November 30, 2009

Mitchell Intellectual Property Clinic students working to preserve Native languages

Students in William Mitchell’s Intellectual Property Clinic are working to preserve Native languages.

With support from Professor Jay Erstling, 4L Kodi Jean Church and 3L Bob Larson are helping the Alliance for Early Childhood Professionals secure permission to translate copyrighted children’s books into the Dakota and Ojibwe languages.

Margaret Boyer, executive director of the Alliance, contacted William Mitchell’s Intellectual Property Clinic for help in seeking permissions. The project started last year when Steve Foley ’09 secured permission to translate four books—Dandelion, Noisy Nora, Oonga Boonga, and The Carrot Seed. These books are currently being used in schools to teach Indian children to speak their native languages.

“Native languages are dying out because there are very few native speakers left,” Larson said. “Without something like this, the languages can’t be preserved.”

The students must get permission from individual publishers because the large number of translations is beyond “fair use” grounds. The Mitchell students have found that contacting publishers can be a daunting task.

“It is a very involved process,” Larson said. “Internet searches can turn up long lists of potential contacts or nothing at all. Then we end up playing phone tag with publishers across the country.”

The students and Erstling are considering drafting federal legislation to allow translations. The Native American Languages Act says actions should be taken to protect languages, but does not specify provisions. An amendment could be added making native language translations similar to Braille translations, which are protected under fair use provisions.

“This is an area of copyright law that students think is abstract,” Erstling said. “Doing this work makes it real.

“This project fits in with the mission and goals of William Mitchell’s Intellectual Property Clinic, which is to provide representation to people who may not otherwise be able to get representation and to examine issues of public policy and intellectual property.”

Students are also able to work with Professors Sarah Deer and Collette Routel in Mitchell’s new Indian Law program.

“If anyone is in a position to do something about this, we at Mitchell are,” Larson said.

Read a Nov. 30 Pioneer Press article on the Mitchell students’ project.