Located along the banks of the Little Bighorn River in Crow Agency, the capital of the Crow Indian Reservation in south central Montana, Little Bighorn College is “committed to the preservation, perpetuation and protection of Crow culture and language.” The Tribe estimates that nearly eighty-five percent of their 11,000 citizens speak Crow as their first language, and the College teaches both the oral traditions and the Apsáalooke ammaalaátuua (Crow writing system).

Despite a strong base of first language Apsáalooke speakers, tribal leaders are concerned for the younger generations who are speaking an abbreviated, “slang” style of the language that is more like English language in its style and delivery. At a 2010 Indian Education Listening Session hosted by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., Scott Russell, Secretary of the Crow Tribal Council, introduced himself in Apsáalooke and said that an immersion school is the tribe’s first priority. Raised with Apsáalooke as his first language, Russell is ensuring that his own children also speak their Native language, and urged more families across Indian Country to instill the ancestral language in their young people.