (Eisenlohr, 2004).