SASKATCHEWAN — Indigenous language advocates are emphasizing youth, schools and technology as communities work to strengthen Cree and Dene language use after generations of disruption caused by residential schools.

Global News reported that this year’s Keep Our Language Alive conference sold out. Organizers, elders and speakers focused on passing language and cultural knowledge to younger people and bringing Indigenous languages into institutions and classrooms.

Learning language in context

Cree teacher Vernon Lewis developed an app called How do you say this in Cree to help students learn phrases, rather than isolated dictionary entries. He told Global News that learners need to understand how words are used in ordinary conversation.

The conference’s founder, Milton Tootoosis, described language as central to cultural identity. Buckley Belanger, Saskatchewan’s secretary of state for rural development and a conference speaker, called for children to be taught the value of learning Cree and Dene.

Sturgeon Lake elder Willie Ermine said people from outside the community are also welcome to ask elders about the language and the knowledge it carries.

A continuing effort

The gathering is one part of broader revitalization work, not a claim that the effects of forced language loss have been repaired. First Nations University of Canada has separately recognized Cree educator Solomon Ratt’s decades of teaching, literacy work and language resources.

Sources: Global News, October 2, 2026; First Nations University of Canada background on Cree-language educator Solomon Ratt.

Lead image: TNC archive AI-generated illustration created for Indigenous reconciliation coverage; not a photograph of the conference, its speakers or any named community.