13-05-2025
New laws aim to strengthen Indigenous education and language revitalization efforts
Nora Mabie and Kaiden Forman-WebsterMontana Free Press + ICT
Two bills aimed at strengthening the state's commitment to Native American education and language revitalization recently became law.
Sponsor Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, described the bills as complementary, as both relate to state initiatives that stem from Article X of Montana's Constitution, which reads in part, 'The state recognizes the distinct and unique cultural heritage of the American Indians and is committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural integrity.'
In 1999, the state Legislature enacted the Indian Education for All Act to implement that constitutional mandate, requiring K-12 public schools to teach Native American history and culture.
And in 2013 the Legislature established the Montana Indian Language Preservation program to support tribes' language revitalization efforts.
The Legislature appropriates money each biennium for both programs, and Windy Boy's bills — now law — enact measures to improve financial accountability and elevate the role of tribal governments.
Enacting Indian Education for All has not been easy.
Since 2007, the Legislature has appropriated about $3.5 million annually to Montana school districts to implement IEFA. According to the original legislation, schools are supposed to use the funds for curriculum development, class materials and teacher training.
In 2021, a group of Montana students and tribes sued the state Office of Public Instruction and Board of Public Education, alleging that districts were improperly using funds meant to support IEFA. One school, according to court documents, used IEFA funds to pay a portion of librarians' salaries. Others allegedly used the funds to purchase books unrelated to Native American culture or history.
'School districts and schools have no incentive to fully and accurately report their IEFA expenditures because there is no penalty for failing to do so,' the plaintiffs claimed.
While the Board of Public Education recently reached a settlement agreement in the case, the class action lawsuit continues against OPI, which is responsible for distributing IEFA funds.
Windy Boy has brought several bills across multiple legislative sessions that aim to bolster the state's commitment to IEFA. In 2023, he brought a bill that required, rather than encouraged, school districts to implement IEFA. The bill, which was signed into law, also stipulated that IEFA funds can be revoked if districts fail to report how the funds are spent.
This year, Windy Boy successfully carried Senate Bill 181, which adds new mechanisms of financial accountability.
If a school district fails to submit an annual report showing how IEFA funds were spent, or if an annual district report shows improper IEFA expenditures, OPI is authorized to reduce the district's IEFA funding until a report is submitted. The law requires OPI to publish an annual report listing any districts that fail to submit satisfactory IEFA reports. It also requires the Board of Public Education to note IEFA reporting failures in a school's accreditation status report.
In a March House Education Committee hearing, Windy Boy testified that the legislation is 'about accountability and transparency.'
'If you get a dollar, then you should provide a report for what you're spending it on,' he said.
The new law also enhances tribal consultation and the role of Native language specialists in the development of IEFA curricula. And it requires OPI to create and manage an online portal by which parents, students and educators can submit feedback on IEFA implementation.
Rep. Peter Strand, D-Bozeman, who carried the bill in the House, said the legislation 'creates mechanisms that ensure that the money we give to schools for Indian Education for All goes where it's supposed to go.'
SB 181 cleared both chambers, and Gov. Greg Gianforte last week signed it into law.
Another Windy Boy bill, which revises laws related to Native language revitalization, was also recently signed into law.
The Montana Indian Language Preservation (MILP) program aims to help revitalize Native American languages by encouraging tribes to create resources that perpetuate language usage. The program has a biennial budget of $750,000. Several Native languages in Montana are considered critically endangered, meaning the youngest speakers often are elders who speak the language infrequently.
Windy Boy successfully brought legislation in 2023 that elevated the role of tribal governments in administering the MILP program. This year, he sponsored Senate Bill 182, which grants more flexibility in such partnerships, allowing tribes to decide whether to partner with local school districts, rather than requiring them to do so. SB 182 encourages tribal governments to use MILP funds for professional development for staff and collaborations and stipulates that tribal language education materials produced by the tribes be housed at the Montana Historical Society for conservation.
'We should be preserving what we have left,' Windy Boy said in a January committee hearing.
In January, Patrick Yawakie, a lobbyist for the Blackfeet, Fort Belknap and Chippewa Cree tribes, told members of the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee he wished a program like MILP had existed when he was young.
'Having access to Indian education growing up would've been a great opportunity for myself, definitely, to understand parts of my identity that I'm still learning today,' he said.
In the same hearing, former lawmaker Sharon Stewart Peregoy testified that Little Big Horn College, the Crow Tribe and area school districts have used MILP funds to provide 'the needed materials to teach the Crow language.'
'The language is the conveyor of the culture,' she said. 'If you don't have the language, the worldview does not come across.'
As the language program continues to grow, Windy Boy said he hopes tribes and OPI can eventually create a language curriculum for all teachers to use.
'Teachers that go in to teach math, science, history, or whatever, they walk into the room and they've already got a set curriculum. Why can't we?' Windy Boy told Montana Free Press in a January interview. He said he hopes to focus on that issue in the 2027 legislative session.
This story is co-published by Montana Free Press and ICT, a news partnership that covers the Montana American Indian Caucus during the state's 2025 legislative session.
