Documenting Arapaho Place Names with Virtual Reality Elicitation Using 3D 360 and Aerial Drone Video

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Technological developments have the potential to provide new methodologies for data collection in many fields. This project uses new methodologies in linguistics in order to document a Native American language, Arapaho (ISO 639-3 ARP). The project uses aerial drone video and 3D 360 video panoramas to document landscapes that are culturally significant to the Northern Arapaho people. The project also documents stories associated with those culturally significant landscapes. This methodology will thus "virtually" bring elder speakers of the language into places and contexts that may be physically impossible to go to in person. Given the importance of land and environment in indigenous communities, if successful, these technologies could be portable for documenting linguistic, cultural and other scientific knowledge of inaccessible regions. The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American languages. The Northern Arapaho language is a critically endangered Native American language now fluently spoken by fewer than 100 elders on the Wind River Indian Reservation in the state of Wyoming. Broader impacts include increased participation of underrepresented groups in social science and coding. Additionally, Northern Arapaho undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Wyoming will help the project team create STEM education units that teach basic augmented and virtual reality application development using the language and cultural content documented by the project. Those students will also aid the project team with implementing these STEM units in schools across the Wind River Indian Reservation. This project explores the potentials of aerial video and 3D 360-degree video in language elicitation sessions. This project looks to answer questions of virtual reality's efficacy in language revitalization, as well as the efficacy of virtual reality language applications, and the subsequent technological knowledge that comes with creating those applications, to promote the transmission of cultural knowledge within K-12 curricula. The project's findings will be useful for linguists interested in exploring new methodologies for language documentation and elicitation. Once tested and formalized into a working research methodology, the applications created by this project can be utilized to other Indigenous peoples to aid in revitalizing their languages and cultures and infusing STEM curricula with culturally relevant content. Documentation generated through project activities will also be used to create interactive language learning applications that combine Northern Arapaho landscapes and language in 3D virtual reality for use in K-12 classrooms in a tribal nation's schools. This project is jointly funded by the Documenting Endangered Languages Program (DEL) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.