The Native Voices Endowment is a very unusual endowment program created within the Endangered Languages Fund: its purpose is to revitalize the languages of the American Indian Nations whose ancestors encountered the 1803-1806 Lewis & Clark Expedition. The expedition had been initiated by President Jefferson to explore the Wild West: launched from Camp Dubois, Illinois, it was the first to ever reach the Pacific Coast overland.

The Native Voices Endowment is directed at members of Amer-Indian tribes whose homelands were traversed by the expedition, or whose customs or languages were recorded by the expedition. Eligible candidates should come from tribes located in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington

Proposals will be accepted for the following projects:

– Native language education programs,

– academic research by Native language students,

– immersion language education,

– documentation of a Native language for future preservation and transmission.

Awarded grants range from $2,500 to $10,000 per year over a maximum period of 3 years.

More information here.