Last Updated on November 23, 2013
Joyce Silverthorne, a citizen of the Salish Nation, discusses the fundamental conflict of living in two worlds and the struggle to revitalize traditional culture and language.
Joyce Silverthorne is the former Director of the Tribal Education Department for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is now a policy advisor at the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI).
In 2007 she was interviewed by the University of Montana’s Regional Learning Project to discuss the OPI’s “Indian Education for All” program and the challenges of putting it into action. This particular segment, admittedly, focuses on the bigger picture.
Across the world right now, Indigenous peoples are facing a renewed assault on their lands, rights, and ways of life.
From extractive industries pushing deeper into ancestral territories, to governments rolling back hard-won protections,
the threat is global—and it is growing.
What makes this moment especially dangerous is how little attention it receives.
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barely covers it and the coverage is fragmented. The public is left without the context
needed to understand what is truly at stake.
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