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In cooperation with elders of the Northern Arapaho Language and Culture Commission (NALCC), a language revitalization project using virtual reality is being developed, supported by a National Science Foundation grant. The origins of the project are explored, underlying methodologies examined, as well as the important role that the elders of the Northern Arapaho Language and Culture Commission play in guiding the goals of the grant: (a) exploring the potentials of virtual reality in language revitalization; (b) documenting spoken Arapaho language with an emphasis on hunting and animal migration stories and songs related to place names on the Wind River Indian Reservation and other locations in Wyoming and Colorado; and (c) developing virtual reality curricula units for Wind River Indian reservation K–12 schools. Difficulties in conducting research during the covid19 pandemic, especially with Indigenous communities that have been hit hard by the virus, impacted our methodology and project process. This project seeks to provide a blueprint for other scholars interested in working with tribes and grant agencies in using VR in language revitalization. The project engages the questions if and how VR and subsequent technologies can be used as decolonial tools to help reverse language loss and promote culture. 

Arapaho is an endangered Native American language with fewer than 100 fluent speakers, all elderly. The age and health of the speakers limit our ability to do traditional on-the-ground documentation of language in relation to geography and space. In this project, a virtual reality (VR) elicitation process was developed in collaboration with elders of the Northern Arapaho Language and Culture Commission. This new place-sensitive method of linguistic documentation uses aerial drone video and 8K resolution, three-dimensional (3D), 360-degree panoramas to visually and auditorily immerse elder consultants in physical locations oriented around the traditional Arapaho worldview. This method virtually transports elder speakers of Indigenous languages into places and contexts that may be physically impossible for them to visit in person, allowing them to recall place-based cultural and ecological knowledge. Analysis of interview data resulting from VR elicitation shows it to be comparable to other language documentation techniques in terms of the quality of the data while also possessing unique attributes and utility.