(Mashantucket, Conn.): The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation announced today its receipt of a 12-month,$82,609 federal grant award, for the Administration for Native Americans Emergency Language Preservation Grant made available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funded through the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families.

The project is called Nuskeehchooun ("our medicine") which represents the healing that occurs when a people learn, share, and exist within the language of their ancestors. Language is a medicine that has been proven to assist indigenous communities in the healing of generational trauma and lowering of the rates of suicide.

The Nuskeehchooun project will create Pequot language resources and make them available to all ages of the Mashantucket Pequot tribal community. The Tribe’s Cultural Resources Department will utilize these funds for the development of language learning materials to be utilized for language instruction at the Mashantucket Child Development Center (ages 0-5), the Tribe’s after-school Youth Program (ages 6-14), and with high school students and adults who participate in the Department’s language classes.

For more information, contact Lori Potter at LPotter@mptn-nsn.gov.