Preservation of Indiginous language is especially important. Language is the foundation of a culture. This is especially true for oral traditions. Between 1950 and 2010, 230 languages went extinct. That number is shocking. Losing a language doesn’t mean loss of a word or phrase. It is a loss of knowledge that has been amassed for over a millenia.  It is a loss of identity, practices,  philosophies, and laws.  The ideology of Indiginous communities is more than something to appreciate in a museum. It teaches us what it means to be a human citizen, what our responsibilities to our community, Earth, and ourselves are. 

Preservation of Indiginous languages, practices and teachings are vital to our environment. When the European settlers came to the Americas they didn’t discover lush and abundant wild lands. They discovered lands that are lush and abundant due to Indiginous agricultural practices. These practices are vital to our environment and are the only way we will turn around our current environmental crisis. While Indigenous Peoples own, occupy, or use only a quarter of the world’s surface area, they safeguard 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. This is due to the reciprocal nature in the way they treat the land. Earth is not a resource to be used. The land is abundant only when we revere it and take our responsibilities to it seriously and reverently. 

Preservation of Indiginous philosophies and ceremonies is vital to health. To Indiginous cultures ceremony is an integral piece of health and wellness. To Indiginous Peoples ceremony is both self and community care. Many of these ceremonies center around healing. They provide a place for self discovery, mental health care, and communal celebration and healing. Many of these ceremonies are also rites of passage. They teach us what it means to be accountable, responsible, and respectful to ourselves, family, and community. Losing these ceremonies deals a devastating blow to societies that are already marginalized and underserved in regards to basic human services. Worldwide the life expectancy of Indigenous Peoples is up to 20 years lower than the life expectancy of non-indigenous people. They also suffer higher rates of landlessness, malnutrition and internal displacement than other groups.

Preservation of Indiginous language and philosophy is vital to our world Economy.  Indigenous Peoples make up only 5% of the global population, yet they account for about 15% of the world’s extreme poor. Indiginous communities have yet to recover from colonization. Their attempt to become Sovereign is severely impeded with the loss of their own Indiginous culture and oral traditions. Indiginous laws and economic systems that developed over thousands of years are either completely extinct or at risk of being lost completely. Without their history and traditions they are forced to start over from ground zero.